Kapanke challenges recall petition:

[elocs]

http://lacrossetribune.com/news/statebudget/article_707d2c8c-67e2-11e0-bd2b-001cc4c002e0.html

Lawyers for state Sen. Dan Kapanke say a petition demanding a recall election should be thrown out because of missing paperwork. The challenge, filed Friday afternoon, says recall organizer Pat Scheller never filed the required registration statement with the Government Accountability Board and that the board should dismiss the petition.

Graeme Zielinski, spokesman for the Wisconsin Democratic Party, called the challenge "perfunctory and desperate."

"There's nothing here. There's no merit to the challenge," he said. "For all the money that this guy has, you'd think he could get better lawyers."

Kapanke, a second-term Republican, did not return a phone message Friday evening.

I think Kapanke is really worried because he has a very strong challenger in state representative Jennifer Schilling in a recall election. There was a very strong turnout by Democrats here in La Crosse in the state supreme court election and we went 59% for Kloppenburg.

[charmay]

1. Desperation!!!

Maybe he should have thought before he voted against a majority of his constituents.

[Jackpine Radical]

2. He didn't vote against the will of his constituents.

Both David and Charles are in absolute agreement with him.

[Scuba]

4. LOL

[midnight]

3. Will kapanke pull a quick one on the Dems. who believe in the rules....

[Scuba]

5. Go LaCrosse!!! Recall Kapanke. Schilling is an excellent candidate. Woo Hoo!!! n/t

[dragonlady]

6. Trying to attack the GAB's procedure as illegal

They say the statute wasn't followed because no Form GAB-1 was filed by Scheller himself (the designated Wisconsin citizen required to start a recall). However, there is a GAB-1 on file for the recall committee, signed by its treasurer (Kapanke's lawyers didn't attach that to their pleadings). The "Statement of Intent to Circulate Recall Petition" that he did sign says it should be appended to the GAB-1 that is filed, and it was (as shown on the Kapanke file on the GAB's website). It's interesting that the GAB-1 for recalling Sen. Jim Holperin (D) is filed the same way as for Kapanke--signed by the treasurer, not the person who signed the Statement of Intent.

Their whole defense rests on the idea that the GAB's procedure is not in accord with the statute on recall. I'm sure this is a novel idea that is all they could come up with. I'd really like to see the paperwork filed in the recall of Tom Ament, the Milwaukee county executive whose departure gave Scott Walker his opportunity to reign over Milwaukee County on the way to bigger things.

[buddysmellgood]

7. That is so desperate it's embarrassing. He should resign.

[iwishiwas]

10. I hope you are right. I would be horrible if the

recall went down a procedural technicality. Talk about riots in the streets!!

[Prof Lester]

8. Well how they gonna get some of that juicy Koch money..

if the damn citizens have that awful ol' democracy thing happening? After all, as the Kochite teabags like to say America weren't set up to be a democracy.. just a "republic". So one can guess what they got in mind is a Venetian type oligarchy ruled by.. Kochs. Tyrants of course. Sic semper tyrannis.

[iwishiwas]

9. Schilling is a strong Dem candidate. I am glad she is running.

[elocs]

11. Kapanke managed to win his last election by under 3000 votes

against a country supervisor while Schilling won her election in 2010 by over 5000 votes in a much smaller area when many Democrats did not even bother to vote.