Wisconsin: (Republican) Senators targeted for recall to submit petition signature challenges

[Scuba]

http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/elections/senators-targeted-for-recall-to-submit-petition-signature-challenges/article_89ef9318-5322-11e1-ba28-001871e3ce6c.html

Thursday was the deadline for the senators to make any challenges to petitions filed with the Government Accountability Board.

Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald has said he plans on challenging enough to stop the recall election against him.

The other three senators haven't said how many signatures they will challenge. Those targeted senators are Van Wanggaard of Racine, Terry Moulton of Chippewa Falls and Pam Galloway of Wausau.

Once submitted, it's then up to the GAB to determine whether there are enough valid signatures to continue with the elections.

I do not live in one of the above Senator's districts, so I did not see the recall petitions for them. However, based on my experience with Walker/Kleefisch signatures, and my observation of the GAB hearing on challenged signatures last spring, I suspect there will remain enough signatures standing to force recalls for all four. And we only have to win one of those seats to flip the Senate.

Last spring the GAB set a very high bar for rejecting signatures, repeatedly citing the desire to protect the rights of those who signed legitimately. Challenged signatures could be "rehabilitated" by the submitting party. Only in clear-cut cases were signatures disallowed.

[hue]

1. taking control of the Senate is a great start!!! I hope we can flush Fitzgerald!! n/t

[sybylla]

2. They always try. That's no surprise. Hopefully success will elude them as always.

The only one who stands a chance is Fitzgerald. That's the only recall not overseen by the official recall groups, who made a concerted effort to ensure all petitions submitted were completed properly and the signers were legit.

I'm not casting aspersions on the great work done by the Fitz recall group. Just saying that they had a smaller margin of signatures and may not have dotted and crossed enough to stay in the running.