Petitions to recall Gov. Scott Walker are delivered Tuesday to the Government Accountability Board headquarters in Madison. Recall supporters filed about twice as many signatures as they needed. Republicans, meantime, are mobilizing thousands of people to look for flawed signatures. Credit: Michael Sears

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Madison - Democrats seeking to recall Gov. Scott Walker filed more than a million signatures Tuesday, virtually guaranteeing a historic recall election against him later this year.

It would mark the first gubernatorial recall election in Wisconsin history and only the third one in U.S. history. Organizers Tuesday also handed in 845,000 recall signatures against Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, as well as recall petitions against four GOP state senators, including Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald of Juneau.

The sheer number of signatures being filed against Walker - nearly as many as the total votes cast for the governor in November 2010 and about twice as many as those needed to trigger a recall election - ensure the election will be held, said officials with the state Democratic Party and United Wisconsin, the group that launched the Walker recall.

"It is beyond legal challenge," said Ryan Lawler, vice chairman of United Wisconsin. "The collection of more than one million signatures represents a crystal-clear indication of how strong the appetite is to stop the damage and turmoil that Scott Walker has brought to Wisconsin."

Walker has said for weeks - and reiterated again Tuesday - that he expects a recall election. Some supporters have echoed that sentiment, and said Tuesday they also considered an election inevitable.

But party officials, frustrated for weeks by reports of people signing petitions multiple times, said they'll still deploy thousands of volunteers to analyze the signatures for irregularities or problems.

"We may want to make sure that Wisconsin voters are not disenfranchised," state Republican Party spokesman Ben Sparks said.

Democrats said they removed an undisclosed number of signatures that were duplicates, illegible or seemingly fake. They acknowledged other problem signatures likely will still turn up, but they expect the effort to hold up easily.

The filing marks a milestone following Walker's controversial legislation last year ending most union bargaining for most public workers. However, Democrats have huge logistical hurdles: There is no candidate yet for them to rally around, and Walker has been able to raise unlimited funds from supporters across the country since the recall effort began.

The governor was scheduled to have a New York City fundraiser Tuesday afternoon hosted by Maurice Greenberg, the founder of troubled financial services corporation American International Group. Walker said through a spokeswoman he was too busy for interviews - although he made time for supportive national and local talk show hosts.

The governor's office did release a statement saying he looked forward to talking to voters about how he had eliminated a $3 billion budget deficit over two years without leaning heavily on tax increases. "Instead of going back to the days of billion dollar budget deficits, double digit tax increases and record job loss, I expect Wisconsin voters will stand with me and keep moving Wisconsin forward," his statement said.

Election officials estimate the statewide recall election against Walker could cost the state and local governments $9 million. That figure is for one statewide election only and could rise substantially if there is a primary needed to pick a Democrat to run against Walker or if any Senate recalls are held on different dates.

'A total anomaly'

Recall expert Joshua Spivak, a senior fellow at the Hugh L. Carey Institute for Government Reform at Wagner College in New York, said that, including state Senate recalls from last year, no state in American history has held as many recall elections for state office as Wisconsin seems set to have in 2011 and 2012.

"Wisconsin is really, completely a total anomaly," Spivak said.

In the two other recall elections for governors in history, California Gov. Gray Davis was defeated in 2003 and North Dakota Gov. Lynn Frazier was defeated in 1921.

Spivak said the signatures for Walker are almost certain to hold up. To force a recall election against Walker and Kleefisch, 540,208 valid signatures are needed for each - a figure equivalent to 25% of all the votes cast in the November 2010 election that put Walker in office.

"One million signatures sounds like it's definitely going on the ballot," Spivak said.

Democrats said they submitted almost as many signatures as the votes that Walker received - 1,128,900 votes, or 52.3% of the vote in 2010 - and about the same amount as his unsuccessful Democratic opponent, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, who got 1,004,300 votes, or 46.5%. The 1 million signatures amount to about one-third of the 3.3 million registered voters in the state and one-quarter of the 4.4 million Wisconsin residents eligible to vote.

Mark Graul, a GOP strategist who has run statewide campaigns, said he expects the likely recall election to look much like a normal campaign with a variety of issues such as jobs, taxes and education.

"It's going to come down to what every other election does - a choice between two candidates," Graul said.

Reviewing the petitions

The paper petitions, weighing 1.5 tons, were delivered to the state Government Accountability Board's office in a U-Haul draped with a banner that said, "Yes we did." The board, which runs state elections, planned to transport them to a separate state building that will be guarded by Capitol police until all the petitions are electronically scanned over the next few days.

Next begins the months-long process of reviewing the petitions.

