According to Paul Abowd of the
Center for Public Integrity in 2012, the election
to fill the governor’s office in the wake of Scott Walker’s recall “has become
a referendum on the future of public sector unions.”[1] That the union of
teaching-assistant students at the University of Wisconsin in Madison
refused to endorse Barrett precisely because he was not making collective
bargaining rights a salient part of his campaign would suggest that Abowd had
it wrong. Moreover, it is a mistake to read the election results in Wisconsin
as a harbinger of things to come in the U.S. presidential election five months
later in November 2012.
The full essay is at "The Wisconsin Recall Election."
1. Amanda Terkel, “Wisconsin Recall: Election Law Quirk Could Throw Governance Into Disarray,” The Huffington
Post, June 3, 2012. See Paul Abowd, “CPI: Wisconsin Recall Battle Is State’s Most Expensive Election,”MSNBC.com, June 3, 2012.
