Wisconsin Recall-A-Palooza Update- With Walker Up in Polls, Democrats Getting Desperate; Walker Supporter Detained at Barrett Rally

With Wisconsin's June 5th recall election looming, the Democrat party and their union allies seem to be pulling out all the stops in their bid to unseat Gov. Walker. Running against Walker is Milwaukee's Democrat mayor Tom Barrett in what is basically a rematch of the 2010 Gubernerorial campaign.

Well.....almost all the stops. You see, just days before the voters were slated to go to the polls in Wisconsin President Obama hosted six fundriasers on Friday- dividing his time between the Twin Cities and Chicago. Yet Obama was conspicuously absent from that state that takes up real-estate between Illinois and Minnesota. If the Democrats on the national level were at all confident of a Barrett win, Obama likely would've made an appearence in the Badger State while on his Midwest fundraising trip (disguised as official business). Yet President Obama avoided Dairyland like it was a discussion on the most recent jobless numbers report.

Barrett has been trailing in nearly every poll in recent weeks. Although some polls had Walker up considerably in the last few weeks, Barrett was gradually closing the gap and while still behind Walker in some polling, he was within the margin of error.

Further telegraphing desperation is an early 'October surprise' liberal bloggers attempted to spring on Scott Walker over the weekend, citing anonymous and secondhand sources that Scott Walker fathered an illegitimate son with a classmate while attending Marquette University. The love-child story, floated by an outlet called "Wisconsin Citizens Media Co-op", unravelled in about an hour after a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter confirmed that the Scott Walker in question had a different middle name than the governor.

Around the same time, a left-leaning think tank began sending out mailers identifying individuals who did and didn't vote in prior elections.

When many Wausau voters checked their mail this past weekend, they got a glimpse of something unusual -- their neighbor's voting record.

"I had no idea that was a part of the public record," said Bryan Mergen, who lives in Wausau.

The mailer -- put out by the Greater Wisconsin Political Fund -- shows a list of people who live near you and whether they voted in two recent November elections. It doesn't show who you voted for, but even so, some voters said it's an invasion of their privacy.

Wisconsin's Government Accountability Board spokesperson Reid Magney said voter records are public records. With a name and a birth date, you can find election records right on their website. And some voters said they don't mind the exposure.

"My first reaction is, what's this?" said Mary Dominski, who lives in Wausau. "And then I thought, well, it's okay. I had no problem with it because I have no problem with my voting record."

Magney said many groups buy a copy of the statewide voter list. But he said this is the first time a group has used the voter information this way.

"I think it probably was not the smartest political move, because I think there's a lot of antagonism and a lot of people thought there was more information than there really is," said Dominski.

Meanwhile, in Milwaukee, a counterdemonstrator was detained by police at a Barrett rally that President Clinton was speaking at.

Particularly damning was the gathering crowd of Barrett supporters and union activists gleefully chanting 'Lock Him Up!' for the high crime of holding up a pro-Walker sign in a public park. The man identified himself as Dave Willoughby and in addition to being a former Marine, is reportedly the son of a prominent Florida Tea Party activist.

Attendees of the rally accuse Willoughby of acting in a belligerent and confrontational manner towards them and Milwaukee police cited him for disturbing the peace before booking him before getting released [During last year's protests against Scott Walker's budget proposal, union members and Democrats occupied the Wisconsin state capitol building, damaging doors, blocking traffic and threatening lawmakers- so even if the pro-Barrett crowd's version of events is 100% accurate, its pretty mild in comparison to what SEIU and AFSCME-affiliated protesters inflicted on the state capital last year- NANESB!]