The reason was always obvious, but hearing Rachel Maddow explain why Republicans hate unions put a level of simplicity to the topic that anyone and everyone should get… even Republicans.
Category: Wisconsin
A new Marquette Law School Poll in Wisconsin shows that with three weeks to go until the recall election Gov. Scott Walker (R) has taken a six point lead over Tom Barrett (D), 50% to 44%, among likely voters.
Three weeks ago, Walker’s lead was just one point.
Said pollster Charles Franklin: “While both parties show unusual levels of involvement in the campaign, Republicans appear to hold an advantage in likely turnout, although Democrats are more likely to have been contacted by a campaign. In a close election with so few undecided voters, enthusiasm, turnout and campaign contact with voters may make the difference.”
The 2009 Equal Pay Enforcement Act was meant to deter employers from discriminating against certain groups by giving workers more avenues via which to press charges. Among other provisions, it allows individuals to plead their cases in the less costly, more accessible state circuit court system, rather than just in federal court.
In November, the state Senate approved SB 202, which rolled back this provision. On February, the Assembly did the same. Both were party-line votes in Republican-controlled chambers.
SB 202 was sent to Walker on March 29. He had, according to the state constitution, six days to act on the bill. The deadline was 5:00 p.m. on Thursday. The governor quietly signed the bill into law on Thursday, according to the Legislative Reference Bureau, and it is now called Act 219.
Walker’s office did not return repeated requests for comment.
Source: Huffington Post
The Huffington Post reports:
Just over a year after Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) signed a measure taking away most collective bargaining rights for public workers, labor unions scored a victory as a federal court struck down portions of the law. The court ruled that the state cannot prevent public sector unions from automatically deducting dues from workers’ paychecks and cannot require them to be recertified annually.
The law, known as Act 10, requires most public sector unions to hold annual votes on whether a majority of its members want to recertify the union. It also took away the rights of some unions to automatically collect dues from members’ paychecks.
The court kept most of the law in place, but it ruled that the state did not have the power to pick and choose which unions could deduct dues. Under Act 10, only “public safety unions” — those representing firefighters and police officers — could continue to take out payments automatically.
The efforts to recall Wisconsin’s Union busting Republican governor Scott Walker is in full swing, with organizers saying last week that they already collected over 300,000 signatures in the first 12 days since starting the recall process. A total of 540,200 signatures are needed by January 17th to force the recall election in the spring of 2012.
But even with this apparent success by the recall organizers so far, Scott Walker is not at all concerned. In fact, he is looking forward to the whole process. Walker told CNBC today that he will gladly use this time to showcase the achievements Wisconsin made under his leadership.
“If come next May or maybe early June, if they actually have the signatures and it forces a new election, all of those issues will be up on the ballot. But I look forward to that,” he said. “I’d love to have the chance to talk to the voters of Wisconsin again to tell that story.”
Asked whether he believes he will win reelection, the governor predicted that his accomplishments will trump the attacks made against him.
“I think if voters hear the facts, every week, every day, every week, every month that goes by, our numbers get better because our story gets out and people see the positive impact of the results,” Walker said.
He added, “The facts, I think, ultimately trump all the attacks. If you see that the schools are the same or better and that our governments are doing well and in the end our taxes are going down, people want to hear that, and I think the results will trump everything else.”
We’re not sure what story Walker is so glad to tell, because under his leadership, Wisconsin’s economy is in a steep decline. Reports have shown that although Walker campaigned on creating over 250,000 jobs for Wisconsin residents, “Walker has consistently proved himself incapable of understanding the economic challenges facing Wisconsinites,” and his policies have caused unemployment in the state to balloon to 7.9%
Maybe Walker is a little confused. According to the Associated Press, Walker has listed about 6000 jobs on the state’s website, claiming credit for these jobs. Only problem is, these jobs were created outside of Wisconsin.
Hearing Scott Walker brag about non-existent economic successes in Wisconsin? – a dime a dozen. Watching him pack up and leave the office of the Governor after the recall election is held? – Priceless!
Remember when Scott Walker promised that the only way to get Wisconsin working again was to take collective bargaining away from public employees? Well apparently, even that was a lie, as Wisconsin isn’t working, they’re loosing jobs and Walker’s policies are to blame.
