The net effect of Wisconsin’s
ongoing recall process has been a deepening of political divisions along party
lines. Since last February, the state has been involved in a constant political
debate – protests led to a petition drive, and recall elections this fall will
mark the end of a year of perpetual campaigning.

If Gov. Scott Walker comes out on top in the recall elections, citizens of Wisconsin
can expect no end to the liberal-conservative dichotomy that has split state
government into two competing factions. At the end of the first two tumultuous
years of Walker’s term as governor, nothing is more evident than his resolve to remain unflinching and uncompromising in the face of Democratic
opposition.

A win for Walker would galvanize his conservative coalition and
validate claims that Walker does, in fact, represent the conservative majority.
If Walker is re-elected, so to speak, expect a return to business as usual on
Capitol Square – Republicans will remain uncompromising, Democrats will
continue with their policy of non-cooperation and the stalemate will resume. Legislation will bounce back and forth in the partisan gridlock before
stagnating in the state courts. A win for Walker means two more years of the
same old.

On the
other hand, there is the possibility that a Democrat walks out on top next
September. In this case, it isn’t quite clear what the next two years will
look like, but there are two extreme cases – imagine them as two different
pages in the Wisconsin Political Future choose-your-own-adventure book.

One
rather dystopian possibility is that the incoming Democratic governor tries to
undo two years of conservative legislation, purge the capitol of all Republican
appointees and in general swing the state government into the anti-Walker
left. The alternative is that the incoming governor looks beyond two years
of partisan bickering, and begins with a concerted effort to heal political
divisions in the state, in order to end the stale and exhausted argument that
has been dragging on for the past year and move Wisconsin into the future.

In
fact, the Democratic gubernatorial candidates are choosing their own adventures.
Based on a Marquette University Law School poll, former Dane County Executive Kathleen
Falk and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett represent the two candidates with a
reasonable chance of winning the Democratic primary. In a debate last Friday, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports these two candidates
made their intentions clear.

While
all candidates support the idea of restoring collective bargaining rights for
public workers’ unions, the ways in which they intend to achieve that goal are
quite different. Barrett’s site notes that he would call a special legislative
session to restore collective bargaining, or introduce a standalone bill to the
Legislature. Both of these strategies would require support on both sides of
the aisle – they are necessarily cooperative efforts.

A different strategy is presented by Kathleen
Falk, who has asserted that she will veto any state budget that does not
restore collective bargaining. Falk told the Journal Sentinel, “Having a special
session won’t get it done because we know Assembly Republicans won’t act on it.
… You’ve got to be willing to use all the tools the governor has.”

Replace “Republicans” with “Democrats”
and this sounds like a classic Walker sound-bite, and it shows that Falk intends to be an anti-Walker, and to send the state on a wild
pendulum-swing to the opposite edge of the political spectrum. The “Issues”
page of Falk’s campaign website is a case in point – the page says as much
about Walker’s flaws as it does about Falk’s virtues with statements like “Gov. Walker threatened the futures of our children,” and “Gov. Walker was
dishonest with the people of Wisconsin,” and “because of Gov. Walker’s bad
choices, 65,000 [people] will lose their health care.”

Falk has presented herself
as a foil character to Walker – the problem with this is that Wisconsin doesn’t
need the liberal opposite of Walker, it needs a governor who will look
beyond Walker and return the state to political normalcy.

Responding to Falk’s plans to veto
budgets that lack a collective bargaining measure, secretary of state and
gubernatorial candidate Doug La Follette summed things up concisely at Friday’s debate, saying, “I
don’t believe you do it by getting in people’s face.” La Follette is right
– Wisconsin doesn’t need another 10 years of the same old back and forth
liberal-conservative struggle that it is stuck in today. It needs a governor
who will break the gridlock and open the Capitol to the mere possibility of
progress.

While it is yet to be proven that Barrett would be that sort of governor, it is certain that Falk is
not. This makes Barrett the logical choice in Tuesday’s Democratic primary
elections.

Charles Godfrey ([email protected]) is a sophomore majoring in math and physics.