From Rep. Peter Barca: Three reasons why Tom Barrett is ideally suited to taking down Scott Walker.

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Tuesday May 01, 2012 · 1:28 PM PDT

2012/05/01 · 13:28

Let me start with my personal thanks to the DailyKos community and progressive blogosphere for your active support of our grassroots movement to restore workers' rights and reclaim Wisconsin.

You have been with us every step of the way in our fight to end Scott Walker's ideological civil war and your actions continue to inspire me. I am especially grateful for the kind words of encouragement many of you sent me in the last few months.

I ultimately decided not to run for governor, because in order to undo the harm caused by Gov. Walker's right-wing extremist agenda, we must also focus on winning back the state Assembly for Democrats in the fall. I remain deeply committed to doing everything we can to defeat Scott Walker and all his rubberstamp Republicans and take back Wisconsin.

Wisconsin has strayed far from our heritage and progressive values and therefore it is not the same state it was at the start of 2011. Our state now has the dubious distinction of making Wisconsin the worst state in the entire United States at creating jobs. Adding insult to injury, new research from my office shows that while Wisconsinites are working hard to provide for their families, Scott Walker is the only governor in more than 20 years who has sunk Wisconsin to the worst in the nation on jobs. We've never even been in the bottom 10 before now.

This record on jobs, education, and job training is unacceptable. Wisconsin simply must expect higher standards than Gov. Scott Walker and his Republican cronies have offered. For those reasons and so many others we must ensure this historic recall is successful and we must remain united in solidarity to deliver this a crucial victory for working families.

That's why I stood with Wisconsin law enforcement officers recently to join them in announcing my endorsement of Tom Barrett for governor.

There are a multitude of reasons I support Tom Barrett, but three things top my list.

PeterBarca

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Wednesday January 25, 2012 · 2:52 PM PST

2012/01/25 · 14:52

Tonight, Rep. Sondy Pope-Roberts (D-Middleton), the ranking member on the Assembly Education Committee, is joining me to respond to Gov. Walker's State of the State Address. Below is her column on the devastating impact of Gov. Walker's agenda on education in Wisconsin.

Governor Walker’s plans not Working for Education in Wisconsin
By Rep. Sondy Pope-Roberts
79th Assembly District

Tonight, as the Governor gives his state of the state address, he continues his multi-million dollar, all out campaign to convince citizens and voters of Wisconsin that his actions amounted to bold education reform. I’m here to tell you they do not. He will claim that “it’s working”. I’m here to tell you that it is not.

PeterBarca

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Wednesday December 21, 2011 · 5:43 PM PST

2011/12/21 · 17:43

It's time for Gov. Scott Walker to stop the excuses and address Wisconsin’s job crisis.

National job numbers for every state came out Tuesday, and Wisconsin fared badly. Unfortunately, we led the nation in job losses. That is 14,600 fewer jobs for struggling Wisconsin families as we entered the holiday season.

Scott Walker ran on one campaign central, marquee promise: He vowed to create 250,000 jobs during a four-year term.

Yet Wisconsin has lost jobs five months in a row. That means that every month since Gov. Walker’s budget – his economic plan for Wisconsin – passed, we have lost jobs. During that time we have, sadly, lost more jobs than any state in the nation according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

So does Gov. Walker come out and address the topic? Does he change his approach? Does he unveil new plans to address this crisis? Does he urge legislative leaders to actually pass the jobs bills Democrats have had in front of the legislature since January?

No – in an unprecedented move, one of the governor’s political cronies is sent out to criticize me for the wording I used to describe these facts and bicker over whether we got a gold medal in losing jobs, or were just among a small handful of other states that also did badly. It is a curious thing for a state agency to be splitting hairs over just how badly Wisconsin is doing at creating jobs.

The buck must stop with Gov. Walker.

PeterBarca

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Wednesday November 02, 2011 · 6:14 AM PDT

2011/11/02 · 06:14

The following videos from Wisconsin Assembly Democrats were shot over the last few hours as a legislative debate raged in the background about a controversial, last minute amendment that would strip away affirmative action provisions for a state higher education grant program. This surprise amendment was introduced at 11 pm with no warning. The bill being amended was a non-controversial proposal to make technical changes to a state higher education grant program that serves first generation college students. The bill had passed a legislative committee with a unanimous vote and was expected to pass with broad support from both parties. That was before the mean spirited amendment to undermine affirmative action considerations was introduced.

PeterBarca

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Wednesday October 05, 2011 · 4:25 PM PDT

2011/10/05 · 16:25

Rep. Peter Barca is the Wisconsin Assembly Democrats Leader

In the same week that Gov. Walker's chief of staff resigned to head up the recall defense for his boss, Republicans in the state legislature also moved to propose changes to Wisconsin's election laws in a blatant attempt to control the rules in favor of Gov. Walker and cover up his past campaign violations.

In a committee hearing early last week, GOP legislators Sen. Leah Vukmir and Rep. Jim Ott indicated that they want Gov. Walker to have power over the Government Accountability Board (GAB), which oversees elections in Wisconsin. Republicans are doing this because they are upset with a commonsense ruling from the GAB that would allow Wisconsinites to access a recall form online that had their address already filled out, print it, sign it and mail it to the relevant recall group.

