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Wednesday, May 22, 2013
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Wisconsin's collective bargaining fight comes to Watertown

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I received a call a moment ago from the 573 area code.

"Hi, I'm calling with the organization that's trying to recall Scott Fitzgerald," a cheery woman on the other line said.

"Who?" I asked.

"Are you serious?" she said.

"Uh, yep."

"The majority leader in the Senate."

"Dean Skelos?"

"Scott Fitzgerald," she repeated.

I thought for a moment. "By any chance, are you calling from Wisconsin?"

Yes, it turns out, she was.

A cursory Google search for the "Watertown Daily Times" brought her to me, instead of the Watertown Daily Times in Watertown, Wisc.

Democrats and Republicans in that mid-west state are waging war over Gov. Scott Walker's new law that restricts collective bargaining for many public-employee unions. The law was so divisive that a few recall campaigns — that is, removing elected officials from office — were waged. Mr. Walker is the next target, as is, apparently, Mr. Fitzgerald (no relation to F.) He is the Republican majority leader in the state Senate in Wisconsin.

New York has no process for recalling elected officials. And although labor groups haven't always been happy with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo or members of the Legislature, the concessions that have been asked of them come nowhere close to the fundamental changes in union-government relations that Mr. Walker has managed to push through.

So, in short, that certainly was a wrong number.

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