Giving Up
By Well, it looks like Democrats are giving up on recalling Scott Walker. The DNC has still refused to help. Obama has stayed far away in a state that is a toss-up in November and is quite important to his reelection strategy. Poll numbers aren’t moving. Labor is organizing to get people out, but of course the Republican base is just as motivated. Some are saying that the recall strategy is bad on principle because where does it end? I actually more or less agree with that critique.
And while I am very disappointed in the national Democratic Party, I am also disappointed in the Wisconsin Democratic Party. Tom Barrett is an awful candidate. Here you have a grassroots labor campaign to drive out an incredibly evil governor. They succeed in recalling him. But then Wisconsin Democrats don’t coalesce around a pro-labor candidate? They nominate the uninspiring milquetoast who lost to Walker the first time? Why? The short answer is obvious–he won the primary. But it’s also quite dispiriting that he did. Does labor not have the power in Wisconsin to win a Democratic primary with an extremely motivated and organized base? And if not in Wisconsin, can labor turn even a primary election anywhere? And since Barrett is downplaying the labor issue, why hold the recall at all? What a pathetic candidate.
This is also another horrible sign for upcoming state and local elections:
Funds have flowed in from major national Republican donors, including the Koch Brothers, Harold Simmons, and Bob Perry. The Republican National Committee has also opened up its coffers, with RNC Chair Reince Priebus announcing that his committee is “all in,” and a staffer telling the Beast they’ve committed “hundreds of thousands of dollars.” The most recent financial reports, filed May 1, show Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, a Democrat, has raised $800,000, compared to $25 million for Walker, who’s benefitted from a loophole in the Wisconsin campaign finance law that allows unlimited contributions to elected officials facing recall. (Both campaigns have benefited from independent expenditures by outside groups, making Barrett’s cash disadvantage smaller than it appears.)
Well, I’m about as excited for the Scott Walker presidential campaign in 2016 as you are. Although that would probably be better than Walker in 2020, if you know what I mean.