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The Republican leader of the state Senate said Friday he expects recall elections to proceed against three of his colleagues, despite challenges they made to thousands of signatures on petitions seeking their ouster from office. Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald said he is hopeful, though, that his election can be blocked through the challenges he made to the Government Accountability Board on Thursday. As for the others, Fitzgerald said, "They're not even close." Fitzgerald was the only one of the four who clearly challenged more than enough signatures to void an election. But whether to reject the signatures is up to...

MADISON — The challenges begin. Four Republican state senators targeted for recall filed challenges late Thursday, contesting signatures collected on petitions in the campaign. Just how many challenges were filed was unclear late Thursday — the candidates weren’t talking and the Government Accountability, or GAB, was busy filing the challenge documents. State Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, in an earlier news release, said he would contest 4,300 signatures as invalid, more than meeting the threshold to halt a recall election. The Committee to Recall Scott Fitzgerald needed to collect 16,742 signatures from the 13th Senate District electorate to force a recall....

Madison - A state Court of Appeals on Friday vacated an order requiring election officials to more aggressively check for duplicate and fictitious signatures to recall Gov. Scott Walker. The Madison-based appeals court took that step because it found the trial court judge had improperly barred Democratic recall committees from intervening in the case brought by the Republican governor. Walker's campaign in December sued the state Government Accountability Board, arguing it did not plan to do enough to find duplicate and fictitious names on the petitions. The recall groups tried to intervene in the case, but Waukesha County Circuit Judge...

Last Oct. 3, four people who had met by chance seven months earlier sat down together over Mexican food to hash out when to launch the recall effort against Gov. Scott Walker. These board members of United Wisconsin, the political action committee created with the sole purpose of recalling the governor, along with founder Michael Brown via conference call, spent two and a half hours weighing the pros and cons of a decision that would pit the fervent hopes of thousands of deeply alienated Wisconsin citizens against a governor with fundraising prowess and an unflappable commitment to his conservative agenda....

Madison -- Democrats on Tuesday announced three of four of their candidates for likely Senate recalls. The lineup is largely as expected: Former Sen. John Lehman will run against Sen. Van Wanggaard of Racine; Rep. Donna Seidel will run against Sen. Pam Galloway of Wausau; and former Rep. Kristen Dexter will run against Sen. Terry Moulton of Chippewa Falls. Lehman served in the Senate for one term but was defeated in November 2010 by Wanggaard. "With the announcement today of Kristin Dexter, Donna Seidel and John Lehman as candidates to replace Walker's blindly loyal lieutenants, Democrats are poised to complete...

The four Republican Wisconsin state senators targeted for recall said Thursday that collectively they have about $734,000 in the bank to fight efforts to remove them from office. ~snip~ Recall organizers submitted more than enough signatures on Tuesday to force elections in all four districts. State elections officials are in the process of verifying those signatures, which could take months. It's not known when any elections may be but most expect them to be in the spring or summer. Under state law, anyone targeted for recall can raise unlimited amounts until an election is certified. In regular elections, donations are...

Snips from Excerpt Only Website: Senators from both sides of the aisle are warning that looming EPA regulations on gasoline could impose billions of dollars in additional costs on the industry and end up adding up to 25 cents to every gallon of gas.  Citing the nearly $3.40-a-gallon average price of gas and the state of the economy, the senators said "now is not the time for new regulations that will raise the price of fuel even further." 

The national labor unions have accumulated more than 500,000 signatures on their petition to recall Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin, so they are getting close. There is no process, apparently, for validating the signatures, so it is impossible to say how many are fraudulent. But it seems probable that one way or another, a recall election will take place in May. Will that election be a triumph for the Democrats? Ann Althouse thinks not: Let’s assume the signature-gatherers hit the mark and trigger a recall. Walker can only be removed if the Democrats come up with an opponent who beats...

Senators from maple syrup-producing states are seeking a law to make selling the fake stuff a punishable offense. Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Susan Collins, R-Maine, proposed legislation Thursday to make selling fraudulent maple syrup a felony. The bill, co-sponsored by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is called the Maple Agriculture Protection and Law Enforcement (MAPLE) Act. Leahy stated in a press release that he is alarmed at the increasing number of people and businesses claiming to sell Vermont maple syrup but actually selling something "that is not maple syrup at all." "This is fraud, plain and simple, and it undermines...

Senators urge baseball to ban tobaccoPosted: Oct 18, 2011 11:58 AM by AP WASHINGTON (AP) - Four U.S. senators and health officials from the cities hosting the World Series are urging the baseball players union to agree to a ban on chewing tobacco at games and on camera. The senators, including No. 2 Democrat Dick Durbin of Illinois, and health officials from St. Louis and Arlington, Texas, made the pleas in separate letters, obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press. The World Series between the Texas Rangers and St. Louis Cardinals begins in St. Louis Wednesday night. "When players use smokeless...

Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Max Baucus (D-Mont.), the ranking member and chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, respectively, on Tuesday introduced an amendment to the Constitution that would allow Congress to pass laws preventing the physical desecration of the American flag. Tuesday was Flag Day. The two senators have introduced this legislation in the past, and believe that an amendment is needed in order to give Congress the right to protect the flag. Hatch explained on Tuesday that under a 1990 Supreme Court ruling, burning or destroying the flag is protected speech, and that any law against these actions...

Dem senators want to warn states against targeting Planned ParenthoodPosted by Stephanie Condon May 27, 2011 10:10 AM Thirty Democratic senators sent a letter to the Obama administration on Thursday, urging them to warn Medicaid directors at the state level that it's against the law to block Medicaid funds or Title X family planning funds from going to clinics that provide abortion services, like Planned Parenthood. The letter comes in response to Indiana's new law, which took effect May 10, barring state agencies from entering contracts with or giving grants to entities (besides hospitals) that perform abortions. Republican lawmakers in...

Republican senators press president on War Powers deadline Washington (CNN) – As the U.S. military campaign in Libya approaches the 60-day mark this Friday, six Republican senators wrote President Obama asking if he will comply with the War Powers Act, which says Congress must authorize action that lasts more than 60 days. "Friday is the final day of the statutory sixty-day period for you to terminate the use of the United States Armed Forces in Libya under the War Powers Resolution. Last week some in your Administration indicated use of the United States Armed Forces will continue indefinitely, while others...

Washington— The Obama administration is refusing to provide information that congressional auditors say they need to root out waste and fraud in federal programs that pay out billions of dollars in disability benefits, stirring complaints about White House open-government practices.The position taken by the Health and Human Services Department has resulted in a standoff with congressional investigators, who want to flush out cases of people who obtain jobs while collecting federal disability payments. That could be a violation of law under certain circumstances.

Republicans on the Hill are taking President Obama’s nominee for deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) as a sign the White House is not serious about cutting spending. Heather Higginbottom, a longtime policy advisor to Democratic politicians, was nominated by the president on January 7 to replace acting Deputy Director Rob Nabors. “I believe it is pretty clear from the opposition that she is seen as a political operative and that members see this as a sign that President Obama has no interest in having a serious discussion about reducing spending,” one Republican staffer told The...

Just wanted to find out and in the process, share any news that you Freepers may or may not have heard about Wisconsin and the weak kneed Democrat Senators. I know they are supposed to arrive home today but Drudge really has not reported any details (if there are any to report)........

Sad that Fox doesnt have the flexibility to cover this amazing story. CNN and MSNBC all over this Heads need to roll at FOX

Efforts to recall 14 Republican and Democratic senators in Wisconsin picked up momentum Tuesday while Gov. Scott Walker released emails suggesting the two sides discussed compromises in the three-week standoff over the governor's "budget-repair" bill. A handful of emails between the governor's staff and top Democrats appear to show the governor softening his position on collective bargaining for public employee unions, which has been at the center of the stalemate. Fourteen Democratic senators left the state on Feb. 17 to prevent a vote on Mr. Walker's legislation. The governor, who has previously said collective-bargaining rights should be restricted to wages,...

Five runaway Democratic Wisconsin state senators made a pit stop Tuesday at a Grayslake hotel where they watched a budget address by Republican Gov. Scott Walker. Wisconsin's Democratic nomadic senators who surfaced at Grayslake's Comfort Suites are among 14 legislators who bolted for Illinois on Feb. 17 in protest of Walker's proposal that has infuriated public employees. After the senators left, a vote has been unable to occur on Walker's plan to have public workers contribute more to their pensions and health insurance, while losing the ability to collectively bargain benefits and work conditions. “We must work together to bring...

Missing senators rely heavily on union campaign dollarsBy Daniel Bice and Ben Poston of the Journal Sentinel Feb. 28, 2011 12:20 p.m. The 14 Wisconsin Democratic senators who fled to Illinois share more than just political sympathy with the public employees and unions targeted by Gov. Scott Walker's budget-repair bill. The Senate Democrats count on those in the public sector as a key funding source for their campaigns. In fact, one out of every five dollars raised by those Democratic senators in the past two election cycles came from public employees, such as teachers and firefighters, and their unions, a...

