Scott Walker Using $100 Million Of Taxpayer Money To Fight Off Recall?
Source: Forbes
As Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker heads into the final stretch in his effort to hang onto his job, he is finding it increasingly more difficult to make his case honestly or without using huge sums of taxpayer money to sway voters.
While life would likely have been easier for the Governor had collective bargaining remained the key issue of the campaign, now that the election has become largely about Walkers record on job creation, the polls reveal that things are becoming increasingly more difficult for Scott Walker. Wisconsin currently competes with Nevada for the dubious title of worst job creator in the nation, resulting in the polls tightening into a dead heat, leaving the Governor with reason to be worried.
In the effort to move withering public opinion in his direction, the Governor has embarked on a campaign strategy highly dependent upon finding someone else to blame for the poor economic performance of his state. In the process, Walker has resorted to committing a huge amount of taxpayer money to aid in his political survival, while mounting a campaign thatto anyone paying attentiononly serves to highlight his own failures over the past decade.
Not surprisingly, the someone chosen by Walker to play the role of scapegoat is his recall election opponent, Mayor Tom Barrett of city of Milwaukeea city with some of the most difficult poverty problems in the nation.
Read more: http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2012/05/09/scott-walker-using-100-million-of-taxpayer-money-to-fight-off-recall/
Archae
(46,369 posts)I hope they use it, in addition to all the other stuff about just how corrupt Walker is.
Scuba
(53,475 posts)Ellipsis
(9,124 posts)True6(6)
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AzDar
(14,023 posts)stlsaxman
(9,236 posts)"While life would likely have been easier for the Governor had collective bargaining remained the key issue of the campaign, now that the election has become largely about Walkers record on job creation, the polls reveal that things are becoming increasingly more difficult for Scott Walker. "
This whole recall BEGAN with Walkers slashing the collective bargaining rights and it CONTINUES to be about Walker slashing the rights to collectively bargain. That sole reason for the recall has neither subsided, been swept under the rug or diminished in importance in any way whatsoever.
FORBES is now declaring it's a lack of jobs that is fueling recall efforts????
Orwellian Memory Hole NewSpeak at its finest.
dragonlady
(3,577 posts)Mine is the voter suppression law. I just can't stand the thought of them undermining democracy that way. My husband's is the fact that Walker turned down the high-speed rail money and all the jobs, environmental benefit, and progress it would bring. Others may choose the hits to Badgercare (health insurance for low-income people) or the obstruction to building wind farms or the corruption of his administration. The list is endless. The point is that whatever it takes to get a voter to the polls to vote for Barrett and Mitchell is just fine. There is no need to waste energy ranking which issue is the most important.
apnu
(8,759 posts)Like unemployment and the general economic depression Wisconsin is in. He was elected to turn that around. He was given a state legislature that would rubberstamp everything he asked for. He even put a sign up saying Wisconsin is "open for business" and, finally, the Koch brothers opened an office in Madison to take advantage of that "open" business.
And yet where the fuck are the jobs?
I'm sure the lack of jobs are fueling the recall fire, when I was in Wisconsin last (February) I overheard a lot of interesting conversations at the local Denny's. The union people were very predictable in their agitation against Walker and the non-union locals were disinterested in union rights. Non-union people have trouble understanding what a union is, does and why they exist in the first place. Non-union people also think, with a bit of jealousy, that union folks have it good while they suffer solo expenses they think union people don't have. I know that is a false belief, but other people less informed than I seem to think union people got it made. In all cases, everyone moaned about how shitty the economy is and how hard it is to find jobs in Wisconsin.
So, reframing the recall as a referendum against Walkers job growth is a smart move. That's something the union and non-union people can agree on and get behind.
Walker's job creation record is abysmal and, like I said, was elected to reverse the loss of jobs in Wisconsin. In fact, I remember the 2010 campaign and all the Republicans and Teabaggers talked about was "jobs, jobs, and jobs." Yet none of them who have been elected have done squat about job creation. Instead they've gone on a campaign of union busting and general screwing of anyone who isn't wealthy, white, and male. Which is, from my score card, has got nothing to do with "jobs, jobs, jobs."
My point is, Walker's not fulfilled on his promise and the good people of Wisconsin have woken up to that and he's about to reap the whirlwind of populist rage.