Dead Man Walking: Puppetician Wisconsin Governor & Other Flunkys Face Recall

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From [HERE] Even though they didn't succeed in getting what they wanted, protestors mobilized a lot of people and made this a salient issue. A protest doesn't have to succeed in its immediate goal to have a long term impact."

That probably means the protesters are going to turn from slogans to pocketbooks, funneling millions of dollars in donations into unions here. Their anger will also provide momentum for recall petitions. Wisconsin allows for the recall of elected officials once they have been in office for a year. According Mayer, signatures amounting to 25% of the original voters must sign on to a petiton to get a recall election going. Getting rid of Walker would be tougher. The governor was just voted into office and cannot be subject to recall until Jan. 3, 2012. It would require about 540,000 signatures to get his name on a recall ballot. Wisconsin has never recalled a governor in its history. Still, the threat of recall — to Walker and his allies — would keep the governor in check. Democrats need to win back three seats in the Senate to win back control of the body; there are eight G.O.P. senators who are now eligible for recall.

The anger and activism may also propel legal challenges regarding the way Republicans may have violated open meetings law and internal procedures to get the bill passed without a necessary quorum (Democratic senators had fled to Illinois specifically to prevent this). Mayer says, however, that such claims are unlikely to succeed because "there is case law where the state courts have declined to get involved and force a legislature to enforce its own rule." A constitutional challenge — based on whether the Republican reclassification of the bill from fiscal to non-fiscal was legal — may have a better chane but, says Mayer, "it's not a slam dunk."

The protesters do have a lot of contained anger to vent. The demonstrations — a "quiet riot" according to some — managed not to turn violent. Though tensions mounted toward the end, there were never any real door-busting down, glass-breaking riots. It's been horn-blowing and buttons instead of fist fights. There's been drum-beating and dancing instead of destruction. There were lots of baby strollers and wheelchairs decked out in snarky signs. When Bill Hoyt, 52, saw his middle and high school daughters and their friends banging on glass panels on the capitol grounds, he reminded them to be respectful of government property, that destroying anything wouldn't be a good use of their frustration and only create more problems.

The frustration from the defeat will be channeled elsewhere. Wiping tears from beneath her dark rimmed glasses, Anne Moser, 47, who works for University of Wisconsin Madison's science-based Water Library, said, "People know that violence doesn't get you anywhere. The attack the Republicans have made is violent and a violation of human rights. It is an attack on the middle class. We teach our children to follow rules and to sit and the table and work it out, but that certainly hasn't happened here." And so she and her allies may seek there revenge elsewhere: in a court of law or, most probably, in a polling booth.