For instance, David Koch donated $1,000,000 to the Republican Governor's Association on February 1, 2012, which coincidentally was the same day Governor Walker signed a bill into law expanding the "open enrollment" period for public schools which is all part of the effort to turn Wisconsin public schools into a "free market." The Koch-funded MacIver Institute crowed all over the lovely "free education market," thanks to Scott Walker. Also on that day, Democrats revealed three candidates running against Wisconsin state senators up for recall. While it's unclear that the million donated was for Scott Walker, I note that Scott Walker is the only guy in need of the billionaire backing at this particular moment in time.

Scott Walker's out-of-state support has been remarkable. Out of the $4.5 million he raised in the first quarter of 2012, nearly $4 million came from out-of-state donors in the five-week period before the limits on donations for the recall kicked in, and most donors were boys sitting at the Billionaire Boys' Club table. Here are a few notable out-of-state names, industries and donation amounts:

• Stanley Herzog, MO (Construction) $250,000
• Robert Perry, TX (Construction) $250,000
• Sarah Atkins, MO (Building Products) $250,000
• David C Humphreys, MO (Building Products) $250,000
• Trevor Rees-Jones, TX (Big Oil) $100,000
• Bruce Covner, NY (Hedge Funds) $100,000
• John M Templeton, Jr, PA (Investments) $30,000

Wealthy Wisconsinites ponied up, too. Here are a few:

• Mary Sue Shannon, $100,000. Mrs Shannon is married to Michael Shannon, managing director of KSL Capital Partners, LLC

, a Denver investment company

• Robert Kerbell, $50,000. Mr. Kerbell is the CEO of Lorman Education Services, a company that provides online continuing education seminars.
• Ostrom, Vostors and Willer are all affiliated with or own Milksource, LLC. They donated a combined $91,000 to the effort.

Walker has a lot of money in his war chest with the promise of more where that came from. After all, those out-of-state donations come from a short list of right-wing insiders, some Koch and others not. Assume there are plenty more where that came from and they're not afraid to spend it to keep him in that governor's mansion. Phone banks, dirty ads, mailers, and the full faith and credit of Koch-based organizations like Americans for Prosperity and Freedomworks will keep Walker fully supplied with the ground troops to wage his war.

It will take all of the 99 percent to push back and win against Walker.

A Facebook group put up by an anonymous user seems to be suggesting a threat against people who sign the recall petitions in Wisconsin against Republican Governor Scott Walker. The page was initially launched with a message that read:

You know who you are. WE know who you are. This is gonna get FUN!!

I'm sure as hell going to inform my employer about co-workers names that show up. He is a true Walker supporter. He was looking to let go a couple of workers...now that decision is made that much easier.

The group's profile pic is a photo of a house on fire. The implication is clearly that those who signed petitions to recall Walker would be targeted with loss of job or their home being burned.

After a number of websites learned of the group, the original message was scrubbed from the site and it was "remade" as a "warning" that right-wing extremists might engage in this type of behavior:

Daily Kos gets it wrong, as usual. This is Knot a hate page. This is a page warning petition signers of a clear and possible realitly that radical right wing extremists will be getting your info off the Recall Petitions.

If you read posts on the page, though, this smokescreen falls flat, as there are denigrating references towards liberals and the page lists among its favorites the "Verify the Recall" group, which claims to be a nonpartisan group interested only in making sure recall petition signers were legitimate, but is a fan of tea party-related groups and organizations like Wisconsin GrandSons of Liberty, which is promoting events like a "Celebrate Walker" rally and is linked to numerous right-wing organizations.

It seems clear the original page was going to be flagged and removed as a threatening site and they changed the tenor of the page to comply with Facebook guidelines.

On the heels of the announcement that Democrats gathered 1 million signatures toward the recall of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, activists have launched a campaign to draft Russ Feingold to run against Walker. Feingold is a former United States senator from Wisconsin who lost his last re-election campaign in 2010, but is still widely popular among progressives in the state and across the country. Feingold supporters can sign the petition:

The former Senator from Wisconsin is widely considered to be not only one of the most principled senators in recent history, but also the standard bearer for the progressive tradition started in Wisconsin over a century ago.

He led the fight against the USA Patriot Act and the TARP bailout which saw Wall Street bankers get off scott-free for crashing the American economy. He also was a co-drafter of the McCain-Feingold Campaign finance reform act which has since been negated by the Citizens United ruling.

Now, in the winter of our discontent, Wisconsin needs him again.

In only the short space of one year, Governor Walker's radical agenda has eliminated the collective bargaining rights of Wisconsites, while trampling on the voting rights of citizens by trampling on their right to vote. He promised opening the state for business but instead we have seen only more pain with the loss of more jobs.

