@LegalEagle tweets this flyer from the National Rifle Association, sent in support of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker:
"Governor Scott Walker believes your life is worth protecting and Tom Barrett does not."
The ad specifically mentions Walker's signing the state's "Castle Law" last year, expanding homeowners' right to shoot when they feel threatened on their own property.
Facing a recall election on June 5, Governor Walker has been leading steadily in the polls. Still, the race is close enough that an outdoor shop decided to ask the NRA to find somewhere else for its recall meetings. The shop passed a new rule saying they wouldn't host political events. Nearly a third of Wisconsinites in one survey say they've stopped talking politics with someone because of disagreements over Walker.
Yesterday morning, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's (R) Department of Workforce Development would put out new job numbers, and a few hours later, his campaign operation used those new numbers as the basis for a new campaign ad.
At face value, this might seem like a compelling pitch for the Republican governor. As has been widely reported, job creation in Wisconsin in 2011 was the worst in the nation -- literally, 50th out of 50 states -- but here's Walker boasting about over 23,000 new jobs created last year.
Wisconsin Democrats weren't pleased that the governor's campaign operation seemed to be coordinating with state employment officials, and published data that wasn't supposed to be released until late June -- after the upcoming gubernatorial recall election.
But there's another issue that's worth noting: Walker's playing games with the statistics. As Rick Ungar explained:
So, just how is Walker about to turn Wisconsin's dismal job numbers from lemons to lemonade?
The Governor has simply decided to ignore the system used by the Department of Labor -- and every other state in the nation -- to measure job growth (or loss) and elected instead to go with a different set of numbers that makes things in Wisconsin look better.
In this case, the Bureau of Labor Statistics' data didn't tell the Republican governor what he wanted to hear -- the BLS found Wisconsin was one of only four states that didn't add jobs in 2011 -- so Walker turned to a different source. As one local newspaper reported, "The difference lies in how the numbers were generated. The new numbers come from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages, produced for inclusion in the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' national report to be issued on June 28 -- more than three weeks after the recall."
Walker apparently hopes voters don't look too closely at the fine print, and have no idea there are differences between one employment survey and another*.
Remember when Mitt Romney said the U.S. needs to be adding 500,000 jobs a month, but it turns out that kind of job growth almost never happens? This weekend, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker wrestled with his pledge to create 250,000 jobs in his state during his first term. So far, he has led the state in losing more jobs than other in the country. But if voters don't recall him next month, Governor Walker said, he could still reach his mark. From the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:
It appears it will be difficult for Walker to achieve his job-creation goal. Jobs data is available through March, and from this April to December 2014, Walker would have to create nearly 7,400 private-sector jobs a month, or 88,800 a year, to meet his mark.
Nothing close to that has happened over the past two decades. The most private-sector job growth came in 1994, when 72,400 jobs were added, according to average annual employment figures from the state Department of Workforce Development.
No wonder he's directing voters' attention to California this morning (tweet above).
Meanwhile, this weekend Wisconsin Republicans said they're not out to pass a law banning union shops in the state. "It just wouldn't pass," Senate Republican Leader Scott Fitzgerald told the Wisconsin State Journal. Recalls of Republicans over last year's stripping of union rights have erased the Republican majority in the chamber. They're down to a even split, with an empty seat and one GOP member who votes with Democrats on labor questions.
Today's sign that the recall election of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is as much about national politics as politics in Wisconsin comes from state Democrats' "Pocket Change" ad. Verbate:
"Equality? A dollar for him, 77 cents for her. Republicans say it's because money is more important for men. Even though she does the same work as him, she gets 23 percent less. And until Scott Walker's out of office, Wisconsin can't do anything about it."
Governor Walker signed away workers' right to sue in state court over unfair wages. The reference to money mattering more for men comes from Republican State Senator Glenn Grothman. He told the Daily Beast last month: "You could argue that money is more important for men. I think a guy in their first job, maybe because they expect to be a breadwinner someday, may be a little more money-conscious."
Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has two new ads going, one against each of the leading Democratic contenders to face him the June recall.
He can afford it, with $12,171,840 on hand. One of the top Democrats, former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk has gotten just $16,785 on her own. Another group, Wisconsin for Labor, is on track to spend $2.3 million for Falk. As you can see from the great money tracker on the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Wisconsin politics are all about Walker -- he's got 10 times the money of the Republican Party and seven times the Democrats'.
Pure bonus read: Democrats wrestling with how -- or even whether -- a Democratic governor would restore the union rights taken away by Governor Walker.
At about 1 A.M., the Patch writer in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, reported returns from the county clerk's office for a pair of school board seats. Waukesha ran into trouble last year when it failed to post results immediately in a Supreme Court judge's race, then found 14,000 votes that swung the election.
The results, however, were tabulated by a Patch writer who added the numbers from voting machine tapes at the Waukesha County Administration Building.
The Waukesha County clerk's office, which said it would post local results online, posted few results, and asked the media and political campaigns to hand-count, using voting machine printouts taped to the walls around a room.
The picture shows what that process looked like, with people standing around hand-counting the results and doing the best they could. This morning, Sink reports that the "unofficial, unaudited" Waukesha numbers are in. FWIW, she got them close to right last night.
