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4 of the 33 seats in the Wisconsin State Senate 17 seats needed for a majority | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Results of the elections: Democratic gain Republican hold No election | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Elections in Wisconsin |
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Recall elections for four Wisconsin state senators were held during the spring of 2012. Voters put four state senators up for recall, all Republicans, because of the budget repair bill proposed by Governor Scott Walker and circumstances surrounding it. Democrats targeted Republicans for voting to significantly limit public employee collective bargaining. Scholars could cite only four times in American history when more than one state legislator has been recalled at roughly the same time over the same issue. The recall elections occurred on June 5, with May 8 being the date of the primary election. [1]
These recall elections followed the largest group of recall elections in U.S. history during the previous year, in which Republicans kept control of the Wisconsin Senate. In the June 5, 2012 recall elections, Democrats appeared to have taken over one seat from Republicans. Although the victory gave Democrats control of the Senate, the state legislature would not be in regular session again until after the November 2012 election when control of the legislature would again be contested. [2] [3] [4] After the November 2012 election, Republicans regained control of the state Senate due to the resignation of one Democrat and two losses by Democrats to Republicans. [5]
Dist. | Incumbent | Recall petition | ||||
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Member | Party | First elected | Signatures required | Signatures approved (%) | Status | |
13 | Scott L. Fitzgerald | Rep. | 1994 | 16,742 | 18,282 (109%) | Recall held on June 5. |
21 | Van H. Wanggaard | Rep. | 2010 | 15,353 | 19,142 (125%) | Recall held on June 5. |
23 | Terry Moulton | Rep. | 2010 | 14,958 | 18,657 (125%) | Recall held on June 5. |
29 | Pam Galloway | Rep. | 2010 | 15,647 | 18,511 (118%) | Recall held on June 5. |
Paperwork was filed with the state Government Accountability Board in March 2012 authorizing an effort to collect recall signatures against Senator Bob Jauch (D-Poplar) and explore recalling Senator Dale Schultz (R-Richland Center). Both efforts were launched by persons affiliated with the Citizens For Responsible Government Network, saying both Senators cost the state jobs. Both Senators opposed a bill that would have helped a Florida company open an iron mine in Wisconsin's north woods. [ citation needed ] The mining bill would have reworked Wisconsin's permitting process to help Gogebic Taconite open an iron mine just south of Lake Superior in Jauch's district. The company had claimed the project would create hundreds of needed jobs in northwestern Wisconsin, and Republicans touted the bill as their signature job-creation legislation this past session. 15,270 signatures were required to force Jauch into a recall election. 14,545 signatures were required to force Schultz into a recall election. [6] The group came up short in their efforts to obtain signatures and said they would try again after the Walker gubernatorial recall election on June 5, 2012. [7]
Dist. | Date of poll | Candidate | Result in most recent poll | Poll information |
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13 | April 13–15 | Scott Fitzgerald (R-inc.) | 54% | Conducted by PPP [8] |
Lori Compas (D) | 40% | |||
21 | Van Wanggaard (R-inc.) | 48% | ||
John Lehman (D) | 46% | |||
23 | Terry Moulton (R-inc.) | 51% | ||
Kristen Dexter (D) | 41% | |||
29 | Jerry Petrowski (R) | 51% | ||
Donna Seidel | 37% |
Dist. | Incumbent | This race | ||||
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Member | Party | First elected | Primary | General [9] | Result | |
13 | Scott L. Fitzgerald | Republican | 1994 |
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| Incumbent retained |
21 | Van H. Wanggaard | Republican | 2010 |
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| Incumbent recalled. Democratic gain. |
23 | Terry Moulton | Republican | 2010 |
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| Incumbent retained |
29 | Vacant (Incumbent resigned) |
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| New member elected. Republican hold |
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The initial vote on June 5 showed Democrat John Lehman defeating incumbent Republican Van Wanggaard by a margin of less than 800 votes. The election canvas, a week later on June 12, confirmed Lehman won. However, on June 14, the Racine County Sheriff's Office announced it was investigating allegations of voting irregularities at the Dr. John Bryant Center in Racine, as well as reports of voter registration forms in the trash behind the Cesar Chavez Center, also in Racine. Wanggaard had until 5 p.m. on June 15 to request a recount. [10]
On June 15, Wanggaard asked for a recount, which began on June 20, and was completed by July 2. [11] On June 25, it was revealed that possibly thousands of voters, including 116 voters in Ward 2 of Racine, did not sign the poll book before obtaining their ballot, a violation of a new Wisconsin law passed in 2011. Despite objection by the Wanggaard campaign, the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board refused to strike the votes as invalid. The Government Accountability Board pointed out that it would not be easy to determine which ballot was used by someone who signed the poll book and which was not. Also the Government Accountability Board noted "Invalidating ballots based on the failure to require a signature would disenfranchise a voter due to an election official's error" as a poll worker is supposed to have voters sign the poll book before giving them a ballot rather than after. The State Senate Democratic Committee argued Republicans wanted "voter disenfranchisement" that this was "a clerical error" and "not voter fraud. Its not voter irregularities." [12] The missing poll book signatures were largely due to newly registered voters who had already given a signature when filling out registration forms. [13] Lehman was declared the winner by 819 votes in certified recount numbers. [14]
Robert W. Wirch is an American Democratic politician from Kenosha County, Wisconsin. He is a member of the Wisconsin Senate, representing Wisconsin's 22nd Senate district since 1997. He previously served two terms in the Wisconsin State Assembly, from 1993 to 1997, and served on the Kenosha County Board of Supervisors before that.
