45% of Recall Signatures

From Greg Sargent:

Dems have now collected over 56,000 signatures supporting the recall drives, according to party spokesman Graeme Zielinski, after another surge in organizing activity over the weekend. That’s up from roughly 14,000 after last weekend. This means Dems are well ahead of schedule: In each targeted district, Dems need to amass the required signatures — 25 percent of the number who voted in the last gubernatorial election — by a deadline of 60 days after first filing for recalls, which happened nearly two weeks ago.

In other words, Dems are reporting they are nearly halfway to the finish line, with roughly three-fourths of the alloted time remaining.

[...]

According to Wisconsin Dem spokesman Zielinski, Dems are ahead of pace in signature gathering in every single one of the eight districts being targeted, and in three of the districts, Dems have well over 50 percent of the number required.

It will be interesting to see how this shakes out in Grothman's and Lazich's districts, which are the most conservative of the eight eligible. I would have thought these were lose causes from the get-go, but these figures suggest that perhaps a Dem might be able to slip into those seats during a special election wherein the the conservative base to dispirited or otherwise occupied with something else. I wouldn't count on it happening, but the odds seem a little less ridiculous than they did just a month ago.

MORE: This will not help things:

As WisPolitics reports, Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R) sent a letter to his fellow Republicans, reminding them that they had previously found the Democrats to be in contempt of the chamber -- and as such, they are not to be allowed to vote on committees.

It will be absolutely fascinating to watch happens to Fitzgerald should he suddenly find himself in the minority in the next six months. From the outside it appears that Fitzgerald doesn't seem to care what kind of damage he is doing to his relationships with his colleagues across the aisle, so long as he is able to shepard Walker's legislative agenda through the senate. It will be interesting to see what kind of recriminations, if any, he will have to deal with in the future.