On Tuesday of this week, the Committee to Recall Mark Miller made a very difficult but principled decision. With only a few hundred signatures left to gather, we found ourselves with an unexpected opportunity to continue our efforts, a move that would have allowed us easily to exceed the 20,000+ signature threshold. However, doing so would have meant associating ourselves with, Dan Baltes, a known con artist who uses conservative causes to prey upon the unsuspecting. As strongly as we feel about recalling Senator Miller for clear dereliction of duty, we felt strongly that it was imperative to maintain the integrity we've established over the course of this recall campaign.

When we started this effort, many on both sides of the aisle scoffed. They believed Miller was in such a safe district that he was virtually untouchable. We were not deterred. We stood on principle and went to gather signatures anyway. The fact that this campaign was able, in 60 days, to collect nearly all of the signatures needed to trigger a recall election should send a shiver down Senator Miller's spine. His actions in fleeing the state and leaving his constituents have not been received quite as warmly by his constituents as he might like to believe.

While there will be no recall and special election, the truth has now been revealed. Miller is vulnerable in 2012.

Those of us who led the Recall Mark Miller campaign are encouraged and energized by the results of our efforts. All those who collected signatures and signed the petition should be equally so. We now know that there are thousands of people in Senator Miller's district who will enthusiastically work together to un-elect him next year. While we won't be turning in the thousands of signatures we collected, Mark Miller should not consider himself reprieved. We're building an army of voters. In 2012, we'll have many more than 20,000 people standing with us. We look forward, once again, to demonstrating that the impossible is indeed possible.

For the last sixty days we have endured the elements during a unseasonably cold spring. We've dug down deep to work to recall Senator Mark Miller because he has failed to represent all of his constituents on all the issues before the senate. Many of you have mailed in signatures. Some of you have mailed in hundreds of signatures. Some of you have stood on street corners with signs week in and week out, good weather and bad.

When we began this recall effort we wanted to:

• Return the 14 democrat senators to Wisconsin so that they could live up to their oaths and responsibilities.
• Determine just how large the conservative undercurrent in the district is
• Force a recall election for the WI-16 senate seat currently held by Senator Miller.

Today we came up just short on the final of these goals. At last tally, we fell short of the 20,352 signatures needed by 268 signatures. This means that WI-16 does indeed have a very significant conservative undercurrent. Though we failed to force a recall election, I think that Senator Miller must take notice that he can no longer take his seat for granted. All senators must think twice before pulling things like leaving the state over a single vote or single issue. Dane and Columbia county conservatives should be proud that they stood proud and brave in what had been considered unquestioned liberal territory. Even in Monona itself, we collected hundreds of signatures during this effort. Many signers were not conservatives, but were sickened by the fact that a senator would leave the state when the going got tough rather than be more like "Fighting Bob LaFollette".

During this effort, volunteers endured derogatory epithets being hurled at them, nasty gestures, and threats to their safety, home, and livelihood. Union members have taken pictures of us, our license plates. They have generally tried to intimidate us at every turn. To these onslaughts, we have managed to keep our temper in check and we feel we treated everyone with dignity. I would like to thank members of law enforcement throughout the district for their extreme professionalism during this trying time. In most communities, we really feel you were there to protect our rights as citizens.

We have decided to not submit our signatures to GAB. Primarily, this is because we do not want our volunteers and signers to have their personal information exposed through open records requests. We have already dealt with threats and volunteers are regularly asked where they live and what their name is by people opposed to our efforts. I personally have endured direct threats both personal and financial. I do not wish that on the people who worked so tirelessly for this effort. We are already seeing signers and volunteers in other recall efforts getting intimidating phone calls. If we had the benefit of a recall election, then the cost would be worth it. Without that benefit, we feel the cost is too great. In addition, GAB is backed up with recall and recount procedures for many other efforts and we don't want to cost the tax payers of Wisconsin anything.

We came up just short. Much of this I attribute to my own inexperience running a recall effort. We definitely learned a lot along the way. We found so many people we could count on to work tirelessly because they believed in what was right. Many of you came to this effort from unexpected sources. So many of your worked tirelessly right up to the very end. All of you should be proud of what we achieved! Whether you were an organizer, volunteer, or signer for this effort, you played an important part in our democracy. I thank you all for your efforts.