A recent PPP poll shows Feingold leading Walker 52 percent to 45, although such a poll this early and before Feingold has talked about running should be taken with a grain of salt. Without Feingold in the poll, Wisconsin voters generally oppose the recall of Walker 50-47 percent.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) released a new ad this week in an effort to soften his image leading into the upcoming fight to recall him. Opponents have nearly gathered the required number of signatures necessary to launch the recall election.

The ad shows Walker and his family distributing food at a soup kitchen before cutting to a shot of the family in their living room. Walker himself says almost nothing in the ad and it's his wife, Tonette, who does the narration. The shot from the Walker living room shows the couple sitting on the couch while their two sons stand awkwardly in the background. More importantly, the commercial ignores the irony that the policies Walker is pursuing as governor almost guarantee that more people will need the services of soup kitchens like the one he appears in during the ad. Walker's attempt to show that he cares about people enough to personally feed them is belied by the fact that he's killing jobs and taking away the rights of working families.

United Wisconsin, the group coordinating the recall against Wisconsin's Republican Gov. Scott Walker, announced that they had gathered 300,000 petitions towards the recall in the first 12 days of the recall efforts, reaching the halfway mark in less than a quarter of the time necessary to gather the petitions. 540,208 valid petitions have to be gathered by January 17, 2012, the end of the 60-day timeframe to make the recall official.

Scott Walker has taken to the airwaves, supported by millions in corporate cash, to defend his record of job loss and full-scale assault on Wisconsin's institutions and values," United Wisconsin Executive Director Meagan Mahaffey said in a statement. "But all over Wisconsin, the people are seeing through Walker's deceptions and are moving to take our state back."

In the first 96 hours of the recall effort, United Wisconsin and its supporters collected more than 105,000 signatures from all 72 counties in the state.

An election could occur as early as March 27, although it will likely be later if Republicans challenge the petition signatures or file lawsuits.

Democrats are waiting until after the petition drive to begin discussing potential opponents for the recall election. United Wisconsin lists the top 10 reasons to recall Walker:

1. Walker was elected on a promise to create 250,000 private sector jobs in Wisconsin. After seeing the impacts of his disastrous policies, his administration has acknowledged that Walker won’t get anywhere close to fulfilling his campaign promise.

2. Walker’s budget cut over $800 million from our public schools, while at the same time placing caps on the amount of money school districts in Wisconsin can collect in property taxes to fund their schools.

3. Walker cut over $500 million from the BadgerCare program. More than 200,000 Wisconsinites could face premium increases, and over 50,000 people may be cut from their state insurance plan completely as a result of this cut.

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Good job, Arizona!!! Corrupt, hateful Arizona State Senator Russell Pearce was defeated soundly tonight by a moderate Republican, Jerry Lewis. Lewis took 53 percent of the vote in a low-turnout election.

Pearce, as you might recall, was the author and promoter of SB 1070, the odious immigration law that nearly turned Arizona inside out. It seems voters were unimpressed with his xenophobia and his corruption.

Via CampaignMoney.org:

“Voters in Mesa sent a strong signal to lawmakers at the state capitol today: Arizonans want politicians working for them, not for special interests,” said David Donnelly, director of Public Campaign Action Fund’s Campaign Money Watch project. “Pearce’s anti-immigrant positions may have made him into a controversial figure, but it was his love of campaign cash, special interest perks, and opposition to Clean Elections that led voters to kick him out of the Senate.”

What this election and others around the country proves is that democracy is not dead in this country. In Mississippi, Maine, Ohio, Kentucky, and Arizona, voters stood up and told the Koch brothers they don't own our government, despite their best efforts to do so. It also proves that the message of the Occupy movement is one that resonates deeply with voters across this country, who are not automatons voting party lines without thought to what they are doing. The cynical ideas of Republicans and Koch-bots across this country are being rejected out of hand.

Power to the people.

Both Democrats hold double digit leads going into tonight's recall elections and are likely to hold their seats in the Wisconsin State Senate. Republicans are seeking to recall the Democrats as a retaliatory strike against the Democratic recall efforts against state senators who supported Gov. Scott Walker's assault on the state's working families.

-In Senate District 12, Democrat Jim Holperin is defending his seat against Republican Kim Simac.

-In Senate District 22, incumbent Robert Wirch is being challenged by Republican Jonathan Steitz.

Check back here for results as they come in...

10:51 p.m.: AP calls SD12 for Holperin (D). Democrats win five of nine recall elections in Wisconsin.

