WI Recall: Dems Score Another Strong Recruit

More good news:

Oshkosh Deputy Mayor Jessica King announced Wednesday that she’d challenge state Sen. Randy Hopper (R-Fond du Lac) if the state finds recall signatures filed last week to be sufficient.

It will be the second faceoff for the two. Hopper edged King, also a member of the city council in Oshkosh, by less than 200 votes in 2008, after a recount.

I don’t see a website yet, though King (who goes by “Jess”) has a Facebook page and is already up on ActBlue. Her 2008 site was here, so maybe that’ll get revived soon.

Some other folks are also thinking about running in different recalls, on both sides:

In addition, Mary Scray, the vice chairwoman of Brown County Board, said Tuesday that she’d run as a Republican against [Dave] Hansen (D-Green Bay) if that recall is successful in getting certified. If it’s not, she said, she’ll run against him in 2012. …

Both state Rep. Sandy Pasch (D-Whitefish Bay) and former state Rep. Sheldon Wasserman, a Democrat from Milwaukee, say they’re seriously considering challenging [Alberta] Darling if signatures are filed and certified against her.

If you know anything about any of these folks, please tell us in comments.

23 thoughts on “WI Recall: Dems Score Another Strong Recruit”

  1. Is who Darling beat in 08 by one point so he starts off in a better place as he has higher name ID throughout the SD.

  2. I think these would both be strong recruits, either one would run for sure, and both would make it tossup (or at worst lean R).  Wasserman, in similar fashion to King, ran against Darling in 2008 and came within 1,000 votes, so another close race.  

    In my opinion, Pasch would be the stronger challenger.  The reason I say that is that Wasserman was a state rep since the 90’s, so he built up a reputation.  While his name recognition would be higher than Pasch’s, I feel his negatives would also be higher.   Additionally, even though Pasch was only elected in 2008, she has carved out a good reputation for herself as being a solid campaigner and legislator.  In fact, she is the chair of the Milwaukee Legislative Caucus so she definitely has built up a good profile.   I just think that there are more people who would vote against Wasserman because of personality.  

  3. I’m not one to normally be the wet blanket, but should we be worried that we’re running re-treads in the recalls who were losers in 2008, the same 2008 when Obama won the state by 415K votes (56-43), Dems took 5 of 8 house seats and so on.

    While I don’t doubt outrage about the union stuff, I’m not sure I believe it can outweigh turnout advantages Obama provided in 2008 and I don’t think the union thing flipped that many Darling/Hopper voters to the Dem side.

  4. Sen. Minority Leader Mark Miller said at the Dane County Democratic Party monthly meeting to expect 1-2 signature filings a week over the next few weeks.

    Also, the field organizer recruiting volunteers there mentioned that they would be sending people to Darling and Cowles’ districts this weekend, despite the fact that Olsen’s district is much closer to Madison. This suggests to me that the Olsen signatures will be the next to be filed.

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