Alberta Darling is an American educator, politician and former member of the Wisconsin State Senate. She represented Wisconsin's 8th State Senate district from 1993 through 2022 as a Republican. Her constituency included many of the municipalities directly north and northwest of Milwaukee and part of the city of Milwaukee. She also served three years in the Wisconsin State Assembly. Before entering public office, she was a teacher and marketing director.
Mark F. Miller is a retired American politician. A Democrat, he served 16 years in the Wisconsin Senate (2005–2021) and was majority leader in 2012. He also served 6 years in the Wisconsin State Assembly.
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Daniel E. Kapanke is an American politician who was a former Republican member of the Wisconsin Senate, representing the 32nd District from 2005 until losing his seat to Jennifer Shilling in the 2011 Wisconsin Senate recall elections.
John W. Lehman is an American educator and politician from Racine, Wisconsin. Lehman represented the 21st District in the Wisconsin Senate from 2007 to 2011 and again from 2012 to 2015, and was the Democratic nominee for Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin in 2014. Previously, Lehman was a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly from 1997 through 2007. Elected as a state senator in 2006 but unseated in 2010, Lehman retook his old seat in the 2012 Wisconsin recall elections, defeating the incumbent, Van Wanggaard, who won the seat back in the 2014 general election.
Randal B. Hopper is a former Republican member of the Wisconsin Senate, representing the 18th District from 2009 until losing his seat to Jessica King in a 2011 recall election. The 18th District includes the cities of Fond du Lac, Oshkosh, and Waupun.
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Van H. Wanggaard is a Republican politician and former law enforcement officer. He is a member of the Wisconsin State Senate, representing Racine and Kenosha counties since January 5, 2015. He was previously elected to the same office in 2010, but was removed by recall election in June 2012.
The 2011 Wisconsin protests were a series of demonstrations in the state of Wisconsin in the United States beginning in February involving as many as 100,000 protesters opposing the 2011 Wisconsin Act 10, also called the "Wisconsin Budget Repair bill." The protests centered on the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison, with satellite protests also occurring at other municipalities throughout the state. Demonstrations took place at various college campuses, including the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. After the collective bargaining bill was upheld by the Wisconsin Supreme Court on June 14, the number of protesters declined to about 1,000 within a couple days.
Howard L. Marklein is an American Republican politician and retired accountant and fraud examiner from Sauk County, Wisconsin. He is a member of the Wisconsin Senate, representing Wisconsin's 17th Senate district since 2015; he was president pro tempore of the Senate from 2017 through 2021, and is now the Senate co-chair of the Legislature's influential Joint Finance Committee. Previously, he served four years in the Wisconsin State Assembly, representing the 51st Assembly district.
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The 2012 Wisconsin gubernatorial recall election was a special election to elect the governor and lieutenant governor of Wisconsin. It resulted in voters re-electing incumbent Republican governor Scott Walker over the Democratic candidate Tom Barrett by a larger margin than in 2010 when Walker also faced Barrett. Recall organizers opposed Walker's agenda, particularly his limiting of collective bargaining rights for state employees and they collected over 900,000 signatures to initiate the recall election process. There was also a recall for Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch. She won her race, defeating Democrat Mahlon Mitchell, making her the first lieutenant governor to run in and survive a recall.
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