National Implications of Wisconsin Recall Election

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Air Date: June 6, 2012

Host: Jim Schneider

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This program focuses on the recall election yesterday in Wisconsin that had Governor Scott Walker becoming the first governor in U.S. history to survive a recall.

Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch is the first lieutenant governor in the nation to have been subject to a recall election and thus also the first of her kind to survive such an election.

There was 57% voter turnout. Governor Walker took 53% of the vote and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett took 46%. This margin of victory was greater than when he defeated Barrett the first time two years ago.

3 of 4 Republican senators that were recalled also survived. The one that didn’t survive lost in a close vote. If that vote holds up, this means that the balance of power in the Wisconsin Senate will have switched from the Republicans to the Democrats. The switch appears to be insignificant because the senate is not in session. Unless a special session is called, it will not be in session until after the November elections in which redistricting can change the balance of power in the senate once again.

Although the Democrats and their supporters tried to claim during the campaign that this election was, in large part, about collective bargaining, the results of the election prove that most people in Wisconsin felt that the election was about allowing the governor to continue the fiscal “belt tightening” that he’s already started.

Jim also presented the following: Audio clips from Governor Walker’s victory speech, an interview with the governor on Fox News, the unusual sound of people humming outside the Wisconsin capitol building last evening, news of death threats and more.

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