Democrats hold seats in Wisconsin recall elections

Two Wisconsin Democratic state senators beat back Republican challengers on Tuesday in the last of a series of recall elections triggered by a fight over collective bargaining rights for public sector workers.

Both Democrats and Republicans were claiming victory on Tuesday in a series of nine summer recall votes in which Democrats unseated two incumbent Republicans but fell short of winning control of the state legislature.

Democrats had hoped to win a majority in the state senate following a fierce battle with Governor Scott Walker and his Republican allies earlier this year over public workers' union powers that involved mass protests, legislative maneuvering and court challenges.

"This was a political Rorschach test in that anyone can read anything into the result," said Mordecai Lee, a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee governmental affairs professor and former Democratic lawmaker. "Politically, it was a draw."

He expected the results would embolden Democrats to try to recall Walker, which would require a half a million signatures just to schedule an election. "By November, we'll know if they're pursuing it seriously or not."

The Democrats who successfully defended their seats on Tuesday, Robert Wirch and Jim Holperin, were among 14 Wisconsin state senators who left the state in an attempt to prevent passage of an anti-union measure earlier this year.

Holperin beat political novice and Tea Party activist Kim Simac by 54 percent to 46 percent, according to WisPolitics.com. Wirch beat Republican lawyer Jonathan Steitz by 58 percent to 42 percent.

Overall in the recall elections, a total of three Democrats and four Republican incumbents kept their seats, while two Republicans were unseated.

CONTROL OF SENATE

Republicans managed to keep control of the state senate -- 17 to 16. But state Democrats point out that one Republican state senator, Dale Schultz, voted against Walker's curbs on public sector unions. They argue that the balance of power actually shifted away from the conservatives.

"The state Senate as now constituted would NOT have approved Walker's extreme, divisive assault on the middle class and working people," Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate said in a statement.

Brad Courtney, chair of the state's Republican Party, congratulated Simac and Steitz for mounting what he described as well-fought challenges.

"Wisconsin now emerges from this recall election season with a united Republican majority who has beaten off an attack from national unions and special interests and emerged steadfastly committed to carrying forward a bold job creation agenda," Courtney said in a statement.

Holperin told supporters in Rhinelander that he hoped the recall results would signal a change in Wisconsin politics.

"I do hope (these recalls) signal a new era of what I hope is a more moderate approach to public policy in the state, starting with the governor," he added.

Governor Walker fought for the union curbs, which restrict the bargaining rights of public workers and also make them pay more for health care and pensions, saying they were needed to help Wisconsin close a $3.6 billion budget deficit.

Democrats cried foul, saying public workers had already agreed to steep benefit cuts. They called the effort union-busting, designed to hobble organized labor -- a major source of Democratic Party financing -- ahead of the 2012 elections.

The fight thrust Wisconsin into the national spotlight, igniting massive pro-union protests and political fights that led to the recall efforts against six Republicans who backed the union curbs and three Democrats who opposed them.

Until this summer, there had been only 20 state-level recall elections in U.S. history, and the money poured into the recall campaigns has been something for the record books.

Mike Buelow, research director for the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, estimates that candidates and outside groups spent as much as $37 million on the recalls.

With the recalls acting as somewhat of a rehearsal for 2012, experts say the spending could be a harbinger of record outlays next year.

Politics, money, unions and the Wisconsin recall elections

Democrats and public unions may not be dancing in the streets after picking up two of six Republican Senate seats in last week's recall election, but they may be smirking a little -- or not.

The recall elections for nine state senators -- six Republicans and three Democrats in what some observers said was more retaliatory than reasoned -- is unprecedented. A Democrat was the first to face -- and win -- a recall election last month and two more face recall votes Tuesday.

To put it in perspective: There have only been 13 successful recalls in the state since 1913.

Unions, their workers and their money backed Democratic candidates and some pundits wondered if the 4-2 score Tuesday may spell trouble for the efforts.

"The results are deflating for unions because they expended much financial and membership effort and did not achieve their goal," said Steven Schier, political commentator and professor at Carleton College in Northfield, Minn. "That, combined with their loss in the Wisconsin Supreme Court election [earlier this year] is a double setback."

But, unions did effectively organize their campaign and flooded the Senate districts under recall with media ads, Schier said, "So they probably improved their organization infrastructure for the 2010 election in Wisconsin."

In fact, last week's recalls could be a cautionary tale for other governors and lawmakers deciding whether to curtail collective bargaining rights or otherwise upsetting public unions. Democrats, even in losing, had a good showing in Republican districts.

Democrats also plan to try to recall Republican Gov. Scott Walker once he's eligible -- the recall results so far haven't changed their minds -- and try to maintain momentum heading into the 2012 elections.

