Wisconsin's Walker makes History

The election in politically divided Wisconsin has been seen as a barometer of the U.S. political climate going into November's presidential election.

The outcome is the latest evidence of a growing partisan climate in American politics that values confrontation over compromise and has led to gridlock in Washington.

It also suggests that some voters will support a politician who seeks to balance the government budget by cutting spending and reducing pensions and benefits for government workers rather than raising taxes.

Some voters in Wisconsin said it was only fair that union workers pay more pensions and health insurance when most private sector workers have no pensions at all.

Kent Redfield, a political analyst at the University of Illinois at Springfield, said the outcome could demoralize Democrats and labor unions. "That could have an effect on turnout in the fall," he said.

Ahead of the recall election, organized labor and conservatives mounted intense get-out-the-vote drives. Grassroots activists in the conservative Tea Party played a major role in those efforts on the right.

"This is a huge win for the Tea Party," said Matt Batzel, Wisconsin state director of national conservative group American Majority Action, which worked with local activists. "Time after time they have answered the call to defend Scott Walker," he said of the group that seeks deep cuts in U.S. government spending.

Voter turnout was high in the state where families were at odds and neighbors were not speaking to each over Walker's push to curtail collective bargaining by public sector workers.

The recall election led to huge campaign spending in the Midwestern Rust Belt state, with some estimates that more than $60 million was raised. So-called Super PACs, the independent groups that are pouring money into the U.S. presidential campaign, were a major force in Wisconsin.

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.

The law forced most state workers, including teachers, to pay more for health insurance and pensions, limited their pay raises, made payment of union dues voluntary and forced unions to be recertified every year.

Democrats and unions gathered nearly 1 million signatures to force the recall election.

Harley Shaiken, a labor professor at the University of California Berkeley, cautioned that the Wisconsin result did not mean there would be a wholesale assault on unions nationwide.

"This is clearly a victory for Walker, but it's been a very costly and disruptive victory," he said. "Some legislators (in other states) will try to go down the same path but they may find it very expensive to do so."

Despite the victory, Walker has not emerged completely unscathed. He still faces an investigation into alleged corruption during his time as Milwaukee County executive before he became governor.

Walker opponents also forced recall elections for Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch and four Republican state senators who had voted for the labor union restrictions.

Kleefisch and three of the four Senate Republicans were victorious. In the fourth race, the Democrat was ahead by about 800 votes with all of the results counted, but the Republican had not conceded.

If the Democrat is certified the winner, Walker would face a Democratic majority in the state Senate, which could frustrate his agenda in the future.