As the first primary date nears, let’s look at the enormous amounts of money being spent in these recall races. State law allows lawmakers targeted for recalls to exceed normal limits. So Republicans have raised more money, but that’s because they’ve been able to fundraise for a longer period of time.
Here’s a Q&A with Mike McCabe of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.read more

Normally, the redistricting process starts at the local level and then the state steps in. But the Fitzgerald brothers are running things differently. In FitzWalkerstan, up is down, the map is fair, and rules don’t really matter.read more

As was the case a little over a century ago, it’s the defining question of our time: Which shall rule, wealth or people? Right now, wealth is ruling in Wisconsin.read more

“The only reason they would want to jump the gun, and draw state lines before municipal boundaries are done, would be to get redistricting accomplished before the recall elections this summer, which could flip control of the state senate to the Democrats. So it’s a very brazenly and blatantly partisan motivation.”read more

Wisconsin Republicans are making plans to redistrict the state. This happens every ten years, in order to accommodate population changes. But this year’s redistricting is taking on a new twist here in FitzWalkerstan, and the public is being shut out of the process so far. The maps were created in secret by lawyers hired early this year by Republican legislative leaders at a cost to taxpayers of $50,000 a month, or $300,000 and counting, according to media reports.read more

The Fitzgeralds would not have their majority positions if it weren’t for the Republican State Leadership Committee, an Virginia-based group that spent nearly $1 million in the 2010 legislative election.read more

This week, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign filed open records requests asking the Fitzgerald brothers to make public redistricting maps and information pertaining to the process of redrawing legislative districts in Wisconsin.
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So many attendees are inspired by the organizing efforts that Wisconsinites get rounds of applause wherever we go.read more

“If I can’t sing, there’s a slight disappointment,” says one protester. “It’s very empowering. I look in people’s eyes and see that I am not alone in my passion.”read more

Samantha Masterton, 52, lives in Antigo, Wisconsin, but works in Wausau. She works at the First Universalist Unitarian church.
 
She came to Madison today because she feels “so passionately about changes happening in the state,” she says inside the Capitol Rotunda. “What’s happening is flat out wrong. I react viscerally to the point that I’m sick.”
 
What makes her feel better is coming to the Solidarity Sing Along, which happens everyday at noon in the rotunda.
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"Whenever there’s a financial crisis, the banks, speculators, and hedge funds starting kicking people out of their houses and famers off their land,” says John Peck of Wisconsin's Family Farm Defenders. “Paul Ryan and Scott Walker are aiding and abetting the foreclosures and evictions.”read more

“Instead of trying to hoodwink the public, we’re trying to hoodwink the corporations.”read more

The Republicans in the Wisconsin state legislature are ramming through bills before it loses its majority, as recall elections are looming.read more

The Republicans in the Wisconsin state legislature are ramming through bills before it loses its majority, as recall elections are looming.
 
As Defend Wisconsin notes:
The Government Accountability Board staff has recommended approving recall elections against GOP state Sens. Randy Hopper of Fond du Lac, Dan Kapanke of La Crosse and Luther Olsen of Ripon.read more

Murphy is the editor of the Buffalo Beast, and is best known as the guy who prank-called Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, posing as rightwing billionaire David Koch.read more