Walker, Wisconsin GOP Face Growing Backlash from Voters

The backlash against Gov. Scott Walker and the GOP's anti-union agenda is coming from the right as well as the left.

The assault on workers' rights in Wisconsin is backfiring in more ways than one on Gov. Scott Walker and Republican lawmakers, between recalls, sinking poll numbers and small business owners siding with workers.

Up to 100,000 people, including farmers who drove their tractors to Madison, protested at the capitol Saturday after Walker signed the now-infamous bill stripping collective bargaining rights from Wisconsin's public employees.

Petition drives to recall eight Republican state senators have already gathered more than half the signatures needed for a vote. Other Republicans and Walker could face recalls in early 2012; under state law, officials must be in office for a year before a recall vote.

Meanwhile, polls continue to show that more than half of Wisconsin voters disapprove of Walker's anti-worker agenda and strongly support collective bargaining rights.

Farmers who drove their tractors to Madison were among 100,000 people demonstrating Saturday after Gov. Scott Walker signed his anti-union legislation.

Many small business owners are also backing workers, displaying both handwritten and pre-printed signs in their windows, such as "We Support Public Workers and Public Workers Support Us, Too."

Saturday's rally in Madison welcomed home as heroes the 14 Democratic senators who left Wisconsin to try to force compromise on Walker's union-busting bill. Eight of the 14 are facing a right-wing recall drive.

The heroes honored Saturday included Sen. Julie Lassa, six months pregnant and the mother of two.

"I am teaching my daughters, who are 6 and 3, that it is very important to do what you can to help your neighbors when people need help," Lassa told a reporter while she and her senate colleagues were at an undisclosed location in Illinois. "I have heard some media commentators refer to this as a 'vacation.' Believe me, it's anything but. I'm paying my expenses out of my own pocket and trying my best to cope with being away from my husband and children and my home."