Walker On The Clock, Tick Tick Tock

Wisconsin Democrats are gearing up to toll the bell for Gov. Scott Walker's recall effort.  Here's what they are up against:

Wisconsin's recall law requires that officials have held office for at least one year before being recalled. Since Walker was just elected in 2010, that means the petitions cannot be turned in until early January 2012. In addition, the Dems will have a lot of leg-work to do, if they hope to recall him.

In order to initiate a recall, signatures of at least 25 percent of the number of voters in the previous gubernatorial election must be collected in a 60-day window, within a relevant district (statewide, in this case). Calculated from the 2010 election results, this means the Dems will need to collect 540,206 signatures -- more than 9,000 signatures a day, statewide -- plus some significant buffer that campaigns routinely collect in order to protect against signatures being disqualified over one imperfection or another.

To wind up the spring for the recall, Wisconsin Dems want to raise $540,206 by Nov. 15th in order to kick off the petition drive then.  Good luck to them, and I'll be following the efforts, well, like clockwork.

Handy puns aside, putting Walker out of a job is something that a number of liberals outside Wisconsin should be aiming for.  Outside of John Kasich, no Republican governor has been more relentlessly anti-middle class and pro top 1% with continuous efforts to remove collective bargaining rights, remove voting rights, and remove accountability.  As in Ohio, there are efforts to fight back by putting the agenda before the people.  In Wisconsin, that means putting Walker himself up for another vote.

Good for Wisconsin Dems.  They understand the keys to all this GOP power lie in statehouses across the country.