Updated - Election Day in Wisconsin

Solidarity for Wisconsin families

Update V: Live recall election results at Journal-Sentinel and Mother Jones.

Update IV: Gilbert Brown, Famed Green Bay Packer, Urges Wisconsin Voters to Recall Republicans - We Are Wisconsin released a robocall campaign on Tuesday featuring mammoth former Green Bay Packers defensive lineman Gilbert Brown. The call urges voters to replace six Republican state Senators who supported Governor Scott Walker's controversial budget bill:

"Hello this is Gilbert Brown, defensive lineman for the '97 Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers, calling on behalf of We Are Wisconsin. I have a message for you about Tuesday's election, I know a little bit about playing defense and right now it is time to defend Wisconsin. We are holding the line, putting our children's education before big corporate tax giveaways. It is up to voters like you to make the difference. Please gather your friends and neighbors and go to the polls on Tuesday from 7 am to 8 pm and support Nancy Nusbaum for Senate."

Update III: Walker signs gerrymandering bills redrawing political boundaries, hours before the deadline. "It is now clear that Gov. Walker signed these redistricting maps into law in a manner intended to hide his actions with only one goal in mind: giving himself and his fellow Republicans a monopoly on power in our state and dodging accountability for their anti-middle-class extremism," said Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca (D-Kenosha).

Update II: From a Fond du Lac voter this morning: "I wonder if I’m the only person who gets so upset at poll workers having to ask for picture ID.  The man behind me in line, said 'Well, there’s no trouble here, but in Milwaukee (read black), there’s thousands of cases of vote fraud.'  I told him that’s not true, and asked if he could even conceive of people wanting to vote so much that they would actually commit fraud (that’s not the right word anyway).  I told him it’s been my experience that you cannot get people to vote easily enough. I think people just  believe what they are told, don’t question anything and march in lockstep.  I guess he’s a Republican."

Update: Presidential-election turn-out level in Fond du Lac. At Rosenow Elementary School, 385 people had already voted at 10:20 A.M, with a 30-minute wait in line.

For continuous updates, see Uppity Wisconsin and look back here.

The order of the day is: Get Out the Vote [GOTV].

Today is election day for Wisconsin recalls.

In one race rated a toss-up, Rep. Sandy Pasch (Whitefish Bay) has volunteers already lining up outside the doors this morning to challenge Sen. Alberta Darling in Senate district 8 just north of Milwaukee.

Because of the enormous outpouring, an insider this morning is now saying Pasch is likely to knock off Darling.

Democracy is coming

For continuous updates, see Uppity Wisconsin and Blue Cheddar, TeamsterNation and look back here.
The order of the day is: Get Out the Vote [GOTV].

As a life-long Wisconsin citizen I can tell you the recall race for Senate district 18 (Sen. Randy Hopper's (R-Empire) seat) is a bellwether for the other five recall elections in  Republican state senate districts, all of which one should bear in mind were gerrymandered after the 2000 Census to stay Republican.

Hooper narrowly defeated Jessica King by 163 votes for the same seat in 2008, and Hopper is facing King again in this historically leaning Republican area.

Candidates - 2008 Race             Votes    Percent

Randy Hopper (R)                         41,904   50.05%
Jessica King (D)                            41,741   49.86%

Enough signature were gathered to recall Randy Hopper in just a matter of weeks after the recall registration date [from which citizens have 60 days to gather recall signatures], far early of the deadline for the required 15,269 signatures and petition to be delivered to the GAB on the deadline date of May 2.

The Wisconsin Government Accountability Board (GAB) staff verified 23,127 signatures to recall Hopper.

Sources close to the recall effort told me that after that, signatures gathered by the 100s of the recall volunteers also served effectively as campaigning for voters hostile to Randy Hopper for the majority of the 60-days period prior to May 2.

All of the signatures are open to the public on the GAB site.

Some 55 percent of Hopper's 2008 vote total was gathered in recall signatures against Hopper alone.

Randy Hopper Faces Voters Tuesday

Hopper and young Mistress

Field operation rout of Randy Hopper has working families confidentially predicting his doom on Tuesday

A top Wisconsin recall target, State Sen. Randy Hopper (R-Empire (formerly Fond du Lac)), faces Democratic nominee, Oshkosh Deputy Mayor Jessica King, August 9 in a rematch of their 2008 election narrowly won by Hopper.

Hopper is a leading political ally of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, and has been facing a near-constant stream of allegations that he turned his back on his working-class constituents.

Hopper has also come under heavy criticism after it was revealed in March that Hopper no longer resided at his Fond du Lac [Fondy] home, rather with his then 25-year-old mistress in Madison.

"Family values" hypocrisy is a political charge with which Hopper has had to contend ever since.

Turn-out

Though Hopper has aroused opposition on several levels, knowledgeable sources in Fond du Lac County point to an effective Republican turn-out machine that could make the race on Tuesday a relatively close call.

Wisconsin recall Rally, March 12 - Photo: Leon

Turn-out, even with the efforts of a powerful Democratic field operation, will determine the winner who certainly remains in doubt.

However, almost giddy optimism remains the sentiment among working family-aligned volunteers against the millionaire Hopper who is seen - even among some of his friends - as having turned his back on his district and his family as he made common cause with an extremist Republican administration.

Phone conversations with sources close to the recall effort this weekend confirm a frenetically paced recall field operation with one long-time aide saying, he was "in the middle of a GOTV [Get Out the Vote] canvas" at approximately 9:00 local time Saturday morning in which some 50 volunteers were already knocking on doors in Fond du Lac.

