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Amy Goodman: It’s One Person, One Vote, Not 1 Percent, One Vote
from truthdig:
Its One Person, One Vote, Not 1 Percent, One Vote
Posted on Jun 7, 2012
By Amy Goodman
The failed effort to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is widely seen as a crisis for the labor movement, and a pivotal moment in the 2012 U.S. presidential-election season. Walker launched a controversial effort to roll back the power of Wisconsins public employee unions, and the unions pushed back, aided by strong, grass-roots solidarity from many sectors. This week, the unions lost. Central to Walkers win was a massive infusion of campaign cash, saturating the Badger state with months of political advertising. His win signals less a loss for the unions than a loss for our democracy in this post-Citizens United era, when elections can be bought with the help of a few billionaires.
In February 2011, the newly elected Walker, a former Milwaukee county executive, rolled out a plan to strip public employees of their collective-bargaining rights, a platform he had not run on. The backlash was historic. Tens of thousands marched on the Wisconsin Capitol, eventually occupying it. Walker threatened to call out the National Guard. The numbers grew. Despite Walkers strategy to divide and conquer the unions (a phrase he was overheard saying in a recorded conversation with a billionaire donor), the police and firefighters unions, whose bargaining rights he had strategically left intact, came out in support of the occupation. Across the world, the occupation of Tahrir Square in Egypt was in full swing, with signs in English and Arabic expressing solidarity with the workers of Wisconsin.
The demands for workers rights were powerful and sustained. The momentum surged toward a demand to recall Walker, along with a slew of his Republican allies in the Wisconsin Senate. Then laws tempered the movements power. The Wisconsin recall statute required that an elected official be in office for one year before a recall. Likewise, a loophole in the law allowed the target of the recall to raise unlimited individual donations, starting when the recall petitions are filed. Thus, Walkers campaign started raising funds in November 2011. His opponent, Tom Barrett, the mayor of Milwaukee, was limited to individual donations of up to $10,000, and had less than one month to campaign after winning the Democratic Party primary May 8.
Coupled with the impact of the U.S. Supreme Courts Citizens United decision, the Wisconsin loophole set the stage for grossly lopsided fundraising between Walker and Barrett, and an election battle that was the most expensive in Wisconsins history. According to the most recent state campaign-finance filings, Walkers campaign raised over $30.5 million, more than seven times Barretts reported $3.9 million. After adding in super PAC spending, estimates put the recall-election spending at more than $63.5 million. ....................(more)
The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/its_one_person_one_vote_not_1_percent_one_vote_20120607/
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Amy Goodman: It’s One Person, One Vote, Not 1 Percent, One Vote (Original Post)
marmar
Jun 2012
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(108,903 posts)1. Du rec. Nt
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