Fire Walker Chronicles, Part 3

The effort to recall Wisconsin GOP Gov. Scott "Union Busting Koch Head" Walker is officially on, and TPM's Eric Kleefield investigates how it would work if Dems can get the 560k or so signatures needed by January 15.  They're about 10% of the way there already with over 50k collected in two days.

And then, if the Dems do make the threshold, there’s no clear timetable for how long an election might take. In separate interviews with TPM, both the state Democratic Party spokesman Graeme Zielinski and state Government Accountability Board (which oversees elections in the state) spokesman Reid Magney used the same phrase to describe the situation: “Uncharted territory.”

Magney explained the timeline to TPM, and all of the variables that could come into play. Keep in mind, though, that all of the following discussion is based on an assumption that the Dems will in fact gather the needed signatures.

The bottom line: If the signatures are submitted in mid-January, and there were no extension of the review, then the election could be held as soon as late March. But should that scenario prove unrealistic, with an added extension and a primary, it could go into late May or early June.

It seems very likely that Wisconsin Republicans will do everything they can to sink this recall effort with procedural hurdles, challenges, and if the occasional destruction of petition signatures happens, well that's just really too bad.  Polls show that a majority of Wisconsin voters back the efforts to toss Walker out on his ass, too.  They must be getting scared in Madison.

Really scared.