Campaigning will not only be done by the candidates and Democratic Party, but by another, larger group - We Are Wisconsin, a coalition of members of labor unions, religious organizations, student groups, community groups, and others who have joined together to fight the Republican budget and other anti-worker/anti-people proposals which are part of the Republican Rampage here in Wisconsin.

The efforts of this organization will be (and must be) separate from the candidate, their campaign, and their party in order to take full advantage of the infamous Citizens United Supreme Court decision. It will be able to fundraise and spend without the previous restrictions.

Republicans have used Citizens United to enable massive spending by "outside groups" with friendly sounding, partriotic names that they promote as "grassroots" to ensure the election of candidates that will do the bidding of wealthy, corporate, and connected special interests. However, that door swings both ways. We may not have their enormously large war chests from mega-donors, but unrestricted cash plus huge numbers of volunteers will give them a run for their money.

Yesterday I began my efforts in the Milwaukee area to promote the election of Sandy Pasch (D, current Wisconsin State Assembly Representative) who is opposing Republican Walker Tool Ablerta Darling. My 20 page call list was to union households in that district. Callers and canvassers converged early and plan to do so every day until the July 12 election.

Similar efforts are taking place everywhere in Wisconsin that a recall special election will be held.

It's been said that "turnabout is fair play". I like the idea of giving Republicans a taste of how Citizens United can be used against them. We may not have all their corporate cash, but what we can get plus lots of boots on the ground might just have them wishing the Supreme Court would never have even agreed to hear Citizens United in the first place.

A quick note about Republican recalls of 3 Democrats:

All 6 of the recalls against Republicans were certified by the Government Accountability Board. Republican objects to those involved the petition forms themselves and were dismissed by the GAB making the case against all the recalled Republicans similarly cerftifiable.

The Democratic objections to the recall of Democratic State Senators are different. Those objections surround the signatures themselves and the manner in which they were gathered. There is a great deal of evidence that signatures were gathered using not only ineligible petitioners, but also fraud (e.g. please sign this to get - insert name of Democrat here - on the ballot, leading people to believe they were signing to promote the candidate rather than recall him or by giving a phony purpose for the petition - such as the infamous "sign this to get more tribal rights" used on reservations), bribery (the infamous "shots for your signature" scam recorded in a tavern), affidavits from people who testify they never signed the petition and the signature on it is not theirs, and the inclusion of a signature of a person who has been deceased for 20 years.

The GAB has asked for, and been granted, more time to study these petitions and objections. Their ruling will likely come at their meeting June 8. It is hoped that the objections to the conduct of the Republican recalls and suspect nature of those signatures will prevail.

Update: Just updated the title to more fully reflect the topic.

Update: It's a Slow News Day Edition: h/t to scribeboy for linking to an article I read today about the national reaction to what's going on in Wisconsin. It's worth a read.