Our View: Lines have been drawn for recall election

Talk about it

Now that the recall primary election is over, the next few weeks will be interesting as Republican Gov. Scott Walker faces a recall challenge from Democrat Tom Barrett on Tuesday, June 5.

A word to the wise: brace yourself!

The primary election last week found Barrett easily defeating other Democratic challengers, including Kathleen Falk. Barrett received 390,109 votes (58 percent) statewide to Falk’s 228,940 votes (34 percent).

Now that we know who the players are, the next few weeks will be challenging indeed for most citizens. We have already seen the yard signs popping up around town. Still to come, however, will be the constant barrage of telephone calls, the television ads, billboards — anything else that might have a chance of influencing a voter!

Interestingly enough, the race will feature the same candidates who squared off in 2010 during the regular election for the governor’s seat. In that election, Walker defeated Barrett by 125,000 votes, or 5 percentage points. The bottom line, this recall election appears to be close.

Barrett won the Democratic primary even though he wasn’t the favored candidate of the very unions that spurred the fight and helped organize the drive to collect more than 900,000 signatures to trigger the recall election. The unions backed Falk, a former Dane County executive, who promised to veto any budget that didn’t restore collective bargaining rights. Barrett, who has clashed with unions during his tenure as mayor of Milwaukee, pledged only to try to restore those rights.

Despite that rift, both Falk and major union leaders issued statements supporting Barrett and promising to work together to defeat Walker.

So far, Walker has the money. Barrett and Falk each reported raising sums of money — though at slightly under $1 million each. Falk and Barrett have been far outpaced by Walker, who has raised $13 million between mid-January, when the recall was officially announced, and mid-April.

Walker has the fundraising advantage so far, but Barrett’s bank roll will increase quickly now that he is the known Democratic candidate. Walker will win the money battle, but big money likely will come to both candidates from outside groups backed by both corporations and unions.

The odd part about it all is that those huge amounts of money on both sides will be going after a very small slice of the electorate. Think about it — do you know anybody who’s not sure who to support in this recall election? We believe most people made their decision a long time ago. Most are just waiting for June 5

We are also waiting. Stay strong and don’t let politics disrupt your life. It will all be over in less than 20 days!

Tags: opinion, editorials, politics