Welcome to campaign 2012

Several southeastern Wisconsin politicians, including Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, are knee deep in the Wisconsin budget debate. Barrett made a trip to the Capitol this week to emphasize his criticisms of the man who beat him in November.
Politicos across the spectrum are looking for the intensity surrounding the debate over the budget and worker rights to jumpstart campaign 2012, when President Barack Obama will be eying a repeat win in Wisconsin.
To them, political activity surrounding the budget repair bill – and Gov. Scott Walker’s two-year budget plan – has only just begun.
There already are competing TV and radio ads, fundraising appeals and recall moves and threats.
The recall moves are against Democratic senators who bolted to Illinois to delay a vote on Walker’s $137 million budget repair bill.
And the threats were against Republican legislators who supported the bill – and Walker.
Any move to recall Walker would have to wait until he has served office at least one year and would require a huge organizational effort just to force an election. But as Republicans note, even a failed recall effort can pay benefits; an abortion-related effort against Russ Feingold in 1997 helped then-Congressman Mark Neumann in his 1998 bid against the then-U.S. senator.
So if a gubernatorial recall election could be forced, who would run?
One of the names that keeps popping up is that of Feingold, defeated at the polls in 2010.
Feingold appeared at the Capitol protests and then appeared on Milwaukee TV after Walker’s “fireside chat” on Tuesday night to say Walker’s budget repair bill amounts to "a very serious assault on the people of Wisconsin."
"When the governor talks here, he’s not being straightforward when he says this is just about the money in the budget," Feingold told WISN-Channel 12. "It’s about gutting those rights that have been important in that history of the state that he refers to."
– WisPolitics.com