Election results – Walker on slippery slide

With just 5 days remaining before the canvas for Walker recall signatures begins, the favorable winds of public sentiment fuel the effort.

Meeting Countdown

Jill Billings Wins Seat in Assembly by a whooping 72%

With all but two precincts reporting, Democrat Jill Billings has defeated Republican David Drewes in a lopsided victory. She replaces Jennifer Shilling who won the 95th district Senate Seat, ousting recalled Dan Kapanke in the Summer election.

Billings, a vice chair of the La Crosse County Board, took just under 72 percent of the vote while Drewes, a local government watchdog, only took 27 percent of the vote.

72% of the vote is a landslide victory by any standards, and suggests that voting public is ready to end the GOP dominated legislature and evict the Walker from the Governor’s Mansion.

Great News From Ohio

Voters in Ohio have overwhelmingly rejected a law curbing union bargaining rights for public employees, dealing a blow to the Republican establishment in a state that could prove pivotal in deciding the outcome of next year’s presidential election. When about a third of the vote was tallied, the repeal effort was leading 61% to 39%.

Ohio Governor John Kasich is a Koch-cookie-cutter replica of Scott Walker. The pro collective bargaining vote in Ohio is a blow John Kasich who pushed strongly for the legislation after Republicans gained a firm hold on the Ohio legislature in 2010, and suggests a glimmer of things to come for Walker who pushed just as strongly for the same action in Wisconsin.

News from the Walker Recall Trenches

About 20 people attended the training session in Richland Center last Sunday morning at the Democratic office at 900 Main St. The smell of recall was in the air just as stongly as the sausage and pancakes on the grill.

A former teacher, Jane Kemp, said she was there because, like so many other teachers across the state, she was forced to retire after 33 years because of Walker’s draconian cuts to education.

Richard McCree described himself as one of those “awful public employees”, saying he could have made more money in the private sector, but decided on a career in public water treatment because of the benefits. Now, there are no more benefits.

Joe Salin stood up with an introduction that widened the eyes of listeners when he said, “I am a Republican.” He went on to say, “I am here because I don’t like Walker. Maybe what he is doing is right, but I don’t like the way he did it.”

Dissonance

I left the meeting with a great promise of success for the Walker recall effort. Here were real people, full of life experience and determination to end the power grabbing, special interest, agenda of the Walker/Fitzgerald, Koch, ALEC consortium. On the way out of town I noticed the field of waving flags and the sign announcing a Veteran’s Pancake Breakfast. I turned in and got out of the car beneath the waving flags and heard the sound of buckles fastening the flags to the poles beating with a leery jingle. The sound seemed to underscore the dissonance of Walker on Wisconsin. The dissonant jingle is the sound track in the video.
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