Recall Dave Hansen update

A couple of updates on the effort to recall Dave Hansen in the 30th Senate District.  As you may have been aware there were in recent weeks two separate efforts taking place to recall Runaway Dave.  The plan is for the two groups to work together and combine signatures.

Sen. Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald spoke Saturday with David VanderLeest, a local activist in charge of the Recall (Sen.) Dave Hansen committee, about combining efforts with the Committee to Recall Hansen and eventually turn in their petitions together. Fitzgerald was in town that day for a rally to recall Hansen, D-Green Bay, near Northeast Wisconsin Technical College.

“(Fitzgerald) agreed that the Committee to Recall Dave Hansen is going to join with the original recall group, which is mine, before April 26, which is my filing deadline,” VanderLeest said Tuesday.

…

Republicans in Madison were initially behind the Committee to Recall Hansen, and around March 15, they asked individuals working with VanderLeest to branch off and join their cause. The group officially filed with the GAB on March 16. That created some confusion around town about the duplicate efforts.

VanderLeest had been working on collecting signatures since filing with the GAB on Feb. 25.

“It wasn’t really my decision to do that. It was more of a Madison decision. They wanted to have a second group for back up,” said Chad Fradette, listed as the group’s treasurer. “I don’t know what the intention was because I didn’t pull the trigger but my intention the entire time was to combine back with David.

“The party is now on board with the idea.”

That combined effort is now very close to having the required number of signatures after a surprising release of the total this afternoon.

After combining signatures and adding up the total, we are at 12,973. We need 13,851. Victory is a reality with 19 days to go.

The “Recall Senator Dave Hansen” Facebook page also points out how this has been a true grassroots effort.

“Recall Dave Hansen” spent under $1500 to date. This is an average expense of 8.64 cents a signature.

The recall for Republican Senator Robert Crowles spent $57,301 dollar as of their 30 day finance report. The group needs 15,960 signatures to succeed. If the group succeeds with out spending any more money, they will average $3.59 a signature upon success.

If you have completed petitions, want to sign a petition or pick up petitions to go out and collect more signatures be sure to stop by the “Recall Dave Hansen” headquarters at 1136 West Mason St. Green Bay between 8 am and dusk.

Related articles

• Tale of two recalls: WI Senators Hansen & Cowles (rhymeswithclown.blogspot.com)

Abysmal Turnout

One word that won’t be used to describe the voter turnout Tuesday in Wisconsin is abysmal.  However that’s how the turnout this past weekend for elections in a town in Massachusetts this past weekend was described.

It’s a right that people all across the world have died fighting for.

But in Billerica, only 13 percent of approximately 24,660 registered voters exercised that right last Saturday.

“Abysmal” was the word Town Clerk Shirley Schult used yesterday to describe the voter turnout on town Election Day.

Schult said she spent part of Monday researching yearly voting records. According to town voting statistics dating to 1969, there has never been an election where less than 14 percent of registered voters exercised their right to hit the polls.

Until this past Saturday.

“You say to yourself after something like this, ‘What are we running this for?” Schult said.

While people throughout Wisconsin were well aware there was an election, that wasn’t the case in Billerica.

Volunteers working for the candidates told her that a lot of calls placed last week reminding people to vote were met with befuddlement.

“People were telling the volunteers that they had no idea there was an election going on,” Schult said.

Former state Rep. Bill Greene, a Billerica Democrat, said he can’t remember the last time so few voters showed up at the polls. He added that he “wished he had a solution” for the apathy.

“The biggest interaction people have is with their local government,” he said. “They all show up for the federal elections and the state elections but then they don’t show up for the town election. I just don’t know why.”

To be fair there wasn’t a polarizing race on the ballot in Billerica but the low turnout does raise concerns.  Concerns that likely would have been echoed in Wisconsin if it wasn’t for the State Supreme Court race.

Former Selectman Kathy Matos offered a few explanations for the low turnout and agreed with Greene’s view that local elections have the biggest direct impact on residents.

“But I think we’re seeing a disassociation with government on a local level,” she said. “People think nothing will change and that it doesn’t matter which way they vote.”

Matos added that another factor is the tough economy.

“Instead of people focusing on government, they’re working in 14 directions at once, thinking about their own mortgages and their own bills,” she said. “But there was a big element of apathy and that’s a shame.”

UMass-Lowell political science professor Frank Talty picked a stronger word than apathy when he heard about the turnout in Billerica.

“It’s not as much apathy as it is despair,” he said. “It means more and more people are deciding to disengage in what’s going on. It worries me a little bit to think that people are giving up.”

Talty added that one reason for low voter turnout is the amount of elections Americans experience each year.

