Huge Loss for Union Busting Republicans

And for taxpayers.

Boycott Threats Fly in Union Rights Fight .
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703806304576245143466844216.html

State battles over limiting public-union rights are moving into the private sector as union members threaten to boycott local businesses that don't back their cause.

The skirmishes are most prominent in Wisconsin and Ohio, where Republican governors recently signed new laws stripping public-employee unions of the ability to negotiate pension and health benefits and curbing other union rights.

Last month, Dawn Bobo, owner of Village Dollar Store in Union Grove, Wis., was asked to display a pro-union sign in her window. Ms. Bobo, a self- described conservative Republican, refused and received a letter from the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees asking her to reconsider.

"Failure to do so will leave us no choice but do [sic] a public boycott of your business," the letter said.

The threat appeared to backfire. Ms. Bobo said her business quadrupled when local media picked up the story. Union officials, meanwhile, were backing away from boycott threats.

Marty Beil, executive director of the Wisconsin State Employees Union, attributed the boycott letter to "some overzealousness in the field." Eddie Vale, a spokesman for the national AFL-CIO, said there were no official union-organized boycotts in either Wisconsin or Ohio.

Some boycotts appeared to remain in place. A group of unions including teachers, firefighters and police were boycotting Marshall & Ilsley Bank of Milwaukee, as well as Kwik Trip, a Wisconsin-based convenience store, because executives at both companies donated money to Republican Gov. Scott Walker, who proposed the union legislation. The law is on hold pending legal challenges.

In Ohio, a law signed recently by Republican Gov. John Kasich would limit the rights of about 350,000 public workers, including police and firefighters. Union members in the state asked local businesses to display a small sign in their window saying they support workers.

LaDonna Secrist, owner of the Squirrel's Den, a candy store in Mansfield, Ohio, said she agreed to display a sign because many of her customers are public workers at the local courthouse and police station. "We need people in the surrounding areas to support us," she said. "It's not that I'm a big union person."

The Ohio law is affecting private enterprise in other ways. A board member of the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber of commerce resigned after the chamber voted 8-1 to endorse the law—with 14 abstaining. Two other executives resigned their chamber memberships.

"Our customers are teachers and professors and people affected by this bill," said the former board member, Michael Broderick, chief executive of Turning Technologies, an educational technology company. "The chamber should not have taken a position on it."

Mr. Broderick, a registered independent, cited the blue-collar town's large Democratic presence and said the chamber and unions have worked together to promote economic development.

The Youngstown chamber's board said it was "proud of our past relationship with labor" and that it regretted its action "caused a divide" with unions.

Andrew Doehrel, president of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, which endorsed the union law, said the Youngstown incident was isolated. "I don't think that many private businesses have looked that closely at" the law, he said.

The boycotts against M&I Bank in Wisconsin prompted David Galloway, chairman of Montreal-based BMO Financial Group, to assert his support for union bargaining rights. BMO is in the process of buying M&I.

John McHugh, a Kwik Trip spokesman, said the company had responded to about 1,000 complaints, telling protesters that some of its employees and executives had donated to Mr. Walker's Democratic opponent.

Many businesses would like to sidestep the issue, but that is becoming increasingly difficult as protesters sympathetic to unions use the Internet to identify businesses deemed too friendly with the Walker administration.

Johnsonville Sausage, of Sheboygan Falls, Wis., was targeted because some executives donated money to Mr. Walker's gubernatorial campaign. Union supporters are boycotting Johnsonville products, along with a five-day charity event in May known as Bratfest, to which Johnsonville donates 150,000 bratwurst. Opponents of the bill have begun organizing an alternative charity festival, The Wurst Times.

Johnsonville said in a statement: "We are hopeful both sides of the debate will work to resolve the issues that are facing our State."

Madison, Wis., small-business owner Marivic Valencia said she asked her local deli's owner if he sold Johnsonville sausages and was told she shouldn't ask such questions. "Who was he to tell me not to ask?" she said. She now refuses to patronize the shop. "It's too bad," she said, "they're right near my house."

So the unions and liberals nationwide poured huge resources and money into this election, in a liberal state, and called it a referendum on Gov. Walkers policies, and the best they could do was basically a tie??

To me, this shows that the liberals don't have much support for continuing policies that allow government unions to suck taxpayers dry.

And in a special election for the psoition that Sscott Walker had before he became governor, the Democrat won by a 22 point margin. OUCH.

LIC - why would you call it a basic tie. After they count all the lost ballot boxes I am pretty sure the margin of victory will be expanded by 1,000s.

