Mainers Ready to Issue Citizen Veto on Voting Rights Attack
Andy Richards on our Field Communications staff files this report on Maine working families’ action to protect voting rights.
Another grassroots effort to overturn the partisan political agenda of extreme politicians scored a major victory in Maine today. The Coalition to Protect Maine Votes reported this morning that Maine Secretary of State Charlie Summers verified more than enough signatures to allow Mainers to put a measure on the November ballot to overturn legislation that eliminates same-day voter registration.
In a statement, the Maine AFL-CIO, part of the coalition effort, says:
After an incredible effort by more than 1,000 volunteers to collect more than 70,000 signatures, our campaign moves into the next phase: winning the election in November. This is great news for working families in Maine. We know that working people don’t need one more thing on their plates right now. For workers who do shift work, it is an additional barrier to voting to have to get more time off from work to go in and register to vote the week before an election.
Perry Closing Gap on Scott in TWU’s Worst Governor Contest
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We haven’t checked the national polls lately to see how Texas Gov. Rick Perry is doing in his I’m-more-right-wing-conservative-than-thou race to capture the Republican presidential nomination. But it looks like he’s closing in on the lead in another important election—the Transport Workers’ (TWU‘s) Worst Governor Ever summer special election.
In a new video for this humorous look at some seriously bad governors when it comes to working families—such as Wisconsin’s Scott Walker, Ohio’s John Kasich, New Jersey’s Chris Christie and others—we find Florida’s Rick Scott basking in the glow of an early lead in the race for the title.
But wait—Perry just may pull ahead of Scott after touting his wildly unpopular voter ID bill and rampant teacher layoffs, as qualifications for the dubious crown.
Boehner Golfs While Jobs Burn
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More than 100 union and community activists in House Speaker John Boehner’s Ohio district figured that the August “district work period”—better known to the rest of us as Congress’ summer vacation—would be a good time to talk with the Republican leader about work or, more specifically, the lack of it for millions of Americans.
But when they showed up at his West Chester Township district office, guess who wasn’t hard at work? Boehner. According to news reports, he was instead at a fundraising golf outing at a nearby country club, no doubt more comfortable with the check-writing country clubbers than middle-class workers. Machinists (IAM) member Rainey Rohrmeier told the Cincinnati Enquirer she was at Boehner’s office to send him a message.
It’s the unwillingness to compromise, the lack of support for workers—the people who are down and dirty doing the work. All the policies are favoring the rich people and now they call them “job creators.” So where are the jobs?
First Recall Results in: One Walkerite Beaten, Two Others Hang On
The first results in today’s six Wisconsin recall elections are in and working families in state Senate District 32 have propelled Rep. Jennifer Shilling (D) to a win over incumbent state Sen. Dan Kapanke (R).
But in District 2, incumbent and Gov. Scott Walker (R) ally state Sen. Robert Cowles (R) survived a challenge by Nancy Nusbaum (D). Also in District 10, incumbent state Sen. Sheila Harsdorf (R) was able to hang onto her seat, defeating Shelly Moore (D).
Democrats need to win three seats to take control of the state Senate from Walker Republicans. Next Tuesday, two Democratic state senators face recalls from Republican challengers. You can follow the vote counts in the other races here and here.
Steady Turnout as Wisconsin Voters Try to Recall Walker 6
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There has been a steady stream of voters today in the Wisconsin recall elections, according to news reports. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports “strong turnout,” and in some precincts “as heavy as a presidential election.”
Working family voters are hoping to recall six of Scott Walker’s (R) closest state Senate allies who spearheaded his move to take away the collective bargaining rights of public employees and ram through a budget devastating to working families.
Polls close at 8 p.m. CDT. We’ll bring you updates throughout the evening and several Wisconsin blogs are providing regular updates. Below are some to check out and you also can follow on Twitter with the hashtag #WIrecall.
The folks at Progressive Change Campaign Committee’s (PCCC‘s) BoldProgressives.org blog posted this conversation that PCCC co-founder Adam Green had at a voter’s door this morning in District 8 where Rep. Sandy Pasch (D) is challenging Sen. Alberta Darling (R).
It’s a Tough Call. Who’s the Worst Governor Ever?
