Wisconsin governor’s recall battle goes to voters
MADISON, Wis. — The battle over Gov. Scott Walker’s agenda has attracted millions of dollars from out of state, campaign volunteers from across the country and months of concentrated attention from the two major political parties.
But on Tuesday, the only voices that matter will be those of Wisconsin voters deciding whether to keep Walker or fire him and hand his job to the Milwaukee mayor. After more than a year in the national spotlight, both sides are preparing for a razor-thin margin.
Polls show Walker, a Republican just 17 months into his term, with a small lead over Democrat Tom Barrett.
“Now it’s our turn to speak,” an exuberant Barrett told campaign workers Monday in Portage. “We the people of the state of Wisconsin are going to reclaim our future.”
During a campaign stop Monday, Walker said he expects a close race, too, and he’s focused on turning out voters who supported his efforts to take on public-employee unions.
“We want to move on and move forward,” Walker said at a plastics plant near Madison.
Walker is only the third governor in U.S. history to face a recall vote. The other two lost, most recently California Gov. Gray Davis in 2003. Wisconsin’s recall election is a rematch of the 2010 governor’s race in which Walker defeated Barrett by 5 percentage points.
Anger over Walker and his conservative agenda began building almost as soon as he took office in January 2011. Just a month into his term, end collective bargaining rights for most state workers — a measure he said was needed to ease budget problems. The recall idea emerged soon thereafter.
But the recall petition drive couldn’t officially start until November, months after Walker signed the union changes into law. Organizers hit the streets a week before Thanksgiving and spent two months gathering more than 900,000 signatures — about 360,000 more than were needed to trigger the election.
Todd Schober, a financial planner from Racine, voted for Walker in 2010 and plans to do so again on Tuesday.
“When is this going to end?” he asked after shaking his head and sighing. “I’m just going to be so glad when it’s all over.”