The ballot boxes are probably in Ohio, never again to be seen.

LICC is a ruh-tard. The Tea Party made this a national cause, and BOTH sides saw millions of dollars of out of state money.

Seems like you called this one too early:

The latest vote count in the state Supreme Court race in Winnebago County indicates incumbent David Prosser is leading Assistant Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg in votes.

A tally compiled by The Associated Press Wednesday and used by news organizations statewide, including the Journal Sentinel, indicated Kloppenburg was leading the race by 204 votes. Figures on Winnebago County's website are now different from those collected by the AP.

Winnebago County's numbers say Prosser received 20,701 votes to Kloppenburg's 18,887. The AP has 19,991 for Prosser to Kloppenburg's 18,421.

The new numbers would give Prosser 244 more votes, or a 40-vote lead statewide.

An editor at the AP said the news service became aware of the discrepancy in the past hour. The AP last checked figures with Winnebago County at 10:14 a.m. Wednesday, according to the AP. The county adjusted its figures at 2:27 p.m.

I find that suspcious. Where did all those Prosser votes magically come from? Did David Koch plant them?

Where did all those extra Al Franken votes magically come from?

Al Franken stopped being funny, why? You can get a better Old McD out of Republican Al D'Amato. But then there's Anthony Weiner. Maybe it's a NY thing.

> Where did all those extra Al Franken votes magically come from?

ACORN.

There were no extra Al Franken votes. The disputed votes were ABSENTEE ballots that the Republicans tried to have thrown out due to sloppy hand writing.

JUST IN: Wisconsin county clerk "finds" an extra 7,000 votes for Prosser. Yes, you heard that right... 7,000!

Today John Fund from the WSJ was alleging voter fraud on Fox News back when Kloppenberg was in the lead. I wonder if he still believes there is voter fraud. According to some press reports, UW Madison students were turned away from the polls. Republican voter suppression as its finest.

Eirc Holder needs to send federal monitors to Wisconsin ASAP. This election is starting to resemble the last one in Afghanistan. Nobody should be "finding" votes 2 days after the election.

NYT:

"The Waukesha County clerk, Kathy Nickolaus, said she had failed on election night to save votes from Brookfield in her computer, according to The Associated Press. The result: 10,859 more votes for Justice Prosser, who won strong support from Republicans, and 3,456 more for Ms. Kloppenburg, an assistant state attorney general.

According to The A.P., Ms. Nickolaus was granted immunity in 2002 in a criminal investigation into illegal acts by members of the Republican Caucus in the State Assembly, where she had worked as a data analyst and computer specialist. Before being appointed to the court in 1998, Justice Prosser served as a Republican in the Assembly, and rose to be speaker."

A bipartisan board confirmed the results:

At one point Ramona Kitzinger, a Democratic representative on the canvassing board and vice-chair of county’s Democratic party, stepped up to podium to confirm Nickolaus’s account. “We’re satisfied that it’s correct,” Kitzinger said of the numbers.“We went over everything and made sure the numbers jibed.”

That was very gracious of the county's Democratic party, LICcomm, and possibly a good tactical maneuver on their part, but it doesn't change the highly suspicious nature of the "forgot to input the votes" incident.

And does anybody know if they were voting on machines by the entity formerly known as Diebold, the no-receipt, software-malleable, opaque system owned by a prominent midwestern GOP vote-promiser?

I think the votes were delivered by black helicopters.

> Republican voter suppression as its finest.

Yeah, it's not nearly as good as the Democrats, though. Remember the thugs with sticks standing in front of the polls?

GO ACORN!

"Remember the thugs with sticks standing in front of the polls?"

They were standing outside a precinct in a solid Democratic neighborhood. OOPS! Yes, you caught the Democrats red handed trying to suppress THEIR OWN VOTE.

well, no one said they weren't idiots...

btw, 12 ACORN members have been convicted of voter fraud, and six more pleaded guilty of dozens of election law violations.... like filling out registration cards with names of dead people.

So, why do the Democrats hate fair elections and soliders?

Voter registration fraud, not voter fraud.

Are Republicans going to tell black peole to vote the Wednesday after election day in 2012? That might be their only chance of beating Obama. Plus they have to stop the youth vote. May I suggest raising the voting age to 65? That should make it impossible for Democrtas to ever win another election.

"May I suggest raising the voting age to 65?"

... makes sense, given that people live much longer today than when universal suffrage began in the 1960s. It was never the intention for people to get to vote for so many years.