I was up on The Square, and thought “Didn’t any of these people vote?”
But soon learned that there are a lot of Republicans upset at the shadiness of what Walker did. I’ve seen a lot of signs like “I voted republican and all I got was this shitty governor”.
Walker smartly avoided any specifics of what he would do once elected.
Yes, but DeLay ended up being admonished for it by the House Ethics Committee, FWIW: http://www.texasalmanac.com/politics/politics.html
Gov. Oliver Morton of Indiana, a strongly pro-Union ally of President Lincoln, quietly had Republican legislators absent themselves from the capital during the Civil War to deny antiwar Democrats a quorum, and then ruled as a virtual dictator: Oliver P. Morton - Wikipedia
Is there anything in the law that says these legislators can be removed from office if they don’t show up? Not knowing Wisconsin state law, but I assume the legislature can remove a member by vote; but without a quorum, there can be no vote. Just wondering if there are any moves the Governor can make.
While I’ll admit to not have seen any of the Governor’s campaign advertising materials, I’m guessing that “I plan to bust public unions” was a stealth plank of his campaign and wasn’t something he mentioned in any stump speeches. If I’m wrong about that, please let me know.
Interestingly, it turns out that Lincoln himself organized use of a walkout in the Illinois house in 1839:
http://ncsl.typepad.com/the_thicket/2011/02/legislative-walkouts-are-nothing-new.html
It didn’t seem to hurt his subsequent political career. That article lists several more modern instances, including the 2003 Democrat walkout over redistricting in Texas. In 1994, the California Republicans tried it when the assembly was evenly split, and they wanted to prevent Willie Brown becoming speaker. It’s not an unknown tactic.
I’m a building steward in AFT-Wisconsin, Local 3605.
We were GOBSMACKED.
:: don’t get me started ::
It’s not exactly responsive to your post, but here’s a Washington Post article suggesting that Walker has a history of confrontation with unions.
It’s basically an elaborate filibuster.
The governor is safe for a year from recall. Most of the fugitive senators aren’t. They only need to replace one of them with a Republican to be able to go ahead with the majority wants.
I am sure most of the crowd did vote at least once. They still lost.
Allo of those House Democrats won their elections too. They are now doing what they were elected to do. Elections have consequences.
I have a question. Could the Republicans “trick” the Democrats by telling them “you win” and we’ve decided to abandon the controversial vote. Please come back to work now that you’ve won so we can move on to other business.
But when the Democrats come back, they could simply renege once quorum was met.
They were elected to run away?
As Colbert said last night, “Legislators are not allowed to use parliamentary tricks to grind the government to a halt, except on the Federal level.”
They were elected to represent their constituents to the best of their abilities, which they are now doing. This is a legal political tactic no different in substance than a filibuster. Lincoln himself once used the tactic.
In fact, that’s pretty close to the plan that Gov. Walker said to a reporter pretending to be David Koch, except instead of telling them, “you win” he’d tell them, “let’s talk”. Then, once a recess was called, the 19 Republicans would declare that the Democrats’ presence earlier constituted a quorum, and they’d then pass the bill.
This battle is being waged in more than one state: Republicans challenging unions in state capitols - cleveland.com
Note that even if the Wisconsin Democratic Senators were in-state, it may violate the state constitution to force them back into session, as the Wisconsin state constitution prohibits legislators from being arrested while the legislature is in session.
Advice for legislators on the lam: http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/02/25/lawmaker-recommends-all-work-no-play-strategy-for-wis-senators-who-fled-state/?hpt=C2