David Lauter and Bob Secter
Los Angeles Times
6/5/2012
Wisconsin’s embattled Republican governor, Scott Walker, has defeated an effort by labor unions and Democratic activists to end his tenure early, according to early results and exit polls.
The state has been a center of political controversy for more than a year – ever since Walker pushed a bill through the Legislature that sharply limited collective bargaining rights for teachers and most other government workers. Public employee unions led an effort to oust him, and early this year turned in more than 900,000 signatures on petitions, setting up only the third recall election of a governor in U.S. history.
But Walker fought back, arguing that he had made the “tough choices” needed to balance the state’s budget and free school districts from excessive costs. He also raised about $30 million, using a feature of the state’s recall law that allowed him to take unlimited contributions from supporters, many of them from out of state. Outside groups on both sides have poured money into the state, making the recall by far the most expensive race in Wisconsin history…
The article continues at the LA Times.
Read also, Wisconsin and the Frustrations of Polarization
…Conservatives are increasingly concluding that what ails the nation requires fundamental reform away from big government liberalism. Not tinkering, mind you, but a rebuilding of government and a reorienting of its relationship to the people.
For conservatives, it is all or nothing, lest liberals be permitted to drive the nation to disaster…
…In Wisconsin, Scott Walker has dared to challenge the prevailing liberal governing philosophy and has initiated modest reforms that will, in time, lead to greater reforms. Walker is showing the way to Republicans in other states. Walker is giving Mitt Romney a blue print for challenging liberal welfare statism in Washington, should Romney win in the autumn…
Today’s New York Times is covering the Wisconsin recall election…on page 11. Not even the editorial page could be bothered–only op-ed columnists Joe Nocera and David Brooks weigh in. (Nocera laments the decline of unions; Brooks can’t quite bring himself to defend Wisconsin governor Scott Walker…
And, at Marooned in Marin, examples of the new civility and the Leftist brand of misogyny on display in this video from Wisconsin. There is a language warning.
Update: On Facebook (click on the image to enlarge):
Also, Why Wisconsin? Warning: History
Update 2: There’s fireworks and “The Stars and Stripes Forever” tonight at Legal Insurrection.
Update 3: Flashback: Breitbart Tells WI Union Thugs To ‘Go To Hell’
