MADISON (WKOW) -- On the first day of an attempt to collect enough signatures to recall Republican Governor Scott Walker and Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch, volunteers went door-to-door with petitions, while Republican officials said the recall movement is already somewhat deflated from a failed summer attempt by Democrats to retake the state Senate's majority through recall.
As McFarland graphic designer Donna McKay went door-to-door on Madison's east side collecting recall signatures, McKay said she expected the effort to be easy, with many people opposed to Walker's limits on public union collective bargaining and other policies.
A formal filing of the recall effort at the offices of the Government Accountability Board took place Tuesday morning. Organizers have 60 days to collect more than 540,000 signatures in support of recalling Walker, and also signatures with the same threshold in support of Kleefisch's recall.
While several potential candidates to run against Walker if there is a recall election have been talked about, no one has announced intentions to run. State Representative Marc Pocan (D-Madison) said several Democrats may run, but the current focus is to force the recall vote by collecting required signatures.
Young Republicans of Dane County spokesperson Dave Summers said the failed summer attempt to recall enough Republican senators to flip the state Senate's majority from Republican to Democrat sapped energy from the recall movement. Summers said several holidays interspersed in the recall signature-collection window of time will hurt efforts to get enough signatures.
Summers said Walker and Kleefisch's initiatives have allowed school districts and local governments to lower labor costs and cope with a down economy.
At an appearance near Racine, Walker said once "the truth gets out," he's confident of growing support for his reforms. Later Tuesday during an interview on Madison's WIBA Radio, Walker noted even the collection of the signatures required for his recall would represent just twenty five percent of the electorate in his successful 2010 election campaign.
But Jade Moyer of Verona said she's "irked" by Walker's severe limits on collective bargaining and signing of a law allowing the concealed carry of weapons, as she signed a volunteer's recall petition.
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