We've finally got the WI recall election today, where the state voters get to either sign off on Gov. Walker's reforms or hand the reins over to Milwaukee major Tom Barrett and his union pals. The Wisconsin method of recalls plays like a full do-over, with primaries on both sides, rather than the funky CA system of a yes-or-no recall vote running with a who-do-you-replace-him-with election without any primaries that gave us the Governator.
I don't buy the anti-recall argument that if voters make a "mistake" that they must live with it for a full term. That echos the old Mencken line that "Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard"; our Samizdata friends were commenting on Greece's issues with that one. However, that's not the most graceful attitude to have.
Note that I'd be voting for Walker were I eligible to do so, but that it isn't a bad thing to throw a rascal out mid-term.
The thing that is interesting to me is that Walker is polling better than Romney. Walker is +7 in RCP's poll of polls while Obama is up five. That means that there is a 6% block that are Walker-Obama voters; that would be an interesting focus group for someone like Frank Luntz to sink his teeth into.
Recalls are strictly for malfeasance, not politcal hay.
Posted by: alan | June 06, 2012 at 02:50 PM