Before you head to the polls in Tuesday's gubernatorial recall election, take one last look at where Republican Gov. Scott Walker and his Democratic opponent, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, stand on the key issues facing Wisconsin.
Collective bargaining
The match that lit the fuse and sent this state into a seemingly never-ending political season that split Wisconsin in two, collective bargaining is what the .
In February 2011, Walker announced he would help tame and trim the state's $3.6 billion deficit by , including the state's teachers, he instantly became one of the most loved and hated men in the state.
Doing so made — and counter-protests — in Madison and across the state a regular occurrence. Many believe the recall initiative spawned from Walker's collective bargaining decision, one he has admitted he would have approached differently given the chance. But he stands by his decision to limit those rights in order to eliminate the state's debt.
Barrett says that as governor, he "will fight to restore full collective bargaining rights."
Three Democratic state senators who endorsed Barrett in the primary said he offered the "most realistic way" to restore collective bargaining and multiple strategies, including calling a special session of the Legislature and introducing a standlone bill.
Education
Walker took a lot of heat when his budget-balancing measures hit public schools' pocketbooks in a big way, but this spring he announced his support for legislation designed to improve educational experiences for teachers, parents and students.
Three separate task forces that will be used as the foundation for the legislation are: Read to Lead, an initiative aimed at improving the rigor of and stress the importance of reading at a young age; Educator Effectiveness, which is aimed at fairly measuring teachers and principals; and School Accountability.
“Improving our schools, measuring student achieving growth, and increasing accountability and transparency in education will help our children succeed," Walker said in a news release on his state website.
Barrett said that during his time as mayor he has fought for reform to turn around failing schools, most notably a well-publicized attempt to put Milwaukee Public Schools under mayoral control.
Barrett said he supports State Superintendent Tony Evers' plan to fund Wisconsin schools.
During his time as mayor, Barrett launched the Youth Summer Jobs Program, which aims to place Milwaukee high school students in the workplace to give them real-world experience, according to his campaign website.
Jobs
Job creation has moved to the forefront on the campaign trails for both Walker and Barrett.
Walker will likely fall well short of the 250,000 new jobs he campaigned on when running against Barrett in 2010 — Wisconsin's on pace for less than half that figure with Walker nearly one-and-half years into his four-year term.
But on recent stops throughout the state, the governor has been touting growth and believes once the recall is in the past, .
Just days before the election, Walker said he expected the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to confirm 23,608 new jobs in Wisconsin in 2011, a little more than month after the same agency said .
Barrett highlights his work co-founding the M-7 regional economic development group as well as job growth in the Menomonee Valley.
According to his website, the Menomonee Valley now supports nearly 4,000 jobs, with new factories opened by Helios (solar panels) and Ingeteam (windmills). Barrett said his leadership "played an important role in transforming the Menomonee Valley from an industrial wasteland to a thriving commercial sector."
Barrett criticized Walker for focusing on an "ideological agenda" instead of jobs, and in a news release pointed to job numbers from the Bureau of Labor statistics that showed Wisconsin lost 21,400 jobs over a 12-month span.
Taxes
Walker's controversial budget kept local municipal governments and school districts from raising the tax levy, and in a recall debate May 31, Walker claimed, "We’ve seen property taxes go down for the first time in 12 years on a median valued home."
Politifact Wisconsin said that statement — taken verbatim — was mostly true, though it had some built-in loopholes.
In April, Walker told Newsradio 620 WTMJ that under former Gov. Jim Doyle's budget, those same property tax bills would have gone up $700.
Barrett has criticized spending cuts, particularly to education, under Walker's budget and said he will undo those cuts.
He says his "principles of responsible budgeting and good stewardship of the people's tax dollars" helped Milwaukee city government weather the storms brought upon by the national economic crisis, according to his campaign website. He pointed to a $30 million cut in spending that helped balance the city's book and not saddle future generations with debt.
Social issues
Walker is 100 percent pro-life, from conception to natural death, and not surprisingly, has been endorsed by Wisconsin Right to Life and Pro-Life Wisconsin. A new state law signed by Walker in April led Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin to halt administering abortion drugs to women in some cases because of fear of criminal prosecution, adding fuel to what critics have pegged as Walker's "war on women."
Barrett said that if elected, he will fight to protect women's reproductive rights, stand up for equal pay and encourage women-owned businesses, according to his campaign website.
