Last week, Democrats successfully turned in over one million signatures in the first step of the state's gubernatorial recall process. While it will take the state's Government Accountability Board weeks to verify the 540,208 signatures needed to begin a recall election against Gov. Scott Walker, unions throughout the state will be hard at work to find the perfect candidate who supports their ideas and ideologies. Chief among these concerns will be to restore collective bargaining rights as they see fit.
While one cannot blame individuals for wanting to voice their opinions and displeasures with their government or politicians, the notion that unions should take the reins at finding a candidate in an already bloated recall election fiasco is absurd.
The executive director of one of the state's largest public employee unions, Marty Beil, noted that Wisconsin unions are attempting to identify a candidate who will "fight to restore dignity and respect to Wisconsin's workers and to return Wisconsin to the people." Union members undoubtedly believe that Walker's policies are systematically stripping away their powers via the collective bargaining law. Thus, this past December, the state's teacher, building trade, steel worker and service employee unions met to discuss a possible candidate to endorse after previous meetings with Democratic recall candidates.
One potential candidate is Tom Barrett, who has been mayor of Milwaukee since 2004 and lost to Gov. Walker by only a five percent margin, which garnered him plenty of statewide recognition.
In some ways, Barrett seems like a great Democratic leader given his stances on illegal firearms, environmental concerns and his opposition to the Act 10 collective bargaining bill. However, union support for Barrett may be minimal given the long-standing tepid relationship between the two forces. Recently, union officials have accused Barrett of using some of Act 10's pension and health care changes against the very unions that may be looking to support him.
News that former Madison Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk announced her bid as a Democratic recall candidate will probably please union leaders given her history of negotiations with unions in Dane County.
The possibility of a Falk and the Professional Fire Fighters of Wisconsin president Mahlon Mitchell ticket may be one of the most appealing options to union leaders. But will Wisconsin voters throw their weight behind a union leader or a Dane County Executive who lost in both a previous gubernatorial and Wisconsin Attorney General election?
Since these candidates are lesser known throughout the state, the unions' probable decision not to support Barrett and to force a primary before the actual recall may do more bad than good for the Democratic Party. While a primary may give more statewide recognition and support to Democratic recall candidates, the costs of running both a primary and a general race will be enormous. Given such a high-profile recall election, candidates will need to raise even more funds. Gov. Walker has already been spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a week on television advertisements and reportedly raised over five million dollars in the second half of 2011. The Democratic Party has not fared as well as the governor.
Given the fiscal and recognition barriers of their preferred candidates, Wisconsin unions should not have a significant influence in determining the state's Democratic candidate in a recall election. Wisconsin unions rightly fear Gov. Walker is curtailing their power statewide, and there is no surprise union power will be vital in the upcoming recall election. While union leaders understandably want their voices to be heard in a democratic process, there may be difficulty gathering the funds need to run a lesser-known, but more pro-union candidate.
Ethan Safran is a freshman with an undeclared major. Please send all feedback to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
