Scott Walker- never quite ready for prime timeWhat ever happened to Scott Walker? I know that you already know. His dull campaign never caught fire, and he dropped out and went back to Iowa with his tail between his legs. Walker assumed he had it in the bag because he was the beloved of the Koch brothers. After they saw how he has utterly failed to connect with voters and was floundering in the national and early state polls-- including Iowa, where he was supposed to win and become unstoppable-- they started backing away from him too. That was the handwriting on the wall. Between September 24 and 29 the Marquette Law School Poll in Milawaukee, Wisconsin's most reliable, surveyed registered voters statewide and what they found augurs well for Democrats-- and badly for right-wing ideologues, particularly Walker and Senator Ron Johnson. Walker's job approval fell from 39% last month to 37% now, a new low, with 59% of the state's voters disapproving, two points higher than in August. Although most Republicans want Walker to seek a third term, Democrats and Independents do not. All in all, only 35% of the state's voters want to see Walker run again, while 62% do not want him to. When we spoke with state Senator Chris Larson this morning, he didn't seem surprised by the polling results.
The voters in Wisconsin have figured out Walker is just a politician out for himself at any cost. When he wasn't here to misinform the public, they saw the truth. Wisconsin trailed the national pace of job growth in 12 month private sector job creation for the 15th consecutive quarter. That is every quarter since the 2011 GOP budget and the launch of Walker's scandal plagued Economic Development Corporation. Wisconsin would have gained 70,861 more jobs simply by matching the national pace over those 48 months. Instead, he's been campaigning on the taxpayer dime, streamlining corruption, and focusing more on punishing political enemies than on helping those in need. Now, the question is how quickly Walker walks from the Governor's office to get paid out somewhere else.
Let's hope when he does, we find someone as good as Larson to run for the job! Registered voters have also soured on Johnson, an Ayn Rand fanatic who has been expressing his extreme, out-of-the-mainstream vision, like favoring abolishing the minimum wage. Only 36% of the voters say they would vote for him next year, down 6 points from August. The progressive Democrat running against him, former Senator Russ Feingold, is supported by 50% of the voters already, up 3 points from April. Only 27% of Wisconsin voters rate Johnson's job performance favorably, while 42% have a favorable impression of Feingold. Madison-based Congressman Mark Pocan doesn't just have the most solidly progressive voting score of anyone in Wisconsin, he has the best voting score of anyone in the whole country! Like Larson, he wasn't surprised to see the polling results. He pointed out:
Johnson clearly hasn’t connected with Wisconsin voters during his time in office. Whether it’s his tea party tendencies or his right-wing voting recording, Johnson just isn’t where the average Wisconsinite is on a number of issues. Russ Feingold came into this race as one of the most respected politicians in Wisconsin. From holding listening sessions in all 72 counties every year to really being a champion for the state in Washington, Russ has defined what public service should be about. I think that’s what voters in Wisconsin are looking for from their elected officials. Someone who has proven he cares about how the average Wisconsin voter is doing and someone who is in touch with the issues people are talking about around the kitchen table. Russ Feingold checks a lot of those boxes for people and it shows in this recent poll.
Ironically, the main benificiary of Walker's decision to drop out has been Trump, ironically because when Walker quit the race, he said he was doing so to make it easier for another establishment Republican to beat Trump. Instead, Trump's Wisconsin standing has gone from 9% in August to 20%-- and first place-- now. Runners-up among the GOP are Carson at 16%, Rubio at 14%, Fiorina at 11% and, still struggling to stay in the second tier, Jeb Bush at 7%. Ted Cruz and Rand Paul each came in at 5% and Huckabee, Christie and Kasich at 3%. Everyone else came in at 1% or less. The only candidate with zero support-- not one vote-- was warmonger and closet case Lindsey Graham. The poll also did six head-to head matchups: Bernie leads Trump massively, 53-34%. Hillary would beat him too if the election were held today, 50-36%. Were Rubio the Republican nominee, Bernie would beat him 49-36% and Hillary would also win, but only 48-40%. Bernie would also beat Jeb Bush, 49-39%, and Hillary would beat him 50-38%. Among Democratic voters, though, Hillary is leading with 42% to Bernie's 30% and Biden's 17%.
