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The Most Important Non-Presidential Election of the Decade
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Race
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| Contributor | Homegrown Democrat |
| Last Edited | Homegrown Democrat Jan 28, 2012 08:30pm |
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| Category | Editorial |
| Author | Stephen Moore |
| Media | Newspaper - Wall Street Journal |
| News Date | Sunday, January 29, 2012 02:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | One Sunday afternoon last spring, as Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker was working in his front yard, a car rolled slowly by and blared its horn. He and his two teenage sons looked up to see two middle fingers directed their way as the car screeched down the street. A few minutes later another car rolled by and a voice shouted "Hey governor!" Mr. Walker reluctantly looked up—to find two thumbs up coming through the open window.
No American politician had a more polarizing effect on voters last year than Scott Walker. This time last year, thousands of irate protesters were occupying Wisconsin's state Capitol, comparing Mr. Walker to Hitler for trying to reform the pension and collective-bargaining systems of public-employee unions. He needed an entourage of 25 security officers to escort him through the building at the height of the pandemonium.
Now he faces what he predicts will be his most bruising fight of all: a union-funded recall election intended to toss him out of office. His opponents last week submitted one million signatures to trigger a recall election as early as spring or summer. Mr. Walker expects this to be a $70 million brawl—a record for Wisconsin and twice the total spent in the 2010 governor's race. Smiling, Mr. Walker says he hopes to be the "first governor re-elected twice during his first term."
The stakes here "go well beyond who will be governor of Wisconsin," Mr. Walker explains. The recall's ultimate objective is to intimidate any official across the country who's thinking of crossing swords with the empire of teachers and other public-employee unions. "This is about killing reform initiatives in every state in the country," says Mr. Walker. |
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