One year ago on February 11th, Wisconsin governor Scott Walker announced the Budget Repair Bill that, among other provisions, ended most of the decades-old right of public employees to collectively bargain for their wages and working conditions. The resulting furor is well known to anyone who follows the news. This past November, Wisconsin residents — led by a PAC called "A United Wisconsin to Recall Scott Walker" — launched the only remedy allowed us in the state constitution. We announced that we would petition to recall the Governor. On January 17 of this year, we turned in our petition with over one million signatures.
This is the first in a series of reports on the recall efforts in Wisconsin. I've been directly involved in the recall effort. I've seen the detailed plans, and the detailed analysis of this initiative. Do not expect me to be completely impartial: this controversy is too close to me for that. I am deeply committed to removing Scott Walker from office. But I will be completely honest. I am not a major leader in the recall effort, nor was I a leader in the protests in the Spring of 2011. I work for a university in Madison. I'm a concerned citizen, a participant, and a witness to some truly historic events.
Recalls are written into the Wisconsin State Constitution. An elected official in Wisconsin can be recalled by public petition after the first year of his or her term, and Walker completed his first year on January 3, 2012. That's why we had to wait until now. By law, we could file our intent to petition for recall 60 days prior to the intended date for the submission of our petition, which we did last November. The petition needed to be signed by eligible Wisconsin voters equaling 25% of the votes that elected Walker, which worked out to be around 540,000 signatures. Two weeks ago we submitted over a million.
