Fitzgerald fights off recall challenge

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The Republican leader of the state Senate, Scott Fitzgerald, will keep his seat after defeating Democratic challenger Lori Compas in Tuesday’s historic recall election.

Fitzgerald won by a margin of more than 10,000 votes. But political newcomer Lori Compas came 10,000 votes closer to beating Fitzgerald than his most recent Democratic opponent in the 2010 election. Compas says despite her defeat, the voters who supported her aren’t going away. She says they’ll work to block bills sponsored by national conservative group American Legislative Exchange Council: “I certainly think we are going to be a thorn in the side of Sen. Fitzgerald moving forward. I mean honestly, we are going to be watching him and we are going to be watching ALEC. We really don’t like the idea of legislation coming from outside. I just want to keep this spirit alive.”

But Sen. Fitzgerald says he’ll work to keep the spirit of Gov. Scott Walker’s reforms alive. He told a crowd of supporters it was time for Democrats to put their campaign signs back in the garage and work with Republicans, not against them. His priorities include passing a new mining bill to bring more jobs to the state, and passing a law to make recall elections more difficult to launch. He says he’s ready to work with Democratic leaders despite the past year and half of rancor. But he says it may take voters longer to bury the hatchet, “As far as neighbors and friends and all that, no, it’s going to take some time. I mean I think that it’s definitely been a divided state. It’s going be part of moving beyond Act 10. I mean that’s really what caused a lot of that.”

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But it’s not clear Democrats are ready to give up on efforts to repeal parts of Act 10 that restrict union bargaining rights.