Republican Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin has defeated his Democratic opponent in a recall election that observers say has implications for the November presidential election.
With nearly all the votes counted, Walker was easily beating Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett by nearly a double digit margin in a race which attracted huge voter turnout. Barrett, who lost the 2010 general election to Walker, conceded the race hours after the polls closed.
Shortly after taking office, Walker pushed through a law that sharply curtailed the right of most government employees to bargain for pay raises and other benefits, angering unions and Democratic activists. The law set off days of large angry protests at the state capitol in Madison. A grassroots campaign earlier this year gathered nearly 1 million signatures in a petition drive to force the recall election.
In his victory speech, Walker told his supporters the voters of Wisconsin approved of his leadership.
“What has made the United States of America arguably one of the greatest countries in the history of the world, is that in times of crisis, be they economic or fiscal, be they military or spiritual, in times of crisis, what has made America amazing, has been the fact that throughout our history, throughout the more than 200 years of our history, there have been men and women of courage who stood up and decided it was more important to look at the future of their children and their grandchildren than their own political futures.”
Walker is the first governor in U.S. history to survive a recall election. Two other governors lost their recall elections, the most recent in 2003, when California Governor Gray Davis was unseated and replaced by Hollywood action star Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Republican Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch and three Republican state senators also survived recall campaigns waged against them. Democrats had hoped to pick up at least one of those Republican seats to give them control of the chamber.
The recall effort attracted money and attention from Republican and Democratic supporters across the country. Walker raised $30 million to fight off the recall, compared to Barrett's $4 million.
Likely Republican Party presidential nominee Mitt Romney issued a statement congratulating Walker, saying the results will “echo beyond the borders of Wisconsin.”
Incumbent Democrat Barack Obama easily won Wisconsin in the 2008 presidential campaign, but analysts say a Walker victory could mean that Romney could take the state in November's general election.