Scott Walker Is Desperate on Jobs

Scott Walker is in trouble, and it showed this weekend at the debate, fumbling the central issue of the race: Jobs.

"I don't know how many of you watched the debate last night, but Governor Walker said in the debate that he didn't think Wisconsin had a jobs problem. Right?" Mary Burke said. "Well, I want to be a governor who acknowledges the challenges that we have and is going to focus on the ideas that are going to move us ahead and will make sure that Wisconsin has a vibrant, growing, thriving economy so that when you graduate from college, there are going to be job opportunities for you to be able to stay in this state." (Bice, Glauber and Barrett, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)

The extraordinary lengths to which Scott Walker, Wisconsin's corrupt attorney general J.B. Van Hollen and Republican Party have gone to exclude registered Wisconsin voters from voting reveal how desperate Walker is.

To the extent Environment, Education, Health Care, Women's Rights are an issue, Walker loses.

Jobs, and Scott Walker loses.

Walker and the Repulsives are cornered.

Walker also refused to say whether his own administration is correct in stating $7.25 is a living wage.

If Walker were comfortable, his campaign would be non-stop positive impressions, not even acknowledging he had an opponent.

But Wisconsin leads the nation in negative TV spots in campaigns for governor in the nation. (Gilbert, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel)

Watch for desperate moves from Walker surrogates, the kitchen sink, anything.

Jonathan Alter reported and wrote in his seminal book, The Center Holds, Obama and His Enemies(Simon and Schuster, 2013), the Obama campaign utilizing its high-tech veritable wizards compiled voter support scores on the 180 million American voters (p. 107), and successfully demolished Mitt Willard Romney.

Burke has the same capacity and watching the debate closely, a quiet confidence from Mary Burke is taking hold, and a desperation from Scott Walker is becoming equally apparent.

Wisconsin Is Water; Protect Us

'If Wisconsin is looking for a growth industry, tourism is it.'

Wasn't disappointed in the Wisconsin gubernatorial debate last night, expect noise and a void.

Mary Burke did point out Scott Walker selling out pristine northern Wisconsin for a few million dollars in exchange for legislation to rip an open pit mine in Iron County.

But it's citizens who bring information. Thankfully, Wisconsin newspapers are still alive and local coverage is not dead.

One can look at the Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune letters section on a given day and get the truth of where we're heading as a state. For example:

"I’m OK with a politician occasionally embellishing the facts, but tourism is the growth path for the Rome area (in central Wisconsin) and I want to know my representative (Scott Krug) is actually and proactively working at it. My experience says otherwise and unless I see a plan from him, I’m not sure he deserves my vote. This makes me question everything else (Krug) says," writes Don Ystad of Rome.

Ystad's concern with the environment is not confined to central Wisconsin, nor with lakes and aquifers.

Rivers are the canary in the coal mine, and they are under assault with Scott Walker selling out our rivers as well. See the River Alliance of Wisconsin (Facebook).

A healthy environment is good business, something Ystad appreciates as a retired successful business consultant.

"Studies show that tourism generates $17.5 billion in economic impact in Wisconsin, more than 185,000 jobs and $2.3 billion dollars in annual tax revenue. In 2013, visitors to Wisconsin spent $10.6 billion," writes the Tourism Federation of Wisconsin (TFW).            

A healthy environment is much more than good business, it's a legacy we owe our children, our grandchildren and all future generations. We are water creatures, part of a complex system of  which water is central.

Residents in a high-end tourist destination, Door County, know this well.

Check out the Peninsula Pulse up in Door County; that's local coverage.

So as Republicans kill local control and the capacity of the DNR to control polluters, on the current trajectory that Scott Walker is sending us, we will find that befouling Wisconsin's waters is killing our state's most precious resource.

This is bad business too.