1 million signatures filed for Walker recall

Petitions to recall Gov. Scott Walker are delivered Tuesday to the Government Accountability Board headquarters in Madison. Recall supporters filed about twice as many signatures as they needed. Republicans, meantime, are mobilizing thousands of people to look for flawed signatures.

The Journal Sentinel:

Madison - Democrats seeking to recall Gov. Scott Walker filed more than a million signatures Tuesday, virtually guaranteeing a historic recall election against him later this year.

It would mark the first gubernatorial recall election in Wisconsin history and only the third one in U.S. history. Organizers Tuesday also handed in 845,000 recall signatures against Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, as well as recall petitions against four GOP state senators, including Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald of Juneau.

The sheer number of signatures being filed against Walker - nearly as many as the total votes cast for the governor in November 2010 and about twice as many as those needed to trigger a recall election - ensure the election will be held, said officials with the state Democratic Party and United Wisconsin, the group that launched the Walker recall.

Democrats said they removed an undisclosed number of signatures that were duplicates, illegible or seemingly fake. They acknowledged other problem signatures likely will still turn up, but they expect the effort to hold up easily.

The filing marks a milestone following Walker's controversial legislation last year ending most union bargaining for most public workers. However, Democrats have huge logistical hurdles: There is no candidate yet for them to rally around, and Walker has been able to raise unlimited funds from supporters across the country since the recall effort began.

The governor was scheduled to have a New York City fundraiser Tuesday afternoon hosted by Maurice Greenberg, the founder of troubled financial services corporation American International Group. Walker said through a spokeswoman he was too busy for interviews - although he made time for supportive national and local talk show hosts.

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