Scott Walker

WAUKESHA, Wis. -- Don Hilbig was sitting on a hay bale not far from the stage in this grassy Milwaukee suburb where, on Sunday evening, Wisconsin congressman Paul D. Ryan was to return as Mitt Romney's newly-minted Republican running mate. Hilbig wore a Green Bay Packers baseball cap and a green "Paul Ryan for Congress" T-shirt. The faded shirt was more than a decade old. Hilbig, a retired psychotherapist from Beloit, said he got it while working on Ryan's first congressional campaign.

The hotly contested issue of whether to recall Wisconsin's Republican governor has the state's voters evenly divided, according to a newly released poll. Gov. Scott Walker and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, his most likely Democratic opponent, were virtually tied, with Barrett leading 47%-46% among all registered voters and Walker ahead 48%-47% among those most likely to vote, according to the poll by Marquette University Law School. Barrett holds a strong and growing lead over three other Democrats a week before the party's May 8 primary, the poll showed.

MILWAUKEE - Just ahead of Tuesday's recall election, a new Marquette University Law School poll shows Republican Gov. Scott Walker holding a 52%-to-45%  lead over Democratic challenger Tom Barrett among likely Wisconsin voters. The survey, conducted mostly before Walker and Barrett faced off Friday in the first of two televised debates, shows voter sentiment remarkably hardened, with just 3% of those questioned saying they were still undecided. While that may seem tough news for Democrats and public employee unions who led the charge for the recall, another new survey released by Democratic pollster Celinda Lake tells a different story of a race that has tightened to a dead heat, with both candidates polling at 49%. The Lake poll, conducted mostly after last week's debate, show independents turning toward Barrett.

Re "Wisconsin Gov. Walker overcomes recall effort," June 6 The major victory for taxpayers in Wisconsin demonstrates that voters, at least in that state, have awakened to take action against the public employee unions that are bleeding the government of taxpayer money thanks to generous wages, retirements and perks. Republican Gov. Scott Walker's win was also a great victory for common sense and for the various"tea party " groups that donated and collected money for the governor and sent volunteers from all over the country to make calls, knock on doors, attend rallies and speak to the people.

Reporting from Delavan and Janesville, Wisc. - As in much of the rest of  Wisconsin, yard signs show the rift in opinion about Gov. Scott Walker in his childhood hometown of Delavan. Before he became the center of the hottest political debate in the state's recent memory, Walker was a pastor's son who went to high school in this city of about 8,000 near the border with Illinois. At Ron's Barber Shop downtown, Ron Tesch said he wouldn't hazard a guess as to who will win the recall race, Walker or his Democratic challenger, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett.

MILWAUKEE - Wisconsin's Republican governor, Scott Walker, handily defeated an effort by labor unions and Democratic activists to end his tenure early, surviving a recall contest that capped more than a year of political turmoil and deep division in the state. With nearly all of the vote counted, Walker had 53% to 46% for his Democratic challenger, Tom Barrett, the mayor of Milwaukee. The recall race was anxiously watched by strategists in both parties as a possible harbinger of the presidential election, and the outcome was a major defeat for Democrats and their labor union allies.

Three weeks away from the state's hotly contested recall election, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has taken a lead over his Democratic challenger among likely voters, a new poll shows.  Walker had a 50-44 lead over his Democratic challenger, Tom Barrett, among likely voters. In the late April poll, Walker had only a one-point lead. Looking ahead to November, President Obama and Republican Mitt Romney have moved into a dead heat, 46%-46%, among likely voters in a state that is crucial to Democratic hopes, the poll by Marquette University Law School showed.

MILWAUKEE - Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and rival Tom Barrett leveled sharp attacks on each other's competence, integrity and motives during their final debate before Tuesday's recall election, which could offer a preview of the November election in this probable swing state. Barrett, the Democratic mayor of Milwaukee, accused Republican Walker of stripping public workers of collective bargaining rights to do the bidding of wealthy business interests, divide the state and transform it into “an experimental dish for the far right.” Walker painted Barrett as a tool of powerful unions whose demands had financially crippled the state.

Here are what the results of Tuesday night's Wisconsin recall election mean for four key political players. Gov. Scott Walker already had become a national hero to conservatives for his willingness to take on his state's powerful public employee unions. His victory - making him the only governor in U.S. history to survive a recall - will increase his stature even further. Two other governors had faced recalls and lost, including California's Gray Davis in 2003. Walker carried 60 of Wisconsin's 72 counties and expanded the vote he received when first elected in 2010.