One week after the pivotal Wisconsin recall election, southern Arizona will be holding a special election to replace Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, to serve the remainder of her term. Giffords resigned this year. The June 12 contest will be between Giffords' staffer Ron Barber and Giffords' 2010 opponent, Republican Jesse Kelly. 

With a tenure that includes job losses in the thousands—pitting Wisconsin as dead last in the country for job creation—as well as unpopular budget cuts that will cause 17,000 people to lose heath care coverage and ongoing investigations into the moral and ethical integrity of his closest staff and allies, even Gov. Scott Walker knows he can’t credibly tout his record to voters.

The Wisconsin State AFL-CIO reports that the Milwaukee phone bank is abuzz with talk of Gov. Scott Walker’s anti-worker, worst-in-the-nation jobs record, John Doe corruption probe and plot to “divide and conquer” Wisconsin workers. Volunteers are calling union homes in support of Tom Barrett for governor and Fire Fighters member Mahlon Mitchell for lieutenant governor.

Despite promising a veto, Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley (R) on Friday signed into law revisions to the state’s notorious anti-immigrant measure HB 56. The new version (HB 658) maintains the worst of the original law’s provisions.

A new report reveals the “extraordinary influence” the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) has had in the Wisconsin legislature during the past 16 months—the same 16 months since Gov. Scott Walker (R) took power. The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD), which released the report, says ALEC's influence:

undermines the rights of Wisconsin families while advancing the agenda of huge corporations.

In an almost clandestine operation at the state Capitol in Jefferson City, Missouri Republicans this week inducted radio hate-talk host Rush Limbaugh into the Hall of Famous Missourians. The ceremony was closed to the public and, behind closed doors, guarded by Missouri Highway Patrol officers.

In Raleigh, N.C., state lawmakers returned to a cacophonous chorus of pots and spoons, clanging and ringing.

This was no serenade. North Carolinians, fed up with the General Assembly’s agenda of pursuing giveaways for the rich at the expense of everyone else, greeted lawmakers with a first-of-its-kind, 15-minute non-stop clamorous protest of politicians’ reckless ways.

New Hampshire House Speaker Bill O'Brien's dictatorial attitude hasn't helped him pass "right to work" for less laws, collective bargaining restrictions or a voter ID law. Now that heavy hand appears to be coming back to haunt him in major ways.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer signed her pet project of "personnel reform" into law Friday, claiming it will "modernize the state's personnel system" and make state employees "more accountable and efficient, more competitive and productive." In a nutshell: All new state workers in Arizona will have no civil service protections and those on the job now are being offered a small raise to give up their protection. Public-sector workers put up vigorous opposition to the move, saying it will lead to hiring and firing based on politics and favoritism. Even conservative Arizona Republic columnist Robert Robb expressed reservations about it, warning of "potentially dangerous consequences" to turning civil servants performing crucial public functions into at-will employees.

A new video obtained by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel shows Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) telling his single largest donor, Diane Hendricks, that destroying collective bargaining for public workers is just the "first step" of his “divide and conquer” plan. The video was originally taken by a documentary filmmaker in January 2011, one month before Walker introduced his bill to gut collective bargaining.