Win or Lose on June 5, Advocates Agree Wisconsin Progressive
Movement Must Continue

 By Mark Karlin, Truthout Report

 Truthout
 June 1, 2012

 http://truth-out.org/news/item/9518-win-or-lose-on-june-5-advocates-agree-wisconsin-progressive-movement-must-continue

 Gone are the massive throngs of protesters teeming around
 the capitol in Madison. The recall election of Gov. Scott
 Walker is coming up on June 5, and now it isn't about
 assembling large crowds with grievances; it is about getting
 out the vote.

 "Republican turnout is pretty consistent from election to
 election," Norm Stockwell, operations coordinator for WORT
 listener-sponsored radio in Madison, said. "It is the
 Democratic vote that is up and down in Wisconsin. What will
 decide this election is Democratic turnout."

 Ed Sadlowski Jr., who is the representative for the American
 Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME)
 Wisconsin Council 40 (which includes Rep. Paul Ryan's
 Congressional district), said that labor and progressives
 are working together with the state Democratic Party and the
 support of the Democratic Governors Association. The
 Democratic National Committee has been virtually absent from
 the recall election, offering little in the way of
 financial, public or logistical support.

 Perhaps it is not surprising that a White House that is
 primarily concerned about the re-election of President Obama
 would all but ignore the electoral effort to recall Walker.
 On May 30, Chris Cilizza of The Washington Post cited that
 Walker is seven points ahead according to the most recent
 Marquette University Poll - and most polls have been giving
 him an edge in the rematch with Mayor Tom Barrett of
 Milwaukee. (Many advocates of recalling Walker that Truthout
 interviewed in Wisconsin argued that the recent polls were
 skewed to the right in their methodology and that Democratic
 polling showed the race was very close.) However, the poll
 (which has a 4 percent margin of error) showed Obama
 currently leading Romney in the Badger State among likely
 voters, 51 to 43 percent. And it appears that even despite a
 late-breaking visit by Bill Clinton, the White House doesn't
 want to risk that Obama lead in the Marquette poll.

 But it is not just the White House that is uncomfortable
 with the recall election after virtually ignoring the March
 demonstrations and recall petition drive. Sadlowski also was
 irked that some national unions (with exceptions such as the
 Steel Workers Union and others), at first, were generally
 uninterested in the Wisconsin uprising of last March against
 Walker's crack down on unions and other socially regressive
 legislative moves. Sadlowski, however, noted with pride that
 AFSCME International has since pumped large contributions
 into the Walker recall.  The locals in Wisconsin have been a
 major player in the progressive revolt from the beginning,
 often dragging reluctant national unions into the fray.

 Walker is not the only individual up for recall. His Lt.
 Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch along with four Republican state
 senators are on the ballot on June 5. She is being
 challenged by Mahlon Mitchell, who played a highly visible
 role as the president of the Professional Fire Fighters of
 Wisconsin union in supporting the original Madison protests.
 The bête noir of the State Senate to progressives, Scott
 Fitzgerald (who is Walker's man in the senate), is facing a
 recall challenge due to Lori Compas. The Milwaukee Journal
 Sentinel calls her "in many ways ... the face of the
 grassroots movement in Wisconsin's recall elections."

 Walker, as any Truthout reader knows, has millions of
 dollars in campaign funds coming in from out of state,
 including donors such as the Koch brothers - and many right-
 wing anti- union Citizens United third-party funders, not to
 mention the Republican Governors Association and the
 Republican Party. But even if Walker were to ride out the
 polls and win against a vigorous Democratic and progressive
 get-out-the-vote campaign, he has a deep shadow following
 his every move: he is the "John Doe" in a longstanding
 Milwaukee County district attorney's investigation of staff
 members who worked for Walker when he was Milwaukee County
 CEO.

 [Read the full story at:
http://truth-out.org/news/item/9518-win-or-lose-on-june-5-advocates-agree-wisconsin-progressive-movement-must-continue ]

 c 2012 The New York Times Company Truthout has licensed this
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