Tom Barrett wins Wisconsin recall primary
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett has won the Democratic primary to face Gov. Scott Walker (R) in a recall election next month.
The recall will be a rematch. Barrett lost to Walker by five points in 2010. Since then, Walker has been under fire from unions for stripping public employees of their collective bargaining rights.
“Tonight, I am humbled by and grateful for the support of Wisconsinites across our great state,” Barrett said in a statement. “[W]e are united in knowing that we must work together to end Scott Walker’s ideological civil war.”
Barrett was not the preferred candidate of the public employee unions who sparked the recall. That was former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk. But Barrett benefited from higher name recognition and political establishment support. 
Democratic Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett refers to a newspaper headline on Thursday, April 26, 2012, in Milwaukee that says Wisconsin’s job losses are the worst in the country.
(Dinesh Ramde – AP)
Unions quickly rallies around the nominee. “Tom Barrett is a strong leader who will end the political turmoil Scott Walker has brought to this state and reunite Wisconsin to get us moving forward again,” said Kristen Crowell, executive director of the labor coalition We Are Wisconsin.
“AFSCME members have been proud to support our friend Kathleen Falk,” said AFSCME Council 24 Executive Director Marty Beil. AFSCME clashed with Barrett in Milwaukee and criticized him more harshly than other unions in the primary. “But the ultimate goal has always been to defeat Scott Walker.”
Falk herself encouraged her supports to help Barrett, saying in a statement that “the next four weeks may be the most important in our state’s history.”
The movement against Walker began with protests in February of 2011 and quickly turned into an extended recallcampaign against the Republicans who instituted the collective bargaining reforms.
Democrats attempted to take control of the state Senate last summer; they ousted two Republican legislators but fell one seat short of control. Last fall, nearly a million Wisconsinites signed petitions to recall Walker.
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Posted by RobertButler
on May 8 2012. Filed under 2012 Presidential Campaign.
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