The Associated Press reports;
MADISON, Wis. — Wisconsin’s statewide teachers union is laying off 40 percent of its workers as a result of the law pushed by Gov. Scott Walker and passed by the Legislature curbing collective bargaining rights.
Wisconsin Education Association Council executive director Dan Burkhalter announced the layoffs of 42 workers on Monday, saying it was a result of what he called Walker’s “union-busting” bill.
Burkhalter says budget cuts are also being made as a result of the new law, which opponents said was designed to weaken the power of unions like WEAC.
Thanks Walker!
Election night in Wisconsin, and the big story is not that Democrats won two of the six senate seats held by Republicans. Yes, that in itself is an amazing achievement. All the elections were held in historically Republican controlled counties, and throughout the 80 plus years recall elections were held in the state, only 20 have been successful. So to have two successes in one night is amazing.
But what’s even more amazing about the recall elections held last night was the results from a place in District 8 called Waukesha county and the behind-the-scenes workings of a particular county clerk in Waukesha called Kathy Nickolaus.
As the polls closed and results started coming in, Republicans breathed a collective sigh of relief when the first three counties stayed in their control – R. Cowles maintained his seat in district 2, S. Harsdorf kept the Republican seat in district 10 and L. Olsen kept Republicans in power in district 14.
By this time, hours after the polling closed, the remaining three races in the recall elections were led by the Democratic challengers. Keep in mind, that Democrats needed to win a total of three seats to regain control of the Senate and stop Scott Walker’s future corporate policies from being implemented.
The next election results showed that two seats would go to Democrats. J. Schelling in district 32 and J. King in district 18 both defeated the Republican incumbents. Then all eyes turned to district 8 where the Democratic challenger S. Pasch was leading the Republican 52% to 48%. This was the last race to be decided for the night, and things were looking good for the Democrat. But remember Waukesha county and the particular county clerk name Kathy Nickolaus? Waukesha county is in District 8, and at the time when the Democrat challenger Pasch was leading, only one of eleven precincts in Waukesha county had reported their results.
Why is Waukesha county so important in these elections?
Kathy Nickolous, the county clerk responsible for, among other things, maintaining the integrity and accuracy of the votes in the elections, is a Republican with questionable morals.
Remember the election for the Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice a few months ago between Republican David Prosser and his Democratic challenger JoAnn Kloppenberg? In that election, Mrs. Kloppenberg was leading and predicted to be the winner. Then miraculously, after all votes were counted, Kathy Nickolous “found” an additional 12000 votes in her computer. Those additional votes were all that Prosser needed to move ahead. He was later declared the winner.
Which brings us back to last night’s election.
When the election in all the other districts were decided, Waukesha county still only had one precinct reporting a total of 600 votes, with a little over 400 going to the Republican, Mrs A. Darling. Television pundits began questioning why Kathy Nickolous was not reporting the other precincts. On the Ed Show on MSNBC, questions were being asked suggesting that another “Prosser” moment may be happening in Waukesha, and calls for a possible investigation into the county clerk were being echoed on different news networks.
Then suddenly, hours after the polls had closed, results from 9 precincts in Waukesha county came in – a total of 12,000 votes, putting the Republican in the lead 53% to 47%. When Kathy Nickolous reported the final precinct numbers, District 8 was called a win for the Republican.
Final results, A. Darling 54%, S. Pasch 48%.
Yes, an amazing night in Wisconsin indeed, but for all the wrong reasons.
In the first recall election in Wisconsin, a Democratic Senator manhandled his Republican opponent, convincingly defeating the sorry sap by a 2 to 1 ratio. With 65% of the polls reporting, the Associated Press called the election for Senator Dave Hansen, Democratic Senator for Green Bay.
“Scott Walker and his cronies pulled out all the stops trying to defeat Dave Hansen,” said the Wisconsin Democratic Party, “and the people of the 30th Senate District said loudly and clearly Tuesday, ‘Enough!’”
And former Democratic Senator Russ Feingold sent his congratulations via the Twitter machine, saying;
“Congratulations to WI Senator Hansen on his victory. We are one step closer to stopping Gov. Walker’s agenda. Forward.”
