Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, will challenge the legitimacy of enough petition signatures to prevent a recall election, local news outlets reported Tuesday.
Fitzgerald said he did not know exactly how many signatures on the recall petitions filed with the Government Accountability Board last month he would challenge, but said he would contest a sufficient amount to halt the recall efforts against him, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Activists collected over 20,000 signatures to recall Fitzgerald, about 4,000 more than necessary to trigger an election.
The deadline for Fitzgerald and the other three state senators facing recall to challenge signatures is Feb. 9. Gov. Scott Walker has until Feb. 27 to submit any signature challenges.
State Senate Democratic Committee executive director Zac Kramer said he was not surprised Fitzgerald is challenging the recall signatures filed against him and remained confident a recall election will occur.
"We are confident in the validity of the work of the Wisconsin volunteers and grassroots organizers that collected over 20,000 signatures to recall Sen. Fitzgerald," Kramer said in a statement. "We look forward to seeing the Senator's challenges, which we believe are just more attempts to delay the inevitable."
State Democrats still do not have plans to announce a candidate to run against Fitzgerald in a recall election, according to SSDC spokesperson Brad Wojciechowski.
The Fitzgerald campaign was unavailable for comment Tuesday.
Fitzgerald plans to challenge the legislative districts recall organizers used to gather signatures, the Journal Sentinel also reported. Fitzgerald said he would argue that the new districts the state legislature passed last year should have been in effect instead of the ones currently in place, which would delegitimize the validity of signatures gathered in certain areas of legislative districts.
The GAB has previously ruled the newly drawn boundaries will not be implemented until the November 2012 elections.
Additionally, Fitzgerald will make an argument to the GAB that recall organizers had an extra day to collect signatures than allowed, meaning some of the signatures should not be counted.
