Several opponents of WI’s Gov. Scott Walker have been receiving middle-of-the-night death threats, as they’ve been circulating petitions to gather signatures in an effort to recall the state’s controversial anti-union Republican Governor.
According to WISC-TV/Channel 3000 in Madison…
“They said, ‘If you don’t stop circulating recall petitions, we will kill you,'” said Peer.
A similar call came to Heather DuBois Bourenane, of Sun Prairie. The United Wisconsin recall worker jumped out of bed when her phone rang around 4 a.m. on Thursday.
“He said I had attracted the attention of some very bad people, and my life and the lives of my family were in danger,” Bourenane said.
She called Sun Prairie police, who confirmed investigators were working on the case.
The news outlet also reports that yard signs supporting the Recall Walker effort have repeatedly been stolen off the property of several home owners.
Last week, we reported on the plans to sabotage the signature gathering effort being discussed openly on a number of Facebook pages. Walker supporters on those pages had been seen talking about their plans to gather signatures in liberal areas of the state and then burn or shred the petitions, rather than turn them in. One person had claimed he’d “be able to destroy 15-20k signatures” or, if granted access to even more petitions, he’d “be able to destroy upwards of 15-20% of the entire collected ballots in the state of Wisconsin.”
Reid Magney, the Public Information Officer for the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board (G.A.B.), the state’s top election authority, told The BRAD BLOG via email late last week that defrauding petitions is a felony crime, and that his agency has been in touch with law enforcement about the purported sabotage schemes…
He said, however, he could not offer specifics, under state law, about any discussions with specific District Attorneys. “We are prohibited from commenting on whether we have referred matters to a DA,” he explained.
More generally, he was able to say: “I can tell you we have had discussions with District Attorneys about the issue of destruction of recall petitions and we take these allegations seriously. We hope law enforcement will be able to devote resources to this issue.”
Caledonia Patch reporter Denise Lockwood subsequently ran two reports last week quoting a local man in Racine who claimed he’d gathered 150 signatures and had planned to not turn those in, as required by law. He also told her that he knew of two other friends who planned to do the same, and that he had been informed through online discussion that some 1,000 others in Wisconsin were planning to similarly — and illegally — undermine the process.
After Lockwood’s first article was published, the man subsequently claimed he’d had a change of heart, and so had one of his two friends.
“It’s not the right thing to do, we should have known better,” the unnamed source is quoted as telling Lockwood who told The BRAD BLOG she personally knows the area man, but did not identify him by name in her reports. She says he’d only agreed to be interviewed on the matter if she agreed not to name him.
On Friday, while guest hosting the Mike Malloy Show, I interviewed Lockwood about the matter, and the journalistic ethics surrounding withholding the name of a man who’d claimed to be in the process of conspiring to commit a felony crime, and who was said to have information on others, potentially hundreds, participating in a scheme to defraud the Recall Walker effort.
You can listen to my 11/18/11 interview with Denise Lockwood here:
Download MP3 or listen online below [appx 18 mins]…
[audio:http://bradblog.com/audio/MikeMalloy_BradFriedman_GuestHost_111811_DeniseLockwood_RecallWalkerFraud.mp3]
Supporters of the Recall Walker effort have a tough hill to climb. They need to gather well over half a million signatures before mid-January in order to put the Governor onto the ballot for a recall election.
Nonetheless, supporters are optimistic. Over the weekend, Democratic backers of the effort held a rally which drew some 25,000 to 30,000 people on a cold, rainy Saturday, according to estimates from the WI State Dept. of Administration reported by Wisconsin State Journal.
At TPM, Eric Kleefeld reports that United Wisconsin, the group managing the recall effort, claims to have already gathered more than 100,000 signatures during their first four days last week, Tuesday through Friday.
On the effort’s first day, United Wisconsin reported Direct Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks were directed at their website, making it inaccessible for a period of time.
Dirty tricks like the ones against the Democrats and labor supporters in the Recall Walker campaign are not new to the Badger State, unfortunately. In our report on the alleged plans to sabotage that effort last week, we detailed a number of other dirty tricks that have been carried out over the past year by supporters of Gov. Walker and by his surrogates at the Koch Brothers-founded Americans for Prosperity.