Taxing Hiding SenatorsPosted: 11:53 AM Feb 28, 2011 ROCKFORD (WIFR) -- As Illinois becomes a haven for Democrats on the run. Some Northern Illinois Senators think the legislators should be taxed for the time they spend in the Land of Lincoln. Republican State Rep. Mike Tryon of Crystal Lake says he plans to introduce a measure to the legislature to tax the Wisconsin senators for their time working in Illinois. The 14 democrats have been spotted several times in the Stateline over the last week after fleeing the badger state to stall a vote that would strip unions collective bargaining...

Local Ad Pokes Fun at Wisconsin SenatorsReported by: Alex Shabad It's gone from a state-wide search to a city-wide joke. The 14 runaway Wisconsin senators probably never knew they'd be part of a marketing campaign called "Hideaway in Rockford." "In the video you never find anyone who's a senator but you do find people getting away from the work place world" says John Groh, President of the Rockford Area Convention and Visitors Bureau. It's meant to highlight "getaway spots" and deals at restaurants, sporting events. And of course, the clock tower where the senators first arrived. "It’s very very cute,...

MADISON, Wisconsin (Reuters) - Wisconsin Senate Republicans sent police on Thursday to find at least one of the 14 runaway Democrats who fled the state to block a vote on a spending bill that would curtail public union bargaining rights. Republicans sent state patrol officers to the homes of the Democrats in a failed attempt to break a standoff that has blocked Republican Governor Scott Walker's proposal to strip most collective bargaining rights from public union workers. All 14 Democrats in the Senate fled to Illinois last week to deny Republicans a quorum and a vote on the bill, which...

MADISON, Wis. — State senators who miss two or more session days will no longer get paid through direct deposit. They’ll have to pick up their checks in person on the Senate floor during a session.

Wisconsin senators living day-to-day south of borderEscape to Illinois to avoid vote on budget leaves lawmakers short on essentials By Dawn Rhodes, Hailey Branson-Potts and Erin Meyer, Tribune reporters 8:05 p.m. CST, February 21, 2011 **SNIP** Neither the Illinois nor the Wisconsin constitutions allow for the arrest of a member of the state legislature during the session unless the lawmaker is being charged with a felony, treason or a breach of the peace. "Gov. Walker has said in the last few days that he has no intention to order police to arrest lawmakers," said his press secretary, Cullen Werwie. Mordecai...

A handful of Democrat state senators have fled Wisconsin to apparently avoid having to debate the issues of importance to the people of Wisconsin. Can you help find them?Where's My Senator?

Wisconsin senators' absence raises questions on tacticBy Eric Johnson – 17 mins ago CHICAGO (Reuters) – As demonstrators wrangled on Saturday over Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker's move to weaken public unions, analysts weighed the consequences of 14 Democratic senators' decision to flee the state to stall the bill's consideration. **SNIP** "As far as the constitution goes, there is nothing that expressly forbids their actions," Copelovitch said. "But if the same thing that is happening in Wisconsin spreads to other states, there should be explicit rules written to forbid it." Senator Jon Erpenbach said Friday that the senators were prepared to...

Maybe it's time for the Unions to have restrictions on what they can and can't do. When a Union's desires trump taxpayers, lawmakers and legislation, it's time to take a hard look at them. And do we really think it's a good idea for the President of the United States to weigh in on the Unions' side of this? No. If anything, that office should be standing up for legislators who are taking THEIR job and our county's DEBT seriously.

Capitol Chaos: State Patrol Goes After Democratic SenatorsBy Jay Sorgi MADISON - According to the Wisconsin senate majority leader, the Governor's office is sending out state troopers to go after Wisconsin's Democratic Senate members to bring in a vote on Governor Walker's budget bill which would dramatically limit government workers union's ability to negotiate many of their benefits. "They are prepared to dispatch state troopers to go out to some of the residences of some of the senators," said Republican State Senator Scott Fitzgerald on Newsradio 620 WTMJ's "Midday with Charlie Sykes." "We don't know that everybody is out of...

Are you enjoying your time off kiddos? Welcome to the real world! All that stuff your teachers have been telling you about democracy and elections, well, it was all a load of Wisconsin cow fodder. In the real world agitators, blackmailers, and community organizers trump the law. Elections only matter to your teachers when they win. If they lose it’s time to take to the streets and protest, and file injunctions in the nearest available court. They learned that from their hero, Barack Obama. When he got elected they were happy, remember? Do you also remember how excited they were...

Stupid enough to think that any Democrats want to be 'friends'?

