Posted on 01/23/2005 7:53:39 AM PST by Indy Pendance
His goals include tax reforms, voter ID at polls
Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker will become the first Republican candidate for governor on Monday, vowing to ride into the Capitol the same tax-reform wave that made him the only GOP leader of Wisconsin's largest county.
First-term Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle "doesn't get" the taxpayer revolt brewing statewide, said Walker, who plans to formally announce his candidacy at his Wauwatosa home Monday at 10:30 a.m.
"We have done bold and good things here in Milwaukee County," he added.
Unlike Doyle, Walker said, he would sign into law a bill limiting future property tax increases to the growth in new construction, and he would campaign for an amendment to the state constitution that would limit state and local spending.
Doyle repeated his opposition to both those changes in his Jan. 12 "state of the state" speech.
Doyle is "increasingly out of touch with the average taxpayer, and increasingly out of touch with the average voter," said Walker, who rose from political obscurity in the Assembly to popular chief executive of Milwaukee County in three years.
The Republican said that, unlike Doyle, he supports a move to legally define marriage as a union between one man and one woman and to fight potential fraud by requiring voters to show a photo ID at the polls.
Walker, 37, also would sign into law a bill letting qualified adults carry concealed weapons - another bill Doyle vetoed.
Walker said he was announcing more than 21 months before the November 2006 election so he could begin raising money for his campaign. Aides to Doyle have privately said he may spend $10 million to $13 million on his re-election bid.
Walker said he was "pretty confident" that former GOP Gov. Tommy G. Thompson will not run for governor after he steps down as secretary of the U.S. Health and Human Services Department. Walker talked with Thompson last week during inaugural ceremonies for President Bush.
Walker assumes he will face competition from two other Republicans whom he served with in the state Assembly in the 1990s - U.S. Rep. Mark Green and Assembly Speaker John Gard.
If all three run, a September 2006 primary would decide the party's nominee against Doyle.
Walker conceded that he, Green and Gard have no fundamental differences on issues.
So, Walker said, he will tell voters that he is the only one of the three who has controlled government spending, been elected - in 2002 and again in '04 - to a job long held by Democrats and is popular in Milwaukee County.
One in seven votes for governor in 2002 was cast in Milwaukee County. "If you can hold your own in Milwaukee County, you can win statewide," Walker said.
In 2002, Doyle got 45% of the statewide vote; former GOP Gov. Scott McCallum, 41%; and independent candidate Ed Thompson, the former governor's brother, 10.5%.
Doyle spokesman Dan Leistikow on Saturday said the governor is proud of a two-year record that includes the creation of 70,000 new jobs without a tax increase, protecting the SeniorCare program that helps the elderly pay for drugs, helping Wisconsin residents buy cheaper drugs from Canada, and providing more funds for education.
Doyle "will gladly stack that record up against whoever emerges" from a Republican primary in September 2006, Leistikow said.
Green said Walker's candidacy would not influence his own plans to run for governor, and, if he runs, he would campaign against Doyle and not another Republican. Walker's candidacy "is no surprise," Green added.
Gard was not available for comment Saturday. Strategy pays off
Walker made a calculated career gamble in 2002 that paid off handsomely when he emerged from a crowded field to succeed Milwaukee County Executive F. Thomas Ament, who had left office early after the pension scandal scalded county government.
Now, as in that race, Walker seeks to portray himself as running not for ambition's sake but out of a sense of duty to the people. At the same time, he has made no secret of his goal of higher office, and he did not promise to serve a full term as county executive.
As a fresh face and a Republican in a courthouse dominated by Democrats, Walker adopted an agenda to clean up county government and restore public confidence after the pension scandal that saw veteran county workers walk away with pensions for hundreds of thousands of dollars. In symbolic moves, Walker took a huge pay cut compared with Ament, and he froze wages for many employees. Trademark issue
Though he had not made taxes an issue until pressed on it late in the 2002 campaign, Walker as county executive tried to transfer his popularity into a mandate for an absolute freeze in the property tax levy. He repeatedly cited his freeze pledge while trimming county jobs, reorganizing departments, pushing off debt payments to later years and enacting other austerity measures.
As he will repeatedly mention in the governor's race, he's proposed three straight no-tax-increase budgets, got the County Board to agree once, and held the overall tax increase to slightly more than 3% total over three years.
His tax policies, the pension deal's costs and state-aid losses caused some bumps along the way, including the need for emergency layoffs in county parks and early pool closings in 2003. The 2003 county budget wound up in the red overall at year's end for the first time since 1990.
Walker has overseen a significant downsizing of the county work force that began after the pension scandal. The job was made somewhat easier because workers retired in greater-than-usual numbers as the pension deal's benefits kicked in; some 1,600 workers have left since 2001 - equal to 20% of the county work force.
In 2004, Walker cruised to re-election over two challengers, most notably Doyle's former budget director David Riemer. That race served as a test drive for many of the themes Walker is expected to emphasize in the governor's race.
Walker's political career got its first boost in November 1994, when statewide elections gave Republicans control of the state Assembly for the first time in decades. It was 17 months after Walker was first elected to the Legislature.
The 1994 Assembly power shift made the rookie lawmaker an Assembly committee chairman and gave him negotiating power on criminal justice, prisons and campaign finance issues.
Keep an eye on this man, he's the new blood of the GOP.
I hope he runs. It's just what this state needs.
Well, I must say I'll be impressed if he can unseat Governor Doyle. Doyle is one of the most unabashed liberal governors in the nation and it's truly gauling. I sure hope Wisconsinites open their eyes to what they're living under and vote him out.
Well Wisconsin best find a way to keep the Illinois Democrats from voting across the state line. Like they did in '04. Disgraceful.
Walker has won two county-wide elections in Milwaukee as an openly conservative candidate. That's only slightly easier than Bob Dornan winning in San Francisco.
We wouldn't have voted him IN if we'd had an alternative last election. Really! Garvey or McCallum?
*ping*
An excellent challenger for WI Gov. Doyle, although he may be jumping the gun...
Bookmarked.
So, two good candidates to run against Doyle .... will we have one to run against Kohl?
I'm worried about crowding the primary with 3 excellent candidates at this point. Mark Green probably ought to run against Kohl. Walker may want to hold off until 2010 before running for Governor and continue to clean up the dreadful mess in Milwaukee County. I don't know how unpopular Doyle is at this point (though the last 'Rat Governor, Tony Earl, was defeated after a single term in '86, by Tommy Thompson -- another 800 lb. gorilla whose political intentions for the future are unknown).
Received an email from Scott regarding this decision.
He is definitely a man to watch in the future of the Republican party!
What are the chances of taking back the governorship in the Badger State?
What about Congressman Paul Ryan? I have long thought he would be our best bet in a Senate race.
Paul Ryan, yes, almost forgot about him (albeit with WI being just above IL, would his last name bring him some unfair baggage ?). I think he should've taken the jump last year instead of allowing that cavalcade of B-grade candidates run against the dreadful Feingold.
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