Wisconsin will soon be holding recall elections against 6 Republican State Senators, and 3 Democratic State Senators. In Wisconsin, the recall process is different than it is in most states. If a Wisconsin recall petition gets enough signatures, the recall election ballot does not ask the voters to either retain or oust that particular incumbent. Instead, a successful recall petition merely means that a new special election is held, and the incumbent is free to run in that special election.

If only one person files in each party’s primary in any of these particular special recall elections, then there is no primary for any party, and the general election for that particular seat will be in July. But if even one party has more than a single member running, then there is a primary (for whichever party has more than one person running) in July, for that particular district. In that case, the actual special recall election is postponed to August.

It appears from this article that both major parties are recruiting candidates to run in primaries in these special elections. For example, if a Republican State Senator is being recalled, Republicans may recruit a candidate to run in the Democratic primary in that district, so that the special recall election in that district is postponed to August. That gives the incumbent Senator more time to campaign. Also, it gives the incumbent Senator’s supporters a chance to campaign against the likely party-supported Democratic challenger, by forcing the mainstream Democratic challenger to win a Democratic primary.

The newspaper story refers to “fake” Democrats and “fake” Republicans. Wisconsin doesn’t have registration by party, and is an open primary state. Therefore, any individual, no matter what his or her convictions, is always free at any time to run in any party’s primary. This system makes it possible for Democrats (for example) to place someone in a Republican primary, even though that person is loyal to the Democratic Party and is only running to injure the bona fide Republican.