Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker Wins Recall Election – and the Republican Gloating Begins

One Clear Message – More Money Defeats Less Money

Reading the commentary by Republican sycophants concerning the expected victory of incumbent Republican Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin over his 2010 opponent, Democrat Tom Barrett one would think there had been a revolution in American politics.  Here is just a small example of the typical gushing and gloating by Jennifer Rubin, the Mitt Romney spokeswoman masquerading as a Washington Post columnist.

The consequences of a Walker win may not be fully appreciated. So we’ll get the ball rolling:

1. Wisconsin becomes a key swing state, causing panic among those pundits who declared that Mitt Romney’s path to 270 electoral votes is “very narrow.”

2. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) zooms to the top of the VP list on the arguments that he’s so much less boring than the other front-runners, he can lock up Wisconsin, and the Ryan-Biden VP debate would be comedy gold, raising the question: After 30 minutes, should there be a mercy rule?

3. Romney packages proposals on repeal of Davis-Bacon, cutting the federal workforce, converting all federal employees to 401(k)s and anti- corruption legislation, making it illegal for elected officials who received campaign donations from a labor union to engage in collective bargaining with that same union.

4. Republican governors and state legislatures introduce Walker reform plans around the country.

This type of commentary is pure silly hyperbole of course and neglects to recognize the fact that when Ohio voters had the chance to vote on these public employee union busting laws last fall, they strongly rejected them.  The situation in Wisconsin appears to be a case where even when voters opposed the policy of the incumbent, they were reluctant to vote him out of office until his term was finished.


What really happened of course is that the labor unions and the Democratic party engaged in a near hopeless task, defeating an extremely well funded recently elected Republican Governor in a recall election less than two years after he was first elected.  Voters are not in favor of ending a person’s term in mid term, even when they disagree with his positions, but most importantly Mr. Walker had literally unlimited funds with which to attack his Democratic opponent. 

Moreover, Mr. Walker’s opponents never realized a political fact, that sometimes it is better to have the hated opposition in office than out of office.  Leaving Mr. Walker in place and working for his defeat in 2014 would have been the far better politics.  Instead the Democrats and their public employee union allies wasted millions of dollars desperately needed for the fall election and handed Republicans a huge victory.  Well it was not a huge victory but the Republicans and their compliant members of the media will play it that way.

The good news for Democrats, if there is any good news is that maybe this is a wake-up call for the fall.  Unless they take immediate action the greedy billionaires and their multi-millionaire allies are going to pump an almost unlimited amount of money into the Presidential and other elections in order to defeat anyone who opposes their policy of destruction of federal, state and local governments.  Based on the trends so far it looks like the Democrats will sleep through that call.