Top Democratic operatives in Wisconsin, including Democratic Party of Wisconsin chairman Mike Tate, are helping Madison School Board member Mary Burke with what appears to be preparations for a likely campaign for the office of Governor of Wisconsin.
If you listen to what Wisconsin Republicans say about Mary Burke, you'd think that she is a threat to the very existence of the Republican Party. In reality, though, Burke is viewed with downright suspicion by many Wisconsin Democrats for several reasons.
First, many Wisconsin Democrats have a negative view of candidates for public office who are wealthy enough to have the ability to self-fund a significant portion of their campaign war chests. This is especially the case in the Milwaukee area, where Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele ran as a de-facto Democrat in the officially non-partisan 2011 race for that office and won, then sold out not long after being elected. Since becoming Milwaukee County Executive, Chris Abele, despite self-identifying as a Democrat, has governed in a very similar way to his predecessor, Scott Walker.
Secondly, Burke has been known to support some corporate school reform proposals, including donating $2.5 million to a proposed charter school that was aimed at reducing the achievement gap between white and minority students in Madison, although Burke later withdrew her support for the proposed charter school. This is probably going to be the most controversial statement that I'll ever make in my lifetime, but let me make this point clear: Burke proposed a plan for reducing achievement gaps that effectively mounted to racial segregation.
This would be the perfect time for a true progressive to mount a Paul Wellstone-style grassroots campaign for the office of Governor of Wisconsin. The Democratic establishment in Wisconsin appears to be coalescing around their candidate, however, the establishment candidate lacks any actual appeal beyond the Democratic establishment. If Burke has a clear primary field or has to face a primary challenger who runs as an organized labor candidate, Burke will win the Democratic nomination and Walker will be strongly favored to win re-election. However, if Burke has to run against a candidate who can convince a broad coalition of Wisconsin voters to support a full-fledged progressive agenda and build a 72-county grassroots campaign, Burke could outspend her primary challenger by a 50 to 1 margin (or an even more ridiculous margin), and Burke may lose her own party's nomination.
Something similar to the hypothetical scenario I described above happened in the 1978 Republican gubernatorial primary in Wisconsin. The Republican establishment in Wisconsin coalesced around Bob Kasten in the Republican gubernatorial primary, and he lost the primary to Lee Dreyfus, who had a campaign budget of only $100,000 for the primary. Dreyfus then went on to defeat then-incumbent Democratic Governor Martin Schreiber in the general election. A similar scenario is even more likely in the 2014 Democratic gubernatorial primary in Wisconsin, largely because there are more Democrats who view Mary Burke with suspicion now than there were Republicans who viewed Bob Kasten with suspicion back in the late 1970's.
If Mary Burke wins the Democratic nomination, I'll hold my nose and write a few blog posts supporting her, as, after all, she's not Scott Walker. However, I want to send a clear message to Scott Walker...out-of-state activists are organizing against you, and I'm one of them! However, before we're going to organize against you, we're going to organize against Mary Burke!