Posted on 07/07/2011 6:32:52 AM PDT by Sopater
For liberals nationwide, the 2012 election starts this summer with nine recall elections in Wisconsin. For liberals, these recalls aren’t just about Wisconsin; they’re about the country’s very future. It’s a national fight that won’t just set the course for Wisconsin, but the course to congressional and presidential victory in 2012 and beyond.
Groups, such as We Are Wisconsin, a union front group said to have millions of dollars at its disposal, are coordinating simulated grassroots advocacy. Chief spokesman Kelly Steele holds near daily phone calls with friendly media in Washington, D.C., and other groups to explain the political layout of the land.
Yet, even with all that in its arsenal, Wisconsin liberals want more.
Wisconsin Reporter has gone over a number of websites from groups like We are Wisconsin, Defending Wisconsin and the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. The groups are recruiting as many out-of-state volunteers as possible to work the upcoming recall campaigns. The sites urge volunteers to work “Virtual Phonebanking,” so they could make phone calls to Wisconsinites from the comfort of their homes anywhere in the state or across the country.
But more interesting and daring is the final-day push for volunteers. Interested volunteers are given their choice of 12 cities in any of the nine recall districts. Volunteers then are told “more information” would be sent to them about car rentals and hotels in the particular city or district of their choice. One group appears to be going as far as saying they’d work to line up lodging at members’ homes for out-of-state volunteers in these districts.
No indication is given if the volunteers would be paying for their hotel stays and car rentals, if they could arrange for payment elsewhere, by someone else, or who would be picking up the tab.
State Democratic and Republican party officials did not return calls asking whether these tactics are common or new.
As the end game begins in the Wisconsin recall fight, more will come out about outside groups and outside spending. But so far on the organizing front of the ground game, it appears liberals — with their ability to bring in national groups with better ease — have a leg up on their conservative counterparts.
This past month, at the annual Netroots Nation convention in Minneapolis, thousands of self-described progressive online and grassroots activists gathered to hear tales from those who protested in Madison.
Others were more concerned about what they could do in the nine state Senate recall campaigns. During one panel, Democracy for America, a group founded by former Democratic Party Chairman Howard Dean, announced it would be spending more than $1.5 million on the Wisconsin recall effort.
A spokeswoman for the group announced the plans during a panel discussion and described how they intended to hire staff in at least three recall districts. The group went so far as to organize a bus for convention-goers to canvass in nearby Hudson, for Shelly Moore, the Democratic challenger to state Sen. Shelia Harsdorf.
Other than a phone bank on-site sponsored by Americans for Prosperity at the competing convention, RightOnline, there appeared to be little national effort to help conservatives in Wisconsin.
WI Ping
I think most union thugs see this as communism’s last gasp. The outcome will decide whether communism will continue to survive or will be thrown onto the trash heap of history.
You ain't lyin'. Its Communism and Mobocracy, versus Capitalism and a Representative Republic.
“The groups are recruiting as many out-of-state volunteers as possible to work the upcoming recall campaigns.”
This is the sort of statement that makes me think they are bleeding out. This is in a blue, rust belt state, previously a stronghold for unions and the cradle of the overt “progressive” movement - and they can’t raise the numbers they need within the state.
“The entire nation is watching to see how Wisconsin fares in all of this.”
I think the point of this article is to show that the democrats are not ‘watching to see’...they are doing. If we do not actively support the Republicans being recalled our cause will take a huge defeat. We will once allow victory to slip from our fingers...but then again, that bar be que this weekend takes precedent or that vacation or that coffee break.
The entire nation is watching to see how Wisconsin fares in all of this.
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No they are not. I would wager that perhaps 20-25% of the public are even aware of what is going on in Wisconsin. Hell, the greater majority in this country couldn’t even tell you what the budget impasse in Washington is about or even if there is one.
AS for it being a national game changer? More BS. Why isn’t what Christie is doing in NJ a “national game changer”? How about what Mitch Daniels in Ind? Why isn’t the fact Tx has created 46% of all jobs created in this country since 2009 a “game changer?
It’s a local story the press is attempting to take national and it will fail because there is to much going on which is more important.
Should the recalls succeed, what does that mean? Will the Left be able to over ride a Gov veto if they attempt to repeal his law repealing collective bargaining for the muni Unions? the answer is no. And if you are thinking there will be a successful recall of the governor, think again, it’ll never happen.
And if you are thinking there will be a successful recall of the governor, think again, it’ll never happen.
The progs know this and admit it among themselves. I have overheard exactly that discussion among known donk activists.
They really do not care what the outcome is. This is about ginning up the base. They need the money and once the base is sufficiently aroused, the next message is:”You can show your support by allowing the union to deduct dues directly from your bank account or allow a monthly credit card charge.”
I am in a recall District. The donks are openly stealing campaign signs for Kapanke. Repeatedly stealing signs from the same place. Some of the disappearances of Kapanke signs are done by relatives of Kapanke supporters. There is a cold CWII in progress, here.
The election is next Tuesday. I have yet to receive even one Democrat call or any donk literature.
agree many times over- and though its a state issue, except for the Tea Party, most of the national GOP has rolled over and played dead on this issue...
Your comment about dues is right on. When Daniels (Gov Ind) de-certified the unions his 1st day after the 2010 election the result was over 90% of the union members stopped paying dues. Previously it was deducted from their check and handed to the union while after de-certification the members were obliged to write a check, something they were not so willing to do.
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