The Rise of Scott Walker

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http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2014/02/scott_walker_and_the_2016_presidential_election_the_wisconsin_governor_benefits.html

Wisconsin may be the most polarized state in the Union. It’s also what might put its governor in the White House.


Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker at the U.S. Embassy on April 15, 2013, in Beijing.

Valentine’s Day isn’t just a Hallmark holiday for people in Wisconsin. It’s also the anniversary of the first protests against Gov. Scott Walker after he proposed his anti-union legislation in 2011. Students and teaching assistants were on the front lines of the protests, walking out of class to march up State Street to the Capitol with bullhorns and leaving “valentines” outside Walker’s office asking him to change his mind. During that month, the crowd of protesters swelled to 30,000, then 100,000.

But three years later, the valentines are gone. The thousands of people who came for the protests and counterprotests are gone. The stands selling anti-Walker buttons and shirts emblazoned with the pro-union groups’ iconic blue fist are gone, too. The packs of people with bullhorns aren’t roaming downtown anymore. Now, only a handful of people gather in the Capitol rotunda every day at noon to sing protest songs. But guess who is still here?

This November, Walker will fight his third gubernatorial race in four years. And although he’s not as loathed as he was three years ago, Wisconsin is just as polarized. After all, this is a state whose two senators vote against each other more often than any two senators from the same state. This is a state where the first openly gay senator elected cannot get married. This is a state that petitioned for a historic recall (disclosure: I signed the petition), then overturned it. This is an electorate who voted for Walker in June, then voted for President Obama in November of the same year.

“This is a state that does not have uniformly predictable aggregate political views,” says Kenneth Mayer, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. “That’s an academic way of saying people don’t vote the same way, and it can be hard to predict.”

[Lefta Dissenter]

1. John Doe II

When will the media actually start to pay attention to the John Doe investigations? How many of the people surrounding Walker have been convicted of crimes relating to his office. Six or eight now, with the John Doe II still ongoing?

If the media won't pay attention, I'm sure hoping the other republicans will, once the primary season kicks in.

Edited to add that 30 - 100 protesters showing up EVERY SINGLE WEEKDAY to sing for an hour, and a few again at the closing of the Capitol each day is not just "a handful." We're about to recognize our three-year anniversary of singing truth to power. We haven't missed a day.

[YarnAddict]

2. I haven't followed Wisconsin politics that closely

since we moved out of state, but didn't something recently get dismissed? I seem to recall my husband saying something about that.

[Lefta Dissenter]

3. The 2nd round of John Doe

is still underway. Republicans and right-wing groups, including Club for Growth, trying to block requests for records.

And I believe that the first round nabbed 6 people, who are serving various punishments.