Overwhelmed by the one million petition signatures submitted to recall him from office, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has thrown in the towel and
will not challenge the signatures.
The Walker campaign cites a lack of time, but the far more likely explanation is that they simply could come nowhere close to finding the 460,000 invalid signatures they needed to prevent the recall election from taking place. See noise of rain's post on the rec list for more discussion of Walker giving up.
The recall election could now take place as soon as May 29:
If Walker's campaign continues to stand down -- and there is no certainty that this will be the case -- the primary election for governor could come in late April, although the more likely date is May 1. The general election pitting a Democratic challenger against Walker would be four weeks late, perhaps as soon as May 29.
Walker supporters and the Walker campaign put a lot of effort into trying to undermine and defeat the petition drive. For weeks, Walker's campaign website featured a splash page urging volunteers to sign up to help review the petition signatures. By now saying they were unable to even complete a review of the one million signatures, the Walker campaign is admitting to a significant deficit in grassroots energy.
It is now time for the final stage in the Wisconsin recall elections. After all this incredible work and given everything that is at stake, we have to bring this one home.
Please, give $8 to the Democratic Party of Wisconsin on Act Blue.
2:44 PM PT: Turns out the Walker campaign is asking the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board to verify signatures on its own, and to accept signature challenges submitted by tea party groups. However, both options have already been rejected in legal rulings, and are extremely unlikely to be accepted now.
