A Burlington, Wisconsin woman has started a recall petition drive of the governor and lieutenant governor. Most, if not all Republicans would love to see the two of them gone ASAP.

Orville Seymer wrote the book on recalls. He’s a well-informed expert on the subject, and he asks a legitimate and compelling question. I asked Seymer to submit a column on his thoughts about this recall effort.

Guest Blog (exclusive)
By Orville Seymer of Franklin

Is this the right time to attempt a Recall of Gov. Evers and Lt. Gov. Barnes?

The public is understandably very angry over recent developments in both Madison and Kenosha. While some may call these riots “peaceful protests,” they are anything but peaceful when two people are dead and one severely injured.

So is now the right time to attempt a Recall of the Governor? Let’s first look at the number of signatures required. In order to force a Recall election of the Gov. Evers a Recall group would have to gather a little more than 688,000 valid signatures and do it in 60 days. Realistically, any attempt would require a good cushion of a minimum of 10% and preferably more. A good target would be 750,000 valid signatures. If this is going to be done right, there should be a parallel attempt at the same time of Lt. Gov. Barnes; this would require a separate petition, so the 750,000 number would have to be doubled meaning more than 1.5 million signatures.

Let’s break that number down into simple terms. From day one, the Recall group would have to collect 12,500 signatures every day for 60 days and that would just be for the Gov. Evers, throw in Barnes and you need 25,000 signature per day. Hopefully that puts the Recall into perspective.

Our group, CRG Network has participated in about 30 Recall efforts over the years. What we have found is the sphere of influence of the average Wisconsinite is about 50 people. In other words, they may feel comfortable approaching about 50 friends, neighbors, co-workers etc. and asking them to sign the Recall petition. So in order to accomplish this overwhelming task, you would need about 15,000 volunteers who each collect about 50 signatures.

The Recall process timeline from the date of filing with the elections commission is between 4 & ½ and 5 & ½ months to final Recall election. So realistically, this process will continue through the end of this year and it will not be completed until early next year.

Currently there is a young woman who has filed a Recall petition for both Gov. Evers and Lt. Gov. Barnes.

While she clearly has a lot of passion, she has little or no organization. As you can see from the examples above, this is an overwhelming task and it should not be taken lightly.

Simply posting on Facebook or other social media platforms is not a recipe for success in this endeavor.  In my experience most people want to use social media to find out what is going on or where they can go nearby to sign the petition, not to assist in gathering the 750,000 signatures.

My sources have told me that she is already overwhelmed with the task and she filed just a few days ago. I can tell you from personal experience that the Recall process will consume all of your time and energy. I am told that she has a full time job and 4 children. This young woman is in effect taking on another full time job which provides no income but it does provide a lot of headaches.

In addition to all of the issues listed above, there is a provision in state law that allows the target of a Recall to raise unlimited funds for the time of the Recall effort. You may remember that Gov. Walker took full advantage of this so expect Evers/Barnes to do the same.

None of this takes into account the inevitable legal challenges that are certain to come; you must be prepared for those and many other challenges that will materialize.

If she fails to get the required signatures or if she gets the required signatures but loses the election, you can bet that Evers/Barnes will use that two years from now in their re-election campaign.

So the bottom line is this. Does Evers deserve to be Recalled? The obvious answer is and overwhelmingly yes. Evers and Barnes have proven themselves to be highly incompetent over and over again.

CRG Network has a proven track record in Recalls. We have won the majority of the Recalls that we have assisted in.  This is not the Recall of a local Mayor or school board member. This will take a massive amount of organization and effort.

Think about the Recall in slightly different terms. What if you were wrongfully charged with a serious crime such as murder. Would you want a lawyer who has never been to law school but has read a couple of books about the  law to represent you or would you want somebody with about 30 murder trials under their belt to represent you? The answer is very obvious but the young woman who has filed the Recall is in way over her head and she needs to ask for help from people who have done this numerous times. Even then it is still a very uphill battle.

Orville Seymer is one of the Founding members of CRG Network, and he has participated in dozens of Recall efforts around the State of Wisconsin including the historic Recall of Milw. County Executive Tom Ament in 2002.

UPDATE (08/30/20):

The Facebook Page Columbia Wisconsin Conservatives posted:

This page OPPOSES THE RECALL action of Tony Evers. Conservatives should consider the following reasons:

– Evers will have 60 days of UNLIMITED limits in fundraising. Dems from all over the country will come to his rescue with NO limits. Soros could literally write his campaign a $50 million check.

– We don’t have a candidate. One of the big names like Rebecca Kleefisch or Ron Johnson will not run in recall.

– Evers will immediately become a national figure for Dems.

– Evers will receive nationwide funding way beyond what any canidate opposing him will. Liberal PACs will back him with Millions of dollars.

– Signing a recall has repercussions for the signers as the democrats can attest to. You may be harassed by liberals or who knows be up for a job or promotion where a dem makes the decision and your signing a recall may effect the outcome for you.

– A recall election will be a huge distraction from the upcoming presidential election and could fracture us when we need to focus on this election NOW. Keeping Trump in the White House is our top priority now.

– The regular gubernatorial election is in 2022 and it will get underway in early to midway into 2021 anyway. We stand an excellent chance of winning that election and will have a much better candidate pool.

While we all are frustrated by the failed leadership of Tony Evers it is far more strategic to focus on the Presidential election at hand and then focus on developing the best strategies to defeat Evers in 2022 where he will have no fundraising or name recognition advantages.

Finally imagine if we do a recall election and fail (the most likely outcome). We will make Tony Evers a champion of the left and even more difficult to defeat in 2022.

These are the reasons this page OPPOSES a recall of Tony Evers.