Saturday, February 19, 2011

The Wisconsin State Senate's Low-Hanging Fruit

It has recently been pointed out that Wisconsin State Senators who were last elected in 2008 are already subject to recall.  The list of relevant Republicans is:


District 2, Rob Cowles, Green Bay
District 8, Alberta Darling, River Hills
District 10, Sheila Harsdorf, River Falls
District 14, Luther Olsen, Ripon
District 18, Randy Hopper, Fond du Lac
District 20, Glen Grothman, West Bend
District 28, Mary Lazich, New Berlin
District 32, Dan Kapanke, La Crosse

Now, some of these politicians couldn't lose an election in their home District if they were photographed in a compromising position with a Russian spy.  However, a few of them just squeaked by in 2008.  Granted, that was a bad year to be a Republican, but the emotions on the left are running high again, and a left-leaning answer to Citizens for Responsible Government may want to warm up their recall muscles on some low-hanging fruit.

Looking back at the 2008 election results, the Senators most likely to be Petak'd are:

Alberta Darling (who received 50.46% of the vote to Sheldon Wasserman's 49.45%)
Randy Hopper (who received 50.05% to Jessica King's 49.86%)
Dan Kapanke (who received 51.38% to Tara Johnson's 48.53%)


Although the other two enjoyed slimmer margins, Kapanke may actually be the most vulnerable, because he has always enjoyed the support of organized labor (which he will lose when Walker's bill comes to a vote).

If progressives could pull off a recall hat trick, that would end the Republican control of the State Senate.  Anyone in District 8, 18 or 32 want to file some paperwork?

4 comments:

Dan said...

Keep dreaming. Do you honestly think that the people protesting have the support of the majority of people in Wisconsin?

Beer, Bicycles and the VRWC said...

Those protesting have already lost the public. When teachers "called in sick" and took children to the protest without parental permission, they made a HUGE mistake. Yes, we were heavily outnumbered today. But we've won already.

Paco said...

Hopper is ripe for recall. He has many, many corrections officers in his district, and he just squeeked by.

Anonymous said...

None of the poor protesters look like they are underfed!