"We have a big job ahead of us," said Kevin Kennedy, the accountability board's director.

By law, the board has 31 days to review the signatures to determine if elections should be held. The board plans to go to court in Dane County as soon as this week to ask for more time, but Kennedy said he did not know how much time the board would seek.

Adding to the time frame is the board's decision to develop a database of all petition signers to try to find any duplicate signatures. The board decided to do that after Waukesha County Circuit Judge J. Mac Davis - in response to a suit filed by Walker's campaign - said the accountability board had to take more aggressive steps in reviewing the petitions.

Tuesday's filings start another clock that gives Walker and the other Republicans 10 days to challenge any signatures. But that time frame may also be extended because Walker's campaign will not receive copies of the signatures until they have been electronically scanned, which could take several days, Kennedy said.

The board has hired 30 temporary workers to help review the signatures and plans to hire another 20. Its hiring has been slowed because it has had trouble locating job seekers in the Madison area who did not sign the petitions to recall Walker, Kennedy said.

Senators targeted

For the Senate recalls, the numbers of valid signatures needed vary between 14,958 and 16,742 for each district. Far more than those numbers were filed - about 20,600 for Fitzgerald, more than 21,000 for Pam Galloway of Wausau, more than 21,000 for Terry Moulton of Chippewa Falls and more than 24,000 for Van Wanggaard of Racine.

"These boxes contain our hopes, our hard work and 20,600 signatures," Fitzgerald recall organizer Lori Compas told supporters just before submitting them.

Recall supporters used markers to cover the boxes in messages before submitting them to the accountability board. "This is what Wisconsin accountability looks like!" said one note scrawled on a box.

In a statement, Fitzgerald said he's been overwhelmed with financial and volunteer support since the petition drive was launched against him in November.

"In 12 short months, Senate Republicans balanced a massive budget deficit without raising taxes or resorting to layoffs. We passed over a dozen job-creation bills to lay the groundwork for economic recovery in our state, and we gave power back to school districts and municipalities which allowed them to prioritize their spending and avoid mass layoffs," Fitzgerald said.

Compas held out the possibility she might be a candidate against Fitzgerald, who was first elected in 1994.

Galloway, Moulton and Wanggaard were first elected a year ago in a Republican wave, and one of their early votes was the one on collective bargaining that prompted an earlier wave of recalls.

Possible Democratic candidates against the Republicans include: Rep. Donna Seidel (D-Wausau) against Galloway, former state Rep. Kristen Dexter against Moulton and former state Sen. John Lehman against Wanggaard.

Seidel said she was in talks about who the best candidate might be against Galloway. Lehman said he was "seriously considering" a run, and Dexter said it was an "interesting option."

Last year, nine state senators faced recall elections - six Republicans and three Democrats. Democrats gained two seats in those elections, narrowing the GOP's Senate majority from 19-14 to 17-16.

Possible challengers

Mike Tate, chairman of the state Democratic Party, said he expected a Democratic primary in the governor's recall, which would extend the election schedule by four weeks and add another $9 million in costs for state and local governments.

State Sen. Tim Cullen (D-Janesville) has said he will run against Walker if a recall election is held, and other Democrats are expected to get in the race. Potential candidates include Barrett, former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk, and former U.S. Rep. Dave Obey of Wausau.

Barrett led Falk 46% to 27% in a survey released Tuesday by Public Policy Polling. Barrett was ahead of Obey 42% to 32% in a head-to-head matchup.

If the primary race were between just Obey and Falk, the former congressman would lead 43% to 28%, the poll found. If there was a primary involving all four Democrats, Barrett would lead that, too, according to the poll, with 26%, to 22% for Falk, 21% for Obey and 11% for Cullen.

The PPP poll surveyed 522 respondents Monday who said they were certain or likely to vote in a Democratic primary for governor and had a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points.

Barrett issued a statement that said, "I stand with the hundreds of thousands of ordinary Wisconsin citizens who have had enough of Walker's cynical politics that try to divide the people of our state. It's time for a new direction that will heal our fractured state and move Wisconsin forward again."

Falk said Walker should accept the election will happen.

"There should be no delaying tactics and legal tricks by Gov. Walker and his allies to try to postpone the election. Let's go," Falk said.

Obey, who has been in state politics for a half-century, called the recall effort "an amazing development" but like Barrett and Falk declined to say whether he might run against Walker. Another possible candidate, state Sen. Kathleen Vinehout (D-Alma), also declined to comment.

Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca of Kenosha said he has not ruled out running against Walker.

Cullen said he was still committed to run "until I'm elected governor or it doesn't make any more sense to run. Right now, it still makes sense."

Don Walker of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report from Milwaukee.