And another one bites the dust...

Wisconsin Democrats announced late Monday that they are filing recall signatures against a fourth Republican state senator [Sheila Harsdorf of the 10th District], in the political battle over Republican Gov. Scott Walker's anti-public employee union agenda. And with this development, the momentum is growing for control of the chamber to be up for grabs in the coming months.

The St. Paul Pioneer Press, whose readership includes people across the Minnesota state line in Harsdorf's northwestern Wisconsin district, reports:

Democratic Party of Wisconsin spokesman Graeme Zielinski said a petition will be filed with the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board on Tuesday. While he didn't have a total signature count Monday afternoon -- signatures were still coming in -- Zielinski said the number is well over the 15,744 needed.

Democrats on Monday filed petitions against Republican state Sen. Luther Olsen, and had previously filed petitions targeting state Sen. Dan Kapanke and state Sen. Randy Hopper. These petitions are still being reviewed by the state Government Accountability Board, which oversees elections.

There are eight Republican state senators eligible for recall. Signatures are still being collected for the other four. But if a Democrat can win in each of these four races (not necessarily a lock in some very red districts), it will tip the scale of the make up of the Senate to a Democratic majority.

The Wisconsin Republican Party has promised to launch recalls of their own against the Democratic state senators who fled to prevent a quorum. As yet, they have not been able to gather the required number of signatures to file even a single petition.

From an email from a Wisconsin activist involved in the recall campaign:

Here’s what this means. Presuming all four elections take place — which they all but certainly will, given the massive amounts of signatures gathered in all four cases — Dems will have matched the amount of recalls triggered in the state’s whole previous history in less than a year.

That’s as clear a demonstration as you could want of the grassroots energy unleashed by Scott Walker’s overreach, and of the organizing successes of his opponents.
Republicans have less than a week until the deadline for their signatures to trigger recall elections against Dems. They have not yet submitted any.