Recall signature drives come to an end By Glen Moberg, Wisconsin Public Radio
Monday marked the end of the recall drives against state Senators in Wisconsin, with six Republicans and three Democrats now facing special elections this summer. Organizers fell short of the signatures they needed to force a recall of Democrat Julie Lassa of Stevens Point.
When organizers tallied up the signatures, they had less than half of the 15,879 they would have needed to recall Senator Lassa. Scott Noble, a former Marshfield alderman and Tea Party activist, headed up the drive. He says "we ended up with the final count to be at 6,053, which is a significant number. It's well short of what we need."
Noble says his effort was staffed entirely with volunteers, and he is not happy at what he sees as a lack of support from local Republican Party officials. He says "some of the other ones (recall efforts) had backing from political parties and folks that were paid to do it, (while some in the GOP) actually worked against us."
Noble says he led the drive against Lassa because of "her dereliction of duty when she fled the state to delay the collective bargaining budget bill." But Lassa's supporters say her self-imposed exile was no picnic, noting she was seven month pregnant at the time.
Fellow Stevens Point Democrat assemblyman Louis Molepske says the failure of the recall shows that people in the district agree with Lassa's opposition to the budget bill. He says "obviously, the recall against Sen. Lassa fell significantly short. People do not like the bill, and want people to pay their fair share, but not go after people's employment rights or ability to negotiate with their employer."
This has been a good couple of days for Julie Lassa. Monday, the recall effort against her failed. Sunday she gave birth to a healthy baby girl, which is why she was unavailable for comment.
http://www.wsaw.com/home/headlines/Deadline_Passes_for_Lassa_Recall_121960934.html
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