10:47 p.m.: With 99 percent reporting, Wirch looks to end up with 57 percent of the vote. With 71 percent in, Holperin's lead has fallen to 53-47 percent.

10:30 p.m.: AP calls SD22 for Wirch (D).

10:28 p.m.: With 70 percent reporting, Wirch maintains his comfortable lead.

10:20 p.m.: That's more like it. With 44 percent reporting, Holperin maintains a 54-46 percent lead, while with 51 percent in, Democrat Bob Wirch has taken a 55-45 percent lead.

10:15 p.m.: Finally some good news out of SD22, where Steitz (R) now leads only 51-49 percent with 26 percent of precincts reporting.

9:59 p.m.: That's a bit better, with 32 percent in, Holperin is back up to 55-45.

9:56 p.m.: Not sure the breakdown of precincts that are in, but the numbers are not encouraging at the moment...

SD12: 22 percent reporting, Holperin's lead is down to 52-48 percent.
SD22: 17 percent reporting, Steitz (R) leads 55-45 percent.

9:41 p.m.: With 10 percent in, Holperin (D) now leads 56-44 percent. At 13 percent reporting, Steitz (R) now leads 56-44 percent.

9:33 p.m.: With seven percent in, Holperin's lead is up to 59-41 percent, Steitz is up to 54 percent.

9:24 p.m.: With four percent reporting in each district:

SD12: Holperin (D) 56-44 percent
SD22: Steitz (R) 53-47 percent

9:18 p.m. (EST): Turnout was high enough, some precincts ran out of ballots.

While we didn't win everything we wanted in Wisconsin, we scored a significant victory. Of the Republicans the left tried to recall in the state, three of the seven were successful. That's a pretty powerful message, since there were only four recall elections prior to that in the state's history. There are a number of important things we learned last night, or at least, a number of things we should learn...

1. The grassroots can overcome Citizens United-inspired massive spending: Between $20-$40 million was spent by the right on this recall. The results of that were two losses and several narrow victories in strongly Republican districts. This is very encouraging.

2. Money still talks, although the influence is less than it used to be: Alberta Darling is still a state senator because $8 million was spent on her campaign. That's the only reason. Similarly, Rick Scott is governor of Florida because he spent $72 million. Without these large sums of money, these candidates couldn't have won. They have nothing else going for them.

3. Left-wing GOTV methods are inadequate: Looking at the narrow margins in these races (and many other races in recent years) it is obvious that better GOTV could have swung a lot races, particularly in the 2010 midterms. I think it's time to completely, and scientifically, re-examine left-wing GOTV efforts. Learn what works and doesn't work and abandon the traditional methods that don't work. And there are probably a lot of them. Then we need a coordinated and well-funded effort to train everyone on the left nationwide how to do things the right way.

4. Republican districts, everywhere, are mostly just districts where people with good values just don't show up to vote: Can anyone honestly say that there weren't a few thousand more leftists in each of these losing districts last night that couldn't have voted? There is a mountain of evidence that our issue positions are the majority positions across the nation. How do we get that majority to show up to the polls? In every election? If we figure that out, the right is doomed for generations.

5. Left-wing messaging is still inadequate: This is less about last night than it is about the left in general. Democrats did pretty well last night because there was a clear message -- Scott Walker and his cronies are hurting the state and hurting you. That drove turnout pretty well and Democrats picked up traditionally Republican seats. The problem is that message won't work twice. It never does. Shilling and King have to get rid of the crony part of the message now and focus on Walker. But what happens when they have no boogeyman/men to go after? What happens to Democratic incumbents? If they don't have good messaging, they'll be on the wrong side of the anger that is growing with the public.

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The Uptake talks to Wisconsin voters on the ground.

An open thread for results and news from Wisconsin's recall elections.

12:31 a.m.: Since I'm on the East Cost, I'm calling it a night. It looks like it'll be a while before a winner is declared and it looks like it'll be Darling (R). Hopefully I'll wake up surprised...

12:20 a.m.: Seems Nickolaus is already under investigation and Dems are calling for more.

12:16 a.m.: Multiple reports are saying that the outstanding precincts aren't enough for Pasch (D) to come back. State Dems are accusing Waukesha clerk Kathy Nickolaus of dishonesty or worse.

12:11 a.m.: WisPolitics reports Darling (R) taking a notable lead and multiple reports from the state are saying Darling will win.

12:03 a.m.: Unofficial counts via HuffPo, give Pasch about a 3000 vote lead with Menomonee Falls (in Waukesha County), a very red municipality, still to report. I'm not seeing this reported in official totals, though, that still have only 68 percent of precincts reporting.

