Thoughts on Recalls

Two opinion posts in one night, with not a source to be cited!

There have been 4 recalls in WI history, of which 2 have been successful.  There are currently petitions underway to recall 16 state Senators (in WI, someone must be in office for a full year before they can be recalled).  There are recalls for 8 Republicans (mostly sponsored by the Dem Party, I believe) and 8 Democrats (many sponsored by a group from Utah, as far as I understand it). There is also a "pledge to sign a recall petition for Walker when it is time" movement.

Ever since WI Act 10, the Budget(less) Repair Bill, passed, the emphasis has been on recall petitions (as well as the April 5th Supreme Court Justice election).

Recall is a powerful thing. I'm glad we have it, and I'm glad there is a one-year waiting period, even though it can be frustrating. As we have been seeing, a major swap of political power can result in an emphasis on un-doing, and if recalls were easier or could happen more quickly, I think we would make a lot less progress, and would spend a lot of time going over the same issues, back and forth and back and forth. A recall is a vote of no-confidence. It can be a vote against a specific individual, or a vote against a particular party or set of political beliefs that have been in power.

I absolutely support recalling Walker. And I am very certain that I will still support his recall in November/December when the petition is circulating.

I support the recalls of some of the Republican senators, as well. And yet, I'm not volunteering my time to help with the recalls. I'm not making phone calls, I'm not collecting signatures, I'm not even talking much about them.

Recall is the tool of constituents. It is a way for us to express to our elected officials that they have not represented us, and that we insist on representation, or at least, on being heard.  I am not the constituent of a Republican. My state Senator is a Democrat, and I like him.

Who am I to go into someone else's district and tell them that they have not been represented, or that their Senator doesn't care about them, doesn't listen to them, works against their interests?  There's no way for me to know that. And I don't just mean "Well, clearly, they got elected there so someone must like them". There is no way for me to know what issues are important in all of the other districts in the state. There is no way for me to judge whether these Senators have failed people.  The budget, collective bargaining, consolidation of power, these are all big issues. But they also aren't the only issues.

I am thrilled to hear that people in these districts are mobilizing to recall, to protest, to attend town meetings. I'm thrilled because it means that people are expressing their opinions and becoming involved with the system beyond just at the ballot box. I'm thrilled that people are angry about what their Senators have voted on. Those votes have already had an adverse effect on me as an individual, but my voice doesn't need to matter to their Senators. Their voices do.

We know that the Republicans have already tried to characterize the major protests as the result of "out-of-state people". And that Madison has a reputation and is scorned for, being super liberal. A recall effort is where there is no longer any dispute over who is standing up against their representatives. The more the process is run by people in those districts, the less argument there can be about who's behind it.

So yes, I'm in favor of the recalls. And I'm not going to criticize you for going door-to-door in Green Bay. But I'm not going to join you. And you can bet that if the petition against my state Senator gets enough signatures, I'll be voting for him again (unless someone better runs!).