Despite retaining his seat, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R), in last night's recall election, appears to have lost control of the state Senate with former state Sen. John Lehman’s (D) victory over Walker ally state Sen. Van Wanggaard. If Lehman’s win holds up, it will give Democrats a one-seat (17-16) majority in the state.
Wisconsin "forced the governor to answer for his efforts to divide the state and punish hard-working people" in today's recall election," AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said tonight following predictions Gov. Scott Walker (R) would retain his seat.
Turnout is high across Wisconsin today as working families are getting out the vote to recall Gov. Scott Walker (R) and elect Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett as the state’s new governor.
Voters also are casting ballots in recall races that pit Mahlon Mitchell, president of the Professional Fire Fighters of Wisconsin, against Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch and four state Senate recalls. A pickup of one seat would swing control of the Senate away from Walker’s Republican allies who spearheaded his 2011 drive to eliminate the collective bargaining rights of 380,000 public workers.
Wisconsin working family volunteers packed phone banks around the state and saturated neighborhoods in a huge weekend get-out-the-vote (GOTV) push to put Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Barrett over the top in Tuesday’s recall election. The coalition We Are Wisconsin reports that volunteers knocked on more than 257,000 doors on Saturday and will continue the GOTV push through Election Day.
Retired state employee Shelly Glodowski said she was volunteering on the phones because Gov. Scott Walker (R):
has done a lot to hurt the middle class and hurt workers. We need all the help we can get [to recall him], every little bit helps.
Mahlon Mitchell, president of the Professional Fire Fighters of Wisconsin, says Wisconsin’s 2012 recall election is not just a union fight but a middle-class fight because “the middle class is under attack.”
The Wisconsin State AFL-CIO reports that the Milwaukee phone bank is abuzz with talk of Gov. Scott Walker’s anti-worker, worst-in-the-nation jobs record, John Doe corruption probe and plot to “divide and conquer” Wisconsin workers. Volunteers are calling union homes in support of Tom Barrett for governor and Fire Fighters member Mahlon Mitchell for lieutenant governor.
Wisconsin working families, students and community allies are out in force in the neighborhoods, on the job sites and at the phone banks as the June 5 recall election of Gov. Scott Walker (R), Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch (R) and four of Walker’s allies in the state Senate approaches. Chris Czubakowski, a member of the Postal Workers (APWU) from Wauwatosa, says:
Recalling Gov. Walker is about preserving a strong middle class for Wisconsin.
Now that Mahlon Mitchell has won the Democratic primary, including defeating a “fake Democrat” Wisconsin Republicans entered in the race as a sabotage effort, the president of the Fire Fighters of Wisconsin (IAFF) is setting his sights on taking on Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch in the June 5 recall election. A new ad from the IAFF airing in the Badger State explains to voters that after 15 years of “putting his life on the line” as a firefighter, Mitchell is running for lieutenant governor to “restore integrity to Wisconsin’s government and to get Wisconsin working again."
During 2011’s Wisconsin uprising, Mahlon Mitchell, a firefighter who had just been elected president of the Fire Fighters (IAFF) in Wisconsin, created a national buzz with his fresh, eloquent defense of the collective bargaining rights of public employees. Now Mitchell is running for lieutenant governor as part of the state's upcoming recall elections.
During the second panel in today’s national symposium on “Jobs, Justice and the American Dream,” panelists made it clear that now is the time for a massive effort by progressives to come together at all levels to build a movement that reclaims the moral vision that King had and to force needed social change in our nation. They agreed that Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of social justice is not limited to African Americans and poor people. It encompasses all people who are oppressed or denied their human rights, including working people who are either immigrants, middle class, lesbian, bisexual, gay, transgender (LBGT) or young.
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