US: With social media tease, Wisconsin's Walker jumps into 2016

[webfact]

With social media tease, Wisconsin's Walker jumps into 2016
By SCOTT BAUER

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a preacher's son who withstood a recall election spawned by his fight with public employee unions, is joining the crowded Republican presidential race, aides said on Thursday.

Having spent the past several months traveling the country, speaking to conservatives, courting voters and scoring well in some early polls, Walker will officially enter the race with a campaign announcement in the Milwaukee suburb of Waukesha on July 13, the aides said.

They spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to publicly discuss the campaign launch.

Walker started a countdown of sorts to his kickoff by posting a slice of his presidential campaign logo on Instagram, with eight more pieces to come in the days ahead. He also tweeted an image of himself waving next to an American flag with the message "It begins."

In fact, the race has been underway for months. The jumbled Republican race already has already attracted 14 candidates, with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie getting in earlier in the week.

Walker rose to national prominence soon after his election as governor by pushing for a law in 2011 that effectively ended collective bargaining for most public workers in the state. Four years later, he pressed to make Wisconsin a right-to-work state where employers and unions are barred from requiring all workers to pay union dues.

In 2011, protests at the Statehouse grew as large as 100,000 people at times, and Democrats in the state Senate fled Wisconsin for three weeks hoping to undermine Walker's efforts. Walker's victories over organized labor certified him as a rising Republican star.

It also made him a top target for Democrats and union leaders, who tried to recall Walker in a special election in 2012. Walker beat back the effort, winning by a larger margin than in 2010 and becoming the first governor in U.S. history to survive such an effort.

Along the way, he shattered state campaign finance records, collecting six-figure checks from prominent conservatives across the country and building a network he's tapping now for his presidential bid.

In between signing the union laws, Walker, aided by the state's Republican-controlled Legislature, also worked down a list of conservative priorities.

He cut income and corporate taxes by nearly $2 billion, lowered property taxes, legalized the carrying of concealed weapons, made abortions more difficult to obtain, required photo identification when voting and expanded the state's private school voucher school program.

But Walker has made missteps along the way.

He promised in 2010 that if elected his policies would lead to the creation of 250,000 private-sector jobs. He fell far short of that, as only about 129,000 jobs were added during his first term, and manufacturing-heavy Wisconsin has lagged the national average in job growth since shortly after Walker took office.

His proposed budget cuts to public schools and the University of Wisconsin, the deepest in state history, have generated bipartisan opposition.

Walker has been dogged throughout his tenure as governor by two investigations, neither of which has led to any charges of wrongdoing against him.

The first, begun in May 2010 while Walker was running for governor, focused on activity within Walker's county executive office. Six Walker aides and associates were convicted of charges including theft and misconduct in office.

The second investigation, which grew out of the first, centered on whether conservative groups illegally coordinated fundraising and other political activity to benefit Walker's recall campaign and other Republicans who faced recalls in 2011 and 2012.

This investigation is on hold while the state Supreme Court weighs lawsuits challenging its validity.

Walker is trying to become the first president since Harry Truman, elected nearly 70 years ago, without a college degree. Walker attended Marquette University for three years, but dropped out 34 credits short of graduation in 1990 to take a job with the American Red Cross.

Walker ran for the state Assembly that year and lost. He moved to a more conservative district outside of Milwaukee and ran again in 1993, winning that time. He hasn't lost since.


-- (c) Associated Press 2015-07-03

[sdanielmcev]

About time.

[up-country_sinclair]

He has a good record as governor and is a seasoned candidate in Wisconsin, but I genuinely wonder if the majority of America will vote for a college dropout.

[chuckd]

Roughly 60% of the US population over age 25 have either some college or no college.

It will be a problem only if the progressive liberals manage to turn it into a burning issue to try and negate his accomplishments as Governor.

[LawrenceN]

"He cut income and corporate taxes by nearly $2 billion, lowered property taxes, legalized the carrying of concealed weapons, made abortions more difficult to obtain, required photo identification when voting and expanded the state's private school voucher school program.

"But Walker has made missteps along the way."

I thought the first sentence was a list of his "missteps."

[Jingthing]

I think the college thing actually helps him, making him seem more like regular people. It is also admirable that he overcame that to succeed. Lack of degree can mean not even getting started in a lot of professions.

Of course, I detest the man's politics. But beat him on that, not the degree.

Edited July 3, 2015 by Jingthing

[Ulysses G.]

Roughly 60% of the US population over age 25 have either some college or no college.

It will be a problem only if the progressive liberals manage to turn it into a burning issue to try and negate his accomplishments as Governor.