In a recent Q&A with the Appleton Post Crescent, Walker said voters changed the state's "Constitution in 2006 to define marriage as being between one man and one woman" and that he will continue to uphold the Constitution.
Barrett said he supports marriage equality and opposes the gay marriage ban, according to the Associated Press.
Walker, a self-described avid hunter, is a strong proponent of the 2nd Amendment, or the right to bear arms, and during his tenure, Wisconsin became the second to last state in the union to pass a conceal carry law.
Barrett said that despite a commercial with the ending line, "Don't let Tom Barrett recall your gun rights," he believes people have the constitutional right to own guns "and that the government does not have the right to take them away," according to his website.
I guess running the State into the ground and making it a craphole like the city of Milwaukee is O.K. with people like Nick. I wonder if Nick runs a deficit in his household budget? The Looney left has cried Civil War- they have no idea what a Civil War is. They should hope they don't have to find out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_k9Ukm9LaWg As Admiral Kirk said: "Gentlemen, may the wind be at our backs" tomorrow as we defend our Governor from this frivolous recall! VOTE WALKER, KLEEFISCH, and WANGGAARD on Tuesday, June 5th, and keep Wisconsin moving FORWARD!!!
How can you call something a FACT, when premised upon a wholly and completely subjective standard such as "most dishonest?" Not to mention that Politifact did nothing of the sort - in fact, the last rating was a 'Pants on Fire' on one of Tom Barrett's many LIES. It's too bad Politifact didn't have time to expose all of his LIES before the election. Like a proud liberal though, you continue to spread your lies as facts even after they have been exposed for the LIES they really are! Proof once again that Barrett and the Dems are targeting the low information, non-thinking voter!
I don't watch any of the political commercials for either side. Unlike you, I'm well versed about the arguments coming from both sides, and have actually applied my own critical thought to every factor, before reaching the conclusions that I advocate on this forum. Politifact is nothing more than a tool to conduct research. I use them only to reach the primary sources, that I then analyze for myself, and draw my own conclusions based upon such analysis. As even Bren has admitted, their so-called truth-o-meter is nothing more than PolitOpinion, no matter what side they happen to be analyzing. Sometimes I concur with their assessed conclusions and rating, and sometimes I don't. But when I don't, I always give an objective reason and analysis for such disagreement. Your lack of specificity is very telling about how well informed you are. You perpetuate LIES about favors to billionaires, and yet, can't name a single thing that Governor Walker has given to a specific billionaire that is out-of-the-ordinary since he took office. All you have are LIES, conspiracy theories, and a disregard for our justice system's primary standard of innocence until proven guilty in a court of law. Your view on the situation in my state is very unAmerican! Either get specific and give us solid OBJECTIVE facts of your crap, or give it up already!
FYI, The Dems have a much larger percentage of women in elected office than Republicans have ever had, by a very wide Margin.
Here are the FACTS: 1) In all the years that such law was on the books here, not a single case was ever brought under it. 2) It was wholly redundant of federal law and presented the un-equitable possibility of a double recovery as well as an egregious punitive damages award. 3) If a gender discrimination lawsuit originated in state court under this law, it would not have prevented the defendant of their right to remove such case to the federal court, and thus the law presented an undue judicial inefficiency. 4) Your beloved Politifact has stated that every single Dem talking point on this issue has been FALSE. 5) The law actually contained more bureaucratic hurdles to filing such an action when compared to the equally situated federal law. 6) Repealing the law did not take away anyone's rights or protections, which are all still fully in place, again as indicated by your beloved Politifact. Again, I prefer hard OBJECTIVE FACT to liberal BS!
You seem to think you are a superior researcher and intellect, but your reflexive partisanship causes you to ignore the facts that don't fit into your political scheme of things. I guess your dogma is your best friend and it shows. People are discussing his dishonesty, criminal investigation and his actions all over the nation. You guys are getting so many Koch, Hendricks, Adelson political ads up there that you can't seem to see the forest for the trees. I would say you guys may be about to be purchased by a cartel of billionaires, but that obviously happened when Walker slithered into the Governorship.
When the Governor tells you his secret strategy to divide and conquer your political foes, that is receiving something special indeed. That was not what he was elected for, and thus he deceived the voters and went into office with a secret plan to pursue an agenda favored by his billionaire donors from all over.
