Getting the Walker Recall Vote Out in Wisconsin

by Clyde Weiss  |  June 04, 2012

Friends Timothy Bauer and Sue DeBuhr are knocking on doors to get out the vote in Wisconsin’s recall election. (Photo by Amy Hendrick)

MADISON, Wis. – Sue DeBuhr and her friend, Timothy Bauer, step up to yet another door and knock. On this sunny Sunday afternoon, they’re hoping the person on their list of likely voters is home so they can encourage them to vote to recall Gov. Scott Walker.

Election day is just hours away, but with TV ads running on a seemingly endless loop, it’s not likely anyone in the Badger State doesn’t already know that Tuesday will mark the first time a sitting Wisconsin governor will face being recalled. With millions raised from Walker’s billionaire friends, it’s become the most expensive race in state history.

If the thousands of volunteers working throughout the state to recall Walker are successful, then Tuesday will be truly historic. It will mark just the third time in U.S. history that a governor would have been recalled. DeBuhr and Bauer hope to make that history.

DeBuhr, 28, is a Dane County social worker and chief steward of Local 2634 (AFSCME Council 40). Her friend, Bauer, 35, is a delivery driver. In a previous job two year ago, he was also a member of Local 720 of AFSCME Council 40. Together, they are a powerhouse of energy.

Their activism began long before Walker’s attack last year on workers’ rights.

In November 2010, when Walker was elected and immediately set out to revoke workers’ rights and became a darling of the right and corporate billionaires, DeBuhr got involved in the fight at the state Capitol to block the new governor’s anti-worker bill. Later, she volunteered to help recall state senators who voted for Walker’s union-busting legislation. “We were successful in two of those,” she said.

Now she and Bauer are at it again, knocking on doors with thousands of others to get the vote out for Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. They are volunteering with We Are Wisconsin. In addition, she and Bauer are also getting out the through an initiative called “Doors Less Knocked,” designed to increase voter turnout in traditionally low-turnout wards in Madison.

“We’ve just got to get out the vote,” she said. “Whether you’re an AFSCME member or not, we need you to vote.” Her friend Bauer explains why.

Walker’s campaign to destroy collective bargaining for public service workers “was the spark” that touched off the battle, he said, but added that the reasons to recall the governor are “so much broader. Whether it’s disenfranchising people from voting, or restricting women’s access to their health care and the relationships they have with their doctors, or taking $900 million out of public education – I could go on and on.”

The lesson people should from Wisconsin, he added, is this: “Pay attention to your state government. We spend a lot of time and focusing on what happens in Washington, D.C., but as important as that is, what affects us at home the most is always what happens in our own state capitols. If it could happen in Wisconsin, it could happen anywhere. This is where collective bargaining (for public employees) started. If it could be taken away here, it absolutely could happen in any other state. So pay attention to how people are voting, and what they’re running on.”

One other thing to take away from the fight to recall Governor Walker is this: Volunteers like Sue DeBuhr and Timothy Bauer are what make it possible to fight back. Learn more about how you can help them defeat Governor Walker.