Cheesed off

SOME call it a civil war. Others say that the debate over the future of Wisconsin's Republican governor, Scott Walker, is now so rancorous that neighbours, families, and co-workers are refusing to discuss the subject. The only thing that everyone agrees on in Wisconsin is that they will be glad when the recall election is over on June 5th.

Governor Walker was elected at the mid-term election of November 2010, one of a new crop of Republican governors pledging to trim state spending and take on the public-sector unions. He promised to balance Wisconsin's $3.7 billion budget deficit, create 250,000 jobs and reduce the size of government.

Shortly after assuming office, however, he caused outrage when he announced he would strip public-sector unions of most of their collective-bargaining rights—so that it would be much harder for them to haggle over benefits or working conditions. The unions said his proposals were designed to cripple them, rather than simply to save money. Barack Obama agreed.

The proposals caused weeks of hiatus last year as angry protesters gathered in Madison, the state capital. At one point Democratic state senators even fled Wisconsin in an attempt to prevent the measure from passing, escaping the reach of Mr Walker's state troopers. But in the end the governor won his battle. What remains to be seen is whether he has inflicted a mortal wound on himself.

Wisconsin's constitution allows politicians to be subject to recall elections if enough signatures can be gathered within a set amount of time. The drive to recall Mr Walker picked up steam last November after unions defeated similar measures at a referendum in Ohio, and since then over 900,000 Wisconsinites have signed the petition demanding Mr Walker face a fresh election, almost twice the number needed. Tom Barrett, the mayor of Milwaukee and a Democrat, will duly fight Mr Walker for his office on June 5th. Four state senators also face recall elections.

Less than 15 months into his job, Mr Walker stands by his record, arguing that the state deficit was balanced without raising taxes, big lay-offs, budget tricks or cuts to Medicaid, the government health scheme for the poor. He says he has lowered property taxes, created tax credits for manufacturers and agriculture, reduced red tape and reigned in frivolous lawsuits through tort reform. Although Mr Walker would like to take credit for an improvement in the jobs market, the most recent figures show Wisconsin lost more jobs in the past year than any other state.

The governor says that large savings have been made through restrictions on collective bargaining but that he regrets how he handled the debate (or rather lack of it) over his legislation. “In a perfect world I should have spent more time spelling it out,” says Mr Walker—adding that he should have explained how collective bargaining has given rise to a bus driver in Madison who earns $150,000. He also believes people are fed up with recall elections and says when he wins (as the polls suggest he should) he thinks there will be people who will “want us to fix the recall laws so it is just about misconduct in office and not about a disagreement”.

His challenger Mr Barrett, who knows that Mr Walker has got up the noses of almost 1m Wisconsinites, says he will end the civil war and bring a different style of leadership. Although Mr Barrett was not actually chosen by the unions, the governor argues that the unions want to unseat him in order to frighten off any other politician who dares take on collective bargaining. Judging by the large sums of outside money that have poured in from political action committees, unions and big corporate donors, it is widely seen as a proxy war over the future of the unions. Mr Walker alone has raised $25m, most of it from outside the state.

Some argue the results of the various elections will also offer an indicator of how the general election may go at the end of the year. Wisconsin has long been finely balanced between blue and red voters. They swung Democratic in 2008, and Republican in 2010. Mr Walker's financial advantage has given him the upper hand, but that could change. The result may well come down to which side is better at getting its supporters to the ballot box.