Scott Walker first US guv to survive recall poll

Wisconsin’s Scott Walker became the first governor in US history to survive a recall election on Tuesday in a decisive victory that dealt a blow to the labor movement and raised Republican hopes of defeating President Barack Obama in the November election.

Unions and liberal activists forced the recall election over a law curbing collective bargaining powers for public sector workers passed soon after Walker took office in 2011.

With nearly all of the votes counted, Republican Walker won by 8 percentage points over Democratic challenger Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, a bigger victory for the governor over the same challenger than two years ago.

Republicans around the country were elated by the result in a state that President Obama won by 14 percentage points in 2008.

This was just the third recall poll of a governor in US history. The two previous recall efforts were against Lynn Frazier in North Dakota in 1921 and Gray Davis in California in 2003.