Wisconsin Dems have the momentum heading into final recall battle

By Greg Sargent
WashPost

Wow. In a sign that Wisconsin Democrats can still claim momentum in the recall wars, Dems today filed the signatures to trigger a recall election against a sixth Wisconsin GOP state senator — and this time, they filed an astonishing 166 percent of the number required, the highest yet.

Graeme Zielinski, a spokesman for the Wisconsin Democratic Party, confirms that Dems today filed 26,524 signatures supporting a recall election against GOP senator Robert Cowles, out of 15,960 required. This is the strongest signature showing by Dems yet: Against five previous GOP targets, Dems amassed signatures in the area of 140 or 150 percent.

This, despite the fact that Cowles’s district is a Republican-leaning one. George W. Bush defeated John Kerry there by 15 points, 57-42. Obama did beat John McCain there, but only narrowly, 52-46, and Cowles didn’t even have a Democratic challenger last time around.

There are other signs that Dems have the momentum here; For one thing, GOP organizers fell short in signatures against four Dem targets. While there will all but certainly be recall elections against six Republicans, currently officials are examining signatures for the recall of only three Democrats, though there’s some talk about a fourth.

(More here.)