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What happens if Wisconsin recall voters elect a Democrat and a Republican?
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| Contributor | Homegrown Democrat |
| Last Edited | Homegrown Democrat May 28, 2012 02:59pm |
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| Category | Speculative |
| Author | DINESH RAMDE |
| News Date | Monday, May 28, 2012 07:45:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Wisconsin traditionally elects its governor and lieutenant governor as a pair, but a quirk in next week's recall elections will give voters the chance to elect a Democrat for one office and a Republican for the other — a scenario that could spark a power struggle whenever the top executive leaves the state.
While a bipartisan executive branch is hardly unprecedented considering 18 states elect the offices separately, the unusual arrangement could to lead to some ugly politics in Wisconsin, already considered one of the most polarized states.
The recall efforts against Republican Gov. Scott Walker and Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch stemmed largely from Walker's successful push to strip most public-sector workers of nearly all their collective bargaining rights, which threw the state into an uproar as tens of thousands of protesters swarmed the Capitol for three weeks of raucous demonstrations.
Walker's Democratic opponent is Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, who lost to Walker in 2010. Kleefisch is opposed by Mahlon Mitchell, president of the statewide firefighters' union. Both Democrats were squarely on the other side of the union issue.
Governors have managed to coexist with lieutenant governors of different parties elsewhere, as is the situation in Arkansas, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. But some political experts say the arrangement in Wisconsin could be more reminiscent of California in the 1980s, where things got so out of hand that the state Supreme Court was asked to intervene.
"I think it means the governor would never leave the state," said University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee political scientist Mordecai Lee. "Just think of all the legal complications." |
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