Sunday, March 6, 2011

Wisconsin Republicans Getting Nervous About Losing Senate Votes


by James Parks, Mar 4, 2011

Opponents of the right of public employees to bargain for middle-class jobs in Wisconsin are getting nervous that three Republican state senators may switch their votes and support public employees. Stephen Moore writes in the Wall Street Journal that with a 19-14 majority in the state Senate, Republicans cannot lose more than two votes if they want to ram through Gov. Scott Walker’s anti-worker agenda.

The pressure is building on the Republicans. Consider, 14 Democratic senators have been out of state since Feb. 17 and the public response to their action has been overwhelmingly positive.

Now a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll shows that 62 percent of respondents oppose eliminating collective-bargaining rights for public-sector workers over health care, pensions or other benefits. And working people have launched recall efforts against eight of the GOP senators.