Opinion Pieces

By Gwen Moore
Milwaukee Courier

Could Governor Scott Walker’s refusal to renege on his promise of 250,000 new jobs be part of something bigger?

Given how our state’s economy was in shambles under his control, it occurred to me that such a play could signify a fiscal turning point for the Walker Administration.

And as I considered this, a dark fear crept over me.

I wondered if this pledge was actually a vehicle macerating as a political misstep, an opportunity to execute a strategic political move so bold that few elected officials would even dare to pull off.

If so, Scott Walker had surely found the doorway to his second term as governor: giving Wisconsinites the economic about-face they had been waiting for.

It’s the only scenario that makes any sense. Governor Walker sold Wisconsin on the premise that 250,000 new jobs would be created by the end of his first term.

As of last month, Politifact Wisconsin’s tally stood at 102,195 jobs, a mere 40 percent of what Walker promised.

How could he fail so miserably in executing this objective, producing just a small faction of what was promised, and have the audacity to come back to us and ask for our vote?

If the very notion leaves you scratching your head, remember that Scott Walker is a professional politician, exceedingly proficient in political campaign strategy with a track record to back it up.

He’s no joke. Aside from losing his first campaign to a single, working mother in Milwaukee’s 7th District’s Assembly race in 1990, Walker’s political career has had an upward trajectory that many consider is pointing toward the White House.

He won a seat in the State Assembly in 1993, became Milwaukee County Executive in 2002, became Wisconsin’s governor in 2010, and survived a highly organized recall effort in 2012.

His long and distinguished career demonstrates a keen understanding of Wisconsin politics, which is why his now infamous job creation promise continues to boggle the minds of pundits on both sides of the aisle.

Two years into his Administration, Governor Walker began walking back from his guarantee, recalibrating his strategy and painting his promise as more of a goal.

“We haven’t changed our stance,” he said to journalists after an event at the University Club in 2013.

“That promise, that pledge made in the campaign was… the reason we focused on it is because we saw the state losing 133,000 jobs before that. And so we wanted a big, bold aggressive goal.”

Before finishing up, Scott Walker doubled down and proclaimed the following: “I’m not going to take a rest the minute we hit 250,000.”

The strong declaration seemed foolish to everyone except Governor Walker.

His fiscal plan had put the state’s economy on life support, struggling to survive amidst a host of poorly devised policies favoring special interests and the ultra wealthy.

His economic agenda easily threw Wisconsin to the back of the pack in Midwest job creation and was responsible for the return of “structural deficits.”

But still, I was left with a sneaking suspicion that something bold was on the horizon, something that would explain this peculiar political predicament.

I imagined him behind the gubernatorial lectern, standing tall and declarative, extending his regret in pursuing an economic plan that left so many working families in the dust. “All right, Wisconsin,” he would say.

“I was wrong. Capital gains tax cuts and income tax cuts for our highest-earners just didn’t cut it. Let’s put the politics aside. Here’s how we’re going to fix this mess.”

For such a plan to come to fruition, especially with an election looming over him, Governor Walker would have to come to his senses and acknowledge how his economic polices were utter catastrophes for the state.

He would have to recognize that his ongoing assault against Wisconsin’s unions and working families wasn’t just fiscally foolish, but a spit in the face to our state’s proud labor traditions.

He would need to publicly state what all of us had known for years: When it comes to Wisconsin’s economy, staying the course means nothing when you’re pointed in the wrong direction.

But with the election only days away, that idea now seems like a pipe dream.

It appears that the mid course correction I, and so many other Wisconsinites, had hoped he’d make is nothing more than wishful thinking.

Instead, Governor Walker has gone silent on his notorious pledge. His confidence has turned into radio silence.

Our governor, the skilled politician, the man who sold himself to Wisconsin voters as a reformer who could make those tough decisions, has failed us when we needed him the most.

And from an electoral standpoint, he blew one of the most courageous and politically lucrative opportunities of his career as a civil servant.

He could have started mending the wounds of a state that had been fractured by his own partisanship. But he didn’t.

A mea culpa could have demonstrated a refreshing degree of pragmatism from a governor considered by many to be driven by self-interest and contempt for those who dare stand in his way, but Walker knew such a move would have ended the cash flow from the Koch brothers and other outside influences.

If Governor Walker valued his constituents the same way he values the millions of dollars funneled into his campaign by the Koch brothers, Wisconsin’s economic landscape would look drastically different.

Just look at the S&P downgrades of other states that have followed the Koch’s agenda, including Kansas, the home state of the Koch brothers. Kansas is one of the few Midwestern states worse off than Wisconsin.

Governor Brownback, like Governor Walker, promised voters that his Koch-inspired agenda of trickle down economics and tax cuts would usher in prosperity.

Instead, Kansas’ debt has been downgraded by credit rating agencies like Moody’s and S&P. Kansas’ second S&P downgrade followed their governor’s push for more tax cuts as structural deficits mounted. Sound familiar? Governor Walker, like Governor Brownback, continues to double down and wager our future on their failed Koch agendas.

We’re not Kansas. We’re Wisconsin. And the people of this great state should be able to determine their own economic destiny.

Unfortunately, Governor Walker has stripped the people of that right in order to appease those that hold his campaign purse strings.

You deserve better. Wisconsin deserves better.

We deserve better than years of strife, partisanship, demonstrations, and scandal. We deserve better than bogus campaign stunts disguised as economic hope.

We deserve a governor who honors their commitments.

To read online, please click here.