[Vision2020] Collecting Recall Signatures the Republican Way

[Tom Hansen]

Courtesy of the Huffington Post at:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/21/wisconsin-recall-shots_n_851459.html

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Wisconsin Recall Fight Heats Up As Democrats Complain Of 'Shots For
Signatures' Deals (w/audio)

WASHINGTON -- In an effort to gather enough signatures to trigger recall
elections of state senators in Wisconsin, some backers are turning to
peculiar, unconventional and, it appears, even intoxicating means.

The Wisconsin Democratic Party is planning to file a complaint to the
state Government Accountability Board alleging that a Republican
signature-gatherer offered alcoholic beverages to a group of women to get
them to sign a recall petition against a Democratic state senator.

Although that's not illegal in Wisconsin, it is strongly discouraged and,
Democrats argue, evidence that Republicans don't really have enough
grassroots support for their recall campaigns.

Republicans have until early next week to file recall petitions against
eight Democratic state senators, more than half of the caucus that left
the state in February to protest and delay the GOP's budget repair bill,
which included a provision stripping public employees of their collective
bargaining rights. So far, the state Republican Party has not filed any
recall petitions, although they are reportedly planning to file two --
against state Sens. Dave Hansen and Jim Holperin -- on Thursday.

Meantime, Wisconsin Democrats have filed recall petitions against four
Republican state senators and have until May 2 to get enough signatures
for the four others, according to the state Government Accountability
Board. The campaign will be a rarity for Wisconsin: there have been only
four recall elections in the state's history.

According to a draft of the Democratic complaint to the GAB, obtained by
The Huffington Post from a Democratic source, a woman who was at John's
Main Event, a tavern in Burlington, Wis., with her friends on Feb. 27,
"heard that someone was providing 'shots' to people if they signed a
petition to recall State Senator Robert Wirch," a Democrat.

The woman, who signed the complaint, said a bartender showed her the
recall petition and told her that if she signed it, she and her friends
would get free shots.

The source also passed along an audio recording of the encounter, in which
the woman says, "So you're going to get us -- one, two, three, four, five
shots if we sign this?" A man responds, "That's right. ... I'll buy them."

There are many questions that remain surrounding the recording, including
whether the bartender was joking and whether the woman actually supported
recalling Wirch or was just egging on the signature-gatherer. But it does
demonstrate that a party's reliance on a network of unsupervised
signature-gatherers can end up causing headaches.

The indication that it's a petition to recall a Democratic senator comes
when the woman expresses frustration and says it's "bullcrap" that "they
went out of the state," referring to the Democratic state senators who
fled to Illinois during the budget standoff. She later refers to the
"Democrat."

At the end of the recording, another woman asks, "What are we signing
again?" The first woman replies, "To recall them again, because it's
bullshit that they left. And you get a shot out of it."

LISTEN:

http://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/VN00001-20110227-1954.mp3

Reid Magney, a spokesman for the GAB -- which oversees the state's
campaign finance, elections, ethics and lobbying laws -- said offering
drinks in return for signatures doesn't actually appear to be illegal.

"Our attorneys have been unable to find anything in state law that would
prohibit offering drinks or anything for signing a petition," Magney said,
though he added that they "strongly encourage people not to do so because
it taints the process."

Based on the above recording, Wisconsin Democratic Party spokesman Graeme
Zielinski confirmed that the party may still file a complaint with the GAB
challenging a possible Wirch recall petition on ethical grounds. Meantime,
he said, the Democrats are working to make sure their own recall campaigns
are ironclad.

"For our purposes, [on Tuesday] we filed against the fourth senator,
Sheila Harsdorf," Zielinski said. "We filed about 23,000 signatures of
about 15,000 required. In each case, we've been more than 140 percent of
the total. In some cases, almost double of the total required. We scrubbed
them pretty clean too, so they're going to survive any Republican
challenge."

The Wisconsin Republican Party did not return a request for comment.

Both parties are already gearing up to challenge each other's recall
petitions -- and fend off challenges to their own. Democrats have
scheduled a Thursday morning conference call with reporters to discuss
what they described in a press release as "the fraudulently pursued,
deliberately hidden and dangerous Republican recall racket against three
Democratic senators."

On the Republican side, lawyers for state Sen. Dan Kapanke (R) have filed
a complaint challenging the recall petition targeting the legislator,
arguing it should be thrown out because of missing paperwork. According to
the Associated Press, "The organizers have five days to file a rebuttal to
Kapanke's challenge. Kapanke then has another two days to respond.
Election officials will then have 14 days to either approve or reject the
petition."

Groups or individuals can challenge either entire petitions or particular
signatures. They have 10 days after a petition has been submitted to file
a challenge. The GAB then considers those challenges when reviewing the
petitions to determine whether a recall election is called for, in which
case the incumbent legislator will face off against other candidates.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to
changeand the Realist adjusts his sails."

 - Unknown