By M.D. Kittle | Wisconsin Reporter

MADISON — Vic Oimette said he may have met Kathleen Falk at a convention meeting sometime.

And he said he knows Falk has been involved in the “political scene for a long time.”

“But if she walked in the room right now, I wouldn’t recognize her,” said Oimette, chairman of the Iron County Democratic Party.

Falk’s not-so-familiar face could be a big problem for the former Dane County executive who announced Wednesday that she wants to be the Democratic candidate in the anticipated recall race against Gov. Scott Walker.

Falk joins state Sen. Tim Cullen, D-Janesville, who expressed interest in the candidacy last month, long before the Democratic Party of Wisconsin concluded its recall petition campaign against Walker. The campaign Tuesday said it had collected more than 1 million signatures, about double the 540,208 signatures required to force a recall election.

Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch and four GOP state senators also are targeted in the recall effort.

The Government Accountability Board, or GAB, which oversees state elections and campaigns, now must review the petitions and check the validity of the signatures, as the incumbent campaigns vet the documents.

In making her announcement via video, Falk accused Walker of tearing Wisconsin apart through “months of job losses, the biggest cuts to education in Wisconsin’s history, painful cuts to health care.”

Recall organizers most immediately cite as the object of their ire, Act 10, the Walker-led law that curbed collective bargaining for most public employees.

“My choices, as your governor, will be different than Scott Walker’s,” Falk said. “I know Wisconsin is a place where we can have good paying jobs, a clean environment, successful schools and affordable health care.

Republicans didn’t sound impressed, offering a biting retort.

“With Falk’s distinguished career as a government lawyer suing businesses and repeatedly losing statewide elections, we can call on Falk to inform Wisconsin families as to how … she will balance Wisconsin’s budget; how many taxes she will raise, and how many workers she will lay off?” Stephan Thompson, executive director of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, said in a statement Wednesday.

Falk served four terms as Dane County executive, the first woman elected to the county’s top elected post. She stepped down in 2010.

In 2002, she became the first major party female candidate in Wisconsin history to run for governor.

She lost in a primary to Jim Doyle, who served two terms.

Falk also lost in the statewide attorney general’s race, defeated by J.B. Von Hollen, the current attorney general.

While she is adored by and has the full support of Wisconsin’s largest unions, Falk may not resonate with voters outside her liberal Dane County base, political experts said.

Ciara Matthews, spokeswoman for Walker’s campaign, in a statement said Falk was “hand-picked by big-government, public employee union bosses.”

Many Democrats have said they don’t necessarily care who runs, as long their candidate beats Walker, David Siemers said.

“I don’t look upon her as a terribly strong candidate,” said Siemers, professor and chairman of the political science department at University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh. “I know the biggest union leaders in the state are backing her, that they even went to (Milwaukee Mayor) Tom Barrett to ask him not to run and clear the field. But I don’t think that will be a benefit this time around.

“A candidate has to show they can broaden their base of support. (Falk) hasn’t shown much ability to move beyond Dane County, in terms of support.”

In Wisconsin’s Northwoods, Oimette said many residents struggle to connect with statewide candidates, because they so rarely visit the northern part of the state.

“A lot of downstate Democrats don’t seem to think the northern part of the state exists, unless they’re running for office and looking for votes,” he said, noting his Republican friends say the same about their candidates.

Oimette said he received an email Wednesday from the Falk camp, saying the candidate would this weekend be in Ashland, within fairly easy driving range of his Iron County home.

While Falk is in, and Cullen has committed, other key Democrats are said to be mulling a run against Walker, including:

• Barrett, who lost to Walker by 5 percentage points in the 2010 contest;
• Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca, D-Kenosha;
• U.S. Rep. Ron Kind, who represents the state’s 3rd Congressional District;
• Former U.S. Rep. Dave Obey, who represented the 7th Congressional District;
• State Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Middleton.

Erpenbach earlier this week said a Democratic Party primary would be a “good thing,” giving candidates the chance to talk about the issues, also known as picking up critical face time and name recognition.

More importantly, Siemers said, the contenders need time to catch up to Walker’s massive campaign war chest. The governor, under state election law, has raised unlimited campaign cash, since the recall petition campaign started against him in November.

He raised $5 million between July and Dec. 10, according to the latest filing.