PeterBarca

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Tuesday September 27, 2011 · 3:26 PM PDT

2011/09/27 · 15:26

Rep. Peter Barca is the Wisconsin Assembly Democrats Leader

Gov. Walker went to yesterday's Education Summit in New York City with the hope that he would be able to continue to paint a rosy picture about public education in Wisconsin. Thanks to the efforts of concerned Wisconsin bloggers like Sun Prairie resident Heather DuBois Bourenane and others on Twitter, NBC's Brian Williams was forced to ask Gov. Walker tough questions about why his rhetoric doesn't match the reality of education in Wisconsin.

PeterBarca

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Wednesday September 14, 2011 · 12:57 PM PDT

2011/09/14 · 12:57

Rep. Peter Barca is the Wisconsin Assembly Democrats Leader

Last fall Scott Walker and his fellow Republicans got elected on the promise of creating 250,000 jobs for Wisconsin workers and families.

Eight months after taking office, the top issue that Wisconsinites still want their elected leaders to focus on is putting the people of our great state back to work and rebuilding economic security for middle-class families.

Unfortunately, Gov. Walker and his Republican rubberstamps in the legislature have done little to create jobs. Instead of focusing on job creation, Republicans have spent the last eight months advancing an extreme, polarizing agenda that attacked Wisconsin workers. That may have much to do with unemployment in Wisconsin climbing from 7.4% when Walker took office in January to 7.8% in July -- the most recent month for which data is available.

PeterBarca

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Tuesday August 16, 2011 · 8:00 PM PDT

2011/08/16 · 20:00

Rep. Peter Barca is the Wisconsin Assembly Democrats Leader

The election results of the past week can only be viewed as a historic victory won by Wisconsin's middle-class and a rejection of Gov. Walker's extreme, divisive and hyperpartisan agenda.

It was the middle-class who took the fight into staunchly Republican territory and won two seats.

It was a coalition of Wisconsin progressives that worked together to prove to the country that Democrats can stand up and defeat extreme Republicans who favor powerful and extreme special interests at the expense of working, middle-class families.

PeterBarca

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Tuesday August 09, 2011 · 1:33 PM PDT

2011/08/09 · 13:33

Rep. Peter Barca is the Wisconsin Assembly Democrats Leader

UPDATE (4:45 PM CST):

Gov. Walker has used the chaos of Election Day to mask his signing of Republican-protection maps into law.

Gov. Walker had an opportunity to chose a different path, but today’s blatant, partisan power grab by Gov. Walker is proof that he has absolutely zero interest in uniting Wisconsin and that his bipartisan pledge was strictly rhetoric. It is now clear that Gov. Walker signed these redistricting maps into law in a manner intended to hide his actions with only one goal in mind: giving himself and his fellow Republicans a monopoly on power in our state and dodging accountability for their anti-middle-class extremism.

Click here for my full statement on Facebook.

###

Original post below

Right now the people of Wisconsin are headed to the polls in six state Senate districts to reject Gov. Walker’s extreme agenda and his unprecedented assault on Wisconsin’s working, middle-class families.

But it seems that Gov. Walker may have an Election Day surprise for Wisconsin voters that he hopes will allow Republicans to hold onto power regardless of the outcome of today’s historic recall elections.

Gov. Walker made a deliberate decision to have redistricting be decided on Election Day when he called the legislative Republicans’ plan up on August 4th. Thanks his own decision, Gov. Walker now has until the end of the day to sign or to veto his party’s divisive and partisan redistricting maps that would crush our democracy and attempt to monopolize power on all levels of state government so the Republicans can avoid accountability for the next decade.

PeterBarca

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Tuesday August 02, 2011 · 9:22 PM PDT

2011/08/02 · 21:22

This is it folks. With one week to go until the recall elections, we must continue to fight in solidarity to take Wisconsin back for the people.   

Gov. Scott Walker and Sen. Scott Fitzgerald are pulling out all the stops to ignore the voices of Wisconsin to protect power for themselves and their wealthy special interest friends. That's why they've gone to Karl Rove, Reince Priebus and the Koch brothers to not only fund millions of dollars in TV and radio ads that falsely attack Democratic recall candidates, but to also send mailings with false Election Day information to strongly Democratic voters.

PeterBarca

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Monday August 01, 2011 · 8:06 AM PDT

2011/08/01 · 08:06

The actions of Wisconsin Republicans over the past seven months have shown disdain for things that matter deeply to our state’s citizens: a strong public education system, affordable health care and readily available job training.

But now, with the various budget bills that polarize Wisconsin and harm the middle-class signed into law, Republicans and Gov. Scott Walker are sinking to a new low: playing games that hurt workers who have just lost their jobs.

That’s why Rep. Kelda Roys and the Assembly Democrats released a new web video today to highlight Gov. Walker’s applause for the struggles many Wisconsin families are facing in these tough times:

PeterBarca

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Wednesday July 20, 2011 · 7:43 PM PDT

2011/07/20 · 19:43

A recent poll by the University of Wisconsin shows not only that a vast majority of Wisconsinites disapprove of Gov. Walker and his fellow Republicans in the state legislature, but also that 65% of Wisconsinites now believe that our state government is run for a few big interests rather than for all the people.

Gov. Walker has talked a big game on national television and in the local media recently about Republicans’ desire to work in a bipartisan fashion, but actions speak much louder than words.

Despite calls from citizens, nonpartisan good-government groups, and 14 editorials from newspapers all across Wisconsin urging the Republicans to end their self-serving ideological war on our democracy, they decided to ram their divisive, partisan redistricting plan through after only one public hearing.

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