Rallying in the cold, March 11


"There's very little middle ground from people we have talked to. And most of the people talking are breaking our way. A polarized electorate spells a win for Jessica King," said one long-time working-class man from Fondy. "I mean no one is taking anything for granted, which is precisely why Randy Hopper will lose and Jessica [King] will win."

This perception of a field operation rout against Randy Hopper is the object of efforts to portray Hopper as finally hitting the doors (Schneider, National Review Online), though this perception will not likely change this late in the game.

Other Recall Targets

GOP sources say that Sen. Dan Kapanke and Hopper "are toast."  However, they express confidence Sen. Luther Olsen (R-Ripon) will prevail, a sentiment contradicted by a recall-Olsen source. The other three races are regarded as toss-ups.

Three net wins are needed to flip the Wisconsin Senate to Democratic control.

Recall groups say they will win all six races Tuesday.

Ambush

Scott Walker with the help of Hopper targeted Wisconsin families when Walker "dropped the bomb" in an ambush on public employee unions, as described by Walker in a taped phone conversation in which Walker believed he was speaking with far-right billionaire, David Koch, and in which Walker bragged that he was scheming to first threaten and then fire public workers in a politically timed fashion.

Since that display of corruption and cynicism went public, Hopper has been operating under a cloud made darker by revelations that his mistress secured a $43,000 state job with the Walker administration. [Bice]

Hypocritical - even by Randy Hopper standards.
Hopper is in the middle wearing an AFSCME shirt

Scott Walker and Hopper have demonized public sector workers, but Hopper is featured in a photo wearing a public employee union t-shirt in what most people regard as another display of political hypocrisy first revealed by Blogging Blue in March.

It's now conventional wisdom that had Hopper and Walker been honest with Wisconsin citizens about plans to attack public workers and their families, they never would have been elected in their close 2008-10 elections.

Divorce

Hopper is divorcing his wife in a contested legal proceeding listed as being presided over by Judge Robert J. Wirtz, Circuit Court of Fond du Lac County; and the Fond du Lac County Family Court Commissioner.

Legal information on the online Wisconsin Circuit Court Access (WCCA) site is sketchy and dynamic on these proceedings, with no explanation for the changing information available on the WCCA site.

Obama Should Learn from Wisconsin

Update: See Protesters Spread the News: Keep Hands Off Medicare and The 7 most awful truths you need to know about Paul Ryan’s war on Medicare.

President Obama should mention Protecting Medicare so often that it brings to mind how endlessly Brent Musburger used to tout: "On CBS" in the 70s-80s.

The vast majority of Americans wants Medicare and Social Security protected from Republicans like Rep. Paul Ryan and the insurance industry.

What President Obama has not achieved is to develop a communication strategy reflecting this popular sentiment of the Americans who voted him into office.

Medicare and Social Security are great economics, demonstrate respect for the citizens who lived in our country the longest, and are great politics.

Wisconsin Recall

Here in Wisconsin the Republicans similarly target popular programs and guarantees that make Wisconsin a great place to live: Access to and protection of voting rights, local control of government, craft breweries, open and clean government, freedom to assembly; the list seems endless.

But unlike the Obama administration, citizens here have in every way, on every day made their views and voices heard.

No one has to guess how Wisconsin feels about the Scott Walker-Randy Hopper regime.

As for President Obama, just over two years into his administration, his message is: Whaaat?

Working families matter; our seniors deserve our respect; the freedom to associate and organize is valued; and people are aching to participate in our country's public affairs in the hope and with the faith that we still live in a democracy.

President Obama, clarify your commitments and fight for us ... like now. One more thing, on the White House issues page, list Medicare! Also: I have been surfing the White House site and I cannot find one photo of the president with the cutline: 'I will not allow any attacks by the enemies of Medicare.'

Wisconsin Constitution, Article 1, Section 1

As Scott Walker and his regime, with much of the local corporate media playing along, sends out its anti-democratic message that Wisconsin must 'prepare' for the protests of its citizens, it bears repeating that Wisconsin citizens will exercise their right to decide what manner of government and policy have their consent.

This is what democracy looks like. And it scares the hell of the Republicans and Koch brothers.

Democracy is not some obscure action for which Walker, Hopper and company must prepare by expending $millions and lining up 100s of police.

Democracy in a healthy society is what people ought to do ... often.

Wisconsin Constitution

Article 1, Section 1

"All people are born equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights; among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness; to secure these rights, governments are instituted, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."

GOP PR Operative: "No chance" Randy Hopper Survives Recall

Update: Randy Hopper (R-Empire (formerly Fond du Lac)), defeated in recall election by Democratic nominee, Oshkosh Deputy Mayor Jessica King, on August 9, 2011.

Recall Election Results
Jessica King ,   28,187  51%
Randy Hopper 26,937  49%
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Well-known (and well-liked) writer and PR specialist James Wigderson at Wigderson Library and Pub says recall target State Sen. Randy Hopper (R-Fond du Lac) is toast.

A head faint? No.

There is no chance Hopper can win the recall election. Is he watching Weiner get roasted? Hopper’s randy behavior makes him toasted. (It’s funnier because it rhymed.)

Blogger and Republican activist Kevin Binversie has suggested Hopper resign now to give the party a fighting chance to save the seat. My only addition to that would be that the Republican Party would have to be stupid to try to save him.