While the Republicans running as Democrats in the recall elections originally did so to ensure a primary for all recall elections, many are beginning to run active campaigns, enticed by the possibility of winning and attention to their beliefs.
Earlier this month, the Republican Party of Wisconsin collected enough signatures to run six Republicans as candidates in Democratic primaries across the state. Despite allegations that the action constituted election fraud, the Government Accountability Board upheld the candidacies of what some have called “fake Democrats.”
While saying he intended to run as a placeholder candidate to ensure a primary election, Isaac Weix, a candidate for lieutenant governor, said last week in a statement that he is planning to actively campaign.
“There have been recent developments that have changed my focus,” Weix said in a statement. “The union-backed and hand-picked Democrat candidates are still having trouble recognizing that Wisconsin had a severe budget deficit. There is also an inability for the progressives and unions to understand that the private sector supports the public sector, not the other way around.”
He said in a statement that people can vote for the gubernatorial candidate separately from the lieutenant governor or a senator in the May 8 primary, and conservatives who disagree with the recall can vote for “protest” candidates.
In an interview with The Badger Herald, Weix said the RPW asked him to run in the primary, and the possibility he could win has caused him to run an active campaign. He said he will not spend much money campaigning, relying primarily on Facebook and Twitter to reach voters.
Weix said the term “fake Democrat” is an incorrect definition used to “sell newspapers and make headlines.” He said because candidates do not take a party oath, a fake Democrat or Republican cannot exist, and having a conservative outlook does not make him fake.
A spokesperson for Mequon, Wis., resident and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Gladys Huber referred all requests for comment to RPW.
Ben Sparks, RPW spokesperson, said the party chose to run the candidates to ensure no senators faced their recall on the same day as the Democratic primary for governor, when a large number of Democratic voters will head to the polls.
Sparks would not comment on how the party chose the candidates but did confirm Huber and Weix also ran as placeholder candidates in last year’s Senate recalls.
According to the GAB website, Huber received 35.14 percent of the vote when she ran in a Democratic primary last July against Rep. Sandy Pasch, D-Whitefish Bay. Pasch lost the recall election to Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills.
Weix ran as a placeholder candidate in last July’s Democratic primary against Shelly Moore, receiving 44.83 percent to Moore’s 53.98 percent, according to the website. Moore lost the recall election to Sen. Sheila Harsdorf, R-River Falls.
In the current Senate recalls, Antigo, Wis., citizen James Buckley is running in the Democratic primary against Rep. Donna Seidel, D-Wausau, in the recall election of former Sen. Pam Galloway, R-Wausau. Galloway resigned in March.
Buckley said he is running an active campaign to give people a choice from “union bullies” and to keep freedoms he said President Barack Obama has been taking away with executive orders.
He added the goal of the Occupy Movement and the Democratic Party is to destroy the capitalist state and create a “totalitarian, socialist, one-world government controlled by a single party.”
“Please wake up, Wisconsin, and vote out every Democrat,” Buckley said. “Wake up Wisconsin – this is your future. That’s why I’m fighting for everyone whether they recognize it or not.”
While Antigo is not part of Galloway’s Senate district, Reid Magney, GAB spokesperson, said in an email to The Badger Herald that Buckley can still run in the primary.
Magney said if Buckley won the recall election, he would have to establish residency in the new district 28 days before taking office.
Gary Ellerman declined to comment on his candidacy. Other candidates James Engel and Tamra Varebrook did not return emails for comment. Varebrook’s website asks voters to “protest the Wisconsin Recalls” by voting for her and donating to her campaign.