11:59 p.m.: Tammy Baldwin previously asked for the federal Justice Department to investigate Waukesha County for previous shenanigans. Looks like that investigation is warranted more than ever. Obama et al. have to say yes to such an investigation.

11:54 p.m.: Waukesha County says no results for at least one hour. Waukesha was the county that "found" a bunch of votes to overturn the Prosser recount election.

11:48 p.m.: Not sure about the validity of earlier Pasch-Darling number (came in via HuffPo, but haven't been able to confirm it). Latest official numbers have it, with 68 percent reporting:

Pasch , Sandra Dem 23,804 51%
Darling , Alberta (i) GOP 22,693 49%

11:41 pm.: As reported earlier, two Dem pick-ups would've been enough to stop Scott Walker's collective bargaining bill, since one moderate Republican voted against it. On some level this is a victory regardless of what happens with Pasch.

11:39 p.m.: MSNBC calls it for King (D).

11:37 p.m.: Not sure what the percentage is, but Pasch leads by about 4500, but Republican strongholds still to come in.

11:35 p.m.: With 97 percent in, King (D) now up by more than 1000.

11:29 p.m.: Dems in Jess King's district say they are "certain" she will beat Hopper based on what votes are outstanding.

11:19 p.m.: John Nichols on MSNBC has been awfully accurate so far, he expects Pasch-Darling to get closer and expects King to take out Hopper.

11:17 p.m.: With 63 percent in, Pasch-Darling is getting closer.

11:13 p.m.: Question in King-Hopper race becomes, "what are the recount laws"?

11:10 p.m.: Pasch-Darling race looks to be the most expensive state legislative race in American history.

11:08 p.m.: MSNBC calls District 32 for Shilling (D).

11:04 p.m.: With 87 percent in, King retakes lead over Hopper by 137 votes.

11:02 p.m.: Everyone finally calling it for Olsen (R). First race where Dems were really hopeful of winning.

10:58 p.m.: Suprised race hasn't been called for Olsen (R) by anyone else. 96 percent in and reports say remaining districts are Olsen-friendly.

10:55 p.m.: With 79 percent in, Hopper (R) retakes lead by 500+ votes.

10:52 p.m.: Results starting to come in a lot slower. Is this the part of the night where we start waiting for long periods of time?

10:45 p.m.: WisPolitics calls race for Olsen (R).

10:43 p.m.: King (D) up by nearly 700 now. Three pick-ups looking good (but way too soon to call).

10:40 p.m.: With 94 percent in, Clark looks done for. Pasch and Shilling are expanding their leads.

10:38 p.m.: Fred Clark (D) keeps gaining on Luther Olsen, but he's running out of precincts.

10:34 p.m.: The four remaining races:

State Senate - District 8 - General

Wisconsin - 15 of 82 Precincts Reporting - 18%

Pasch , Sandra Dem 8,848 57%
Darling , Alberta (i) GOP 6,741 43%

State Senate - District 14 - General

Wisconsin - 98 of 126 Precincts Reporting - 78%

Olsen , Luther (i) GOP 17,504 54%
Clark , Fred Dem 15,155 46%

State Senate - District 18 - General

Wisconsin - 21 of 108 Precincts Reporting - 19%

King , Jessica Dem 7,464 50%
Hopper , Randy (i) GOP 7,368 50%

State Senate - District 32 - General

Wisconsin - 59 of 119 Precincts Reporting - 50%

Shilling , Jennifer Dem 11,353 53%
Kapanke , Dan (i) GOP 9,968 47%

10:30 p.m.: Jessica King (D) takes tiny lead over Randy Hopper (R), giving Dems leads in three races.

10:26 p.m.: Alberta Darling: "We're taking back the state." She appears to have forgotten that they already run the state and the fact that they are losing two races at the moment.

10:25 p.m.: Other races all too close to call.

10:22 p.m.: Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel calls race for Harsdorf (R).

10:20 p.m.: With 72 percent in, Harsdorf (R) looks to be a winner, again, no surprise there.

10:16 p.m.: Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel calls race for Cowles (R). This was the most conservative district.

10:15 p.m.: Pasch has taken a small lead over Alberta Darling (R), this is the game-changer. It's early, though, with only 18 percent in.

10:14 p.m.: With 80 percent in Cowles (R) is up big, almost certain to win. No surprise.

10:03 p.m.: The Ed Show is saying that most of the votes in so far are from rural areas and that many of the bigger cities had polls stay open for more than an hour after closing to complete the lines.

