Scott Walker Faces 3rd Shortest Wisconsin Gubernatorial Tenure if Recalled

Only an acting governor and a governor who died on a Civil War relief expedition will have served fewer days in office than Walker

With Friday being the last day for Wisconsinites to sign and deliver their petitions to most recall offices around the state, the tempo now accelerates for what could be the beginning of the end of Republican Governor Scott Walker’s term in office.

Democrats collected over a half-million signatures by mid-December, with their initial goal of 720,277 likely to be exceeded according to some projections.

The final recall petition will be filed early next week to the Government Accountability Board after which a lengthy signature verification process will be conducted (31 days by law, plus an extra 30 days as requested by the Board).

The Board then allows 10 days for potential challenges of signatures.

Assuming, as is expected, that Democrats will have assembled enough signatures to move forward, a primary contest would be held six weeks after the verification process ends (early to mid-May) and the recall election would be held four weeks after the primary.

Walker will then have served less than one and a half years in office at the time of the recall election.

And, if he loses, he will go down as one of the shortest-serving governors in Wisconsin history.

A Smart Politics review of Wisconsin gubernatorial data finds that if Scott Walker is recalled he will hold the third shortest stint as governor of the Badger State, and the quickest exit of any elected governor not to die in office.

Presuming Republicans will both issue challenges and, at the very least, see that at least a ‘fake’ Democratic challenger is suited up to ensure a primary election, the above timeline indicates a recall election would take place in mid-June at the latest.

So long as the election takes place prior to June 29, 2012, a recalled Walker will have served no more than 1 year, 5 months, and 26 days in office.

Only two of the state’s 45 governors have had a shorter stay in Madison – and both of these due to extremely unusual circumstances.

The shortest-serving governor in Wisconsin history was actually an acting governor – Arthur MacArthur, who served just five days from March 21 to March 25, 1856.

MacArthur was elected Lieutenant Governor in 1855 (on a separate ballot line) when one-term Democratic incumbent Governor William Barstow defeated Republican Coles Bashford by 157 votes out of more than 72,500 votes cast.

Barstow’s victory was challenged by the GOP and the Wisconsin Supreme Court found election fraud had been committed to Barstow’s benefit.

Governor Barstow quickly resigned before the Supreme Court’s official decision was handed down, which temporarily made MacArthur acting governor – that is, until Bashford came to the Capitol and forcibly removed MacArthur from office a few days later.

The only other Wisconsin governor to have held office for a shorter period than Walker is the state’s seventh governor, Republican Louis Harvey.

Harvey defeated Democrat Benjamin Ferguson by 8.4 points during the Election of 1861, and took office on January 6, 1862.

Governor Harvey led a relief expedition to aid Wisconsin outfits in the Civil War just a few months into his term, and tragically died after falling into the Tennessee River on April 19th.

Harvey served only 3 months and 14 days.

If Walker loses the recall contest and fails to make it to even the one and a half year mark, it will be quite a departure from the last two elected governors of the state – Republican Tommy Thompson and Democrat Jim Doyle.

Thompson (at 14 years and 28 days) and Doyle (at 7 years, 11 months, 29 days) are the two longest-serving governors in Wisconsin history.

Wisconsin does not have term limits for governors and switched from two-year to four-year terms beginning with the Election of 1970.

Prior to Walker, the average length of a gubernatorial administration in the Badger State has been 3 years, 8 months, and 3 days.

If recalled in mid- to late June, Walker would serve approximately 40 percent of that mark.

Length of Gubernatorial Service in Wisconsin

#	Governor	Begin	End	Years	Months	Days
42	Tommy Thompson	January 5, 1987	February 1, 2001	14	0	28
44	Jim Doyle	January 6, 2003	January 3, 2011	7	11	29
15	Jeremiah Rusk	January 2, 1882	January 7, 1889	7	0	6
38	Patrick Lucey	January 4, 1971	July 6, 1977	6	6	3
33	Walter Kohler, Jr.	January 1, 1951	January 7, 1957	6	0	7
10	Lucius Fairchild	January 1, 1866	January 1, 1872	6	0	1
24	John Blaine	January 3, 1921	January 3, 1927	6	0	1
37	Warren Knowles	January 4, 1965	January 4, 1971	6	0	1
23	Emanuel Philipp	January 4, 1915	January 3, 1921	6	0	0
27, 29	Philip La Follette	January 5, 1931; January 7, 1935	January 2, 1933; January 2, 1939	5	11	26
21	James Davidson	January 1, 1906	January 2, 1911	5	0	2
20	Robert La Follette	January 7, 1901	January 1, 1906	4	11	26
6	Alexander Randall	January 4, 1858	January 6, 1862	4	3	0
31	Walter Goodland	January 4, 1943	March 12, 1947	4	2	9
19	Edward Scofield	January 4, 1897	January 7, 1901	4	0	4
17	George Peck	January 5, 1891	January 7, 1895	4	0	3
22	Francis McGovern	January 2, 1911	January 4, 1915	4	0	3
30	Julius Heil	January 2, 1939	January 4, 1943	4	0	3
35	Gaylord Nelson	January 5, 1959	January 7, 1963	4	0	3
40	Lee Dreyfus	January 1, 1979	January 3, 1983	4	0	3
41	Anthony Earl	January 3, 1983	January 5, 1987	4	0	3
14	William Smith	January 7, 1878	January 2, 1882	3	11	27
32	Oscar Rennebohm	March 12, 1947	January 1, 1951	3	9	21
1	Nelson Dewey	June 7, 1848	January 5, 1852	3	6	30
3	William Barstow	January 2, 1854	March 21, 1856	2	2	20
28	Albert Schmedeman	January 2, 1933	January 7, 1935	2	0	6
11	Cadwallader Washburn	January 1, 1872	January 5, 1874	2	0	5
13	Harrison Ludington	January 3, 1876	January 7, 1878	2	0	5
25	Fred Zimmerman	January 3, 1927	January 7, 1929	2	0	5
12	William Taylor	January 5, 1874	January 3, 1876	1	11	30
16	William Hoard	January 7, 1889	January 5, 1891	1	11	30
26	Walter Kohler, Sr.	January 7, 1929	January 5, 1931	1	11	30
34	Vernon Thomson	January 7, 1957	January 5, 1959	1	11	30
2	Leonard Farwell	January 5, 1852	January 2, 1854	1	11	29
9	James Lewis	January 4, 1864	January 1, 1866	1	11	29
18	William Upham	January 7, 1895	January 4, 1897	1	11	29
36	John Reynolds	January 7, 1963	January 4, 1965	1	11	29
43	Scott McCallum	February 1, 2001	January 6, 2003	1	11	6
5	Coles Bashford	March 25, 1856	January 4, 1858	1	9	11
8	Edward Salomon	April 19, 1862	January 4, 1864	1	8	17
39	Martin Schreiber	July 6, 1977	January 1, 1979	1	5	27
45	Scott Walker	January 3, 2011	present*	1	0	11
7	Louis Harvey	January 6, 1862	April 19, 1862	0	3	14
4	Arthur MacArthur	March 21, 1856	March 25, 1856	0	0	5

* Through January 13, 2012. Data compiled by Smart Politics from National Governors Association historical biographical information.

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