Recall election dates are set after the Government Accountability Board approved staff recommendations last Friday to certify the recall elections against Gov. Scott Walker, Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch and four Republican state senators.
Primaries will be held on May 8 followed by a general election on June 5. Following the announcement, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett announced his candidacy for the race against the governor.
Barrett joins Secretary of State Doug La Follette, Sen. Kathleen Vinehout, D-Alma, and former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk in the Democratic primary race for the governor’s seat.
The GAB staff certified 900,938 signatures on the Walker recall petitions and 808,990 on the Kleefisch petitions. Each office required 540,208 valid signatures to trigger a recall election.
Walker’s campaign released a statement following the certification that said the group had anticipated the election process moving forward.
“Now it is time for voters to examine the choice they will be faced with in June,” spokesperson Ciara Matthews said in the statement. “Voters are not prepared to reverse the tremendous progress the Governor has made by prematurely ending his term in this $9 million power grab by out-of-state special interests.”
Attorneys representing the recall petitioners and the challengers to the recall petitioners joined GAB Director Kevin Kennedy in thanking the GAB’s staff for the hard work accomplished in turbulent times of Wisconsin government.
Directly following the meeting, Falk waited outside the board’s room for interviews. When asked about recent polling that put the governor ahead of the Democratic candidates, Falk said it is proof of a highly polarized state.
“It’s dead even statistically,” Falk said. “They want a governor who can bring the state together and get things done. There is a better way.”
Falk also talked about her pledge to restore collective bargaining, and when asked if she would raise taxes to restore it, she said she would not raise taxes on Wisconsin families.
Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate said the party would not be challenging any of the petition numbers certified today and that they were happy with the certified results.
“Today, for the first time in Wisconsin history, a recall election was certified against a sitting governor,” Tate said. “This is no great cause for celebration, mainly because the reasons for the recall are so grave.”
Tate added Walker’s campaign could not provide a single example of petition fraud to the board, despite Republican persistence that fraud was occurring during the petition gathering process.
Of the five names brought forward by the staff as being fictitious signatures, four of them were approved. The board struck down the names Adolf Hitler, Mick E. Mous, Donald L. Duck and I Love Scott Walker Thanks.
However, Fungky Van Den Elzen, the fifth name, was located by the staff before the meeting and his signature was validated by the board.
During the meeting the GAB also approved a motion to direct its staff to provide public access on the board’s website to the petitions from the six recall elections in searchable format.
The database has since been posted on the website, with the ability to search all six petitions by the first and last name of those who signed the petition.
