Over 4,000 of you have submitted comments on the meaning of the Wisconsin recall elections and our path forward as activists. The New York Times has submitted a comment of its own, editorializing that the results of the recalls demonstrated the rising political strength of those who backed them:
Five months after Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin pushed through a law stripping public unions of their bargaining rights, the Republican Party has paid a price. Two of the state senators who backed the law were thrown out of office by voters on Tuesday and replaced with Democrats. Mr. Walker’s opponents did not succeed in turning over the Senate, but it was still an impressive response to the governor’s arrogant overreach.
Recall elections are extremely difficult to win; only two had succeeded in the state in the last 80 years. The districts lean Republican, and getting people to turn out in an unusual off-year election is always a struggle. Had Democrats won one more district, they would control the Senate, but they were also trying to send a warning to Republican lawmakers around the country who are trying to break public employee unions. In that, they succeeded.
First, it needs to be said that the driving force behind what happened in Wisconsin was always locals on the ground who felt their rights, and indeed their livelihoods, were directly threatened. A new administration was determined to make scapegoats out of Wisconsin teachers, nurses, bus drivers and social workers, and in so doing force those public employees to pay for giveaways and tax breaks to large corporations. It was those local teachers, nurses and other Wisconsin workers who fueled the protests, gathered the signatures to put the recalls on the ballot, and did the lion's share of electoral activism.
With that said, The New York Times is correct in identifying what happened in Wisconsin as rife with potential new power for labor. Because the recalls were a direct result of the protests, and because the protests were fueled by a labor-centric set of issues, labor was able to demonstrate that it could remove politicians from office when they attempt to crush labor. As I wrote in my piece for the Big Think symposium in June, it is by demonstrating that ability that a constituency becomes able to influence public policy.
Recalling two state senators was a start, but this story isn't over yet. There are two more recalls left on Tuesday, and many upcoming recalls and referendums in both Wisconsin and elsewhere. We are a long way from the resolution of this fight.
Help GOTV for the final two recalls with the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.