Prospects of updating Wis. recall law are unclear
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — State lawmakers of both parties agree that Wisconsin’s recall law needs to be updated, but they may have trouble finding room to compromise.
The recall law has been used 15 times in less than a year, and there are signs that voters are losing patience. Exit polls in the June 5 election found that 60 percent of voters think politicians should only face recalls for malfeasance or criminal activity.
Republican state Rep. Robin Vos has authored a bill that would limit recalls to those circumstances.
But Democrat Peter Barca, the Assembly’s minority leader, says he’s not convinced that limiting voters’ rights would improve the law.
A Wisconsin State Journal report (http://bit.ly/OfIIvF ) says both parties do agree about changing the rule that allows recall targets to raise unlimited amounts of cash.
Jun 25, 2012 at 1:03 a.m.
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So being a lying sack of crap and using the state budget process to neuter thousands of public employees just because you can't play nice with the opposing party will just be a.o.k. from here out, nice, glad I don't have to live in this festering crap hole of a state much longer.
Jun 24, 2012 at 9:22 p.m.
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I agree wiggle - maybe we should put it to an advisory referendum :)
Jun 24, 2012 at 7:08 p.m.
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fordfan- You know that would make me very happy also! Good idea. But what power hungry, back rubs for tax breaks, politician from either party, would sign that law!
Jun 24, 2012 at 5:21 p.m.
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Macdaddy - I tried to address your concern with the comment "This new referendum law could be structured to make it significant work to force a referendum so that we do not govern by referendum." That is also a concern of mine.
Jun 24, 2012 at 5:06 p.m.
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Macdaddy, it could be similar to Ohio's law where you need a certain amount of signatures to put an issue up for referendum. That way not every issue would be on a ballot, just ones that a large portion of people feel is important.
Jun 24, 2012 at 4:43 p.m.
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Fordfan: I agree with you in part about having a referendum for controversial issues, but if you had referendums all the time that would slow down the process and why would we even need politicians? though that would save us a lot of money.
Jun 24, 2012 at 4:20 p.m.
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I prefer to leave the recall law as is (except for the unlimited fund raising) and add an option to allow a controversial law to be taken to a referendum for being affirmed or overturned by the citizens. Many of our lawmakers are so out of touch with the voters that they really do not understand what the common person thinks. They only hear $$$ from big spending supporters and/or their political bosses in the party. This option would make them more immediately accountable for their actions as a group rather than making voters force an early election (recall). This new referendum law could be structured to make it significant work to force a referendum so that we do not govern by referendum.
Jun 24, 2012 at 4:07 p.m.
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I'm not sure that letting elected officials change the rules about why and how they can be fired by their employers (us) is a good idea.
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