Wisconsin Scott Walker Recall Stirs Passion - WSJ.com

REPORT: One night last week, Kay Robbins sat at the bar at Al & Al's with about 40 other teachers celebrating a colleague's retirement. Talk turned to what talk often turns to in Wisconsin these days: Gov. Scott Walker.

"He's a weasel," Ms. Robbins said to a lot of nodding heads. "A lying weasel." Across town at the 8th Street Ale Haus, Kip Ertel, a 50-year-old social worker, sat drinking with friends and talked about Mr. Walker in wholly different terms. "He's the first real grown-up the state has had in a long time," he said.

Tuesday's election on whether to recall Mr. Walker has so bitterly divided this state that many residents live in parallel societies, limiting themselves to like-minded friends, separate drinking holes and sympathetic media outlets.

Triggered by a backlash against the Republican governor's move 15 months ago to crimp collective bargaining for the state's public employees, the recall race has pitted neighbor against neighbor, damaged decades-old friendships, and, in one case, led a woman to drive into her husband when he tried to stop her from voting for Mr. Walker's opponent in a primary last month.

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