No pressure, but everyone is watching

Holy cow Wisconsin, get your house in order!  For those of you not following Wisconsin politics, here's the rundown:  Wisconsin is holding recall elections for nine state senators.  The three Democrats were targeted for their leaving the state for three weeks preventing the budget repair bill vote from taking place, while the six Republicans are being targeted for voting to seriously limit public employee collective bargaining (i.e. unions).  Keep in mind, this is only the fourth time in American history that more than one state politician has been recalled around the same time for the same issue.

You may be wondering why this is a big deal?  Well, allow me to illuminate you.  Democrats need to gain three seats to take control of the state senate; Republicans need one seat to gain a quorum-proof supermajority on fiscal spending - unless you've been living under a rock, you understand what a contentious issue fiscal spending is.  The Republican election is Tuesday, August 9; two Democrats face the ballot on August 19 (Democratic Senator Dave Hansen is retaining his seat).  Let the mayhem begin!

The majority of the money going toward the recall elections, approximately $30 million, has come from third-party interest groups.  At the end of the election, experts expect the spending to have reached $40 million.  To put this in perspective, total spending on Wisconsin’s 2010 legislative races, 17 Senate seats and 99 Assembly seats, cost $19.25 million.  Conservative groups have spent slightly more than their liberal counterparts but both sides are depending on attack campaigns to get their point across.

While this election has the ability to change the political landscape of the Wisconsin government, country-wide government watchdogs will be tuning in to both elections as well.  Wisconsin is one of the most closely divided states in the country and this election may provide insight into the political direction the nation is heading leading up to the 2012 elections.  In other words, this is BIG. 

On a lighter note, considering how important this election is, one would think the Wisconsin chapter of Americans for Prosperity would have proofread their fliers a little better.  Absentee ballots from the advocacy group informed voters they should return ballots to their city clerk before August 11... the election is August 9.   As Homer Simpson would say, “d-oh”