2011 Wisconsin Senate recall elections

The 2011 Wisconsin Senate recall elections were a series of recall elections for nine Wisconsin state senators held on July 19, 2011, August 9, 2011, and August 16, 2011. Nine of the 33 seats in the Wisconsin Senate were up for election—all even-numbered districts. were held during the summer of 2011; one was held on July 19, and six on August 9, with two more held on August 16. Before the elections, six seats were held by Republicans, while three were held by Democrats. The primary election was held in July.

Background

Act 10 In the 2010 elections, Republicans won a trifecta for the first time since 1994. Using this newly-gained trifecta, Republicans began enacting a series of highly controversial pieces of legislation, with the chief among them being Wisconsin Act 10. Act 10, also known as the "Budget Repair Bill," sought to eliminate the collective bargaining rights of certain public-sector unions–with exemptions for certain public safety unions such as police, fire fighters, and sheriffs deputies being established. Supporters of the law claimed that the law would help balance the state's budget. The law also made it more difficult to certify and maintain a public employee union and made it more difficult for unions to collect dues from their members.

The law sparked strong backlash from public employees, especially teachers and students, who staged protests of the legislation across the state.

Legislative walkout To prevent passage of the bill, all 14 Democratic members of the Wisconsin State Senate left the state of Wisconsin and traveled to Illinois in order to delay a vote on the bill and deprive the chamber of a quorum to prevent the passage of the bill. Republicans managed to pass the bill anyway the next month, but the fallout from the bill's passage led to the attempted recall of governor Scott Walker and the successful recall of multiple members of the Senate in 2011 and 2012.

Due to concerns that Republicans had been attempting to pass the Budget Repair bill without scheduling enough time for public review and debate, Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller led the entire Senate Democratic caucus in fleeing the state to prevent the quorum necessary for a vote on the bill.

Voters attempted to put 16 state senators up for recall, eight Democrats and eight Republicans, because of the budget bill proposed by Governor Scott Walker and circumstances surrounding it. Republicans targeted Democrats for leaving the state for three weeks to prevent the bill from receiving a vote, while Democrats targeted Republicans for voting to significantly limit public employee collective bargaining. Scholars could cite only three times in American history when more than one state legislator has been recalled at roughly the same time over the same issue.

The Wisconsin Government Accountability Board (GAB) certified six recall petitions filed against Republican senators and three recall petitions filed against Democratic senators. Democrats needed a net gain of three seats to take control of the Senate. Republicans needed a net gain of one seat to gain a quorum-proof supermajority on fiscal spending. Of the nine recall elections, Democrats retained all three of their challenged seats; Republicans saw two of their six challenged seats recalled thus they retained their majority in and control of the State Senate, albeit by a slightly narrower margin.

More than $35 million was spent on the recall races. The spending on the nine races compares to $19.3 million spent in 2010's 115 legislative races, and approached the $37.4 million spent in the race for governor.

Campaign

Recall petitions Dist.IncumbentRecall petitionMemberPartyFirst electedSignatures requiredSignatures approved (%)Status02 Rep.198715,960Recall held on August 9.08 Rep. 199020,343Recall held on August 9.10 Rep. 200015,744Recall held on August 9.12Dem. 200815,960Recall held on August 16.14Rep. 200414,733Recall held on August 9.18Rep. 200815,269Recall held on August 9.20Rep. 200420,061Petition failed, Recall not held22Dem.199613,537Recall held on August 16.28Rep. 1998 20,973Petition failed, Recall not held30Dem.200013,852Recall held on July 19.32Rep.200415,588Recall held on August 9.

'Placeholder' candidates In all six Democratic-led recall attempts against Republican Senators, the Republican Party organized and supported the nominations of 'placeholder' candidates in the Democratic primaries (called "Fake Democrats" by some). According to the Republican Party of Wisconsin, the purpose of the placeholder candidates was to force Democratic primaries and delay the general election, allowing their incumbent Senators to have additional time to campaign. Robocalls were sent out to 20,000 conservative voters for candidate Isaac Weix in an effort to get Republicans to cross over and vote in the primary. All the placeholder candidates were defeated.

