All six recall petitions against Republican state Senators in have now been found sufficient by the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board (GAB). In addition to the three petitions the GAB approved last week against Dan Kapanke, Randy Hopper, and Luther Olsen, this morning they approved the petitions against Sheila Harsdorf, Robert Cowles, and Alberta Darling.
Further, the GAB has delayed the determination of sufficiency or insufficiency on the three recall petitions filed against Democratic state Senators, due to the stronger challenges filed against those petitions:
In an announcement sure to shake up the drive to recall politicians from both parties, the Government Accountability Board said Friday that its members would not be able to consider the recall petitions of three Democrats when they meet on Tuesday.
This might push the recall elections against Democrats back a week to July 19, push all recall elections to that date, or possibly prevent any recall elections against Democrats from taking place. More detail on the still fluid schedule:
The board had been working under a plan to hold the recall elections on July 12. If there is more than one challenger in any race, the July 12 election would become a primary and the general recall election would be Aug. 9.
The board's new plan, if approved by the court, would have the Democratic recall elections a week later - on July 19. If there were multiple challengers, the July 19 election would become a primary and the general recall election would be Aug. 16.
The court, however, could change the schedule, either by delaying the Republican recall elections or ordering the board to complete work on the petitions against Democrats by Friday's deadline.
The bottom line here is that all six of the vulnerable Republicans will face recall elections, while it remains uncertain if any Democrats will face such elections. That's a big win.
In addition to Daily Kos and the two relevant Wisconsin Democratic Party committees, all six of the Democrats challenging Republicans in the recall elections are on the Orange to Blue page. Please, chip in $9, or $1 each, and prove that the new uprising against Republicans on the ground translates into success at the ballot box.
