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The organizers of the effort to recall Gov. Scott Walker have submitted almost as many petition signatures for recall as Walker received in the 2010 election.

The groups championing the recall needed 540,208 signatures on petitions to force a recall election, and they got over a million. Democrats successfully collected almost as many signatures to recall Walker (1 million or so) as Walker received in his successful 2010 gubernatorial campaign (1,128,159).

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Much of the focus will be on the likely recall election of Scott Walker today, but equally as important is the fact that Democrats are expected to turn enough signatures to also force recall elections on four more Wisconsin state senators, including Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald. After the Democrats finished one seat short of taking control of the state senate in last summer’s recall elections, they need to pick up a seat to put a firewall in place in case Walker prevails in his recall campaign.

The movement may have started with Walker’s power play to strip away public sector collective bargaining rights, but the governor’s gutting of essential public services and education in his first budget, his voter ID law that is designed to do nothing but suppress the anti-Walker vote, an economic policy that has turned Wisconsin into a job loser, and the John Doe investigation which is revealing an administration infused with rampant corruption have all provided ample reason for Scott Walker to be recalled.

The election to recall Gov. Walker may not happen until June or later, but now the real work begins for those who support recalling the governor. The same shadowy conservative forces who tried to defeat democracy in Ohio are already filling Scott Walker’s coffers. Walker has already raised $5.1 million, with half of the money coming from out of state.

Democrats are certain to be outspent in the campaign, but the Issue 2 election in Ohio proved that democracy can overcome Koch dollars. Walker may have the cash, but as the million plus recall petition signatures show, his opponents have freedom’s insatiable desire on their side.

Today is the day we’ve been awaiting for almost a year now; today is officially the beginning of the end of Fitzwalkerstan.

This is what democracy looks like. The people, united, will never be defeated.

Image: Winning Progressive