The View from Wisconsin

by: tabbycat31

Thu Apr 14, 2011 at 12:25:55 AM EDT

In February, Wisconsin governor Scott Walker did what a guy like Chris Christie only dreams of.  He pushed a bill through the legislature ending collective bargaining for public employees such as teachers.  The people in Wisconsin were not happy about it and took to the streets of Madison (and throughout the state).  People in New Jersey even took to the streets of Trenton, and that was as much about Walker's heavier clone as it was about Walker and Wisconsin.

Flash forward two months and the Wisconsin protests have largely fallen out of our short attention span news cycle.  Wisconsin Democrats have done something that I think that the national party (and New Jersey party) should take a lesson from.  They located and used their spines by leaving the state and later filing recall papers against all eight Republican state senators eligible for recall (an elected official in Wisconsin must serve for at least a year before being eligible for a recall).  So this campaign staffer, always in search of her next gig, watched the recalls like a hawk and landed in the smallest city to have an NFL team.   As of this writing, the paperwork has been turned in to recall Republican state senators Dan Kapanke and Randy Hopper.  The Democrats need to flip three state senate seats for control.

Before heading to Wisconsin, I always wondered how the same state can give us a gem like Russ Feingold and an idiot like Paul Ryan.  Now being here in this political climate, the state is as divided as ever.  The only thing that people agree on is their Super Bowl champions.   Unless you are a completely apathetic college student, everyone has an idea of what went on in Madison and has a strong opinion about it one way or another.  I've never before seen a campaign with so few undecided and/or persuadable "voters" (recall petition signers must be eligible to vote in Wisconsin).  So far I have braved the cold and snow (I swear it was spring when I left New Jersey), confrontational teabaggers and College Republicans, and countless encounters with security and law enforcement to fight a historic battle that I believe my (hypothetical) kids will read about in their history books.  After an undeclared 30 year war on organized labor and the middle class, we are finally starting to fight back.  The tide has the chance to turn around and Wisconsin has the potential to lead the way.

The most common question that I am asked here in Wisconsin by fellow staffers, voters I am talking to, and people in general is "why are you here all the way from New Jersey?"  Putting aside the fact that my chosen career field takes me all over the place, my main reason for driving over 1000 miles is that New Jersey has a similar governor to Scott Walker and the only thing that is holding him back is a Democratic controlled legislature (although one can make an argument about exactly how much the legislature is holding him back).  If the GOP takes control of Trenton in November, I see him trying to push an identical bill through in Trenton as what Walker pushed through Madison.  The middle class and Democratic Party in Wisconsin did everything in their power to stop Walker.  It is about time that the middle class and Democratic Party in New Jersey show Christie similar treatment.  This November, the New Jersey Democrats must use Wisconsin as a strong GOTV message.