Recall Efforts In Wisconsin Face Tough Odds
The Wisconsin recall efforts have been launched in the wake of a partisan standoff over public employee pay, benefits and collective bargaining guarantees.
Cronin says history suggests that the attempts to dislodge eight Democratic and eight Republican lawmakers are unlikely to succeed. Even Republican Gov. Scott Walker, a lightning rod for Democratic anger, is likely to be safe from ouster because state-level recall efforts have a very high likelihood of fizzling out.
The state's 14 Democratic senators remain sequestered in Illinois, where they fled three weeks ago to avoid a showdown vote involving Walker's state budget. The governor wants to use budget-related legislation to significantly reduce collective bargaining for workers. The issue has deeply divided state residents.
"People may be confused and annoyed on both sides — with the governor for being ham-handed about cuts, and with Democrats for leaving the state to avoid a vote," Cronin says. "But recall efforts very rarely succeed at the state level."
Eighteen states allow the recall of state officials. Though eight states require specific grounds for recall — from incompetence in Alaska, to a felony conviction in Kansas — Wisconsin is among those with no such rules.
Local-Level Recalls More Common
Though many point to the dramatic recall of California Gov. Gray Davis, a Democrat, in 2003 as a defining grass-roots success, it was actually an anomaly, researchers say.
The most recent prior recall of a governor? More than 80 years earlier, when North Dakota Gov. Lynn Frazier was ousted during his third term, a victim of anger over a downturn in the state's farming economy, worsened by a drought.
Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/03/08/134340952/recall-efforts-in-wisconsin-face-tough-odds?ft=1&f=1003