‘‘Burke would be an unlikely scourge of the 1-percenters anyway, since she’s one of them — I come at this from a business perspective.... a ‘‘business-friendly, fiscal conservative.... sound like a Republican.’’
And you wonder why I'm not interested in the $hit-$how fooley of politics?
"Burke gives Wisconsin Democrats a new approach" by THOMAS BEAUMONT | Associated Press August 14, 2014
JANESVILLE, Wis. — Only a few years ago, Wisconsin was the scene of huge protest rallies that shut down the state Capitol, a failed attempt to recall the new Republican governor, and an outpouring of end-times rhetoric by Democratic loyalists about the stunning loss of their government power.
See: Wisconsin Recall Recall
That turbulent history is hardly in evidence as Mary Burke makes her way around the state these days, introducing herself to voters as a Democratic candidate for governor. In fact, she seems to be ignoring it, even though she is aiming to oust Republican Scott Walker and end his conservative revolution in Madison.
Whether mingling on small-town streets, giving radio interviews, or appearing at union hall rallies, Burke speaks in measured tones, saying little that stirs the old partisan passions.
‘‘I come at this from a business perspective,’’ she told voters in Janesville last month, ‘‘and you better have a detailed plan, and a plan that’s going to work.’’
Burke is the Wisconsin Democrats’ attempt at a reboot after their worst losses in recent history.
They think that is happening this year with the referendum being on Obama's Democratic administration's massive failures? With this candidate?
They lost to Walker in the 2010 governor’s race, again to him in the recall, and to Walker’s Republican allies in the Legislature as they stripped the Democrat-leaning public employee unions of their collective bargaining rights, triggering the protests. The latest polls peg the race as a dead heat, and groups on both sides are investing millions of dollars in the contest.
While populist slogans, union rights, and anti-elite insults are the traditional red meat of Democratic rallies, Burke — a former top executive at Wisconsin’s Trek Bicycles — is trying to win as an experienced business professional with a plan for improving the state’s underperforming economy. The idea is to attract more people concerned about Wisconsin’s fiscal health than labor issues.
It’s a test Democrats in other Midwestern states with similarly shrinking union bases will be watching.
Not me, not when Democrats here did the same thing to unions.
As a Harvard graduate, the daughter of Trek founder Richard Burke and the former director of the company’s European operations, Burke, 55, would be an unlikely scourge of the 1-percenters anyway, since she’s one of them — worth millions, not billions.
Her campaign speech is heavy on detailing her time expanding the company’s brand overseas and her work as its senior analyst.
Burke’s campaign plan calls for investing in key industries by region, such as paper in the Fox River Valley near Appleton, manufacturing in more populous southeast Wisconsin, and medical technology around Madison.
The shift in message has been noticed.
‘‘Some of us weren’t too sure at first. We’re a pretty strong union town,’’ said Jacki Gackstatter, a Janesville Democrat and candidate for Rock County clerk of courts, after Burke addressed 400 at a union hall. Burke supports restoring the public employees’ collective bargaining rights, but believes workers should pay more for some benefits.
Earlier that day, Burke chatted up a group of men in Beloit, a recovering manufacturing town of about 35,000, and described herself as a ‘‘business-friendly, fiscal conservative.’’
‘‘You sound like a Republican,’’ Rick Holmin of Beloit shot back.
You know, I believe it was Harry Truman who said when you have a choice between a Republican and a Republican, choose the real Republican.
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Well, I've exorcised that pos. Next.
NEXT DAY UPDATE:
"Court to unseal some files in inquiry of Wis. governor" Associated Press August 22, 2014
MADISON, Wis. — A federal appeals court decided Thursday to unseal two dozen documents in a secret investigation into whether Governor Scott Walker’s campaign illegally coordinated with conservative groups in 2012.
The US Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit had planned to release nearly three dozen documents in the investigation on Tuesday but held off after one of the groups, two unnamed parties, and prosecutors leading the inquiry objected. It issued an order on Thursday, however, saying 10 documents would remain sealed and the rest would be released. It’s not clear when the documents will be made public.
Prosecutors have been looking into whether Walker’s 2012 recall campaign illegally coordinated with conservative groups on advertising and fund-raising. They’ve been using a so-called John Doe procedure, a proceeding similar to a federal grand jury where information is tightly controlled.
One of the groups, Wisconsin Club for Growth, has persuaded a federal judge to put the probe on hold, arguing the investigation violates its free speech rights.
The prosecutors have asked the Seventh Circuit to let them continue. Meanwhile, a coalition of media and open government groups has filed a side appeal demanding the court unseal hundreds of pages of documents linked to the investigation.
The court in June released 266 pages of documents that revealed the nature of the investigation. The coalition’s appeal is still pending — oral arguments are set for Sept. 9 — but the court planned to release 34 additional documents on Tuesday as part of its standard operating procedures.
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Will Walker come out of the Wisconsin wilderness because the American people, no matter what affiliation, do not want Clinton, Bush, or Romney, because it looks like that is where we are headed.
