After surviving a recall vote on his governorship, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker is calling for a change to the state constitution to prevent future recalls except in rare cases.
“We’ve got to change the recall process overall. I think recalls should be about misconduct in office and not just open-ended and that would change the process,” he said on Daily Rundown Wednesday.
Walker blamed the recall law, first used in 1932 in Wisconsin, for the vast sums of outside money that entered the state, a majority of which went to support his defense.
“The recall law itself and the portion of the constitution that enables for the recall really allowed for that money to come in,” Walker told host Chuck Todd.
“There’s no doubt, in the future, the people of Wisconsin want to change the law, want to change the constitution so recalls if anything are rare, if ever used in the state of Wisconsin, are used for things like misconduct,” he said. “That would change the money, that would change the focus.”
Recalls at the governor level are rare across the nation where voter-supported recall laws vary state by state. Walker is just the third state governor to go through a recall, and the first to survive it. In Wisconsin, 13 recalls have taken place in the 86 years since the Wisconsin constitution was amended to allow recall votes, according to the Wisconsin Historical Society. Exit polling from Tuesday night showed that many voters were unsure of the right use of a recall. From msnbc.com’s First Read. Just 27% said recall elections are appropriate for any reason (and Barrett won those folks, 90%-9%). By comparison, 60% said that recalls are legitimate only for official misconduct (and Walker won them, 68%-31%), while another 10% said recalls are never appropriate (and Walker won here, 94%-5%). Bottom line: Walker benefited greatly from the fact that many Wisconsin voters didn’t think the premise of last night’s recall was legitimate. Want more Lean Forward? ‘Like’ us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.
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