Sen. Chuck Schumer last week lit into New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie for pulling the plug on that $8.7 billion trans-Hudson rail tunnel. “A terrible, terrible decision,” Schumer told a Crain’s breakfast. Schumer being Schumer, of course, he sees in Christie’s decision the coming of a national apocalypse — a “turning point,” he said, that historians will one day look back on as the day when we “stopped looking toward the future.” Hyperbole, thy name is Chuck Schumer. Fortunately, Chris Christie is not one to be intimidated, even by so formidable a presence as Chuck Schumer’s — and, even more...

I am sending the following to my new congressional representative and, if you agree, please do likewise. This country is in ENOUGH trouble without defeated and often embittered officials vindictively getting in a few licks at the folks who sent them packing -- not to mention the REST of us! Representative XXXX, The recent "lame duck" activity in the House and Senate makes clear the need for legislation to prevent ousted incumbents from introducing or voting on legislation prior to the seating of the new member. When an incumbent elected public official is not returned to office, it is the...

Republicans need to hear from us just like the Democrats do so please contact both your Senators now. Just 4 eye-popping numbers in the Reid "omnibus" spending bill say it all: *1,924 pages long at $575.13 million spent per page *$1 billion -- for pre-funding of the un-Constitutional Obama/Pelosi/Reid health care takeover *6,488 pork-barrel earmarks identified so far Think about this. After failing to complete its budget for yet another year, this failed Senate is pushing this $1.1 trillion monstrosity of deficit spending. As Harry Reid arrogantly said, "We're not through. Congress ends January 4."

The 19 Senators Who Voted To Censor The Internetfrom the free-speech-isn't-free dept This is hardly a surprise but, this morning (as previously announced), the lame duck Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously voted to move forward with censoring the internet via the COICA bill -- despite a bunch of law professors explaining to them how this law is a clear violation of the First Amendment. What's really amazing is that many of the same Senators have been speaking out against internet censorship in other countries, yet they happily vote to approve it here because it's seen as a way to make many...

The 2010 campaign has so rattled senators up for reelection in 2012 that they’re already moving quickly to figure out how to survive. Veteran Democrats such as Kent Conrad of North Dakota and Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico are weighing retirement. Establishment Republicans such as Orrin Hatch of Utah and Dick Lugar of Indiana are already moving to fend off potential primaries from the right. Freshmen like Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Jon Tester of Montana are stepping up fundraising, and red-state Democrats like Claire McCaskill of Missouri are talking up their independence from the party. Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1110/45320.html#ixzz15lQqVY6V

Transportation Safety Administration chief John Pistole and several senators from both parties defended the new, enhanced airport security screening procedures as necessary in the face of a persistent and evolving terrorist threat in a hearing Wednesday on Capitol Hill. Pistole, calm and confident in the face of an increasing public outcry against the procedures, talked extensively about the repercussions of last year's attempted Christmas Day bombing being the impetus for the enhanced screenings before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, TSA's oversight committee. "We know the terrorists' intent is still there," Pistole testified. "We are using technology and protocols...

Joe Miller, Alaska’s Republican nominee for the United States Senate, recently expressed support for an idea that is rapidly gaining steam in Tea Party circles: the repeal of the Seventeenth Amendment. Miller subsequently backtracked from his statement, but he shouldn’t have: Repealing the Seventeenth Amendment would go a long way toward restoring federalism and frustrating special-interest influence over Washington. Ratified in 1913, the Seventeenth Amendment replaced the election of U.S. senators by state legislators with the current system of direct election by the people. By securing the Seventeenth Amendment’s ratification, progressives dealt a blow to the Framers’ vision of the...

BANGOR, Maine — Guess who’s coming to dinner? Waylaid in Bangor by bad weather farther to the north and east, a political who’s who of high-profile travelers greeted troops at Bangor International Airport on Friday night and livened up the local downtown scene before flying out early Saturday. [snip] [Sen Collins said "Rebecca Hupp (airport mgr)] told us they were expecting two planeloads of troops shortly after 5 p.m.,” she said. “She asked if we would be willing to wait at the airport and greet them.” Collins filled her guests in on the city’s storied troop greeters program. [snip] The...

Senators demand explanation for Clinton’s remarksBy The Canadian Press Published: October 21, 2010 2:33 PM CALGARY — Two U.S. senators are demanding an explanation from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who last week suggested she was “inclined to” approve the controversial Keystone XL crude oil pipeline. At a speaking engagement in San Francisco last Friday, Clinton was challenged on the State Department’s decision to approve Enbridge Inc.’s (TSX:ENB) Alberta Clipper pipeline, which ships oilsands crude to Wisconsin. Construction wrapped up on Alberta Clipper this spring. Clinton responded by saying a decision had yet to be made on another pipeline,...

