In Wisconsin, the battle is 'far from over'

By Darren Hauck, for USA TODAY

Allen Schneidewent, left, owner of Rockhead's Comic and Games in Kenosha, Wis., says "There was a bunch of ways they could have cut the budget."

By Judy Keen, USA TODAY

Updated 3/21/2011 10:27:21 AM

NEW BERLIN, Wis. — Robert Bakic, owner of a car repair shop in Republican state Sen. Mary Lazich's district, admires her for voting in favor of legislation that limited collective bargaining for most public employees.

Elizabeth Galewski, a technical college professor directly affected by the divisive law, is organizing an effort to recall Lazich.

Pleasant Prairie real estate developer Dan Hunt heads a petition-gathering campaign seeking the recall of Democratic state Sen. Bob Wirch, who left the state to avoid voting on the bill.

Joan Schultz, who works at a bakery in Kenosha, says her senator "definitely" did the right thing.

Republican Gov. Scott Walker signed the bill March 11, but the battle in Wisconsin, which launched a national debate on union rights, continues.

• WALKER: Gov. releases e-mails about union rights

• IN COURT: Judge blocks contentious Wis. union law

• PHOTOS: Thousands rally for union rights

Eight Republican senators who voted for the measure and eight Democrats who delayed the vote by denying supporters a quorum are targets of recall attempts.

A Wisconsin judge issued a temporary restraining order Friday blocking the law from taking effect because of a lawsuit that contends Republicans violated open-meetings laws to enact it.

"This is far from over," says Kenneth Mayer, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

In Wisconsin, legislators can be recalled after they have served at least one year of their term. Recall organizers have 60 days to collect signatures equal to 25% of votes cast in the district in the last gubernatorial election. If they succeed, a special election is held.

Backlash continues

Lazich, who was elected to the Wisconsin Senate in 1998, had no Democratic opponent when she won another four-year term in 2008. Still, she says of the recall effort, "you have to take it very seriously because people are very angered and motivated."

She hopes the backlash will abate soon. "As people understand the bill more and more, I think they're going to realize that it needs to be done and it's not as draconian as people are portraying it to be," she says. Public workers still have ample protections and benefits, she says.

Lazich, 58, says she does not regret her vote. It was necessary to help ease the state's budget shortfall without dramatic tax increases, she says. Many of her constituents have thanked her, she says, but others "have expressed hatred for me."

Galewski, 36, says people signing the recall petition are transferring "their confusion and anger" into "meaningful activity." Most, she says, "feel they aren't getting the representation that they thought they voted for."

Bakic, 58, has a daughter and sister who are teachers, but he's proud of Lazich. "She's not afraid to go against the grain," he says. "Our budget situation was getting worse. We had to do this."

Retiree and former union member Ed Geb, 62, has mixed feelings about the debate, but he disagrees with those who want to recall Lazich because she and other Republicans "did what they were paid to do," he says.

Sharp divisions remain

Wirch says he has no regrets. The union bill, he says, "was the most shameful piece of legislation I have seen in the state of Wisconsin." He was elected to the Senate in 1996 and got twice as many votes as his opponent in 2008.

"People stop me in the grocery store and say, 'Thank you for fighting the good fight,' " Wirch, 67, says. "My gut instinct tells me the vast majority of people are in favor of worker rights and collective bargaining. There's a fundamental sense of fairness in this state and Republicans violated it."

Wirch takes the recall effort seriously. "I don't think there's any middle ground," he says. "People either love me or hate me."

Hunt, 56, says Wirch's absence prompted him to get involved in the recall bid. "It was an egregious action which required constituent action," he says.

Schultz, 75, says Wirch's decision took courage. "Somebody's got to fight for the little guy," she says. "Going after working people — it's not right."

Allen Schneidewent, 50, owner of a comics and gaming store in Kenosha, is more conflicted.

He disapproves of the Democratic senators' absence, but he sympathizes with public workers. "There were a bunch of ways they could have cut the budget before going after them," he says.

Mayer says the dispute won't end soon here or across the USA. Wisconsin's fight, he says, "is the opening move in what is going to be a more sustained debate about the place of public unions."