By M.D. Kittle | Wisconsin Reporter

MADISON — “Fake” candidates rejoice!

You can run in any and all Wisconsin recall primary — or any other state primary for that matter.

Contrary to rumors making their way through election administration circles, so-called fake or protest candidates can run in Wisconsin’s open primaries.

Mary Schuch-Krebs, Kenosha County clerk, said she had heard talk through the clerk’s grapevine that the Government Accountability Board, or GAB, which administers elections and campaigns, was going to do away with the controversial practice of running stand-in candidates.

The word among some clerks, Schuch-Krebs said, is so-called fake candidates would have to join the party of the primary in which they are running.

GAB spokesman Reid Magney said election law on the matter remains “status quo.”

“I can tell you that nothing has changed in terms of fake candidates or protest candidates,” he said. “The legislature has not changed the law to restrict who can run in a primary.”

Wisconsin’s election law has long allowed open primaries, a charge that goes back to “Fighting Bob” La Follette, the Badger State’s storied U.S. senator of the early 20th century.

Wisconsin is among about 20 states that allow open primaries, meaning voters may participate without regard to party. The law equally opens the door for those in one party to run in another party’s primary.

To the ire of Democrats and the confusion of some of its own members, the Republican Party of Wisconsin supported GOP faithful as placeholders in Democratic primaries in last June’s Senate recall primary elections. The strategy, which opponents described as downright sneaky, gave incumbent Republican senators more time to campaign.

Without the maneuver, the six targeted lawmakers would have faced recall elections sooner.

The state GOP advocated that “protest candidates” run, because the incumbents were hard at work finalizing the state budget, and because of the “outrageous nature of elected officials facing recall for standing up for a balanced budget,” Stephan Thompson, executive director of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, said in a statement in early June.

“The public deserves time to learn about the differences between the candidates,” Thompson had said.

Mike Tate, chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, offered a string of colorful adjectives for what he called the GOP’s “dirty tricks” in “gaming the system for partisan gain.”

"At the same time, these phony GOP primary candidacies have, in essence, allowed the Republicans to seize the ability to call these elections at a date of their choosing. They can pick and choose which sham primaries to force. That's wrong,” Tate said in a statement at the time.

Democrats did not run stand-in candidates.

With the Republican Party all but conceding that recall elections will occur this year, as recall campaign organizers target Gov. Scott Walker, Lt. Gov Rebecca Kleefisch and four Republican senators, a GOP spokesman said idea of running “protest” candidates hasn’t come up.

“Right now, our sole focus is to verify recall signatures to ensure Wisconsin voters are not disenfranchised,” said Ben Sparks, spokesman for the Republican Party of Wisconsin.