… with the resignation of Pam Galloway, effective tomorrow. The senate will be split 16-16 among Republicans and Democrats, meaning that is it unlikely Governor Walker will get any more legislation through before his recall election.
Galloway was already one of four Republican state senators facing a recall election (along with the governor and lieutenant governor) in May. The state elections board has already decided that this election will still occur, and that the winner will serve out the remainder of Galloway’s term.
Of course, now the Republicans don’t have a candidate for the seat. They will have to find one and get petitions signed to get that person on the ballot in advance of the elections. I’m gonna do some searching to find out how many many signatures will be needed and how far in advance they should be turned in.
A little more info… the election scheme I mentioned above only holds true if only one Democrat and one Republican are eligible to be on the ballot. I believe that the Dems have already settled on a single candidate. But if there are multiples from either or both parties, there will have to be a primary first, and the actual election later.
The bar for getting on the ballot seems fairly low – 400 signatures. OTOH, the general time frame for gathering them is two weeks. But with all the weird election shit going on this year, and this sudden change, no one seems sure yet exactly what the final calendar will be.
It is also possible that the Republicans might sign up two candidates for the explicit purpose of delaying the election.
Since the legislative session just ended, the split doesn’t really matter. Also, the senate Democrats will lose one member April 3rd, because two of them are running for Milwaukee comptroller.
This state is still split right down the middle, so there are still plenty of folks eager to help Republicans.