Tens of thousands of protesters flooded the Capitol Square on Saturday, vowing to take the fight over collective bargaining powers from the streets of Madison to the voting districts of Wisconsin.
Charles Franklin, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said Saturday’s rally was planned before the state Senate’s surprise Wednesday vote on the public worker measures.
“So you transform (the rally), you transform it into the kickoff for the electoral battles to come,” he said. “This bill will be law for years and years until there’s a Democratic Assembly, Senate and governor. Until then, Republican control of one of those three things will prevent it from being repealed.
“I think we are in for a long, marathon battle of elections just to see what party has the upper hand in Wisconsin and whether this law represents a permanent change in the balance of power in favor of the Republicans, or whether, as some Democrats fantasize, the start of their recovery.”