As he marks his first anniversary as governor of Wisconsin, Scott Walker has accomplished what Republican presidential contenders Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Rick Perry and Ron Paul haven’t in their collective decades in politics: enacted two fundamental conservative policy changes in a traditionally Democratic-leaning state.

Walker, who spoke in Washington Thursday at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, signed into law last year a measure that abolished most collective bargaining rights for most public employees and required them to pay a greater share of their pension and health care costs.

“Collective bargaining in the public sector is not a right,” Walker said Thursday. “It is an expensive entitlement.”

He has also signed into law a voter identification measure that requires people to present a form of photo identification such as a passport or driver’s license when they show up to vote.

For Democrats and union members those actions made Walker the most infamous Republican in the nation. Walker’s collective bargaining measure sparked furious, weeks-long protests in the state capitol in Madison last winter, at one point leading Democratic lawmakers to flee to Illinois in an attempt to deny a quorum and prevent enactment of the law.

Walker’s opponents have a Jan. 17 deadline to submit the required 540,208 signatures to recall him. The recall election would take place in June.

Recalls are also being attempted of Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch and of a few Republican state senators, with the potential of Democrats regaining the state Senate where they now have 16 members, compared to 17 Republicans.

via NBC Politics – Will GOP’s 2011 star survive recall in 2012?.