Mr Walker? Meet your political doom: a La Follette* running against you to restore civility and fairness in our great state! heh
Not much detail yet, news broke earlier today without much fanfare:
Longtime Democratic Secretary of State Doug La Follette said he is considering running against Republican Gov. Scott Walker if there is a recall.
Follow me past the cheese-doodle-of-Walker's-doom for more...
Heh. Suck it, Walker!
La Follette said on Thursday he has been thinking about it for a few weeks and will take some more time before deciding what to do. La Follette says if polling shows he would be the strongest candidate, he would make an argument Democrats should support him.
No Democrat has officially said they will take on Walker if enough signatures are collected to force a recall election. Jan. 17 is the deadline for petitions to be returned.
Mr. La Follette was first elected Secretary of State of Wisconsin in 1974. He ran for Lt. Governor of Wisconsin in 1978. In 1982, he ran for Secretary of State again and has won re-election every 4 years since - a wonderful track record of winning statewide elections. In fact, in this divisive time, he is the only Dem holding a statewide office.
Doug La Follette is a proud Progressive. A strong environmentalist, he helped organize the first Earth Day for Senator Gaylord Nelson here in WI in 1970.
His two quotes on his facebook page:
"Technology is of no use to us if it is used without respect for the earth and its processes" - Aldo Leopold
"The supreme issue, involving all the others, is the encroachment of the powerful few upon the rights of the many" - Robert La Follette*
Yeah, I'd vote for this guy. More important, so would many, many Cheddarheads.
* Oh, the La Follette name? Doug's great-grandfatheruncle was this guy. (see also Bronson La Follette and Robert La Follette Jr for a taste of WI's sane political history). That just might give him an edge in a head-to-head race against the Koch Brother's puppet.
WOOOO!
3:28 PM PT: While I'm a hot-headed Liberal, I see great value in Mr La Follette's graceful stewardship and cooler, wiser demeanor in a statewide recall race for Gov. One potential knock against several of the 'leading' possible Dem candidates is that they are either "Madison-based" (Falk, Barca, Mitchell) and/or, gasp, left the state as one of the WI 14 (Erpenbach, Barca oops, Cullen)
While I applauded the Great Escape, many moderate and independent Cheddarheads may - or could be misinformed to - see that action as 'wrong."
Mr La Follette has handled himself with grace and balance, even when the FitzThugs pressured his office (SoS) and attempted an end-around on WI's Constitution to "publish" the union-busting law themselves (they effing posted a link on the WI Senate's webpage...OMFG Lame). Walker has since stripped the office of SoS of several duties and functions.
Update - Gotta run. Thanks to Teh Goat Boy for the Barrett update:
Barrett, who lost to Republican Walker in last year's race for governor, said Wednesday he "in all likelihood" will sign a petition to get the Walker recall onto the spring ballot. (yesterday 12/21)
Gee, Tom. That's quite LAME of you. Please stay out, thanks.
Play nice, y'all.