Walker agrees to two TV debates

Talk about it

Scott Walker’s campaign said Wednesday that the Republican governor would take part in two statewide televised debates before the June 5 recall election.

The Wisconsin Broadcasters Association will sponsor the first debate on Friday, May 25. The second debate would be on Thursday, May 31, sponsored by Milwaukee WISN-TV, the Marquette Law School, WisPolitics.com and the TV stations that show “Up Front with Mike Gousha.”

Ciara Matthews of the Walker camp said the two debates would give the largest available audience a chance to see the differences between Walker and his Democratic recall challenger Tom Barrett.

Earlier today, Barrett alled for four debates during the campaign.

“Scott Walker loves to launch misleading attacks on jobs, so let’s meet face to face and compare our records and our visions on jobs for the people of Wisconsin,” Barrett said in a statement.

The statement indicated that Democrats will continue to hammer away at Walker’s record of creating jobs, while downplaying the original reason for the recall, the virtual elimination of public union bargaining in Wisconsin.

Walker promised to create 250,000 new jobs during his term when elected in November 2010. But over period from March 2011 to March 2012, Wisconsin had the largest decrease in employment in percentage term of any state in the country.

The state lost 17,800 public-sector jobs and 6,100 private-sector jobs, according to a report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Walker encouraged by Republican turnout

Walker said he was surprised at the strong Republican voter turnout Tuesday, considering that he only had token opposition.

On WTMJ Radio in Milwaukee, Walker said his campaign had no sustained “get out of the vote” effort for the primary. He said there would obviously be one for the general recall election on June 5.

The four Democratic candidates for governor, and the protest candidate who ran against Walker in the Republican primary, received a total of 685,356 votes.

Walker and fake Democratic Gladys Huber received a total of 631,380 votes.

Walker said all the focus was on the Democratic primary and people were telling him that they didn’t know he had an opponent. The governor called that a good sign, but he said his campaign cannot let up.

He said a couple weeks ago that he’d prefer to have Kathleen Falk as his final challenger.

Recent polls have shown Walker and Barrett to be neck and neck in voter support. Only four percent of Wisconsin voters haven’t made up their minds.

As a result, Republican strategist Mark Graul says it will be most important for the candidates and the parties to make sure as many of their supporters as possible vote on June 5.

TV ads galore

Special interests on both sides started running ads on Day 1 of the final Walker recall campaign. The Republican Governors Association started running a new ad that tries to equate Democratic finalist Tom Barrett to former Governor Jim Doyle.

Meanwhile, the liberal Greater Wisconsin Committee started running an ad yesterday which pointed out the John Doe investigation into Walker’s former Milwaukee County aides.

Also, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee is running ads. Former U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold sent out a fund-raising appeal Wednesday morning on Barrett’s behalf. It was made through his political action committee, Progressives United, which Feingold created after he lost his re-election bid in 2010.

Walker has amassed a huge campaign fund, with much of the money coming from big donors and out-of-state business interests. Walker had almost $5 million in his campaign fund in late April, after raising $25 million in all to defend the recall effort.

Tags: news, wisconsin, politics