Wisconsin recall effort against Gov. Scott Walker now at center stage nationally

Dan Balz writes in The Washington Post:

It’s not yet clear whether Wisconsin will become a presidential battleground in November. But at least for the next two months, the Badger State will be at the epicenter of American politics as voters decide for only the third time in the nation’s history whether to recall a sitting governor.

Republican Gov. Scott Walker has been in office for only 15 months, and his state has been in turmoil virtually the entire time. His decision to eliminate most collective-bargaining rights for public employee unions has touched off a political war that has left Wisconsin as polarized as any state in the country.

This homegrown fight has national implications. Walker has become a symbol of Republican governance in today’s GOP. He is campaigning energetically and unapologetically, arguing that he took courageous action to deal with his state’s severe fiscal problems — the same thing Republicans are saying should be done nationally. Walker contends that his policies have been good for the state’s economy and its taxpayers.

His opponents see those policies almost exactly the way President Obama described the federal budget written by Walker’s Wisconsin soul mate, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, and passed recently by the House. Last week, Obama called the Ryan budget a radical document that would put the country in decline. That echoes the view of Walker’s opponents, who say his actions have hurt the state and unfairly punished state employees.

There is no question that the unions — led by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the Service Employees International Union and the state’s teachers union — are doing everything they can to oust Walker. But much of the energy behind the recall is homegrown.

Anti-Walker forces needed about 550,000 valid signatures on their petitions to get the recall on the ballot. With the help of 30,000 petition carriers who crisscrossed the state, they collected more than 900,000. Rarely has a political party in a state this size begun a campaign with 900,000 identified supporters — names, addresses and in many cases e-mail addresses. To put that in perspective, Walker got 1.1 million votes when he was elected in 2010.

Walker is a hero to Republicans. Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum were the featured attractions at the Waukesha County dinner before last week’s primary, but it was Walker who generated by far the most energy in the room. He was greeted with several standing ovations.

Republicans don’t just approve of the job he’s doing; they enthusiastically embrace him. More than nine in 10 “strongly approve” of the job he is doing, according to exit polls from Tuesday’s presidential primary. Among strong tea party supporters, strong approval is 94 percent. Among very conservative voters, it’s 92 percent.

Democrats dislike him with almost equal intensity. In Wisconsin, there is virtually no middle left. But the June election will be fought over the relative handful of voters who constitute that middle.
Some Democrats would have preferred that there be no recall campaign against Walker, among them some of Obama’s political advisers. They know the election will be a drain on resources, that it will deepen the polarization in the state and that it could have unintended consequences.

[L]ast week’s presidential primary, for all its implications in the GOP race, was seen in Wisconsin almost as a distraction. The main event is now at center stage.