The link that you sent really didn't cite Politifact. It didn't state anything about what criteria were used to deem Walker as 'most dishonest', and Politifact did not make any such determination.
"Collins told reporters that "we already have on the books the Equal Pay Act, the Civil Rights Act and the Lilly Ledbetter Act, which I did support. I believe that they provide adequate protections. I think this bill would result in excessive litigation that would impose a real burden, particularly on small businesses. So I think existing laws are adequate."
Before you complain about 'out of state donors', you might want to share the fact that you aren't 'in state' yourself...
Funny how completely ignore the FACTS that I presented to you, and instead shift the subject to federal law, which you still aren't honest about. You sir, are definitely a liberal! There are already laws on the books protecting against gender discrimination in the work place, especially in relation to equal pay. Why do we need even more laws that will do exactly the same thing as those that we already have? Your logic makes no sense here! Nothing but fear mongering scare tactics to get someone to vote a certain way. That sir, is disgusting and you should be ashamed! The real War on Women is how the Democrats view them as being stupid and prey upon them as a voting contingent that they want to control with their ridiculous falsehoods and lies!
"When the Governor tells you his secret strategy to divide and conquer your political foes" When did Walker ever say that? In fact, from the video presented, we don’t know exactly what the context of the Hendricks conversation was exactly, do we? 'Red state' is an awfully vague term. In fact, I believe she was referring to fiscal responsibility in government, as that is what new conservatism is all about first and foremost! Any other conclusions about the intent of that statement are based upon nothing more than unfounded conspiracy theories, as no where in the Republican Party platform, the numerous Tea Party platforms, or even in the ALEC agenda does it state that 'the goal and intentions of our organization is impose legislation that allows the wealthy to financially rape the poor and working middle class of everything they have,' and yet, that's exactly what your side would have us believe. Only a non-thinking IDIOT would buy into that crap! I prefer objective FACT to unfounded supposition, speculation, and assumption, but hey - to each their own, right? We're all entitled to our own opinions, but not our own objective FACTS.
Sorry, but I don't drink koolaid - I analyze the hard OBJECTIVE FACTS!
Your take on women is particularly egregious and is a reflection of the recent Republican Party in general. You are actually the one who is calling women stupid by suggesting they are not smart enough to discern that the Dems are supposedly preying on them. I trust women to make their own decisions and figure it likely is none of my business to decide if they made the right one or the wrong one. Republicans however, are still discriminating against them by denying them equal pay for equal work, no matter how you spin it. When Republicans claim to be for small government at the same time they want government to dictate their reproductive rights and track their pregnancies to make sure they end the way they want them to, that is hypocrisy. Like anyone else, women are generally smart enough to see through the GOP spin and that is why there is a verifiable gender gap of the majority of women not supporting the GOP. The reason I left the GOP is that in social, financial and other issues, the current Republican party is like America's equivalent of the Taliban. Totally regressive and largely ignorant of what used to be considered right and wrong.
As I type this the election projection is coming over the news channels and Walker has won by a wide margin. Congratulations to those who won. So, I’ll just let this be my last answer to any questions or accusations I didn’t have time to address. In my opinion, when partisans blindly support a party nominee who is widely seen to be dishonest or unethical in his actions and words, then government has failed and isn’t working. (Think Marion Barry, former corrupt Mayor of DC) When an out-of-state cartel of billionaires can determine an election with sheer wealth, then we have lost our Democracy.
After the Citizen’s United decision our elections are now for sale, and the purchasers of the election don’t even have to reveal their names. I believe certain billionaires and banksters bled the economy into near collapse and may be on the cusp of controlling the US government, primarily for their benefit. I think they are using their money in an Orwellian fashion and that they are too far removed from the average person to run government for the people’s freedom and wellbeing. I think they just bought Wisconsin today and will now try to exterminate their opposition for good. We’ll now see whether Walker will do as he said and unite Wisconsin and others that have been torn asunder by his actions. Hopefully he will have learned a lesson, try to do as he said and reverse the Machiavellian strategies and tactics he has employed so far. Hopefully he will now govern fairly and most people will prosper. I just fear that he and some of the other Republicans will over-reach, as they seem recently inclined to do. See Ya! Over and Out.