Did recall candidate Tom Barrett want more collective bargaining restrictions than Governor Walker? That's the gist of a letter that he sent to the Walker administration, asking for the policies to also apply to public safety officers (police and fire).

That's why it seems strange that the state police union is endorsing Barrett. 

Kathleen Falk ratcheted up her attacks on rival Tom Barrett with two weeks to go before the Democratic primary in this spring's recall elections, circulating a letter the Milwaukee mayor sent to lawmakers last year in which he called for including the city's police and firefighters in Gov. Scott Walker's proposal to strip public workers of their collective bargaining rights.

Falk's most direct barbs came after Barrett secured the endorsement of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association, the state's largest police union. Falk and Barrett have been wrestling for weeks over union support. Most of the unions so far have lined up with Falk, most notably the AFL-CIO, the state's largest state workers union, and the Wisconsin Education Association Council, the state's largest teachers union. But the WPPA endorsement is a big one for Barrett; the organization has more than 10,000 members in hundreds of police departments across the state.

This will certainly be a fascinating race to watch.