The recall of Robin Vos may come up short, just like his favorability in poll | Opinion
You may have heard that there’s an attempt to recall arguably the most powerful, and inarguably the most unfavorable Republican in Wisconsin.
On Monday, the conservative organizers behind the attempt to recall Wisconsin’s Assembly Speaker Robin Vos submitted more than 10,700 signatures to the Wisconsin Elections Commission
Then on Tuesday, after an initial review, the WEC determined that the organizers were about 945 signatures short of the 6,850 needed. But that was based on whether or not the signatures were from people who lived in the district Vos was last elected in based on the previous electoral maps in 2022.
Since we have new legislative maps and the state Supreme Court declined to weigh in on Gov. Tony Evers' request to clarify whether the state's new legislative districts apply to elections held before November, there's still a chance that the recall organizers did get enough signatures from people who live in Vos' new district.
Donald Trump has been critical of Vos, sought his ouster
Why does a group of Republicans want to remove one of, if not the most effective leaders for their party in the Legislature? Because of former President Donald Trump.
Trump broke with Vos after he refused to decertify the 2020 election. A Trump backed candidate came within 260 votes of ousting the speaker in a Republican primary in 2022. I guess Vos' support of former Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman's fruitless investigation into the 2020 election didn't earn him any goodwill with the group. More recently, Vos was criticized for not advancing articles of impeachment against WEC administrator Meagan Wolfe.
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"I stand before you honored to represent not just Racine County, but all Wisconsinites ready to end Vos' era of corruption, tyranny and secretive dealings," recall organizer Matthew Snorek said Monday
A quick aside, the fact that Snorek is a professional pest exterminator is a poetic detail to this story that deserves mentioning. But when he says he is representing, "all Wisconsinites," he isn't that far off. Because if you were to just look at Vos' poll numbers, you might wonder why no one tried to recall him before now.
Latest Marquette Law School poll shows Vos is deeply unpopular
As of the last Marquette Law School poll Robin Vos has never been more unpopular. It was the worst net favorability rating he’s ever had. At 17% favorability, he is half as favorable as the Wisconsin State Legislature, which at 34%, is also nothing to brag about.
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And yet, every two years, Vos only needs is less than 1% of statewide Wisconsin voters to arguably have as much power as Evers, who needs over 50% of statewide votes. Obviously, Vos is running in a single Assembly district as opposed to across the entire state, but he has amassed so much power as speaker that a national publication dubbed him Wisconsin's shadow governor. Vos is Wisconsin's longest serving speaker, holding the post since 2013.
So if anything, this is should be an indictment of how our system is set up: That a politician this unpopular can be that powerful for this long.
Kristin Brey is the "My Take" columnist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin's Assembly Speaker is unquestionably powerful and unpopular