Hopper recall committee expected to file signatures Thursday

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Source: JSOnline

April 6, 2011 9:08 p.m

Will organizers of the recall effort against state Sen. Randy Hopper (R-Fond du Lac) be filing their signatures in Madison on Thursday?

Sure looks like it.

One of the Facebook pages associated with the Recall Randy Hopper organization is announcing what it calls the "biggest Recall Randy Hopper events yet" in the campaign.

The rallies -- set for Oshkosh, Fond du Lac and Waupun on Thursday -- are similar to the one staged in La Crosse last Friday before signatures to recall Sen. Dan Kapanke (R-La Crosse) were filed in Madison.

A coordinator for the recall campaign, Scott Dillman, has been hinting since last week that the campaign was close to filing its signatures.

And the Fond du Lac Reporter on its website Wendesday quoted Rich Mantz, chairman of the Fond du Lac County Democratic Party, as saying that the official announcement will be made Thursday at the rallies.

The Oshkosh rally is scheduled for 11 a.m., the Fond du Lac rally at 12:30 p.m. and the Waupun rally for 2 p.m.

The state Government Accountability Board says on its website that 15,269 valid signatures would be needed to force a recall election against Hopper. Dillman said last week that he hoped the campaign's total number of signatures would be closer to 30,000 than 15,000, in case some of the signatures are disqualified. Other recall campaigns against both Republican and Democratic senators are aiming for more than the minimum signatures, including the group to recall Kapanke, which said Friday it filed about 21,700 signatures last week, well over the 15,588 needed to force an election.

A blogger for the Washington Post, quoting Democratic Party spokesman Graeme Zielinski, on Monday put the total at 22,561.

Of the 14 other recall efforts around the state -- six more against Republican senators, and eight against Democrats -- at least one other is close to filing. Dan Hunt, chairman of Taxpayers to Recall (Sen.) Robert Wirch (D-Pleasant Prairie) has said he expects to file signatures against Wirch next week.

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