The cost to the state was estimated to be more than $475,000.

Recall controversies Later that month, Americans for Prosperity, a conservative group, began sending absentee ballots to Democratic voters in all districts undergoing recall elections, with instructions to return the ballots to the city clerk before August 11 even though the recall election itself is being held August 9 in those districts. In addition, the voters were instructed to return the ballots to what was claimed to be "the absentee ballot processing center", but was actually a mailing address for conservative group Wisconsin Family Action.

On July 29, the Government Accountability Board criticized a Republican-allied voter ID advocacy group We're Watching Wisconsin Elections, for publishing reference guides for election observers that featured "numerous significant and factual errors." For example, the reference guides stated that student voters using their college ID must present "a tuition receipt with their name and address on it dated within the last 9 months". Wisconsin voter ID law does not actually require such a receipt.

Aftermath The first general recall election also took place in that month, with Democratic Senator Dave Hansen retaining his seat. Six general elections took place on August 9 resulting in four Republican senators retaining their seats and two being defeated with Republicans keeping a majority in the Wisconsin Senate. Two Democratic incumbents (Wirch, Holperin) prevailed in their own recall races on August 16, which left Republicans with a net one-vote majority in the Wisconsin Senate.

Results Summary

Close results Seats where the margin of victory was under 10%:

(gain)

Race summary Dist.IncumbentThis raceMemberPartyFirst electedStatusGeneral02Republican 1987 Incumbent retained08Republican 1992Incumbent retained10Republican 2000Incumbent retained12Democratic 2008Incumbent retained14Republican 2004Incumbent retained18Republican 2008Incumbent recalled.New member elected.Democratic gain.22Democratic 1996Incumbent retained30Democratic 2000Incumbent retained32Republican 2004Incumbent recalled.New member elected.Democratic gain.

Detailed results

District 2 Incumbent Republican Robert Cowles ran for re-election. He defeated Democrat Nancy Nusbaum and was retained in office.

District 8 Incumbent Republican Alberta Darling ran for re-election. She defeated Democrat Sandy Pasch and was retained in office.

On August 1, the Republican Party of Wisconsin filed a complaint with the Government Accountability Board accusing Sandy Pasch's campaign of possible collusion with the group Citizen Action of Wisconsin, of which Pasch is a member of the board of directors. Pasch claimed she had had no contact with anyone at Citizen Action regarding any political activities. Gillian Morris, a spokeswoman for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, and Robert Kraig, executive director of Citizen Action both stated that there was no coordination whatsoever between Pasch in the recall election, and Citizen Action.

District 10 Incumbent Republican Sheila Harsdorf ran for re-election. She defeated Democrat Shelly Moore and was retained in office.

District 12 Incumbent Democrat Jim Holperin ran for re-election. He defeated Republican Kim Simac and was retained in office

District 14 Incumbent Republican Luther Olsen ran for re-election. He defeated Democratic state representative Fred Clark by a four-point margin and was retained in office

District 18 Incumbent Republican Randy Hopper ran for re-election. He was defeated by Democratic Oshkosh deputy mayor Jessica King by a three-point margin and recalled from office.

District 22 Incumbent Democrat Robert Wirch ran for re-election. He defeated Republican Jonathan Steitz by a 15-point margin and was retained in office.

District 30 Incumbent Democrat Dave Hansen ran for re-election. He defeated Republican recall organizer David VanderLeest by a wide margin and was retained in office

Initially, Republican state representative John Nygren ran to face Hansen in the recall. At the end of the filing period he had filed 424 qualifying voter signatures, but during the signature challenge period, 39 signatures were challenged as not being from the 30th district, and 26 signatures were ruled to be invalid. As a result of Nygren's disqualification, VanderLeest was the only Republican candidate to face Hansen. After being disqualified from the ballot, Nygren filed a lawsuit in Dane County Court seeking to overturn the board's decision, but was unsuccessful.

District 32 Incumbent Republican Dan Kapanke ran for re-election. He was defeated by Democratic state representative Jennifer Shilling by a 10-point margin and recalled from office.

2011 Wisconsin Senate recall elections

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