Wisconsin braces for bitter recall election

There is no question that the unions, led by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, the Service Employees International Union and state’s teachers union, are doing everything they can to oust Walker. But much of the energy behind the recall is homegrown.

Anti-Walker forces needed about 550,000 valid signatures on their petitions to get the recall on the ballot. With the help of 30,000 petition carriers who crisscrossed the state, they collected more than 900,000. Rarely has a political party in a state this size begun a campaign with 900,000 identified supporters — names, addresses and in many cases e-mail addresses. To put that in perspective, Walker got 1.1 million votes when he was elected in 2010.

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