Why the Wisconsin State Legislature Is Scott Walker’s Secret Weapon

[riversedge]

Living in Walker's Mississipi-it is not a secret.


http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2015/03/scott_walker_s_national_prominence_is_owed_to_the_state_legislature_the.html

Scott Walker’s Secret Weapon

Wisconsin’s governor wouldn’t be a conservative superstar without his state’s Legislature.

By Betsy Woodruff



Gov. Scott Walker Gov. Scott Walker waves as he arrives to speak at the 42nd annual Conservative Political Action Conference in National Harbor, Maryland, on Feb. 26, 2015.

Photo by Joshua Roberts/Reuters

MADISON, Wisconsin—Scott Walker loves the haters. In recent years as Wisconsin has moved further to the right, the mild-mannered preacher’s son has become in the eyes of his opponents an icon of all that is evil—and he seems to relish it. On the stump, the governor is fond of talking up the fact that he’s “the No. 1 target in America of the labor unions and many others on the left,” and the hecklers that seem willing to follow him to the ends of the Earth give him a chance to flex his conservative muscles. They feed the perception that in Wisconsin, it was Walker against the world, and Walker won.
Betsy Woodruff Betsy Woodruff


Next week Gov. Walker is expected to sign right-to-work legislation that will burnish his reputation as a bold fighter who stood against the hordes and remains unvanquished. But that image elides an important, perhaps crucial, fact about his record as a reformer: Walker is the chief beneficiary of a state Legislature that has demonstrated a boundless appetite for the kind of controversial, union-crunching attacks that have made the governor a conservative superhero. Without the Wisconsin state Legislature, Walker would just be a skinny Chris Christie.

This all starts, naturally, in 2010. You could argue that the Tea Party made greater gains in Wisconsin than in any other state in the country. Democrats lost control of the governorship, incumbent Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold lost his Senate race to upstart businessman Ron Johnson, and the GOP netted two House seats. And, most importantly, Democrats lost hold of the state Assembly and the state Senate. In 2008, Obama won Wisconsin by 14 points and Democrats dominated state politics. Two years later, Badger State Democrats were eviscerated.

Without the Wisconsin state Legislature, Walker would just be a skinny Chris Christie.

Republicans are great at winning governorships in blue states. Walker is one of a host of state executives whose conservative policy goals belie the fact that his constituents consistently vote for Democratic presidential nominees. (There is Gov. Charlie Baker in Massachusetts, Gov. Bruce Rauner in Illinois, Gov. Susana Martinez in New Mexico, and Gov. Paul LePage in Maine, just to name a few.) Republican governors helming blue states is nothing new. But of all these Republican state leaders, Walker is probably the one with the most ideologically simpatico legislature.
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[lutefisk]

1. "How Gerrymandering Wisconsin made the Legislature Scott Walker’s Secret Weapon"

That's an important part of the story, too.

[Half-Century Man]

2. Bad title The legislature isn't a secret weapon, it's the state bomb belt.

In the name of ideology and for the sake of a single person, they are blowing themselves up and taking the state with them.

[Scuba]

3. Former State Senator Dale Schultz (R-Richland Center) resigned over this. Here's what he says ...

Dale chose not to run again last fall. Too bad; he was the last sane Republican in Wisconsin. Since leaving office, he's had a few choice things to say about the Walker administration. I'd absolutely love to see Dale run for governor as a Republican.



http://www.middlewisconsin.org/quotations-from-republican-senator-dale-schultz/

“We are now literally dismantling the state government, and people need to think long and hard about what they want for a future in our state,”

“ It’s just, I think, sad when a political party — my political party — has so lost faith in its ideas that it’s pouring all of its energy into election mechanics. And again, I’m a guy who understands and appreciates what we should be doing in order to make sure every vote counts, every vote is legitimate. But that fact is, it ought to be abundantly clear to everybody in this state that there is no massive voter fraud. The only thing that we do have in this state is we have long lines of people who want to vote. And it seems to me that we should be doing everything we can to make it easier, to help these people get their votes counted. And that we should be pitching as political parties our ideas for improving things in the future, rather than mucking around in the mechanics and making it more confrontational at the voting sites and trying to suppress the vote. It is all predicated on some belief there is a massive fraud or irregularities, something my colleagues have been hot on the trail for three years and have failed miserably at demonstrating.”

“The K-12 system in the last few years has laid off 3,000 personnel, and it looks to me like that’s going to accelerate. Out my way, I would not be shocked if a huge percentage of school districts wind up going to referendum to have the privilege of raising their own property tax because the state has walked away from its principal responsibility of providing for a free, appropriate and near equal education for everybody.”

And in response to Walker comparing protesters to ISIS ...

“Here’s how I see the enemy. The enemy is poverty in a country and a state that has no business having kids and families go to sleep hungry at night or in their cars. The enemy is those who encourage an undereducated citizenry. Education is the key to helping give people a hand up and a better future.”

[blkmusclmachine]

4. Welcome to the New World Order, GOP style.

"GOTT MIT UNS"
("God is with us.&quot

[blkmusclmachine]

5. Pic: http://listverse.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/800px-flag_of_nazi_germany_1933-1945-svg_.jpg

All text is my own.

[GusBob]

6. Not to be rude or histrionic

Everyone in Wisconsin is walkers bitch now