Results as of 10 p.m. EST:

State Senate - District 2 - General

Wisconsin - 44 of 90 Precincts Reporting - 49%

Cowles , Robert (i) GOP 10,777 57%
Nusbaum , Nancy Dem 8,029 43%

State Senate - District 8 - General

Wisconsin - 7 of 82 Precincts Reporting - 9%

Darling , Alberta (i) GOP 3,183 71%
Pasch , Sandra Dem 1,320 29%

State Senate - District 10 - General

Wisconsin - 61 of 114 Precincts Reporting - 54%

Harsdorf , Sheila (i) GOP 16,753 58%
Moore , Shelly Dem 12,056 42%

State Senate - District 14 - General

Wisconsin - 46 of 126 Precincts Reporting - 37%

Olsen , Luther (i) GOP 7,576 55%
Clark , Fred Dem 6,208 45%

State Senate - District 18 - General

Wisconsin - 8 of 108 Precincts Reporting - 7%

Hopper , Randy (i) GOP 3,025 54%
King , Jessica Dem 2,576 46%

State Senate - District 32 - General

Wisconsin - 29 of 119 Precincts Reporting - 24%

Shilling , Jennifer Dem 2,541 51%
Kapanke , Dan (i) GOP 2,468 49%

The Young Turks take a look at Wisconsin's recall elections.

Check back here throughout the day for news and updates on the Wisconsin recall elections (updates in EST).

-9:54 p.m.: Incumbents Cowles and Harsdorf appear to be cruising to victory, other races still too close to comment on.

-9:39 p.m.: With very early results (less than 20 percent reporting in all districts, less than 10 percent reporting in most districts), the only Republican currently losing is Dan Kapanke, the most vulnerable of the incumbents.

-9:16 p.m.: There was a machine malfunction in Fon Du Lac that caused some delays this afternoon

-9:01 p.m.: Polls are now closed in Wisconsin.

-7:43 p.m.: Fox is lying about Wisconsin unions, not surprisingly.

-Former Packer lineman Gilbert Brown did robocalls in favor of the recall.

-4:54 p.m.: Daily Kos:

Turnout is strong in Wisconsin today, but it is also not uniform:

As WisPolitics reports, city clerks in some municipalities say that turnout could be near the level of a presidential election -- though this is not true across the board, with other being closer to the hotly-contested state Supreme Court election this past April.

That is actually an enormous range. According to the article linked above, turnout in the April state Supreme Court election was 35 percent of the voting age population. However, turnout in the 2008 presidential election was 71 percent of the voting age population.

The big question is about where turnout is close to presidential levels versus where it is closer to the state Supreme Court election. If the higher turnout is skewed toward areas that favor one party, then we could end up seeing some real surprises—good or bad—tonight.

-3:01 p.m.: Uppity Wisconsin:

The fact worth noting in this right winger's analysis, which would make victory even sweeter: The seats being recalled represent 288 combined consecutive years of Republican representation. For the most part, the six seats up for election today are very GOP-heavy. Sen. Luther Olsen’s district has been represented by a Republican since 1896; Sen. Randy Hopper’s seat has been in Republican hands since 1936. Senator Rob Cowles’ seat near Green Bay was last held by a Democrat 61 years ago, in 1950. The least-Republican seat, held by Sen. Dan Kapanke for only seven years, is almost certain to go to the Democrats today.

-11:54 a.m.: Cognitive Dissonance:

I'm already receiving reports that teahadists are popping up at various polling sites and putting up handmade signs saying that an ID was needed to vote.

This is not true!!

If you have seen this, or have any other interference with your right to vote, call your election commission, and notify these folks, Wisconsin Election Protection.

But don't let these thugs intimidate you or trick you into not voting. Every single vote counts!

-11:28 a.m.: Cognitive Dissonance:

In one race rated a toss-up, Rep. Sandy Pasch (Whitefish Bay) has volunteers already lining up outside the doors this morning to challenge Sen. Alberta Darling in Senate district 8 just north of Milwaukee.

Because of the enormous outpouring, an insider this morning is now saying Pasch is likely to knock off Darling.

-7:48 a.m.: Cognitive Dissonance:

From a Fond du Lac voter this morning: "I wonder if I’m the only person who gets so upset at poll workers having to ask for picture ID. The man behind me in line, said 'Well, there’s no trouble here, but in Milwaukee (read black), there’s thousands of cases of vote fraud.' I told him that’s not true, and asked if he could even conceive of people wanting to vote so much that they would actually commit fraud (that’s not the right word anyway). I told him it’s been my experience that you cannot get people to vote easily enough. I think people just believe what they are told, don’t question anything and march in lockstep. I guess he’s a Republican."

-Darling Kills Voters Rights: Cheats for Lobbyists:

(via Cognitive Dissonance)