MINNEAPOLIS – I closed out the panel sessions of RightOnline day one with a brainstorming session on the Wisconsin recalls, in which attendees fired off questions to Americans for Prosperity Wisconsin’s Matt Seaholm. It started with optimism, and a reminder of how AFP helped educate voters and re-elect David Prosser in this year’s judicial race.
“The importance of having a 4-3 conservative majority couldn’t have been more clear than last week,” said Seaholm, “when there was a 4-3 decision to move ahead on the budget.” That was the defeat of the Democrats’ suit to stop the anti-union bill.
The conservative goal, said Seaholm, was winning the recalls and providing Republicans with the time to prove their reforms were working. “When everything is said and done there aren’t going to be massive layoffs on the local level,” he said, “and it’s not going to happen on the state level, either, as much as we may want it to.”
How important was it to beat the Democrats? If they take the Senate, “they will smell blood” and try to recall Scott Walker. “If the effort is strong and the conservative majority remains intact, it’s going to be tough for them to take that lack of momentum and restart an effort to get 500,000 signatures.”
