Today marks the day that we could legally begin collecting signatures to recall Scott Walker in Wisconsin and today someone
http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/first-recall-effort-against-gov-scott-walker-formally-launched-friday-e22u587-133257928.html">filed with the state to begin that recall effort, but it was not the Democratic Party of Wisconsin who started this petition it was a
http://www.followthemoney.org/database/StateGlance/contributor.phtml?d=459527152">Scott Walker donor. The Democratic Party does intend on starting a serious effort to recall Scott Walker, but their petition drive does not begin until November 15th.
Scott Walker benefits from this petition being filed early because once a recall petition has been started he can legally begin collecting money to counter that recall effort despite the fact that this first recall petition is not a serious effort to recall him like the effort that begins on November 15th will be. Having an extra eleven days to collect money will benefit Walker, but that is actually not my biggest concern with this development.
My biggest concern is that this gives Republicans the opportunity to circulate fake petitions to recall Scott Walker that they have no intention of ever turning in. This is a recall effort that is designed to fail, but by getting people to sign these petitions they could potentially trick many people into believing they have already signed the petition to recall Walker when in fact their signature is on the wrong petition and will eventually be thrown out. This could create mass confusion that will make signature gathering efforts for the real recall petition far more difficult. We need to keep a close eye on this petition and we need to make sure people are educated about the two competing petitions to ensure they are signing the correct one.
We can not allow Republican dirty tricks to get in the way of this recall effort, if you are in Wisconsin gathering signatures make sure you are getting the petitions from the Democratic Party, one of the major unions, or another credible progressive organization. As of right now I do not know the exact differences between the petitions aside from who is circulating them, but that is something that will need to be communicated very clearly once the real recall effort begins. Right now however there is no legitimate recall petition in the field, if you are asked to sign a petition before November 15th it is not the real petition and make sure you let the person circulating it know you are aware that it is not the real petition. We will not allow their dirty tricks to stop us.
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