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There have been a lot of really bad governors over the years. But working families are confronted with quite a bumper crop of despicable state chief executives who are hell-bent on eliminating good middle-class jobs, giving the wealthy and corporations big tax breaks, undermining voters’ rights, cutting funding for education and jobs and more.
But in this era of Wisconsin’s Scott Walker, Ohio’s John Kasich, New Jersey’s Chris Christie and a rogue’s gallery of others, just who is the worst? The Transport Workers (TWU) says it’s time to put that question to a vote.
TWU’s just-launched “Worst Governor Ever” (see video) summer election will decide.
TWU President James Little says the election—part of the union’s Workers’ Rights Are Human Rights campaign—will expose the extreme agenda of reactionary governors and let Americans send a message to the governor of their choosing that he or she is the worst governor ever.
Wisconsin Recalls Under Way: Turnout’s Key
Turnout will be the determining factor today in the six Wisconsin state Senate districts where working family voters have the chance to recall the Walker 6—Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) closest state Senate allies who spearheaded his move to take away the collective bargaining rights of public employees and ram through a budget devastating to working families.
In a massive mobilization effort, more than 12,000 volunteers have made more than a million voter contacts in the six districts and, just this past weekend, We Are Wisconsin volunteers knocked on more than 125,000 doors.
Wisconsin State AFL-CIO President Phil Neuenfeldt says voters “can’t afford to sit this one out.”
Momentum is on the side of working people but we need everyone who lives in a recall district to get to the polls. We have the historic opportunity to put the brakes on the extreme agenda that has been driving the Wisconsin Legislature since January.
Wisconsin Volunteers Getting Out the Vote to Recall Walker 6
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Wisconsin voters go to the polls Tuesday to recall six of Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) closest state Senate allies. The Walker 6 spearheaded his move to take away the collective bargaining rights of public employees and ram through a budget devastating to working families.
Over the weekend and through Election Day, thousands of volunteers in cities and towns across Wisconsin are making the final get-out-the-vote push by knocking on doors and making phone calls. This person-to-person effort will help counteract the right-wing efforts to suppress Tuesday’s vote.
The Wisconsin State AFL-CIO says the dirty tricks include:
- Americans for Prosperity sending absentee ballot mailings with the incorrect election date.
Two New Books Chronicle Historic Wisconsin Uprising
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Back in February, everyday Wisconsinites made political history when they rose up against Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) move to crush workers’ rights and eliminate the collective bargaining rights of public employees, from snow plow drivers to teachers.
Now, two new books look at the incredible Wisconsin mobilization and its impact.
Writer, activist and organizer Erica Sagrans says she was “fascinated and inspired by what I saw take place in Madison and wanted to dig deeper and help spread that story and momentum.”
Her “We Are Wisconsin: The Wisconsin Uprising in the Words of the Activists, Writers, and Everyday Wisconsinites Who Made It Happen” gives an up-close, view of the Wisconsin struggle, as told by the grassroots activists, independent journalists and Wisconsinites who led the fight.
Labor historian and University of Wisconsin-Green Bay professor Andrew E. Kersten’s new e-book, “The Battle for Wisconsin: Scott Walker and the Attack on the Progressive Tradition,” looks at the fight in Wisconsin and what it means historically.
Kersten examines Walker’s rollback of hard-won gains for workers and how he recast the role of government in the state to fit his own conservative ideology. He takes us back to the days of the robber barons, explaining why our forefathers fought so hard for real reform in the Progressive Era and why those principles are worth protecting today.
ALEC Conference: Sleazy in the Big Easy
This week in New Orleans, some 2,000 state legislators are being wined, dined and given their legislative battle plans by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) to push a corporate agenda and undermine workers’ rights. The Koch brothers-funded and corporate-backed ALEC generates model legislation for right-wing grassroots activists and funds their attacks on workers’ rights, public employees and more.
The lawmakers will be sitting down with some of the biggest corporations in the world— Koch Industries, Bayer, Kraft Foods, Coca-Cola Co., State Farm, AT&T, Wal-Mart, Philip Morris and more behind closed doors.
ALEC, writes Lisa Graves, executive director for the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD),
is little more than a bill factory for corporate-friendly legislation that often repeals people’s rights or fattens the corporate bottom line.
