Walker used as bait in Cowles recall effort

There is an effort underway to recall Republican State Senator Robert Cowles here in the second senate district where I live.  On the way home tonight I passed a sign on the side of the road that read, "Walker & Cowles recall sign the petition here."

Wisconsin law requires that lawmakers be in office at least one year since their last election.  Governor Scott Walker is not even eligible to be recalled until the beginning of 2012, so why advertise Walker's name when he's not up for recall?

My first thought was just that the person collecting the signatures doesn't really understand who the target of the recall is.  That is still possible, but there is another sadder (and more likely) possibility.  Namely, that most of the people in the second senate district don't know who Senator Robert Cowles is, what party he belongs to, or how he stands on Governor Walker's budget repair bill.

Given the intensity of the debate and the media coverage, many (most?) people are now familiar with the Governor, and at least one part of his bill.  I suspect that the recall organizers are counting on that familiarity to drive the recall effort as opposed to any groundswell of opposition to Cowles himself.

Regardless of where you stand on this particular bill, I think we can agree it's more than a little bit sad that so few people are familiar with their elected leaders.