“We do vote a lot but we vote so often and for so many offices that we don’t see it as significant in terms of participation,” he said. “In other countries you can go years without having a significant election.”

The high turnout in Wisconsin Tuesday shows that every office or issue on the ballot should be seen as significant.   Hopefully that’s a lesson people across the country can learn.

Related articles

• Election Day minus 34 – Apathy and Choice (thebrightlibertarian.blogspot.com)
• Turnout For Wisconsin Court Race Went Off The Charts (alternet.org)

New Brown County Exec: Troy Streckenbach

Troy Streckenbach cruised to victory Tuesday night.

Troy Streckenbach, the 39-year-old restaurant and bar owner who has never held public office, is the new Brown County executive after a sweeping victory Tuesday.

He becomes the county’s sixth executive, defeating veteran Supervisor Andy Nicholson with 58 percent of the vote to win a four-year term.

The vote was 32,143 for Streckenbach and 22,800 for Nicholson with all precincts reporting.

“I felt back in December that if my message of what my family was feeling resonated with voters who were dealing with the same things, we had a good chance,” Streckenbach said at his victory party at St. Brendan’s Inn in downtown Green Bay. “The taxpayers were looking for a county government to be more fiscally responsible. But it won’t be a quick fix.”

Starting April 19, Troy will begin working towards fulfilling campaign promises while also dealing with a tough budget situation.

Streckenbach ran his campaign on promises to reduce the county debt, prevent tax increases and create 4,000 new jobs in the county. If he falls short of those goals, he said, he would not seek re-election in 2015.

He takes office as the county faces a dire budget situation with a $3.5 million operating deficit that has to be addressed in the face of fewer state aids and new restrictions on increasing the tax levy. County supervisors managed to prevent a tax levy increase this year by taking $1.7 million from the county’s general fund.

“During the campaign I met with department heads and discussed where there were opportunities for efficiencies without affecting services,” Streckenbach said. “We need to maintain our quality of life to attract businesses.”

Streckenbach hit the nail on the head when it came to working with the county board.

“We’re not always going to agree but we’re all the same people and one community,” he said. “We’ll need a multifaceted approach and everything’s on the table.”

Hopefully the board members all agree.

Unchartered Territory

One thing is certain in the Wisconsin State Supreme Court race: an historic recount is on the horizon.

Wisconsin’s election chief said Wednesday he expects the unofficial vote totals in the state Supreme Court race to change as local officials verify the counts before an expected recount that would be the first of its kind in modern state history.

Little-known attorney JoAnne Kloppenburg declared victory over incumbent state Supreme Court Justice David Prosser on Wednesday based on unofficial totals showing her with a scant 204-vote margin out of nearly 1.5 million cast in Tuesday’s election.

Prosser’s campaign has not said yet whether it plans to ask for a recount, but it’s expected they will. If they do, it would mark the first time since 1858 that a statewide recount has been launched in a race involving candidates, Government Accountability Board director Kevin Kennedy said. The last statewide recount was on a 1989 tax referendum.

The unofficial totals showing Kloppenburg with a narrow lead are “very good numbers,” Kennedy said, but they will change.

“There will be changes because this is a very human-driven process,” Kennedy said. “We expect mistakes. . . . Our goal will be to make sure every ballot is counted and every discrepancy on election day is accounted for.”

Here’s what happens next.

Municipal clerks were required to submit all their paperwork to all 72 county clerks by the end of the business day Wednesday. Each county’s board of canvassers is then charged with reconciling the totals, making sure the ballots in hand match the number of people who voted, beginning Thursday morning.

They have until April 15 to submit the canvassed totals, but Kennedy said he expects them to arrive before then. Once the last report is in, the candidates have three business days to ask for a recount.

The latest the recount could start is April 21, and Kennedy expected it would be done before the state must finalize the vote on May 15.

Ironically the final outcome could be decided by the State Supreme Court.

A legal challenge to the results can be filed after the county canvassing boards meet. Under the law, state Supreme Court Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson assigns a reserve judge to hear all the challenges, which could come from multiple counties, Kennedy said.

An appeal of that decision would go to the state appeals court based in Madison. Kennedy said he believes that decision could be appealed to the seven-member Supreme Court, where Prosser is a sitting justice. If the court deadlocked 3-3, the lower court’s ruling would stand.

Looks like Wisconsin will continue to be in the national spotlight.

Related articles

• Prosser and Kloppenburg: Recount (freedomeden.blogspot.com)
• Wisconsin Has New Supreme Court Justice, JoAnne Kloppenburg Wins Most Votes (dekerivers.wordpress.com)