One recall in the Hopper

It's official. The recall signatures are valid. Senator Randy Hopper (R-Fond du Lac) better start updating his resume.  Although several GOP State Senators are vulnerable in upcoming recall elections (i.e., Alberta Darling of River Hills, who won by only two percentage points in 2008, and Dan Kapanke of La Crosse, where part of his district recently toppled the longtime tradition of Republicans in the Assembly), none seems nearly as ripe for the picking as does Hopper.

Hopper won his 2008 seat in a virtual dead heat with Democrat Jessica King of Oshkosh (a 180 vote difference out of more than 80,000 cast), who will face him in the recall election.  Recall petitions gathered more than 150% of the signatures needed to bring the election (more than 23,000), tentatively slated for July 12. 

And Hopper's personal problems likely won't help him either.  Last year, Hopper's wife issued a public statement to Milwaukee's WTMJ that declared her husband of 25 years had moved out and was having an affair with a Republican aide.  What makes it even more interesting is that the aide, Valerie Cass, was given a job in the Walker administration,  a hiring the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Daniel Bice reports may have been less than transparent.  For good measure, there were even unsubstantiated reports that Hopper's wife had signed one of the recall petitions.

And so it begins.