They're voting today in Wisconsin, though not necessarily on the stuff the state really cares about. If you're in Wisconsin, the recall of Gov. Walker is the whole deal. The latest NBC/Marist poll (pdf) shows 37 percent of likely voters say they're more* closely following the Republican presidential primary, compared to 51 percent for the recall of Scott Walker.
Surprise! She's not happy about it. Just last week Lt. Gov. Kleefisch said former Dane County executive Kathleen Falk was "setting women back 50 years" for running against Gov. Walker in the recall election. And that Ms. Falk was using public employee unions as a "sugar daddy" to support her campaign.
More recently, Right Wing Watch caught Lt. Governor Kleefisch's appearance (see above video) on the American Family Association radio network with host Sandy Rios. Here are a few highlights, with our own annotations:
"If we lose this recall, any politician, Republican or Democrat, is going to think twice before making a politically bold, a courageous decision because they know that the threat of recall is just around the corner." (Nobody told me we'd have to answer to THE PEOPLE from Day One. It's like the source of our power is derived from the will of the electorate or something. If only there was SOME way to reverse this terrible thing that’s happened to me…)
"I think we're gonna win. I think we're gonna win because if you go to the ballot box, and you vote on the facts, then you vote for us every time. (Because if A and B are true, the only logical result is Z$R++CBX<E@NEIMSN@**wockawocka)
"Because the facts are, it worked. (See previous theorem.) The reforms are saving hundreds of millions of dollars (at last, a dollar figure on your constitutional rights! The magic of the free market, ftw!) and my little girls and Scott's teenage boys and all the children of Wisconsin are going to have a bright and prosperous future in our state (thank you, Mom and Dad, for saving us from the tyranny of self-governance) because we have seen the danger coming and we have stopped it from reaching our kids. (Avengers, assemble!)
"We have prevented a crisis for our healthcare and our pension system because we addressed the challenges when we saw them. (And we addressed those challenges in a hurry, when no one was looking, because…it's quieter that way…) Other states just aren't doing that. (They're waiting to see if we get recalled…can't blame them, really…)
"I feel good about the election results but I need help. (i.e. money. I always feel better with more money. How about you?) I've got a website. It's rebeccaforreal.com, and you know that money is just going to be flooding in from the unions (It's like thousands of people are working toward THE SAME GOALS! So unfair!) and the governor has been doing quite well fundraising, (Thank you again, Koch Brothers!!) but we can't replace me with a Democrat lieutenant governor (Can't? Can't?!?!) who would make it his mission to use his lieutenant governor position as a bully pulpit (Who could POSSIBLY do such a thing??) for the next two years straight and harass our good governor. (Leave Governor Walker alone!! All this noise is making it hard for him to update his resume…) You've got to continue making changes in Wisconsin." (Changes might be in the making in Wisconsin, Ms. Kleefisch, just not necessarily ones you were expecting.
P.S. Also? Lt. Gov. Kleefisch was one of Wisconsin's perkiest TV journalists -- as evidenced here, where she treats global warming as hi-larious) and here, where you can assess her video oeuvre at length.
"This is a slippery slope. In addition to that at what point are we going to be okay marrying inanimate objects? Can I marry this table or this, you know, clock? Can we marry dogs? This is ridiculous. And biblically, again, I'm going to go right back to my fundamental Christian beliefs marriage is between one man and one woman."
(She later apologized, so feel free to marry as many clocks or dogs as you like.)
UPDATE: A federal judge in Wisconsin today struck part of the state's union-stripping bill (pdf of the ruling).
EARLIER: As expected, the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board ordered recall elections for Governor Scott Walker, Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch and three Republican state Senators. The board also ordered a recall election for a fourth Republican state senator, Pam Galloway, but she resigned earlier this month. Depending on potential primaries, the elections will happen May 8 and June 5.
The board's staff had said in a memo Thursday that there were five fake names on Walker recall petitions, but it turned out one of those they suggested striking — Fungky Van Den Elzen — was a real person. That means they found just four fake names out of the 931,053 submitted on the Walker petitions: Adolf Hitler, Mick E. Mous, Donald L. Duck, and I Love Scott Walker Thanks.
That last name, I Love Scott Walker Thanks, sounds more like a protest of the recall than an attempt to fake a name for the sake of having him kicked out of office.
It's worth noting that Wisconsin Republicans have lost what used to be a solid majority in the state Senate. As of this month, they're down to a 16-16 tie, with an empty seat and one Republican who sides with Democrat on union issues. If they tried to pass Walker's union-stripping bill today, they would lose. And if they fail to defend the seats they hold that are under recall, they face the loss of their majority entirely.
Wisconsin's Government Accountability Board meets tomorrow to decide whether to schedule recalls for Governor Scott Walker and Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch. The GAB staff write today that they'll be "recommending the Board find there are a sufficient number of signatures to order recall elections."
From the numbers they post, it's not even close. Recall organizers needed 540,280 valid signatures to put Walker and Kleefisch up for a vote either in May or June, depending on possible primaries. After the GAB review, they appear to have gotten 900,938 for Walker and 808,990 for Kleefisch.
For the record, that works out to a validity rate of just under 97 percent for the Walker recall signatures and 96 percent for recalling Kleefisch.
(Image: A sign in Shorewood, Wisconsin, this winter/@triumph68)
