Wisconsin recall battle finally goes to voters

After a brief but bruising campaign that followed a more than yearlong fight over union rights and Wisconsin's cash-strapped budget, voters in the narrowly divided state began casting ballots Tuesday on whether to recall Gov. Scott Walker.

The first-term Republican was back on the ballot just a year and a half after his election. Enraged Democrats and labor activists gathered more than 900,000 signatures in support of the recall after they failed to stop Walker and his GOP allies in the state Legislature from stripping most public employees of their union right to collectively bargain.

Walker faces a rematch with Democratic Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, whom he beat in 2010 by 5 percentage points, as he tries to become the first U.S. governor to successfully fend off a recall.

At an elementary school in the Milwaukee suburb of Wauwatosa where he cast his ballot not long after polls opened at 7 a.m., Walker said voting day almost came as a relief.

"I think most people are just happy to have the election over," he said. "I think most voters of the state want to have all the attack ads off. They want to have their TVs back. They want to have their lives back."

Barrett meanwhile applauded the voters for turning out in force -- and for being prepared to wait a while to cast their ballots.

"Obviously the lines are very, very long which we take as a very encouraging sign. People are engaged in this," he said. "We've noted over the last 96 hours is around the state the energy has just been building and building and building."

Turnout is key. Polls indicate there are few undecided voters; if the tally is close, swing counties in the west of the state could decide the result. And Democrats are hoping to rally the same level of support that saw the state Capitol overrun with Walker opponents last year.

State elections officials predict that 60 percent to 65 percent of eligible voters will turn out. Government Accountability Board statistics show that 49.7 percent turned out for the 2010 Walker-Barrett race. The board said early turnout was heavy and without problems Tuesday.

William Van Wagner, a 21-year-old student in Madison, waited in a line of about 30 people to cast his ballot for Walker not long after the polls opened.

"It's pretty clear that his policies have worked for us," Van Wagner said.

John Ipsen, 63, a mechanical engineer from Madison, said he opposed everything that Walker has done and that the rare recall -- never before used against a Wisconsin governor -- was clearly necessary.

"It's obviously not done very often so there's a good reason for it," Ipsen said after casting his vote for Barrett, whom he also supported in 2010.

The recall effort against Walker began bubbling last year, shortly after the former Milwaukee County executive successfully pushed through his union rights proposal, which also requires most state workers to pay more for their health insurance and pension benefits.

Walker said that's what was needed to balance the state's budget. But Democrats and labor leaders saw it as a political tactic designed to gut the power of his political opposition. They rallied by the tens of thousands at the state Capitol in protest, but could not stop Republicans who control the state Legislature from approving Walker's plans.

It didn't take long for opponents to call for a recall.

The recall petition drive couldn't officially start until November -- months after Walker's triumph at the Legislature -- because Wisconsin law requires that someone must be in office for at least a year before facing a recall. Organizers hit the streets a week before Thanksgiving and spent two months gathering more than 900,000 signatures -- about 360,000 more than were needed to trigger the election. Barrett was chosen as Walker's opponent in a primary last month.

Now, Walker stands in unique company: He is only the third governor in U.S. history to face a recall vote. The other two lost, most recently California Gov. Gray Davis in 2003.

Not all public workers oppose Walker's moves.

"I believe what he's been doing is the right thing," said Greg Reiman, 55, who works for the Milwaukee County Department on Aging. "I'm paying the additional pension and health, and I'm fine with that."

But 72-year-old William Dixon, a self-employed woodworker from Whitefish Bay who voted for Barrett, said he was disgusted by the governor's collective bargaining policies.

"I don't think he's been truthful," Dixon said. Asking workers to pay more for benefits is one thing, "but I do think they have a right to bargain for wages," he said.

Walker, the 44-year-old son of a minister, has remained unflappable throughout the campaign just as he was during the massive protests that raged at the Statehouse for weeks as lawmakers debated his proposal. Along the way, he's become a star among Republicans and the most successful fundraiser in Wisconsin politics, collecting at least $31 million from around the country since taking office. That obliterated his fundraising record of $11 million from 2010.

Much of the money for the race has come from out of state. About $63 million has been spent on the race so far, including $16 million from conservative groups such as the Republican Governors Association, Americans for Prosperity and the National Rifle Association. The majority of Walker's donations are from people outside Wisconsin.

Democratic groups -- including those funded by unions, the Democratic Governors Association and the Democratic National Committee -- have poured in about $14 million, based on a tally from the government watchdog group the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. Barrett's $4.2 million in donations, meanwhile, were mostly from inside Wisconsin.

Walker wasn't the only politician up for recall. His lieutenant governor, Rebecca Kleefisch, and three Republican state senators also faced votes, and a fourth state Senate seat will be determined after the Republican incumbent resigned rather than face the recall.

Tuesday's vote will also have implications for labor unions and the presidential election in November. Labor unions have a lot at stake because they pushed so hard to force a recall. But when it comes to the presidential race, exactly what those implications are is unclear.

Republicans are hopeful a Walker win would pave the way for Mitt Romney to win Wisconsin, making him the first GOP candidate to carry the state since Ronald Reagan in 1984. If Walker loses, most agree President Barack Obama will have an edge. Either way, the state is likely to remain in play.

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Associated Press writers Todd Richmond in Fitchburg, Dinesh Ramde in Racine and Brian Bakst in Janesville contributed to this report.

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