Utah Group Seeks to Recall Wisconsin Democratic Senators

The conservative American Recall Coalition, a group from Salt Lake City, Utah, is leading the charge to reel in eight Democratic Senators in Wisconsin who are among 14 lawmakers who left the state in protest of Governor Scott Walker's budget repair bill, according to the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board (GAB).

The out-of-state group last week filed with the GAB website to recall the Senators, but initial filings did not have anyone from the local senatorial district as part of the recall requests.

"They didn't have any local people involved, so we contacted them and said they need to have one local person in each district," said GAB spokesman Reid Magney. "They withdrew those initial filings and made new ones and we are waiting for the signed paperwork."

Wisconsin senators targeted in the campaign are Lena Taylor, Spencer Coggs, Jim Holperin, Mark Miller, Robert Wirch, Julie Lassa, Fred Risser and Dave Hansen.

According to a Reuters report, the American Recall Coalition is also campaigning to recall Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik of Arizona, who drew conservative fire last month after linking the Tucson shootings that killed 6 and seriously hurt 13 people, including U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords, to "political vitriol, prejudice and bigotry."

The GAB's Campaign Finance Information website lists separate formal recalls for Holperin, Wirch, Hansen and Miller.

Meanwhile, organizing efforts are underway by United Wisconsin to recall Republican Senators Robert Cowles, Alberta Darling, Sheila Harsdorf, Luther Olsen, Randy Hopper, Glen Grothman, Mary Lazich, and Dan Kapanke, who favor Walker's bill.

A website, recallscottwalker.info, has been set up to gather the more than a half-million signatures needed to recall Walker next January, the earliest that a recall petition can be filed by law. United Wisconsin has also started gathering signatures to recall the embattled governor.

In a video statement Saturday, AFSCME Executive Director Marty Beil encouraged union members to take action to protect Democratic senators against recalls and said they were joining efforts to recall the Republican senators. "We are resolved and we will continue to fight for the middle class," Beil said.