TPMDC Mike Tate
Wisconsin Recalls
Wis. Dems: The Recalls Were A Win For Us!
Wisconsin Democrats are proclaiming great news from Tuesday night's state Senate recalls -- in which they were unable to pick up the needed three seats to gain control of the chamber, instead picking up two seats. And moreover, they are still bullish in their pledge to launch another recall -- this one against Gov. Scott Walker next year.
"Last night's recall elections were tremendously historic," state Dem chair Mike Tate said on a conference call with reporters Wednesday afternoon. "I think they show how vulnerable the Republicans are going into 2012, and how vulnerable Governor Walker is going into a potential recall himself."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: 2011 Elections, Mike Tate, Recall, Scott Walker, Wisconsin , Wisconsin Protests, Wisconsin Recalls, Wisconsin State Legislature
Wisconsin Recalls
Wis. Dems: Internal Polls Show Us Winning The State Senate
A volunteer waits to gather signatures for a recall petition against Sen. Alberta Darling (R) outside of a polling station at Village Center in Shorewood, Wisconsin, Tuesday, April 5, 2011.
Going into the home stretch of the Wisconsin state Senate recalls, state Democratic Party chairman Mike Tate outlined the party's get-out-the-vote efforts on a conference call with reporters Tuesday -- and claimed that the party's internal polling of the eight races up for grabs shows the Dems favored to win the majority.
The state Senate currently has a 19-14 Republican majority, with Democrats needing to gain at least a net three seats in a backlash against Gov. Scott Walker. (And after that, they hope to recall Walker some time next year.) For next Tuesday, six Republicans will be on the ballot against Democratic challengers, followed the next Tuesday by two more recalls targeting Democratic incumbents.
On the call, in response to a question from Greg Sargent, Tate said of next week's races: "I don't know that I would say that we are going to sweep all six races, but our polling tells that we have leads in three of these races and we are dead tied in three."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: 2011 Elections, Mike Tate, Recall, Wisconsin , Wisconsin Recalls, Wisconsin State Legislature
2012 elections
Wis. Dem Chair: Russ Feingold, Tammy Baldwin Could Run For Senate Seat
Former Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI)
On a conference call with reporters just now, Wisconsin Democratic Party chairman Mike Tate predicted that the party would have one or more strong candidates in the race to succeed Dem Sen. Herb Kohl, who announced his retirement earlier on Friday. Indeed, Tate directly named some key potential candidates who are already looking at it, or might soon be doing so.
Chief among the names that Tate listed were former Sen. Russ Feingold, who lost re-election in the 2010 Republican wave after three terms in office, and seven-term Rep. Tammy Baldwin from Madison and the surrounding counties.
"I think the next 6-8 weeks are going be an important timeframe for people to at least make a decision about whether they're gonna run," Tate said.
"I've already spoken with some people this morning who indicated there are serious people thinking about getting in this race," Tate also added, saying that at least for Friday focus should be on Kohl himself and his record of serving the state.
When a reporter asked who Tate might have been talking to, or what names might have come up, Tate said there could be many great candidates. "Obviously Russ Feingold looms large if he were or were not to run again," Tate said. "And I've spoken to people very close to her that Tammy Baldwin is seriously considering running for the Senate seat."
Tate also said that people who might be looking at the race include Rep. Ron Kind, Milwaukee Mayor and 2010 gubernatorial nominee Tom Barrett, former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk, and biotechnology executive Kevin Conroy.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: 2012 elections, Herb Kohl, Mike Tate, Recall, Russ Feingold, Scott Walker, Senate '12, Tammy Baldwin, WI-SEN, Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wis. Dems: We Will Challenge GOP 'Racket' Of Recall Signatures
Wisconsin Democrats, who have been waging a campaign to recall Republican state senators and take a majority back in the chamber, are now firing back at the Republican counter-campaigns to recall the Dems. On a conference call with reporters on Thursday morning, state Dem chair Mike Tate and attorney Jeremy Levinson predicted that they would able to successfully challenge the validity of much of the signature-gathering effort by Republicans -- which Tate repeatedly called a "racket."
"At the heart of the Republican effort from the start was a mercenary spirit that naturally used deception and fraud to gain signatures," charged Tate. "In the coming days, you will see affidavits from citizens in these targeted districts who were deceived into signing petitions by the Republican roadies who often refused to identify themselves by their real names."
In particular, Tate said that the Republicans brought in paid signature gatherers from out of state, who were paid on a per-signature basis, and that some of these gatherers had criminal records.
The issue previously came to a head in late March and early April, when one of the state GOP's canvassers, a Colorado man with a criminal record, was fired after he was accused of stealing a backpack containing a couple's keys and cell phones from Lambeau Field, the home football stadium of the Green Bay Packers.
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: Mike Tate, Recall, Scott Walker, Wisconsin , Wisconsin Protests, Wisconsin State Legislature
Wisconsin
Wis. Dems File Ethics Complaint Over Walker's Comments On 'Koch' Call
Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI)
Wisconsin Democrats are continuing their fire on Gov. Scott Walker's infamous phone call with blogger Ian Murphy, who was posing as Republican financier David Koch, in which Walker spoke of his passion for busting the public employee unions. And in their latest move, the Dems have announced that they are filing an ethics complaint with the state's Government Accountability Board -- accusing Walker of serious violations of the law.
"It [the call] showed Scott Walker as a grandiose plotter who thinks of himself as a national figure in the effort to distort the balance of power between working people and big corporations who seek to transform Wisconsin into a low-wage, low-benefits backwater," state Dem chairman Mike Tate said on a conference call with reporters on Monday. "But I'll leave it to you to discuss the political damage it has done to Walker and his corporate masters.
"What we are here to discuss is the fact that in his phone call, Scott Walker clearly violated campaign finance and ethics laws meant precisely to prevent the kind of shameful activity in which Walker was engaged."
PERMALINK | COMMENTS | RECOMMEND RECOMMEND (0)Topics: David Koch, Ian Murphy, Mike Tate, Scott Walker, Wisconsin
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