MADISON, Wis. -- New political battle lines are being drawn as constituents around Wisconsin launch efforts to recall state lawmakers.
Political experts call it an unprecedented move, as formal recall campaigns are in motion for 16 of Wisconsin's 33 state senators: eight Democrats and eight Republicans. That's everyone in the Senate who's legally eligible to face a recall this year, meaning they've been in office for more than a year.
"We filed on Feb. 25, and we have 60 days to collect 20,352 signatures, which is a really big task," said DeForest resident Jeff Horn. "Those are due on April 26."
Horn said he hopes his formal petition to recall Democratic state Sen. Mark Miller will change the stalemate at the state Capitol.
"I've never done a recall before," said Horn. "I've never circulated a petition even for a candidate. In fact, until the last election, I've never contributed money to a campaign."
Horn is just one of several hoping to recall eight Senate Democrats. On the other side of the aisle, an effort to oust 8 GOP senators is also in the works.
"Just seeing what we had over this weekend, we collected something like 15 percent of the number needed to trigger a recall in just a couple of days," said Greme Zielinski, communications director for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. "We had thousands of volunteers out collecting thousands of signatures in just a short amount of time."
"By both threatening recalls on the Republicans that are supporting Gov. Walker and recalls of Democrats who are in Illinois, they're hoping this might bring more incentive to negotiate and compromise," said political science professor David Cannon, who believes the wave of recalls won't become the norm.
"It kind of undermines the democratic process if recalls get to be too common," said Canon. "But I think this is an unusual situation. I don't see this being replicated in the future every time someone is upset with their incumbent, going after them with a recall."
If any of these recalls efforts get enough signatures, elections will take place six weeks later. If a primary unfolds, that race will take place four weeks after the end of the recall petition. Then the actual recall election will take place six weeks after the primary.
As far as the movement to recall Walker, at this point, organizers are putting together a database of potential voters who will sign a possible Walker recall petition. The movement would need 540,000 signatures to force a recall election of the governor, organizers said.
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