I’m a restorative justice advocate. But restorative justice requires perpetrators to be serious about taking responsibility for their crimes and committed to the time and effort required to restoring community harmony disrupted by their acts.
These Koch brother minions may be too sociopathic for any such acknowledgment.
I confess that I have a hard time not wishing these fuckwads who are committing or conspiring to commit these felonies ill.
The Egyptians are following our great American democratic principles we taught them.
The Egyptian politicians are resigning because of the Occupy movement displeasure.
That is so American democracy isn’t it?
Scott Walker is so into serving the public, eh?
That would actually make me go out right then and there and circulate MORE recall petitions.
I would work triple time.
Recall supporters should aim to gather 700,000 signatures to overcome those who would illegally dispose of signed recall petitions. So, if and when United Wisconsin reaches its goal, keep gathering more until the time runs out.
First destroying petitions, and now death threats from Walker’s Koched-up Teabaggers. Anyone know if the governor has said anything to condemn these actions?
I am curious why the recall supporters didn’t dial *69 to get the phone number of the caller. I guess when one’s life is threatened the first impulse would be to call the cops. I hope they’re caught.
walker himself has been recorded state that he, certain lawmakers, and perhaps certain others considered provocateur attacks earlier this year.
And obama’s DOJ is standing down – outrageous. Now we see the attacks escalate.
Even considering violence against the citizens of Wisconsin and our great nation is a serious crime.
I fears things will get real ugly here, walker has been given a free pass for talking about terrorism against citizens expressing themselves.
Ralph #5: The threatening callers probably took the precaution of blocking caller-ID, which also prevents *69 from working.
Good news everyone!
Wisc. Dems hit halfway mark in recall effort against Gov. Walker
Organizers working on a campaign to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch are more than half-way to their goal, they announced Monday.
Read more
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2011/11/28/wisconsin-democrats-hit-halfway-mark-in-recall-effort-against-gov-walker/
need further proof? It’s gonna happen whether you like it or not!
Over 55 percent of necessary signatures collected to recall Scott Walker
by Chris Bowers
A whopping 301,214 signatures to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker had been collected as of last night, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin has confirmed to Daily Kos. This is more than 55 percent of the 540,000 required to trigger a recall election.
Republican-leaning areas are providing some of the most energy to the recall campaign. For example, in Columbia County, which George W. Bush narrowly won in 2004, organizers have already exceeded 100 percent of their goal for the entire petition drive. They had 10,033 signatures in hand as of last night, after setting a 60-day target of 9,235.
The recall started big, and hasn’t slowed down at all. With 50,000 signatures gathered in the first two days and 105,000 in the first four, after twelve days grassroots activists are still pulling in 25,000 every single day (excluding Thanksgiving, of course).
United Wisconsin, one of the key grassroots groups involved in the Walker recall, is aiming to turn in signatures on January 13. Every indication is that they will have an Earth-shattering number when they do.
Please, contribute $8 to the recall of Scott Walker by giving to the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. They are making the most of your money so far, and this is only the beginning.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/11/28/1040600/-Over-55-percent-of-necessary-signatures-collected-to-recall-Scott-Walker?via=blog_1
There is so much junk and clutter on your web site, it was hard to find this story. Such a cluttered and gizmo polluted web space is worth about 10 seconds. Check your web logs and see how long people stay on your site. Best regards.
As an Ohioan who is going through this process for the third time now, I would say to Wisconsin citizens: Don’t Give Up!! You can do this. Keep gathering signatures – the more you have, the stronger the message you will send to Walker. Go to public places like libraries to get signatures. A rough estimate is that 70% of your signatures will be valid, that’s why you need to collect at least double the amount needed. I know it’s tough, Wisconsin has a lot fewer people than Ohio, plus you need 25%, we only needed 3% of those who voted in the last gov. election. Ohio has no recall so we are saddled with a lamebrain Governor who wants to be President for the next 3 years. But let me assure you, on election night a few weeks ago, when SB 5 went down big time, that Gov. looked like a whipped pup. Go Wisconsin go!!!!