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Posted: 6/5/12

Today Scott Walker became the first Governor in a recall election to remain in office.  Scott Walker won against Tom Barrett 53%–47%.  A recall election of a U.S. Governor has only occurred three times in U.S. history.  The victory is considered a blow to unions and Democrats.  Unions spent millions to oust Gov. Scott Walker.  The Lieutenant Governor and the other 4 Senators are also headed for strong victories.  Tom Barrett and Scott Walker ran against each other in 2010 with Scott Walker winning by 6%.  Voter turnout was quite high for this recall vote.

Update: Three of the four Senators who faced a recall election have handily won, with Senator Van Wanggaard losing 49% to 51% ref.

Some significant things to note:

• Democrats protested loud with a lot of fanfare after the unions were busted up nearly a year and a half ago (February 2011) ref.
  
• The breakup of the unions was declared illegal by a Dane County judge, however was upheld by the Wisconsin State Supreme court (6/12/11), which narrowly voted in Scott Walker's favor.
  
• The State Supreme Court vote could have been a loss when Democrats sought to replace one of the State's Supreme Court judges with a Democrat.
  
• The vote for Wisconsin Supreme Court was hotly contested with some erroneous election results that were later corrected.  It was interesting that the Democrat running for the seat at the time declared victory before the results were in and demanded a recall vote when she lost by a large margin.
  
• Democrat Senators fled to Illinois in February 2011 ref to avoid a vote to break apart the powerful unions and returned to cheers when they finally returned.  The Democrats and unions successfully turned in nearly one million signatures to force a recall vote, but were lucky to get as many votes for their candidate.
  
• Most notable is that there was an over abundance of rioting and protesting over Act 10 that was passed.  Hollywood figures and congress and others funneled a lot of hype and media frenzy into protesting Act 10, but when all was said and done the public stated through the polls on election day that they supported the governor.

Throughout Scott Walker's term in office voters have had ample opportunity to see Democrat and Republican positions on the issues and tactics used by both parties and have spoken at the polls in support of Scott Walker.

See also: Wisconsin Right to Work law upheld

Last Updated: 11/10/17

TAGS: elections, unions, wisconsin