By M.D. Kittle | Wisconsin Reporter

MADISON — Republican state senators targeted for recall were expected to file their responses to rebuttals to their challenges of recall petitions Wednesday.

If that sounds confusing, it is just part of the constitutional give and take that is the Wisconsin recall process.

In this latest volley, the senators, through their representatives, are asking the state’s election watchdog to resolve their questions about redistricting and a dispute regarding when the clock officially started ticking on recall campaigns.

Late last week, the Committee to Elect a Republican Senate, or CERS, challenged thousands of signatures collected by the campaigns to recall state Sens. Scott Fitzgerald of Juneau, Pam Galloway of Wausau, Terry Moulton of Chippewa Falls and Van Wanggaard of Racine.

The incumbents cited a litany of problems with the petitions, from convicted felons signing to missing information, like a lack of date or address.

Recall committees on Tuesday responded with their rebuttals, asserting many of the challenges lacked evidence or could be cleared up.

The Committee to Recall Scott Fitzgerald, for instance, countered the incumbent’s claims that 1,739 circulator certification forms were not properly completed, asserting that all but 111 followed recall laws.

CERS was set to file its response to those rebuttals with the Government Accountability Board, or GAB, late Wednesday.

GAB had not posted the file as of Wednesday evening.

CERS’ overarching concerns remain signatures collected outside of newly drawn district maps, and the timing of the recall campaigns.

The senators collectively have challenged thousands of signatures they say were collected in Senate districts created more than a decade ago. They insist recall campaigns must be conducted in the maps drawn up by the majority Republicans and passed into law on a party-line vote last year.

Those redistricting maps are being challenged in court, with the next hearing set for next week.

Dan Romportl, CERS’ executive director, said Republicans originally set the roll out of the new boundaries for the November 2012 general election to avoid effectively creating a series of special assembly elections beforehand.

“Now that the Democrats have triggered a round of what essentially are special elections (the recalls), that’s a moot point,” he said. “We are asking GAB to look at it.”

GAB settled the question early on, advising recall committees to operate under the existing maps, “because the Legislature said when they passed redistricting to use the old maps until the general election of 2012,” said GAB spokesman Reid Magney.

“Unless a court tells us otherwise, we’re going to follow the law,” he said.

Randy Brandt, treasurer for the Committee to Recall Van Wanggaard, said his committee followed GAB guidance.

Wanggaard is challenging 20,427 signatures, much of which are based on redistricting, according to a Wisconsin Reporter review of challenges filed on the GAB website.

“The GAB decided this early on, that the recalls would be conducted in districts as they exist. We followed that instruction,” Brandt said.

The senators also want GAB to rule on the timing of signature collection.

Many of the recall committees electronically registered their campaigns with GAB just after midnight on Nov. 15. They filed their paper form with the board later that morning.

But signature collection began in the wee hours of the morning, with some recall campaign kickoffs featuring signature-signing pajama parties and other festive events.

“We’re saying anything collected before the paper form was filed should be invalid,” Romportl said.

“The ones that filed on the 15th, their paperwork was filed mid-morning, yet they had all of these midnight parties where they were collecting signatures.”

Brandt and Lori Compas, who spearheaded the Committee to Recall Scott Fitzgerald, said they followed GAB guidance in filing their committee registrations.

Magney said GAB will not comment on the positions of the petitioners or the incumbents.

Compas said the vast majority of Fitzgerald’s challenges are “frivolous.”

“I think in a lot of cases (Fitzgerald’s signature review volunteers) entered people’s name’s wrong,” she said. “Half of the postcards they sent out (to petition signers) came back, because they entered information incorrectly.”

Republicans, Romportl said, will take aim at what he called the Democrats’ “over-the-top” rhetoric surrounding the recall campaigns, particularly charges that the GOP is dragging out the process.

“We’re provided under law the right to challenge,” he said.

“The one silver lining to come out of all of this is that this process is under a microscope,” Romportl said. “I think the public is getting fed up with all of the gray area in the recall process.”

Recall update

Gov. Scott Walker is asking a Dane County judge for an extension to vet the reported 1 million-plus signatures collected in the recall against him.

The request was filed last week, said Republican Party of Wisconsin spokesman Ben Sparks.

“As it has become apparent, an adequate review of all of the recall signatures cannot be met within the current time limits, the Friends of Scott Walker (campaign committee) has requested an additional two weeks to complete its full review of all recall petitions,” Sparks said.

The court is expected to take up the matter Friday.

Walker’s campaign now has until Feb. 27 to complete its review, after it was granted an earlier extension.

Sparks said the proposed deadline of March 12 still would be within the GAB’s March 19 court-ordered deadline to make a determination on recall elections.

“This will allow the Republican Party of Wisconsin and the Friends of Scott Walker the time necessary to conduct a complete review of these signatures and it will aid the GAB’s efforts by ensuring their examination is focused on the signatures that have undergone a more thorough factual review,” Sparks said.