Wisconsin Recall Race in a Dead Heat
by Jon Melegrito | May 29, 2012
AFSCME members are burning up the phones and knocking on doors across Wisconsin to make sure that Walker’s billionaire donors won’t trump the will of the people. (Photo courtesy We Are Wisconsin)
With only a week to go in the historic campaign to recall Gov. Scott Walker and return the Statehouse to the people of Wisconsin, new polling released recently shows Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett closing in on Walker.
“The race remains a dead heat… despite tens of millions of dollars spent to cover up his [Walker’s] worst-in-the nation jobs record,” says Doug Burnett, campaign manager for We Are Wisconsin, a coalition of labor groups and community allies. “As we’ve said all along, this race will come down to a base-versus-base battle of turnout for which our movement has been building and organizing for 15 months.”
Burnett argues that the polls showing Walker in the lead over-sampled Republicans and that the “pre-mortems” are premature. The corporate-backed governor hasn’t been able to break 50 percent in the polls, he points out, even with Walker’s mega-millions in spending.
According to John Nichols, writing in The Nation, one of Walker’s biggest donors is Las Vegas casino mogul and right-wing ideologue Sheldon Adelson. Nichols also reports that 74 percent of all Walker’s donations are out-of-state backers, “with Floridians providing more than $1 million and Texans, Californians and New Yorkers providing roughly similar amounts.”
While still not quite on par with Walker’s big bucks, Buzzfeed’s Rosie Gray reports that pro-Barrett spending surged to nearly $1.7 million last week, more than double from the week before.
“Barrett is poised to win,” Burnett said. “And we remain confident that on Election Day, it’s our turnout that will determine the outcome.”
AFSCME members and our coalition partners have been working hard in the past few weeks to fully implement the largest GOTV program in Wisconsin history. We have not just built a campaign; we’ve built a movement.