Hansen’s win on Tuesday now leaves eight more recall elections – 2 recalls for Democrats and 6 for Republicans. Most of the other recall elections will take place in August.
To win control of the upper chamber, Democrats need a total of three wins. By taking control, Democrats can block most of Governor Scott Walker’s policies.
Soon after taking office in January, Scott Walker began a series of far-reaching policy initiatives, including stripping public workers in Wisconsin of their collective bargaining rights. That move triggered massive protests throughout Wisconsin, leading to the present recall efforts. Walker himself would be eligible for recall in January of 2012.
Scott Walker and his Republican goons instituted some of the most radical right winged policies Wisconsin has ever seen, but what caused the Republican governor to admit he made a mistake was not the policies themselves – policies that caused hundreds of thousands to protests on a daily basis and to takeover the assembly house for weeks – Walker admitted to being sorry about the method in which he implemented his agenda.
“Aside from criticism by those who thought Walker was unfairly undercutting state worker rights, he and his fellow Republicans came under fire for tactics seen by some as bullying and not allowing for sufficient debate or possible compromise.
“The mistake I made early on is, I looked at it almost like the head of a small business: identify a problem, identify a solution and go out and do it,” Walker told Reuters at the National Governor’s Association meeting in Salt Lake City.
“I don’t think we built enough of a political case, so we let … the national organizations come in and define the debate while we were busy just getting the job done,” he said.
It’s not how you forced your policies on the people of Wisconsin that have you polling among the lowest governors in America Mr. Walker, its your policies themselves.
Six Republicans who helped Walker push his union busting policy on Wisconsin’s middle class are facing recalls in August. Walker himself must serve one year before he is eligible for recall, that happens in January of 2012.
How do you guarantee that public schools in your state provide a better education? Well you cut $800 million in funding, that’s how. That’s what governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin just did.
Of the bill that the Republican governor signed into law on Sunday, Walker says that the cuts would, “allow us to put more resources into training, and it’s going to provide for better education.”
In order to survive these cuts, some of the things the Wisconsin education system must do will be the elimination of thous
And so the games in Wisconsin continue. It’s amazing that elected officials are allowed to act so immature, but these days in politics, this seems to be the norm.
Weeks after secret meetings where Republicans were trying to come up with ways to negatively affect the recall elections, they are now acting on what was discussed — to install false Democrats into the recall race, to prolong the elections and cost Democrats more in primary elections.
The Associated Press is reporting that as much as six false Democrats are being used by Republicans to run against official Democratic candidates.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — State election officials have finalized the list of candidates who are challenging six Republican state senators in recall elections this summer.
The Government Accountability Board said Friday it had received the necessary paperwork from 12 challengers. None of the nomination papers was challenged, so the GAB has now locked in the election dates.
All six races will start with a Democratic primary on July 12. According to the final paperwork, each primary will include one Democratic candidate and a “fake” Democrat, part of a Republican strategy that forces Democrats to spend more resources per race.
The primary winner will face the Republican incumbent in a general election Aug. 9.
Three Democratic state senators are also being targeted for recall. If there are primaries in those races they’d be on July.
Meanwhile, real Americans continue to lose jobs, homes, retirement investments… real Americans are paying the price!
The victory in the lower court was short-lived. Today, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that Scott Walker’s union busting bill did not break any laws, in essence, voiding a previous ruling by a lower court. The ruling claims;
The court ruled that Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi’s ruling, which had held up implementation of the collective bargaining law, was void ab initio, or invalid from the outset.
In its decision, the state’s high court concluded that “choices about what laws represent wise public policy for the state of Wisconsin are not within the constitutional purview of the courts.”
The court concluded that Sumi exceeded her jurisdiction, “invaded” the Legislature’s constitutional powers and erred in halting the publication and implementation of the collective bargaining law.
The court added that its role is limited to determining whether the Legislature employed a “constitutionally violative process in the enactment of the act. We conclude that the Legislature did not violate the Wisconsin Constitution by the process it used.”
And with that, Scott Walker’s wish to bust the unions of Wisconsin and take away the collective bargaining of public workers is back in effect. The newly controversially re-elected Justice – Republican David Prosser – also found in favor of Scott Walker and his Republican allys.