One of the targeted Republican state Senators in this Tuesday’s Wisconsin recalls, Alberta Darling, is headed into the home stretch with an interesting message: That the recall should not even be happening, and voters who don’t like the policies that have been enacted under Gov. Scott Walker should wait for the 2012 legislative races.
“We have elections. Elections have consequences. If you don’t like what’s happening, make a change in the next election,” Darling said at a debate on Wednesday, WisPolitics reports. “We did. The (2010) election said, ‘make a change,’ and we did. We flipped the Assembly, the Senate and the governor’s house. And you know what? If you don’t like what we’re doing, go vote in the 2012 elections. We listened to the people in 2010.”
Whatever one’s attitude is about recalls as an idea, one thing is still certain: The state constitution provides for recalls under a process that was triggered through sufficient signatures, so the election is on. As such, it is unclear whether such an argument will do much to attract voters in a race that will rely heavily on both parties turning out their base.
In addition, Darling stated in stark terms that the recalls are not truly about state finances, but a political battle centered around President Obama’s 2012 chances.
“This is about the Obama election,” said Darling. “Obama cannot win unless he wins Wisconsin. That’s why you see all this money in here. That’s why you see all the arrows and guns pointed at me. Because we had the audacity to take on the special interest groups and say, you know what? We are Wisconsin and we will stand up for the people and we’ll stand up for the elections that said, ‘get control of the spending and the debt and your deficit and put us on the right track to grow jobs.’ We did it and for that, they’re trying to take us out.”