What do U.S. Senate candidates Mike Lee and Sam Granato have to do with the murder of 120 emigrants passing through Utah territory in 1857? Mike Lee’s connection to the Mountain Meadows Massacre is pretty straightforward. His great-great-grandfather, John D. Lee, was made a scapegoat for this darkest episode in Utah history. The facts of the tragedy are known — a wagon train was ambushed and massacred by Iron County Mormons and their Indian allies. The Fancher party out of Arkansas had the ill fortune to be passing through when Mormons were gripped by hysteria —fears that an approaching federal...

Tea-party activists, keen to build on their success toppling GOP incumbents in primaries this year, are already targeting more Republican veterans in the 2012 election. GOP senators like Bob Corker, above, have drawn criticism from tea-party activists for some of the positions they have taken over the years. Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine, one of the most liberal Republicans in Congress, already has a conservative GOP primary opponent. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R., Utah), Sen. Bob Corker (R., Tenn.) and Sen. Richard Lugar (R., Indiana) have all drawn fire from the right wing of their party. Tea-party activists have put these...

For those who voted to allow illegal immigrants to have social security benefits, my questions is: Other than to buy votes from illegals, why would you dilute my contributions and benefits from the Social Security program? As you might expect, the vote is mostly Democrats with a liberal sprinkling of RINO's. WHO VOTED "NO" TO MAKE ENGLISH OUR OFFICIAL LANGUAGE? WHO VOTED AND HOW THEY VOTED... It will soon be payback time for these traitors - forward this list to everyone you know...... Don't forget. November 2 is Take out the trash day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The following senators voted against making English...

Forgive the vanity, but wanted to put a goal/slogan out there. Here's 30 states who have the political base to elect 60 conservative senators, and form a firewall against RINOs and liberals. 1) MT 2) ID 3) NV 4) UT 5) WY 6) CO 7) NM 8) TX 9) OK 10) TN 11) KS 12) NB 13) SD 14) ND 15) AZ 16) MO 17) AR 18) MS 19) LA 20) AL 21) GA 22) SC 23) NC 24) VA 25) WV 26) KY 27) OH 28) IN 29) FL 30) AK This cycle looks excellent for purging libs and...

Otter shifts stand on 17th Amendment repeal; The Spokesman-Review Idaho Gov. Butch Otter declared during a political debate today that he doesn’t favor repeal of the 17th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution - though he’s been sharply critical of the amendment for the past year, including in his keynote speech at a Tea Party rally in Spokane in April. The amendment shifted selection of U.S. senators from state Legislatures to a vote of the people, and repealing it is a plank in Idaho’s Republican Party platform. The governor’s comments came as he and Democratic challenger Keith Allred sparred over everything...

At least three Democratic senators have been subjects of false reports of their deaths in the past two days, prompting the U.S. Capitol Police to open an investigation into the matter. Several news outlets received a hoax e-mail news release, announcing the death of Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) on Tuesday. Leahy, 70, who participated in July 4 events, is alive and well, according to spokesman David Carle. “It was spoofed to look as if it had come from the office,” Carle said. A copy of the e-mail, posted on the Web site of Washington’s WTOP radio, said Leahy had died...

The New York Times recently published two back-to-back articles (here and here) mocking members of the Tea Party Movement for supporting repeal of the 17th Amendment to the Constitution—the one that changed the election of US Senators from state legislatures to the popular vote system we have today. Having endorsed this idea myself on occasion, I am compelled to say that just because some crazy people endorse an idea doesn’t necessarily make the idea crazy. Following are links to some serious commentaries supporting a return to the original system of electing senators established by the Constitution.   George Mason Law...

Ted Kennedy's KGB Correspondence By Kevin Mooney on 6.22.10 @ 6:08AM Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's self-serving, secret correspondence with Soviet agents during the height of the Cold War included proposals for collaborative efforts designed to undermine official U.S. policy set by Democratic and Republican administrations, KGB documents show. With the media now reporting on the late senator's just released Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) file, now is an opportune time for a more expansive investigation into Kennedy's KGB contacts. The agency took a keen interest in a 1961 "fact-finding" trip the Massachusetts Democrat took to Mexico and other parts of...

Eight Republican senators are asking Barack Obama to validate rumors that he is considering "deferred action or parole" to millions of illegal aliens in the United States

Tell Your Senators No Abortions at Tax-Funded US Military Bases Washington, DC -- The battle is continuing over whether Congress should support an amendment that would open up taxpayer-funded U.S. military base hospitals to doing abortions. A ban has been in place for years that prevents such abortions and the last time it was lifted, military doctors refused to do abortions. http://LifeNews.com/nat6410.html