Was Democratic push for Wisconsin recall a mistake?
Was the Democratic push to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker a mistake? That鈥檚 what the always-blunt Rep. Barney Frank (D) of聽Massachusetts said yesterday.
鈥淢y side picked a fight they shouldn鈥檛 have picked,鈥澛燙ongressman Frank on Wednesday.
Frank is retiring after 30+ years in Congress so doesn鈥檛 have to worry if he offends union leaders and other party powerbrokers. (Not that he ever did. Worry, that is.) But he鈥檚 not the only Democratic eminence grise to criticize the Badger State recall.
鈥淚t was a dumb political fight 鈥� I would have waited until Walker鈥檚 reelection,鈥� former Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell in a separate story.
Yes, Rendell鈥檚 out of office and also has a history of contradicting his party鈥檚 official line. Plus hindsight is 20/20 and all that. Walker鈥檚 convincing victory has those on the left side of the US political spectrum casting about for something or someone to blame.
But Frank and Rendell are echoing points made by pundits from across the political spectrum. The bottom line: some aspects of the reelection fight pointed toward a Democratic loss entirely foretold.
The first was the 鈥渞ecall鈥� nature of the election. It was only the third time in US history a sitting governor faced such a vote. (If you didn鈥檛 know that already you didn鈥檛 watch any cable news coverage of this event.)
Turns out Wisconsin voters thought a sitting official shouldn鈥檛 be recalled except in a dire circumstance. Walker鈥檚 successful effort to strip most public unions of bargaining rights did not qualify as such.
As Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne Jr. noted yesterday, exit polls showed that only about a quarter of those who voted thought a recall was appropriate for any reason. Roughly sixty percent said a recall should be used only in case of official misconduct.
鈥淢ost voters, in other words, rejected the very premise of the election in which they were casting ballots,鈥� .
Plus, the recall election was a rerun of the state鈥檚 2010 gubernatorial race, with Walker facing the same opponent, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. The 鈥淕roundhog Day鈥� aspect of the vote only added to voter perceptions that it was somehow a distortion of the normal political process, according to Rendell.
鈥淚f we鈥檙e [peeved off] at what a person does in office, the answer is to beat them when they鈥檙e up for reelection,鈥� said Rendell.
Walker beat Barrett by 53 to 46 percent, almost exactly the same margin by which he won in 2010.
In Wisconsin, lawmakers on Wednesday said that their state鈥檚 recall process was a loser in the vote along with Barrett. Democrats also complained about an aspect of Wisconsin recall law which allows the recall target to raise an unlimited amount of money for a period of time during the campaign. It was this legal quirk, more than the fundraising implications of the 鈥淐itizens United鈥� Supreme Court case, which led to the GOP vastly outspending Democrats in the lead-up to Tuesday鈥檚 vote.
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 pretty safe to say there was a substantial anti-recall faction that played a big part Tuesday,鈥� Wisconsin state Sen. (D) told the Appleton Post Crescent. 鈥淭his is something we will have to think about going forward, how the state handles recalls, especially the part that allows incumbents to raise unlimited amounts of money.鈥�
