The Government Accountability Board has received challenges of recall petitions from all four State Senators who have been targeted for recall election. The GAB has until March 19 to determine whether there are enough valid signatures to trigger recall elections. State law gives the recall petitioners five days to rebut the challenges, after which the officeholders will have two days to reply.

The senators facing recalls are Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau), Pam Galloway (R-Wausau), Terry Moulton (R-Chippewa Falls), and Van Wanggaard (R-Racine). Just one recalled senator will flip the majority in that chamber to the Democrats. Republicans have a 17-16 majority.

Under state law, the GAB can’t accept challenges from members of the public or third-party groups. Anyone who finds irregularities should contact the officeholder being targeted for recall. GAB says copies of the challenges will be posted to the Board’s website as soon as possible.

The state Senate majority leader believes he can challenge enough signatures to stop a recall against him.

The four Senate Republicans targeted by recalls have until the end of the day to file challenges against the petitions. Senator Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) says he plans to dispute more than 3,000 signatures, which he believes is enough to stop a recall.

Just under 17,000 signatures are needed to trigger an election against the senator. Organizers of the effort say they turned in over 20,600 signatures, but Fitzgerald says his campaign’s review shows those numbers were not even close to accurate.

The Juneau Republican says he believes even more signature challenges could be uncovered, if his campaign had more time.

Organizers of the recall against Fitzgerald say they turned in enough valid signatures to trigger an election.

Despite his certainty about “bogus” signatures, Fitzgerald admits some of the challenges may not go through with the Government Accountability Board. He says leniency seen in past recalls, and even during the review of normal nomination papers, leaves him “not optimistic that they’re going to see it exactly the way we see it.”

Fitzgerald also plans to raise arguments that new legislative district maps should have been applied to the recall effort and revisit an earlier claim that organizers had an extra day to collect signatures.

AUDIO: Andrew Beckett reports (1:07)

A first-term Congressman from northeast Wisconsin wants to impose term limits on federal lawmakers. Reid Ribble is trying to get support for a constitutional amendment that would limit those in the House of Representatives and Senate to 12 years in office. 

The Sherwood Republican’s plan also changes the length of a House term from two-to-four years, to allow members to focus on their jobs instead of campaigning. 

“Your member of Congress works full-time for the first year on behalf of the people. Then in the second year you move into campaign mode right away.”

Ribble’s plan also calls for grandfathering in current members of Congress so they wouldn’t be voting to end their own jobs.  He says that would allow the term limits to be phased in and give the measure a better chance of passing. 

To become law, the constitutional amendment has to pass the House and Senate by a two-third majority and pass referendums in at least three-quarters of the states.

Ribble says even if his amendment fails, he’ll live by his campaign promise of serving maximum of eight years.

Rick Schuh-WHBY