MILWAUKEE, (Reuters) – Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker will become the first governor in U.S. history to survive a recall election, television networks projected yesterday, a setback for labor unions and a boost to Republican hopes in November’s presidential election.
Major networks projected Walker would be the winner about an hour after the polls closed in Wisconsin in the divisive election that left families at odds and neighbors not speaking to each over Walker’s push to curtail collective bargaining by public sector workers.
With 29 percent of the vote counted, Walker led Democratic challenger Tom Barrett 60 percent to 40 percent, according to unofficial returns, although this was expected to narrow.
Turnout was high in closely divided Wisconsin, which helped elect Democrat Barack Obama as president in 2008. The contest has been seen as a barometer of the U.S. political climate going into the presidential election in November.
The recall election led to huge campaign spending in the Midwestern Rust Belt state, with some estimates that more than $60 million was raised.
Roberta Komor, 53, of the Milwaukee suburb of Wauwatosa, said she had voted for Barrett when he ran in 2010, but this time voted for Walker.
The law firm secretary said that in today’s hard times, unions “need to learn about shared sacrifice” when workers in the private sector have seen their benefits or wages cut.
“They have had everything handed to them on a platter,” Komor said. “They need to be on a par with the rest of us.”
Many voters seemed relieved the election had finally come, and voiced disgust with the recall process.
“There are too many recall elections that have been going on in the state and it needs to be stopped,” said Carolyn Gral, 51, a Walker supporter and homemaker who is looking for a job.
Wisconsin held nine recall elections for state senators last year after the union law was passed, setting a U.S. record.
This was just the third recall election of a governor in U.S. history and it follows weeks of vociferous protests by demonstrators who occupied the state Capitol in Madison as Walker and fellow Republican lawmakers pushed through the union curbs in March 2011.