Only 31% of Americans have college degrees and many are very successful. Quitting school early to take a good job is not a bad reason. I can't see it hurting him much, but the left will try. I was surprised at all the attacks on Mitt Romney simply for being a Mormon.

[stevenl]

Roughly 60% of the US population over age 25 have either some college or no college.

It will be a problem only if the progressive liberals manage to turn it into a burning issue to try and negate his accomplishments as Governor.

Only 31% of Americans have college degrees and many are very successful. Quitting school early to take a good job is not a bad reason. I can't see it hurting him much, but the left will try. I was surprised at all the attacks on Mitt Romney simply for being a Mormon.

No, the left will not try, his fellow republican candidates will.

[Scott]

Posts removed.

[stevenl]

Wasn't Hillary the one that brought Obama's citizenship up before the Republicans?

No idea, but it would prove my point.

Ignorance proves your point?

So it will not be raised by his fellow republicans in the debates or elsewhere on the campaign trail?

[bendejo]

Scott Walker, the Koch Brothers' inflatable doll. Best politician money can buy!

People don't need to go to college, and if you think they do then you're an elitist snob. Ask Santorum to explain it to you.

[chuckd]

Ask labor union leaders if they think Walker is an inflatable doll.

Liberal progressive college professors have ruined many a young mind. Many of them are active on this very forum.

[Publicus]

The political right needs to recognize and respect that when young people come to their own world view they do it of their own personal resources. People are not brainwashed to hold the world view they do actively acquire. Contempt of each person's own individual development is OTT.

[Publicus]

Roughly 60% of the US population over age 25 have either some college or no college.

It will be a problem only if the progressive liberals manage to turn it into a burning issue to try and negate his accomplishments as Governor.

Walker wants to be president so he has to accept the common reality that Americans will examine his high visibility credential as governor of Wisconsin; also as chief executive of Milwaukee County in the state.

Walker's record on education suggests strongly he favors radical change to the University of Wisconsin, reducing its budget by 13% and favoring a change of its legally defined mission from purusing research and "truth" to becoming instead a trade school that produces principally workers for the economy. Scott Walker seems to express a complete disinterest in a liberal education.

Walker has targeted teachers and teacher unions in an unrelenting campaign, likely funded by the Koch Bros and other wealthy rightwingers.

On reflection, Walker's anti-education agenda fits right in with the current Republican Party's prejudice against modern education in general, and scientific knowledge based on empirical facts in particular, such as the denial of global warming. Republicans have even proposed abolishing the Department of Education, a cabinet position, which [denial] helps to keep their own supporters in the poorer red states literally ignorant of those knowledge-based facts that would better their lives.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/harlan-green/governor-scott-walker-vs-_b_6787598.html

There's much more, and here's only some of it....

The Wisconsin Law Enforcement Association filed a suit in Dane County Circuit Court against Scott Walker and the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission for violation of their constitutional rights with the passage of Act 10, the law that removed meaningful collective bargaining rights from most public workers, and parts of Act 32 that modified the law.

While most public safety workers -- firefighters, police officers, state patrol officers -- were exempt from the law and retain their full bargaining rights, three groups of law enforcement workers were excluded from the definition of "public safety workers": the Capitol Police, the University of Wisconsin Police, and Department of Motor Vehicles field agents.

This suit comes after the victory of Madison Teachers Incorporated and Public Employees Local 61, a union representing City of Milwaukee workers, over Walker and the WERC in a similar lawsuit. Dane County Circuit Judge Juan Colas ruled that these laws violated the rights of free speech and association of these union members, as well as their right to equal protection under the law.

See more at: http://progressive.org/wisconsin-police-sue-to-get-their-union-back#sthash.nAbsSySM.dpuf

Conservative Republicans and those on the far right that control and drive the R party and who want very much to believe Scott Walker is their winner of a guy need to recognize Walker is vulnerable on the issues of governance.

Moreover, Walker has limited intellectual gifts and wit, which account significantly for his trail of mistatements and backtracking on them, his campaign errors and fumbling, all of which and more have delayed the announcement of his candidacy while his R party handlers try to shape him up in his modest abilities to adequately address the national and global audience respectively or as a whole.

Edited July 6, 2015 by Publicus

[chuckd]

Now I remember. It's the first Monday of the month.

That's "attack Scott Walker" day.

[lifeincnx]

I think we're gonna need a bigger car.

Edited July 6, 2015 by lifeincnx

[chuckd]

What an original thought.

I didn't know Gingrich, Romney and Ron Paul were in it again.

Edited July 6, 2015 by chuckd

[Publicus]

same same disaster disaster

faces have been changed to protect the guilty...

[lifeincnx]

What an original thought.

I didn't know Gingrich, Romney and Ron Paul were in it again.