The intense get-out-the-vote effort from both sides drove the non-statewide, non-presidential voting numbers into orbit, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. In one contest last week, the total vote exceeded that of the race for governor last fall.

And the money flowed. At least five of the elections last week topped the 2000 $3 million spending record for money spent by all parties in a Senate race.

Unions played a major role for Democrats by plunking down huge sums on advertising and supplying manpower in all six Senate districts. But conservatives responded in kind and pumped out large amounts of money as well.

More than $35 million has been spent on the recall races, reports the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, which follows the money. The spending on the nine races eclipses the $19.3 million total spent in last year's 115 legislative races, and approaches the $37.4 million spent in the gubernatorial race that Walker won.

"Welcome to the new normal," Schier said. "The 2012 campaign will be closely contested with pugnacious rhetoric and campaign tactics and intense jousting by the rival candidates."

"The hot battle in Wisconsin is a portent of the temperature of the upcoming 2012 campaign nationally," he said.

The spending spigots spewed because unions saw the recalls as the best way to stop Walker's agenda and send a message to other states considering changing their collective bargaining laws, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and other media reported.

"I think it's a huge victory for us," John Hogan, director of the Committee to Elect a Republican Senate, told the Journal Sentinel. "Voters gave us a mandate last fall. … They backed us up again [Tuesday]. Voters told us loud and clear, 'Stay the course. Things are working.'"

Whoa, Democrats said -- we captured two seats from Republicans.

"We went on their turf and we won on Republican turf," said Mike Tate, chairman of the state Democratic Party. "We will not stop, we will not rest … until we recall Scott Walker."

In a recent editorial, The New York Times called the two Democratic wins "an impressive response to the governor's arrogant overreach."

More importantly, the editorial said, a warning was issued to Republican lawmakers across the United States who are working to break public employee unions.

"Tuesday's vote proved that the unions and the middle-class voters who support them remain a potent force," the editorial said.

Schier also said governors and legislatures would take note.

"I think other governors will be cautious because Walker and the state GOP have had to expend much time, money and effort to defend themselves regarding the governor's controversial agenda," he said. "Other governors will probably take more cautious and indirect courses … to avoid the costs he incurred."

Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal gave the "W" to the Republicans, saying in an editorial, "Unions across the country threw everything they had to defeat Wisconsin state senators who voted for collective bargaining reforms for government workers … and on Tuesday the unions lost."

Although the Senate remained in GOP control, albeit by a slimmer 17-16 margin depending on Tuesday's recall outcomes, the summer of the recall may have reinvigorated the state's labor unions, a historian told Salon.

"Tuesday's recall elections were not statewide, but they do indicate that in some districts Republicans continue to be vulnerable, while in some areas there is a definite movement toward the center if not the left," Andrew E. Kersten, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, said. "Although clearly the Democrats came up a bit short with their overall goal of taking the state Senate back, these were tight races. The Republican electoral base is not as stable as it would appear."

He offered the caveat that the right wing pull of the Republican Party remains "very strong" and "for the moment, that is where the money is in terms of corporate sponsorship."

Walker attacked unions during his campaign -- and really wasn't challenged by media or others on his comments -- then cranked up his anti-union volume once in office. The Capitol was Republican controlled -- and so, for all practical purposes, was the state Supreme Court, even though it's supposed to be non-partisan.

Walker painted public workers -- teachers, firefighters, police officers, nurses, city employees -- as the "haves" and sold that argument to turn collective bargaining in the Badger State on its head, getting passed game-changing legislation that severely curtailed bargaining rights and other union rights.

"Despite all their weaknesses and faults, unions are the bulwark of progressivism in Wisconsin and across the nation," Kersten said. "This could be a turning point. But, instead of it being the end of the labor movement, it might turn out to be the end of the beginning. Walker's attack … could energize union forces."

Wisconsin always has been considered a progressive state, and to basically roll back union rights could portend similar fights elsewhere.

"As [former Alaska Gov.] Sarah Palin has said, the line in the sand is here," Kersten said. "If they take the beach in Wisconsin, other states -- and ultimately the federal government -- are next."

The Wisconsin AFL-CIO chalked Tuesday into the win column because voters flipped two traditional Republican districts.

"In today's historic elections, thousands of voters sent the message that we are a growing movement to reclaim the middle class," Phil Neuenfeldt, president of the state AFL-CIO, said in a blog, noting, "Wisconsinites took a great step to restore balance and accountability in the Wisconsin Legislature. Let's be clear, anyway you slice it, this is an unprecedented victory …. ."

Even if a change in Senate leadership didn't happen, "the real story of the recalls is that the middle class is fighting back and we are starting to win," said Stephanie Bloomingdale, state AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer. "In Wisconsin, we don't give up easily. This fight is not over."

