By M.D. Kittle | Wisconsin Reporter

MADISON — Looking to steal some of the spotlight from next week’s recall campaign announcements, Wauwatosa Republicans plan to hold a rally for Gov. Scott Walker.

And a cast of GOP heavyweights is expected to turn out for the kickoff to what Republican leaders predict will be a season that unleashes a “silent majority” in loud support of the embattled governor.

Bill Berdan, vice chairman of the Wauwatosa branch of the Republican Party of Milwaukee County, said the rally is tentatively scheduled from 1 to 4 p.m., Jan. 21, at Hart Park in Wauwatosa.

Organizers are hoping for hundreds to show up.

The list of commitments include former Gov. Tommy Thompson and Wisconsin’s former 1st District U.S. Rep. Mark Neumann, combatants for the GOP nomination in the Badger State’s U.S. Senate race.

“Mark stands behind the governor 100 percent,” said Neumann campaign manager Chip Englander, noting that Neumann spoke at the pro-Walker rally last month in Eau Claire.

Also on the invite list are GOP state Sens. Alberta Darling of River Hills, Glenn Grothman of West Bend, and Van Wanggaard, himself a recall target, of Racine. Republican state Reps. David Craig of Big Bend, Jeff Stone of Greendale, and Robin Vos of Rochester, and Wauwatosa’s Leah Vukmir are expected to join the rally.

Berdan said the event, organized in large part by the tea party movement, will be a boost for conservatives, who, he said, will take back some of the spotlight from the Democratic Party and other anti-Walker groups.

“Our conservative people have been hungry for something like this,” he said, noting the multiple demonstrations and rallies held by Walker opponents over the past year, including a mass march passed the governor’s Wauwatosa home in November. “I think this is great, because all you see is the other side.”

The recall movement takes center stage Tuesday, when recall petitions are due at the Government Accountability Board, or GAB, which oversees elections and campaigns.

The Democratic Party of Wisconsin and liberal political action committee United Wisconsin are leading the recall movement against Walker and Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch. Campaigners will need 540,208 valid signatures to force Walker to a recall election and the same number for the lieutenant governor. In mid-December, they said they had collected more than 500,000 signatures.

Four Republican senators — Wanggaard, Pam Galloway of Wausau, Terry Moulton of Chippewa Falls, each freshman lawmakers, and Scott Fitzgerald, Senate majority leader from Juneau — are subjects of recall campaigns, too.

The Wauwatosa Republicans have been busy selling “Stand With Walker” signs, priced at $5, Berdan said.

As of Wednesday afternoon, he said the group had sold some 3,000 signs to voters in Milwaukee County and other parts of the state.

“I know there’s a silent majority there, because they’re the people coming in buying these signs. And these are not all Republicans by any means,” he said, adding that many of the sign buyers are signing up to volunteer for the GOP’s recall petition review initiative.

Berdan said support is coming from all circles. He recalled an elderly woman, her back hunched, carrying a worn metal-tab purse, recently walking into the Milwaukee County GOP office and placing five crumpled $1 bills and $4 worth of quarters on the table.

“She came in just to give that money to Scott Walker,” he said. “I felt guilty taking the money from her.”

Ciara Matthews, communications director for Friends of Scott Walker, the governor’s election campaign, said “the groundswell of support” isn’t anything new.

“I think you will start to see it more publicly, especially because the signatures are coming due,” she said.

Several members of the Democratic Party of Milwaukee County did not return Wisconsin Reporter phone calls seeking comment on this story.

Mike Tate, chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, also did not return a phone call seeking comment.