Like there's a difference? Try looking at the bigger picture. As Yogi Berra said, "It's deja vu all over again."

Prediction: Regardless of who the final GOP candidate is, if Trump keeps up his rhetoric (which he will and the first debate is in one month), the Hispanic voting numbers will most likely end up lower than the paltry 27% in Romney's 2010 run. Your guy, or HP-disaster Carly, will need at least 40% at a bare minimum. Virtually all the GOP candidates were as slow as the response to Katrina in calling out Trump's wack job comments, so at this point he's our best Hispanic voter registration machine.

Edited July 6, 2015 by lifeincnx

[Ulysses G.]

Prediction: Regardless of who the final GOP candidate is, if Trump keeps up his rhetoric (which he will and the first debate is in one month), the Hispanic voting numbers will most likely end up lower than the paltry 27% in Romney's 2010 run.

Hispanic voters will probably not vote for Trump, but Marco Rubi and Jeb Bush have a good shot.

[Chicog]

I believe he is the current Koch favourite, so he has a good chance at the nomination as long as he can carry a debate.

[Credo]

I am not a real big fan of Scott Walker, but if he's related to Johnny, then I could start liking him a lot.

[willyumiii]

It may be easier to list the republicans who are not presidential "hopefuls".

"The patty of No" is evolving into "The party of no focus" !

[Publicus]

Prediction: Regardless of who the final GOP candidate is, if Trump keeps up his rhetoric (which he will and the first debate is in one month), the Hispanic voting numbers will most likely end up lower than the paltry 27% in Romney's 2010 run.

Hispanic voters will probably not vote for Trump, but Marco Rubi and Jeb Bush have a good shot.

Johnnie Walker Black straight up is their best shot.

Can't run on the same ticket cause they're from the same state.

Any two governors together on the ticket is not a strong ticket due to the increased importance all voters assign to national security this time around.

Rubio's one term in the Senate makes him more a foreign policy noise maker than any kind of competent expert.

Walker is easily disassembled for his record as WI governor, his modest intellectual gifts and wit, his wide-eyed boy having a not so excellent adventure demeanor.

One could go on.

The salient point is that HRC is the safe candidate. All these others in the R party are shaky, dubious, unknown or too well known due to family; or they are single issue candidates such as Huckabee and God.

None of these guyz are considered 'safe' candidates or as a president. Bernie Sanders is by no means safe either. HRC has the sure hands and the record of performance and learning curve that says safe. A safe and progressive Democrat.

[willyumiii]

Roughly 60% of the US population over age 25 have either some college or no college.

It will be a problem only if the progressive liberals manage to turn it into a burning issue to try and negate his accomplishments as Governor.

Only 31% of Americans have college degrees and many are very successful. Quitting school early to take a good job is not a bad reason. I can't see it hurting him much, but the left will try. I was surprised at all the attacks on Mitt Romney simply for being a Mormon.

I'll bet you were not surprised about all of the attacks on Obama for being half white!

P.S. Those who did finish college know the correct spelling is "moron" not" Mormon".

[bendejo]

Walker is the Koch's Frankenstein -- today Wisconsin, tomorrow the world. If by some chance Walker emerges as the candidiate then the Kansas experiment, where the state government is currently being dismantled, will become a national issue, the Dems claiming it is being used as model for what the hair-on-fire crowd would do to the federal govt. I think of Walker on the level of the redshirt leaders who negotiated with Abhisit, but they couldn't say or do anything without The Boss sez it's ok. If Romney was an empty suit, then what's Walker, an empty motorcycle helmet? He may have all that $$ behind him but when it comes down to real issues he's going to be shredded by whomever the Dem candidate is; as people have mentioned above, the boy just ain't too sharp.

I've been trying to catch more of Little Ricky Rubio in the media to see what makes him tick, but there doesn't seem to be much there.

But all of this is just show biz right now, and the clowns are battling to be the center of attention. Nothing matters until the primaries kick in next year, by then the GOP will have done away with most of the clowns and we'll see who's left.

Here's a question: suppose a candidate raises, let's say, $30 million. They get eliminated in the primaries, and when all is said and done it turns out they have $10 million left over. What, legally, becomes of that money?

[lifeincnx]

Prediction: Regardless of who the final GOP candidate is, if Trump keeps up his rhetoric (which he will and the first debate is in one month), the Hispanic voting numbers will most likely end up lower than the paltry 27% in Romney's 2010 run.

Hispanic voters will probably not vote for Trump, but Marco Rubi and Jeb Bush have a good shot.

Of course they won't vote for Trump, but his message has further damaged the GOP party as a whole, unless Jeb can push harder. Rubio will only appeal to pro-blockade Miami Cubans but not the larger Hispanic voting segment. That does leave Jeb. God help us.