People likely will look on the summer of the recalls as "an early engagement in a long fight over the size and scope of government in our new 'era of debt' -- record public and private debt -- that promises to make our politics nasty for the foreseeable future," Schier said.

Bachmann holds her own in heated Iowa debate

Michele Bachmann had a tough act to follow in Thursday's debate against her Republican presidential opponents. Herself.

The congresswoman from Minnesota managed to duplicate the spark and spunk she showed off in the last GOP primary debate—in spades—backing up her improbable surge in the most unpredictable Republican race in decades.

Right at the start of the debate, the petite, lone female candidate coolly turned toward her fellow Minnesotan, Tim Pawlenty, and compared the former governor's record on cap and trade and health care to that of President Obama. She remained placid when Rick Santorum and Ron Paul lashed out at her instead of focusing their blows on the race's unofficial front-runner, Mitt Romney.

Bachmann's fearless performance defied the caricature of her as a screwball candidate from the fringes of the tea party movement—captured in the unflattering photo of her on the cover of Newsweek magazine.

Detractors will find plenty to criticize in Bachmann's latest performance. If she wanted to dispatch those, like Pawlenty, who contend that her two-and-a-half terms in Congress have left her with a thin record, Bachmann didn't help her cause by citing, as one of her signature accomplishments, the "lightbulb freedom of choice act." And her reputation for playing loose with the facts won't be helped by her suggestion that Pawlenty backs a carbon tax (a position he has since repudiated) or that Standard & Poor's vindicated her opposition to the debt ceiling in its downgrade of the nation's credit rating.

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But Bachmann's confidence on national television made her stand out and telegraphed that she's unafraid of being overshadowed by fellow conservative firebrands hovering, at least for the moment, on the sidelines.

A potentially formidable rival for the nomination, Texas Gov. Rick Perry, confirmed through a spokesman just hours before the debate that he's joining the race. And former vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin is planning to swoop into the Iowa State Fair on Friday, threatening to steal media attention away from Bachmann and the other candidates campaigning there on the eve of Saturday's high-stakes straw poll.

Asked in the debate if she was worried about Palin, Bachmann serenely said the two are "very good friends,'' adding that there's room in the race for her, Perry—and even Fox News debate moderator Bret Baier.

In a another tense moment destined for endless replays on cable television, Bachmann, a born-again Christian, was asked about her remark in 2006 that she would be "submissive'' to her husband and whether that would apply in the White House. The audience booed. Bachmann smiled. "Thank you for that question,'' she said, going on to define "submission" in the context of the couple's marriage of 33 years as a matter of mutual love and respect.

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Bachmann's rivals did little to expose her vulnerabilities. Her never-surrender position on raising the nation's debt limit went largely unchallenged, even though a failure by Congress to do so earlier this month could have devastated the economy. "When they dropped our credit rating, I was proved right in my position,'' she said. Standard & Poor's said nothing of the sort. Rather, the ratings agency criticized the protracted, highly partisan squabble and said Congress should have gone farther to cut the deficit.

It wasn't until the end of the debate, when many viewers may have tuned out, that Santorum scolded: "To suggest that we never need to raise the debt ceiling, that is showmanship, not leadership.''

Pawlenty went after her the most aggressively, but his criticism of her lack of executive experience and legislative accomplishments fell flat. Bachmann sought to turn her hard-line tactics into an asset: "I have a consistent record of standing on my convictions. I didn't cut deal with special interests.'' She described herself as the "tip of the spear'' in the fight against Obama's health care program.

For better or worse, Bachmann raised expectations even higher for a first-place finish in Saturday's straw poll, to be held in same Iowa State University arena that hosted the debate. Her strong performance shows that despite her shortcomings, she is a political talent.

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Attacks by Yemeni government kill many

Yemeni military airstrikes and bombings throughout the country resulted in the deaths of four civilians and 15 militants, officials said Monday.

The Yemeni air force killed the suspected al-Qaida and other Islamic fighters and injured another 17 Monday in Zinjibar in the southern part of the country, the Italian news agency Agenzia Giornalistica Italia reported. The town's major buildings had been under the insurgent group's control since May.

Among the dead in Zinjibar was the local leader of the militant Islamic group Nader Shadadi.

In the Arhab district, outside of the nation's capital Sanaa, Republican Guard bombs killed at least two people and injured 12 others Sunday night and early Monday morning, the Yemen Post reported.

The attacks on Arhab were in response to tribes taking over a Republican Guard camp Thursday.

An airstrike in the northern region Taiz left two people dead and another three injured, the newspaper said. Two of the injured were children, one of whom was in critical condition.

Witnesses say the government targeted the homes of tribes who oppose to the regime of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.

Taiz has been out of government control since May. Revolutionary youth groups in the region are condemning the government for attacks on civilians there, and asking for help from the international community.

In July, 45 people were killed by government forces, the Post said.