Tag Archives: Walker

Arrogant Over-Reach of Walker and Kasich Doom Mitt

“The fights picked with organized labor by the Republican governors of Wisconsin and Ohio are coming back to haunt Mitt Romney in the final days of the presidential race, unions say.

“Labor groups say their internal polling shows labor support for President Obama in the all-important battleground state of Ohio and the electoral vote cash cow of Wisconsin is as high or higher than it was in 2008. They attribute the numbers to residual fallout from the 2011 SB5 collective bargaining fight in Ohio and the Wisconsin battle between labor unions and Gov. Scott Walker.

“The biggest effect may be in Ohio, where Democrats and labor beat back SB 5 at the ballot box following the anti-collective bargaining law’s passage by the Republican-controlled state legislature and Gov. John Kasich.”

Kasich and Walker really behaved like petty tyrants.  I can’t wait to see their lost swagger and chastened punims tomorrow night.

Mitt Wants GOP Govs to Cool It on the Good News

Reports have emerged (denied by both sides) that Mittens asked Florida Governor Rick Scott to stop talking about how the economy is improving there because it kind of, you know, steps on Mitt’s diametrically opposed message that the economy is terrible and will never get better under President Obama.

If such a message was sent, Scott isn’t listening.  Speaking at the NALEO conference today, Scott went on and on about how great Florida’s doing in terms of jobs and tourism coming back and housing prices stabilizing.  His rosy picture was very much at odds with Mitt’s gloom and doom.

Mitt needs to win Florida, but Scott isn’t going quietly under Mitt’s “Believe in America” bus.

Mitt has this same problem with a number of GOP governors in states he must win or thinks he has a chance, states like Ohio (Kacich), Wisconsin (Walker), Virginia (McDonnell), Michigan (Snyder).  Even in Obama-safe states, it doesn’t help Mitt to have a GOP governor with a national spotlight talking positively about the economy.  That would be you, Chris Christie.  When it comes to the economy, Mitt and his party’s govs are not singing from the same hymnal.

It’s amazing to have this large group of GOP governors providing a Greek Chorus to Obama’s claims that the economy is, indeed, improving.

Walker’s Flood of Money Water-Boarded Barrett

From “How Walker Won,” William Finnegan, The New Yorker:

“But the ocean of campaign money that drowned Wisconsin was definitely something new.  More than sixty-three million dollars poured in….  According to the Center for Public Integrity, Walker outspent Barrett by seven and a half to one.  Barrett raised four million dollars in campaign donations, roughly a million of that from out of state.  Walker, meanwhile, raised more than thirty million, with twenty million of that from out of state.  Four of Walker’s top seven donors were out-of-state billionaires.  Many of these overfed cats are becoming familiar figures in our democracy:  Sheldon Adelson, the anti-union casino magnate; the brothers Koch, who bow to no man in their anti-unionism.

“The state-level equivalent of SuperPACs slopped another thirty million into the mix, three-quarters of that to Walker, nearly all of it from out of state.  The Walker campaign had so much cash, it seemed drunk.  After saturating the airwaves and wallpapering America’s dairyland with ad buys, it started running commercials on Madison’s favorite left-wing radio station, apparently just to show that it could.”  Emphasis added.

Now the GOP is emboldened, thinking it can do for Mitt what it did for Walker.  Wake up, Chicago, they’re coming for you.