California 'Cheese Head'
Aims to Help Out at Home

Clark Williams and his daughter Caroline

Clark Williams is a dyed-in-the-wool, true progressive and champion of the labor movement. Oh yes, and he's a proud "Cheese Head," born and raised in Wisconsin. Lately, however, he's been met with a crisis of conscience in his pride for a state that he says has turned away from its proud history as a nurturing labor environment.

"The values of the state have always been to protect the rights of working people no matter what the partisan belief," said Williams, who serves as vice chair of the Santa Clara County Democratic party. "That's shifted with the rapid shift of the Republican party further to the right."

He was referring, in part, to legislation that Wisconsin's Republican Gov. Scott Walker signed, which stripped public employees of collective bargaining rights.

To bring back the Wisconsin he knew and loved, Williams plans to head home later this year to lend a hand in the effort to recall Walker. "I knew he was a dangerous elected," Williams said of the governor, whom Williams met when the two were in college. "He was a true believer in a radical right wing agenda (even then)." Williams was energized to see the massive response to the recall petition drive. More than a million signatures were collected to force a recall election, twice the number required. Williams describes Walker's attempt to crush union protection for workers as "frightening."

"If Walker is successful it will spread across the country."

Williams wants to stop that spread before it happens. He says the pension reform issue scheduled for the June ballot in San Jose is an example of that threat. In December, the San Jose City Council voted to put a measure on the ballot that will severely restrict collective bargaining for public workers.

Having grown up on a Wisconsin farm, Williams has a soft spot for the rural parts of the state and says he'll probably work to get out the vote in those areas to defeat Walker in the recall election.

"It's all about turnout," he said. "Everyone has already made a decision on the issue. Walker has hurt the middle class and the challenges of living in rural America are already tremendous. Our values are to be collaborative (in Wisconsin). We're nice people. This has been so painful to see my state thrown into a disruptive chaotic environment that's been a cry nationally on how not to lead."

Look for articles on the Labor Council's blog when Williams begins his "Dispatches from the Dairy State: the Drive to Save Wisconsin."