Walker Recall
Some complain that Gov. Walker should not be recalled over “one issue”.
One issue?
According to the Journal Sentinel: In 2002, Citizens for Responsible Government launched a recall campaign against Milwaukee County Executive F. Thomas Ament. A month later, Ament resigned. Scott Walker was elected County Executive. During 2002-2003, seven county supervisors who voted for the pension deal, lost recall elections. Ah, wasn’t their ouster about one issue---pensions?!!!!
The unsuccessful recall Laura Karvala’s Concerned Citizens of New Berlin political group launched against Mayor Chiovatero last year was primarily about one issue: the mayor’s vote on the Plan Commission regarding workforce housing at the City Center. The recall fizzled when CCNB failed to get the number of signatures required to hold a recall election.
The Walker recall is about more than one issue.
In fact, a letter to the editor in the Nov. 12, 2011 Journal Sentinel newspaper objects to the Editorial Board’s repeated use of the phrase “over a single issue” regarding recall of Gov. Walker---- and cites several issues/reasons for recalling him
"Effort is not over one issue
I must object to the Editorial Board's repeated use of the phrase "over a single issue" in regard to the recall of Gov. Scott Walker ("State has come down with a case of recall fever," Nov. 8).
He is not being recalled only because he gutted workers' rights. He is being recalled for egregious abuse of power. The destruction of union rights was not necessary and was not about balancing the budget. The unions had already agreed to all of the financial concessions they were asked to make. Finances had nothing to do with it; abuse of power did.
He is being recalled for balancing the budget on the backs of the poor and sick while giving hundreds of millions of dollars to his corporate cronies. He is being recalled for supporting vote suppression. He is being recalled for supporting a radical right-wing Legislature that doesn't want women to have access to basic health care and doesn't want teenagers to know how their bodies work.
He is being recalled for replacing our Department of Commerce with a private economic development corporation that is given tens of millions of taxpayer dollars but is not accountable to the public. He is being recalled for putting a concealed, loaded gun in the hand of any idiot who wants one. He is being recalled for allowing his minions to gut consumer protection laws. He is being recalled for slashing education budgets from kindergarten to the University of Wisconsin System at exactly the time we need better education to compete in a global market.
His contempt for unions was only the tip of the Walker iceberg. We need to change course before we sink.
Kristin Hansen
Waukesha "
The Political Environment makes the case that Walker’s recall is justifiable because of Walker’s actions and the spin he’s put on them to “ mislead, deflect responsibility and benefit politically” . It refers to numerous statements by Scott "Eagle Scout" Walker being rated "mostly false or worse" by PolitiFact.
Gov. Walker claims he’s given local governments and school districts the “tools” to deal with his budget cuts.
But citing a report recently released by the Department of Public Instruction, Blogging Blue argues “Scott Walker’s “tools” force Wisconsin school districts to lay off teachers, cut programs”.
Speaking of “tools”, I suppose a recall could be viewed as a “tool” for voters. Ballotpedia conveys that the citizens of Wisconsin are granted the authority to perform a recall election by Section 12 of Article XIII of the Wisconsin Constitution.
Take a look at Prof. Fallone's Nov. 13 article The Original Intent of the Recall Power posted on the Marquette University Law School Faculty blog. It debunks claims by recall opponents that our state Constitution's recall provisions are intended soley to permit the recall of elected officials when they have engaged in criminal or grossly unethical conduct. Fallone states, "the original design of the right of recall is, in fact, intended to permit voters to recall elected officials for virtually any reason so long as the procedural mechanisms of the State Constitution are followed."
Additionally, writer/filmaker Mitchell Bard's post Why I support the recall, even as I have concerns about recalls (Nov. 13, Huffington Post) offers his interesting perspective.
