Wisconsin Democrats have filed a recall petition against a sixth Republican state senator for his support of a bill that curtails collective bargaining rights.
Organizers for the committee to recall Sen. Robert Cowles of Green Bay turned in approximately 26,000 signatures Thursday, far more than the 15,960 needed to trigger a recall election.
The Government Accountability Board has 31 days to review the signatures but has asked a circuit court to give it until June 3 to certify all recall petitions. Once the petitions are certified, officials would call an election for the first eight petitions on July 12. Reid Magney, a spokesperson for GAB, said any recall election for Cowles may need to be held separately from the other eight because of when organizers turned in the petition.
Volunteer Jonah Lenss, who turned in the signatures, said he joined the recall effort because he was unhappy with Cowles' vote in support of a bill eliminating most collective bargaining rights for public employees. A judge has blocked the law from taking effect but said the Legislature can vote on the bill again at any time.
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"Union rights were established with bipartisan effort and this senator voted to take them away from working people, and I didn't think that was right," said Lenss.
Cowles defended the vote Thursday, saying Republicans had to act on the measure because Democrats who fled the state refused to accept any compromise offered by Republican leaders.
Cowles' seat is considered one of the safest among Republicans in the Senate. A fiscal conservative with significant environmental credentials, Cowles has been in the Senate for nearly 25 years. He ran unopposed in 2008 and won his 2004 reelection with nearly 90 percent of the vote.
Cowles said that despite the recall effort, he feels "comfortable in my skin" and stands by his record.
"I consider myself a budget hawk, before it was cool to do it," Cowles said. "I'm a balanced legislator, I've got the record to prove it and nobody is going to outwork me in the Legislature or in my district."
Cowles said he plans to review the signatures for possible challenges. GOP senators Dan Kapanke of La Crosse and Randy Hopper of Fond du Lac have already challenged signatures on other petitions on the ground that they were not properly filed. Lawyers for the recall committees have called the challenges "hypertechnical" and "devoid of merit."
The Democratic Party of Wisconsin claims signatures targeting three Democrats were fraudulently collected and plans to challenge those petitions as well.
Cowles joins five GOP senators and three Democratic senators in line for recall elections. All have been targeted for their support or opposition to the collective bargaining law. Efforts targeting Democratic Sens. Lena Taylor and Spencer Coggs of Milwaukee, Sen. Fred Risser of Madison and Sen. Mark Miller of Monona failed to meet the filing deadline.
Another Mark Miller recall group run by Utah-based activist Dan Baltes has a deadline of May 4. Jeffery Horn, organizer of the local group that missed its deadline, told supporters in a Facebook post that his group would not merge signatures with Baltes' group due to concerns over its tactics and motives.
The deadline for recall petitions against GOP Sens. Mary Lazich of New Berlin and Glenn Grothman of West Bend is next Monday. The deadline to file a petition against Democratic Sen. Julie Lassa of Stevens Point is May 16.
