By Kirsten Adshead | Wisconsin Reporter

MADISON — Let the recall games begin.

The Committee to Recall Scott Fitzgerald said during a Friday news conference at the Capitol that it has enough signatures to force a recall election on the Senate majority leader, but declined to say how many signatures had been collected.

“We’re going to keep you in suspense for a few more days,” laughed Kristin Crowell, executive director of We Are Wisconsin, a liberal-leaning political action committee that has been working with the Recall Fitzgerald campaign for the past few weeks.

The announcement about the Republican from Horicon is likely one of several to be made in the coming days, as the current round of recall signature collections wraps up.

Saturday is the last day for collecting recall signatures against Gov. Scott Walker, Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, Fitzgerald and three other GOP senators — Pam Galloway of Wausau, Van Wanggaard of Racine and Terry Moulton of Chippewa Falls.

The signatures must be submitted to the Government Accountability Board, which oversees the state’s elections, by 5 p.m. Tuesday.

“We have watched Scott Fitzgerald change from a man who won re-election on a platform of jobs and economic development into a man who is more interested in lining up behind Gov. Walker than standing up for us,” said Lori Compas, chairwoman of the Recall Fitzgerald campaign.

A spokesman for Fitzgerald did not immediately return a request for comment Friday.

But Fitzgerald is questioning whether the 60-day period for collecting signatures, which started when all the campaigns submitted paperwork to the GAB on Nov. 15, ends Friday or Saturday.

The GAB said it set the deadlines based on information from the Department of Justice, including Republican Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen.

A spokesman from the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, which Compas said has been related to her group’s recall efforts tangentially, also did not return a message seeking comment.

Even though Compas would not comment on the number of signatures collected, a posting Wednesday on her group’s website, recallfitz.com, indicated that the campaign had collected 16,000 signatures.

Petition circulators need to collect 16,742 valid signatures to trigger a recall election against Fitzgerald, but the emphasis is on valid. Only signatures from people who live within the 13th Senate District Fitzgerald represents are acceptable and no duplicates are allowed.

One name that won't be appearing on a Recall Fitzgerald petition is Melvin Brushaber.

The 75-year-old Fort Atkinson retiree said he likes how Fitzgerald has represented him in the Senate, especially regarding limiting state spending.

"We have to save money," Brushaber said. "I don't understand why smart people keep spending when you're broke or bankrupt."

Groups of all political ilks, from inside Wisconsin and outside, are expected to take a keen interest in what looks to be a historic recall effort.

Special interest groups, candidates and political campaigns spent $44 million during last summer’s round of recalls, in which elections against six GOP and three Democratic state senators resulted in the ouster of two Republicans, according to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, which tracks campaign spending.

Once recall petitions are submitted, the GAB has 31 days to verify them.

But GAB Director Kevin Kennedy said he expects to ask for an extension of a month or more.

The Republican Party of Wisconsin, meanwhile, will be doing its own verification of the signatures, checking to make sure addresses are valid and duplicate signatures are not counted, RPW spokesman Ben Sparks said.

Sparks said he isn’t worried about the potential recalls, through which the GOP could lose the governor’s office and the Senate majority.

“An overwhelming majority of Wisconsin voters elected Gov. Walker to be their leader in 2010, and Gov. Walker did exactly what he said he would do on the campaign trail,” Sparks said.

Walker won 52 percent of the vote in the 2010 election, besting Democrat Tom Barrett.

Walker repeatedly has been criticized for not discussing during the campaign plans to curtail collective-bargaining powers for state union employees — action he eventually pushed through last spring, with the help of the GOP-led Legislature.

Recall organizers say that issue — as well as cuts to education, local governments and services for the poor — has motivated volunteers to recall their elected officials.