Labor

REP. KUCINICH FIRES UP MADISON WORKERS' RIGHTS RALLY

CMD REPORTS: P.O.W.E.R. WALKERS ARRIVE IN MADISON ON A SUNNY SUNDAY

A new report from CMD's Jennifer Page:

Walking over 84 miles from Milwaukee to Madison to make a point is no laughing matter. But no one would know that looking at the smiling, happy, albeit tired - looking, people who decided to make the journey to protest Governor Scott Walker's budget bill. "It's a great day for a walk," says one of the organizers of the P.O.W.E.R. Walkers event, Steve Whitlow, as the group gets ready to finish the last leg of their walk after stopping for lunch at a Williamson Street store that provided free food for everyone involved.

For some, when the going gets tough, the tough gas up the custom-painted luxury motorcoach.

So it is with the Wisconsin branch of the Koch-backed group, Americans for Prosperity (AFP), whose four-day, ten-city bus PR event across Wisconsin to support controversial Governor Scott Walker started in Kenosha March 3 and concluded in Madison on March 7 -- but not at the Capitol, where the bus would have been surrounded by the tens of thousands of people gathered to oppose Walker's union-crushing "budget repair" bill. Instead, AFP ended its tour at the Alliant Energy Center, where protesters against Walker's radical proposals who were outside in the cold easily outnumber the pro-Walker crowd in inside the rented space.

And so it went with AFP's "Stand with Walker" Wisconsin road show. At every stop, the AFP PR gambit was met by some supporters, but it was also greeted often by an equal or a substantially greater numbers of opponents. A little-watched YouTube video of AFP's stop at Serb Hall on March 3, 2011 shows a group of about a dozen Scott Walker supporters, and a sidewalk packed with what appears to be about several hundred demonstrators against the governor's extreme proposals.

The Democratic Party says it has 15 percent of the total statewide signatures needed to recall eight Republican legislators.

As recall efforts heat up and national and local news reports these efforts in Wisconsin could have historical implications, Democratic Party of Wisconsin (DPW) Communications Director Graeme Zielinski warns there may be surprises for some "more moderate" Republicans.

TWO WEEKS IN MADISON - A TRIBUTE

NEW ETHICS COMPLAINT FILED WITH FOCUS ON KOCH MONEY IN STATE

CMD's Erica Pelzek reports:

Monday morning, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin filed a complaint with the state's Government Accountability Board against Gov. Scott Walker, citing comments Walker made during a prank call phoned in by a Buffalo, NY blogger Ian Murphy masquerading as David Koch, one of the billionaire co-owners of Koch Industries and a top contributor to Walker's gubernatorial campaign.