The recall election in Wisconsin is now in a month-long sprint to the Democratic nomination for governor –Â a process already revealing divisions within the state party base, most notably from organized labor.
The recall was in large measure sparked, of course, by Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s legislation last year that, in the name of fiscal austerity, erased most collective bargaining rights for public employee unions that had been in place since the late 1950’s. The move touched off a storm of protests, a wave of recall elections for the state Senate, and now the recall against Walker, plus his Lieutenant Governor and four state Senators.
However, recalls in Wisconsin do not include any direct up-or-down vote on the incumbent, but instead take the form of a special election between the incumbent and a field of challengers And before the general election on June 5, there will first be the Democratic primary for governor on May 8.
At the top of the Democratic primary are former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk, who got in to the race in January after the petitions were turned in, and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, who joined the race on March 30, when the election was officially triggered, and now has a narrow lead in public polling. Barrett was previously the Democratic nominee against Walker in 2010, losing by 52%-47% in that Republican wave year. Also in the race, but much further back in the polls, are state Sen. Kathleen Vinehout and Secretary of State Doug La Follette.
Soon after she got into the race, Falk picked up the endorsements of two top public employee unions, AFSCME and the teachers union WEAC, as well as many other liberal groups — aided by the fact that she had been involved in the protests and the recall campaign all throughout the previous year.
As soon as Barrett got into the race, on the other hand, AFSCME immediately began going after him — accusing him of being complicit in the passage of Walker’s anti-union legislation. Barrett has feuded with the unions for some time on city issues, and they had attempted to dissuade him from entering the recall campaign. And now, AFSCME has also circulated a YouTube video, which they say they did not create but to agree with, which contained questionably edited audio to give the appearance that Barrett approved of the bill.
Now in response, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports, the head of a state police union is slamming AFSCME.
“This recall election represents an historic opportunity for Wisconsinites to reclaim this state in favor of a leader who can create jobs, protect our local services and restore the right to have a voice at the bargaining table,” said Jim Palmer, executive director of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association. “For anyone to sink to the level of distorting the information it sends to its own members is shameful, and it creates the kind of internal discord that Scott Walker will need to keep his office.”
Now, AFSCME has backed off — while continuing to stick it to a Barrett — in a new statement released Sunday night. The key quote, with emphasis in the original:
We have endorsed Kathleen Falk because she is a clear champion for workers at a time when nothing less will do. She has a consistent and compelling history of working with our members to solve problems.Unfortunately, Tom Barrett’s record is very different. When our members who work for the city of Milwaukee tried to negotiate with him as Walker was ramming through Act 10, Barrett wasn’t interested in working with us. Instead, he demanded concessions that went far beyond those mandated by Act 10.
While we used poor judgment in directing our members’ attention to an Internet video that went over the top to make its point, we believe it is essential to bring attention to Barrett’s record on collective bargaining. Unfortunately, it is not a good record.
The discord among unions, it should be noted, may be happening by design. Police and fire unions are exempted from the legislation, though to be clear they have nevertheless opposed it –Â indeed, the head of the firefighters union, Mahlon Mitchell, is now the likely Democratic nominee for Lieutenant Governor. (This distinction among those unions, perhaps caused by the fact that some local unions have supported Walker in 2010 and this year, has now put parts of the law in legal limbo with a federal judge’s ruling.)
Another key issue is the extent to which Democrats will push to restore collective bargaining rights. Back in February, Falk took a pledge advanced by the unions, to veto the state budget if it did not restore the rights that Walker had stripped away — thus using the threat of a government shutdown in order to force Republicans, who would likely still control the state House at the next biennium, to give in.
At a forum on Thursday hosted by unions and progressive groups, WisPolitics reports, Barrett said he would work to get the restoration of collective bargaining passed through the legislature, in the wake of his hoped-for victory in the recall.
“I am prepared, as the next governor of this state, to call a special session to restore collective bargaining rights for public employees in the state of Wisconsin,” Barrett said. “I would be honored to do that, and we would get that bill passed through the Senate, I know we would, and we would put so much pressure on the Assembly that they’d be quaking in their boots and they would have to pass that legislation. That’s not a lie.”
But Falk countered that calling a special session of the legislature — which is under no obligation to actually pass such a bill, and which will still have a Republican majority in the state House — is not enough.
“You’ve got to be serious about restoring it, and it’s not enough to introduce a bill. It’s not enough to call a special session because the Legislature doesn’t have to come,” said Falk. “There is only one bill that has to pass, and that’s the budget bill, and that’s the way to do it, and that’s what I’m committed to doing.”
Ed note: Reporter Eric Kleefeld was a volunteer in 2002 for Tom Barrett’s gubernatorial campaign in the Democratic primary that year, in which Kathleen Falk was also a candidate. He has had no additional political involvement with Barrett since that time.
