He [Feingold] wouldn't be the first defeated senator to stage a quick comeback as a gubernatorial candidate. Lincoln Chafee, ousted by Rhode Islanders in 2006, just won that state's governorship as an independent last fall. Lowell Weicker, vanquished by Joe Lieberman in 1988, pulled off the same feat in Connecticut two years later. Feingold shares a quirky maverick streak with both of those men. It's not that hard to see him following in their footsteps.
But will he get a chance next year? That's harder to see, mainly because Wisconsin appears to have one of the more onerous recall procedures when it comes to governors: Petitioners would need to gather signatures equivalent to 25 percent of the total number of votes cast in the previous statewide election, and they'd have only 60 days to do it. By contrast, California (where Gov. Gray Davis was successfully recalled in 2003) requires signatures equivalent to only 12 percent of the votes cast in the previous election, with a 160-day window. (Source)
I hope all those who are saying now that Walker and the Wisconsin Republicans overreached are right, but next January is far away, and public opinion is a fickle bird. There's a good chance all this will have settled down, and, given our recent history, a good chance that there just won't be the political will to do anything about it, just as there was not the will to push back all the encroachments on civil liberties effected by Cheney/Bush. The Right has consistently proved it has the will to get it done; the Left has yet to prove it. It should be clear to anybody now that public opinion doesn't matter; political will is the only thing that matters.
But Feingold is a serious, principled guy, and he would be the ideal standard bearer for this push back, and maybe this time it will be different. Maybe there's a will in Wisconsin that we haven't seen on the national stage. It will be an interesting test case. The important thing is that the issue not be allowed to fade in Wisconsinites' memories. That's why these senatorial recall campaigns are important. They will keep the issue alive. A lot depends on having some successes there. This will be a fight that the Right will pull out all the stops to win. It remains to be seen whether the Left can match the Right's intensity. (See Wisconsin I)
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