Scott Walker MUST win re-election as Wisconsin Governor if he has any chance of running for President. And he'll do it the same way he won his election in 2010: spending nearly $100 million, lots of lies and deception, and phony promises of jobs.
He was aided, of course, by RW astroturf groups that pounded relentlessly on his opponent. With the dirty work done by others, his own campaign could focus all their money on friendly ads featuring a smiling Scott Walker in typical Republican campaign costume (the casual pants with non-white long sleeved shirt with sleeves carefully rolled up to mid forearm) belching out his promise of 250,000 jobs.
The money is already pouring in since his election in 2010 since he's mostly been out of state fundraising his RW ass off. Not many Wisconsinites know that since he's the first Governor in Wisconsin to have a secret schedule (a "summary" is available the following month).
During the protests and recalls, Walker became a Republican Rock Star and megabucks were virtually airdropped into his coffers.
Strategic money is now buying up ad time, $1.9 million dollars of it, in the final weeks before the November election.
Target Enterprises -- which buys media for Republican candidates and groups -- has indicated that it wants to book more than $1.9 million worth of time on TV stations in four Wisconsin media markets for an undisclosed client between Sept. 1 and Nov. 3. The money for the political commercials has not yet been paid, but Target has chosen the times the ads would run and on which stations.
(bolding is mine)
Target, which is based in Sherman Oaks, California, is looking to spend nearly $800,000 in Milwaukee on behalf of its client during this short span and more than $600,000 in La Crosse, with lesser sums being reserved in Green Bay and Wausau, according to multiple sources. The firm is headed by Adam Stoll, who has worked on GOP campaigns and served as an adviser for two Republican National Conventions.
The Republican Governors Association has already spent megabucks on a series of lying attack ads against Walker opponent, Mary Burke, this year.
No one knows who the "undisclosed" client is for this last minute media blitz, but booking the last minute ad time now shows how desperate they are to buy Wisconsin's elections again.
Polls continue to show Scott Walker leading Mary Burke in the election, but Burke has been gaining ground as she has been campaigning throughout the state. Like Chris Christie, Walker must "win big" to be a Presidential contender.
This won't be a walk in the park like the recall election where Walker skated to victory on an "anti-recall", "anti-politics" strategy that was also heavily promoted by Wisconsin's Walker-loving media.
This time Walker has to run on his record as Governor. That record is dismal.
You can't strip that much money out of worker paychecks, schools and local governments and expect a booming economy. Even little old me, a retired RN, is well aware of that.
He slashed revenue that the state used to share with local governments. On top of that, he prohibited local governments from raising property taxes to make up the shortfall in their budgets unless they received a majority of votes in a referendum (fat chance with so many tax-haters around).
He mandated 12% of public employees wages be deducted to "pay for" their insurance and another 6% to "pay for" their pensions. And with local budgets thinned of their state shared revenue, local governments had to cut services, lay off workers, and strip wages from their remaining employees. Definitely the main ingredients in a recipe for economic disaster.
He's "created" less than half of the 250,000 jobs that he promised in 2010; a promise he said was "the floor and not the ceiling". It was virtually the only promise he made, repeated in each and every speech and media interview. When it became obvious that he wouldn't be anywhere close to achieving his promise, Walker tried to walk that promise back by placing the blame on protesters and recalls.
Nobody is buying that anymore. The recalls have been over for almost 2 years, the protests for 3 years.
He's also been busy scrubbing the jobs promise from his website and anywhere else. It's hard to find now.
If Walker wants to blame anyone, he needs to take Herman Cain's advice and blame himself and the policies he's enacted.
Wisconsin, once ranked highly in education and jobs is now swirling down to the bottom. Already nearly last in the country in jobs (46th), the outlook isn't good. So Walker, unable to make people forget about his 250,000 jobs promise is now trying to change the goal post by saying that the 250,000 jobs mark will come during his second term sometime in 2015.
Nice try, but as Dubya once said:
There's an old saying in Texas. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me ....
You can't get fooled again.
They're banking (literally) on voters being fooled again and again and again by mountains of money and non-stop ads.
Thanks, US Supremes, for ensuring that money can buy elections.
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