Wisconsin Senate Recall-a-palooza: 2012 Edition

[JohnnyLongtorso]

Taylor and Risser recall efforts have failed, and the group attempting to recall Coggs says they're going to miss the deadline as well. The second link also says the Robert Cowles recall petitions will be filed this week. No word on Mark Miller Petition I.

[Napoleon]

Luther Olson has an opponent, State Rep. Fred Clark.

I'm going to call this a toss up for now.

[Brittain33]

Cowles becomes #6 on Thursday. I'll save you the trouble of going back two screens, his district went heavily but not Milwaukee-suburb-heavily for Prosser, so he's not likely to lose.

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/04/wis-dems-to-file-recall-petitions-against-sixth-goper.php?ref=fpi

[JohnnyLongtorso]

Yep, Coggs and Miller recalls failed. As I said, there's another committee trying to recall Miller, but I don't see how that would end up any differently.

[they don't love you like i love you]

Wisconsin Senate seats are drawn really badly, and not in a gerrymander way. Green Bay is split really odd for seemingly no reason. The main problem is perhaps that they are too big, only Madison and Milwaukee are large enough to take up over an entire Senate district so in many places you have to kind of awkwardly attach cities to rural areas. Another is that all are really just piecing together of three State House seats, but the ones pieced together could be more logical, why Green Bay is split between three Senate districts really goes without logic.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

Cowles petitions filed. The remaining two Republicans (Grothman and Lazich) are probably not going to get recalled. The only Dem left is Julie Lassa.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

Buried in this article is a bit of information about when the recalls will take place:

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[Nhoj]

Buried in this article is a bit of information about when the recalls will take place:

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You know for the dems holding the recalls in July is a terrible idea.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

It looks like State Rep. Sandy Pasch is going to run against Darling.

Grothman and Lazich recall efforts failed.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

Laid-off teacher Shelly Moore is running against Harsdorf. Sounds like kind of a weak recruit in comparison to the succession of state representatives that have been announcing lately.

[Brittain33]

Laid-off teacher Shelly Moore is running against Harsdorf. Sounds like kind of a weak recruit in comparison to the succession of state representatives that have been announcing lately.

Well, if she teaches drama, she should be good on the stump.

[krazen1211]

Prosser I believe lost that district, so losing it is no surprise. Sucks, but if Prosser results are indicative most GOPers will be fine.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

Dem targets finally get opponents: Recall petition organizer Kim Simac is running against Holperin, while Brown County Board Vice Chair Mary Scray is running against Hansen.

I've also updated and reorganized the OP.

[Badger]

Laid-off teacher Shelly Moore is running against Harsdorf. Sounds like kind of a weak recruit in comparison to the succession of state representatives that have been announcing lately.

As one of only two R's facing recall who represent a Kloppenburg district, such a third tier candidate seems like a real wasted opportunity.

EDIT: Plus she was polling only 48-44 against "unnamed Democrat" (caveats of "generic party candidates" running stronger in polls than actual identified people duely noted, but still....), and assuming Kapanke and Hopper are in serious trouble, this vulnerable district would swing control of the Senate. The WI Dems have to do a better job of candidate recruitment here.

EDIT 2: Her comments speaking at a recent pro-union rally:

"We bleed Packer green and Brewer blue and Badger red. We believe that the three major food groups are beer, cheese and bratwurst. And we breathe union," Moore said.

Okay, maybe she's got potential appeal after all.

[The Dowager Mod]

It would be a mistake to underestimate Moore.

[they don't love you like i love you]

I want to do some work for Moore but the "We bleed Packer green" comment...ugh.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

Robert Wirch has an opponent, the vice chair of the Kenosha County Board. Robert Cowles is the only Senator facing recall who doesn't have an opponent yet.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

Another candidate to run against Hansen, State Rep. John Nygren.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

Former Brown County supervisor Rich Langan is running against Cowles, which gives all the recalled Senators opponents.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

Shortest campaign ever: Langan has dropped out and it looks like Democrats are instead running former Brown County Executive Nancy Nusbaum.

Also, the final outstanding recall effort, against Julie Lassa, failed.

[The Dowager Mod]

Not a big surprise about Lassa.

[JohnnyLongtorso]

Two more opponents to Dem Senators: an attorney is running against Wirch, while the chair of the Lincoln County Board is running against Holperin. That means there are going to be primaries on the Republican side for all three Democratic seats.

[Smash255]

Two more opponents to Dem Senators: an attorney is running against Wirch, while the chair of the Lincoln County Board is running against Holperin. That means there are going to be primaries on the Republican side for all three Democratic seats.

Isn't the Primary more along the lines of a quasi runoff??  Top two vote getters on each side advance to another election four weeks later unless one of them cracks 50% the first time?

[JohnnyLongtorso]

No, it's just like a regular election.

[Kevinstat]

Could (or could have, if the deadline for new candidates has passed) members of the same party as the recalled Senator (I know technically the Senators are already deemed to be recalled when the recall election is forced) run in the recall election as members of that party and thus force the recalled Senator to face a primary which, if he or she lost, would prevent him or her from even advancing to the general election which would be effectively like a "normal" special (general) election to fill a vacancy, except that the defeated incumbent would presumably remain in office until the results of that general "recall" election had been certified?

In other words, if Kenosha County Board vice chair Fred Ekornaas, the former Kenosha County sheriff who was twice elected to that post as a Democrat and is now running a Republican primary for the right to take on Bob Wirch, had wanted to challenge Wirch in a Democratic primary, could he have?  (I'm sure he would have gone down in flames.  Then again, as a fairly recent Democrat I gather, he might go down in flames in the Republican primary against Jonathan Steitz.)  Otherwise, couldn't Kapanke, Hopper, Harsdorf et all have staved off a Democratic challenge (or forced any would-be Democratic challengers to run as Republicans), or Hoperlin, Hansen and Wirch have staved off a Republican challenge (or forced any would-be Republican challengers) by switching parties?  Could RINOs and DINOs in Wisconsin (there don't seem to be any in the Senate, at least) theoretically be recalled and challenged in the resulting recall election only by (a) member(s) of that Senator's party?  Would the result be a single election that, as a an intra-party or "primary" election, only voters enrolled in the Senator's party could vote in?  (Or does Wisconsin have open primaries?)  Or would the winner of that primary advance to a general election where voters would have the opportunity to write-in someone else (perhaps the loser of that primary, including perhaps a Senator who was just defeated in a recall primary?  It wouldn't make sense to allow all voters to vote in a recall election between candidates of the same party unless Wisconsin has open primaries.

I'll appreciate whatever answers to these questions folks here could provide.