Recalls Dominate Patch's Most Popular Stories of 2011

Politics, politics and more politics.

That's pretty much the best way to describe what generated the most interest among Milwaukee-area Patch readers in 2011.

Of the 20 stories that received the most views this year, 15 of them were either related to the August recall election in the 8th Senate District or the effort to recall Republican Gov. Scott Walker from office. Those stories also generated thousands of comments from our passionate Patch readers and thousands of Facebook "likes."

Here are the most popular Patch stories in Milwaukee's North Region in 2011:

Date: Nov. 19
Site: All Milwaukee sites
Comments: 454
Facebook recommendations: 763

The largest rally in the state Capitol since the protests in March came the same day that organizers of the attempt to recall Gov. Scott Walker announced that they had gathered more than 105,000 signatures in just four days.

At the Madison rally, thousands of teachers, union members, labor leaders and students showed up to show their support of the recall effort.

Date: July 25
Site: Whitefish Bay
Comments: 81
Facebook recommendations: 59

When U.S. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner came to the Whitefish Bay Village Hall to host a town hall meeting on federal issues, he was greeted by an overflow crowd of about 120 people.

And while she wasn't in the room, much of the attention was focused on state Sen. Alberta Darling, who was the target of a recall election in her 8th District.

Supporters and detractors of Darling exchanged barbs throughout the evening, and some residents held signs reading "shame" and "wrong" whenever Sensenbrenner or a conservative resident made a claim that triggered their attention.

Date: Aug. 9
Site: Multiple sites
Comments: 7,140
Facebook recommendations: 468

Patch blogged lived from 19 straight hours during the historic state Senate recall elections. During the day, staffers visited polling places and campaign offices throughout the 8th Senate Districts, and as the votes were being counted, we posted results as quickly as we got them and provided live coverage from the campaign parties.

Readers from all over the country — not to mention Australia, Great Britain and Ireland — relied on Patch to get the latest information on the recalls.

Date: Sept. 27
Site: Fox Point-Bayside
Comments: 4
Facebook recommendations: 487

No, it wasn't exactly hard-hitting journalism, but when McDonald's in the Milwaukee area announced its stores would allow customers to use Monopoly money to pay for a larger order of fries, it became a national story.

The promotion — the only one of its kind in the nation — was held to kick off the latest edition of the popular Monopoly contest.

Date: July 30
Site: All Milwaukee sites
Comments: 145
Facebook recommendations: 4,000

With less than two weeks to go before the state Senate recall elections, a fire broke out at the regional offices of We Are Wisconsin, a union political action committee (PAC) that pumped millions of dollars into supporting Democratic candidates.

Date: Aug. 8
Site: All Milwaukee sites
Comments: 15
Facebook recommendations: 139

Patch took a look at how candidates in the state Senate recall races are relying more and more on social media to get their message out.

We also analyzed who was the best at utilizing Twitter and Facebook, and which candidates have yet to embrace it.

Date: Nov. 10
Site: Wauwatosa
Comments: 396
Facebook recommendations: 571

Wauwatosa Patch was the first to report that the folks behind the effort to recall Walker had planned to hold a rally near his home on Nov. 15, the first day that recall signatures could be collected.

Date: Dec. 14
Site: All Milwaukee sites
Comments: 268
Facebook recommendations: 373

One month to the day after the start of the effort to recall Walker from office, organizers announced that they have collected more than 507,000 signatures on recall petitions.

More than 540,000 valid signatures are needed by Jan. 17 to force a recall election, and organizers said their goal is to collect 720,277 signature —  one-third of the total turnout in the November 2010 election that saw Walker become the new governor.

Date: April 6
Site: Brookfield
Comments: 35
Facebook recommendations: 558

This three-paragraph story on how the city of Brookfield voted in the state Supreme Court race would have gone pretty much unnoticed — had it not been for the fact that Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus failed to include them in the tally that she reported to the media on election night.

Because the Brookfield results were not included in a statewide tally, challenger JoAnne Kloppenburg initially was believed to have won the race over Justice David Prosser Jr. But after a statewide recount, it was determined that Prosser won by more than 7,000 votes.

Date: Aug. 6
Site: All Milwaukee sites
Comments: 142
Facebook recommendations: 52

Days before the recall election in the 8th Senate District, the national Tea Party Express held a rally in Ozaukee County in support of Republican incumbent Darling and other GOP senators targeted for a recall.

About 300 people showed up at the event at Thiensville Village Park.

The rest of the most popular stories of 2011:

11. (July 28; all Milwaukee sites)

12. (Aug. 6; all Milwaukee sites)

13. (July 20; all Milwaukee sites)

14. (Nov. 14; all Milwaukee sites)

15. (March 30; Brookfield Patch)

16. (Sept. 24; all Milwaukee sites)

17. (Nov. 15; all Milwaukee sites)

18. (Nov. 18; all Milwaukee sites)

19. (July 16; Shorewood Patch)

20. (June 21; Shorewood Patch)