"The End of the Scott Walker Experiment?"

[applegrove]

The End of the Scott Walker Experiment?

By John Dickerson at Slate

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2014/08/scott_walker_and_mary_burke_are_running_a_tight_race_the_wisconsin_governor.html

"SNIP........................

But the biggest national test taking place in Wisconsin is a test of the Walker Hypothesis, which held that a politician who enacted conservative policies and didn’t shrink from the resulting controversy would be rewarded by a wide range of voters—conservatives, but also swing voters. It was a model that conservatives offered not just for other GOP governors, but for the party’s presidential candidates.

With each new poll showing a close race, that hypothesis grows weaker. Walker may win (he’s ahead by three points with registered voters, he’s an incumbent, has lots of money and is a fierce competitor) but the polls seem pretty conclusive that it will only be through a grinding and close political battle where he relies deeply on his base. That’s not how the hypothesis was supposed to work. “Results trump everything else,” Walker told National Review last November. “If you deliver, voters will stick with you,” he said during his book tour as he explained how he could capture a wide group of voters in a battleground state.

Walker has been recently talking about what he has delivered and touting the state’s economic record, but it hasn’t improved his standing much in the polls. In fact, in this poll, 48 percent of voters say Wisconsin lags behind other Midwest states in job creation (a charge Burke has been making), which is an increase from the 43 percent who said so last month.

Walker’s broadsides, by contrast, don’t appear to have paid off yet, which is why Democrats are happier than a two-point lead would seem to justify. They think Burke has withstood some of the strongest stuff that can be thrown at her. The biggest blow was Walker’s attack on the outsourcing practices of Trek Bicycle, the company her father founded and where Burke was once an executive. Seventy-three percent of Wisconsin voters think outsourcing reduces jobs and wages of American workers. The ones who believe that strongest are in Burke’s base. In such a polarized state, Walker’s goal was to drive down support among his opponent’s core voters. Since Burke was undefined and is running as nonideological rather than as a populist rabble-rouser, that seemed like a good bet. But the latest poll shows Burke with 89 percent support among Democrats, roughly where that number has been for the last several months. Democrats are also more enthusiastic about the contest. Eighty-two percent say they will certainly vote, whereas only 77 percent of Republicans say the same.


.........................SNIP"

[applegrove]

1. It seems that the public are not Ayn Rand reading adolescents. They don't want

to get hit across the head with a club and dragged into a cave or to do the hitting and the dragging.

[Wella]

2. This is an important race

Walker is about taking the country in an extreme privatized, corporatized direction with no rights for workers. Anyone that can stop him is worthy of support.

[Egnever]

3. The fact that it is close is troubling.

[BillZBubb]

4. Yep. This is not good news actually.

The race shouldn't even be close. And the republicans always find a lot of needed votes from "late precincts" to pull out a win in close elections.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

6. J o e m c c a r t h y @ w i s . c o m

[Cha]

12. Maybe and Hopefully it's like one of those Mittload vs Obama polls back 2012?

[BillZBubb]

5. The margin of victory doesn't matter to the right. If they win by 1 vote they claim a mandate.

If Walker wins, and sadly it looks like he will, he'll claim it proves his approach works. So will the entire right wing noise machine.

[Half-Century Man]

7. Polls show Burke even with or ahead of Scotty by 2 points.

(Marquette poll, NYT poll)
Scott Walker is a nationally known figure that some people are looking at as a possible contender for a run to be POTUS. Mary Burke was completely unknown until Oct of last year, she was fairly unknown until January of this year, and only made a name for herself by winning the Wi Demo Primary.
And is dead even with, if not ahead of, the incumbent governor of Wisconsin.

Scotty might be very sad very soon he opposed extending unemployment.

[applegrove]

8. This is a race to watch.

[Half-Century Man]

9. This is a race to participate in.

GOTV
I live here

[Cha]

10. Scott Walker.. I read that and thought Scott Brown and was going to say

"well that's one way to put it."..

But, Scott Walker.. I see what they're saying his "experiment" is.. IOW Throw tons of $$$$$$$$ at teabagger Lies and hope they stick. I hope the majority in Wisconsin is more aware this time around.

Mahalo apple~

[applegrove]

13. Goodnight Cha

[Cha]

14. Good night, sweetie~ I see I double posted.. I'll take care of that. :)