A Republican Wave Election? Not For GOP Extremists Scott Walker And Sam Brownback

Scott Walker family portrait

Two of the worst governors in America are extremist ideologues Scott Walker of Wisconsin and San Brownback of Kansas. Both will face the voters a week from tomorrow. Both are being opposed by moderate Democrats, rather than by the kinds of progressives Blue America endorses. However, Walker and Brownback are so extreme that we want to make it clear that progressives in Wisconsin and Kansas need to go to the polls next Tuesday to vote them both out. The latest polling in Kansas shows that most voters want to end the disastrous Brownback experiment. GOP polling firm Rasmussen, which regularly jiggers its findings to favor Republicans reported this week that Paul Davis is beating Brownback 52-45%, in line with a poll conducted by another GOP firm at the same time, Gravis Marketing, for Brownback showing a 49-44% lead for Davis. Both polls showed Davis with momentum and Brownback falling further behind.
v Similarly, Rasmussen's most recent poll showed Mary Burke leading Scott Walker 49-48%, (within the margin of error). The biggest and most influential newspaper in Wisconsin, the conservative-leaning Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which has always gone to bat for Walker, tilted towards Burke yesterday.

Is it time for a change in the governor's mansion? Voters have to decide that on Nov. 4. But before they do, a few closing thoughts on the election...

Scott Walker

If the electorate is suffering from the virus known as Walker Fatigue, we haven't seen it yet.

This illness normally would be expected to manifest itself with symptoms of declining favorability ratings for the first-term Republican governor. And yet, while Walker's margins between those who say they have a favorable impression of him and those who do not have always been razor thin, those numbers haven't changed much. That's despite the governor running in three statewide races in four years. People know what they're getting; they either like him-- a lot-- or they do not-- a lot.

Walker's decisiveness is refreshing and his resolve and steadiness at the tiller in the face of vicious political attacks is admirable if often misguided. He's sincere: We don't doubt for an instant that Walker really believes that his ideas are right for Wisconsin.

But the governor's take-it-or-leave-it approach to governance wears thin. He has made politics courser in Wisconsin-- needlessly so. The governor "got things done" all right, but he did it by shoving those things through the Legislature with very little debate and with very little Democratic support.


After the GOP took charge of both houses of the Legislature and the governor's office in 2010, the party acted on a long to-do list, aching with pent-up demand for their conservative agenda.

They're not done yet.

While Walker has been cagey on whether he would sign right-to-work legislation, for example, Republican lawmakers have not: They're going for it. A second Walker term may not be as contentious as the first-- but we could be wrong about that. Brace yourself, Wisconsin.

In such an evenly divided state, even if only a few independents are done with Walker, it could make a difference. Walker's challenge is to argue that he's not really as radical as his record shows that he is.

Mary Burke

Mary Burke has a different challenge. The Democratic candidate needs to prove she has the political chops to do the job. She's a rookie who has no statewide experience. That's no advantage; it's a handicap. The job requires political skill-- lots of it.

A political novice in the Madison snake-pit had better be pretty good at either dodging the vipers or grinding them beneath the heel of her boot. We're skeptical about Burke's bona fides in this regard. If the Republicans retain control of both houses, as expected, she'll be squaring off against two of the best politicians in the state, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau).

Burke points to her experiences running the state Department of Commerce, as an executive at Trek Bicycles, working with the Boys and Girls Clubs and serving on the Madison School Board. "Part of doing that is building up a team around you that brings to the table different skills and experiences, and I will certainly look to have the best possible team around me as governor," she told us during our interview with her.

Burke seems quietly competent-- and very bright. And she has grown enormously as a candidate. There is no reason to believe she will not continue to grow as a politician if she is elected governor. But it's a bigger learning curve than she might expect. Another Democratic politician learned that lesson the hard way-- or perhaps he never learned it. President Barack Obama, whose disdain for performing the duties of the world's No. 1 politician have been apparent from his first day in office, had plenty of brains, guts and drive when he entered the Oval Office but what he didn't have were either good political instincts or the willingness to use them.

If she wins, Burke will need those instincts-- or really good advice-- and she'll need to be willing to get her hands dirty in the day-to-day work of governing the state.

Down in Kansas, the Wichita Eagle has a lot more decisive yesterday. The implored Kansans to dump Brownback and replace him with Davis.

Democrat Paul Davis is the best choice for governor because he would help restore balance, common sense and fiscal responsibility to a state government that has jumped off an ideological cliff.

The biggest issue facing the next governor is pulling the state out of its budget hole. Because of large tax cuts, the state is spending more than it collects. According to current projections, it will burn through its remaining cash reserves this fiscal year. Balancing next year’s budget and restoring the statutorily required ending balance could require more than $700 million in additional tax revenue, budget cuts or a combination of both.


As a first step, Davis proposes freezing future tax cuts. That makes sense; when you are in a hole you need to stop digging. Davis won’t specify what spending cuts also might be necessary, other than saying he wants to protect public education funding.

“Schools have taken all the cuts they can,” he said.

Davis wants to restore as soon as possible the state base aid that was cut to public education, arguing that good schools are important to growing the state’s economy. He also hopes to develop a multiyear funding plan for higher education that includes performance goals and commitments to limit tuition increases.

Davis intends to conduct a “top-to-bottom” review of KanCare, the state’s privatized Medicaid program that has been plagued by complaints. He also wisely supports allowing the federal expansion of Medicaid, noting its importance to low-income Kansans and hospitals. And he would re-establish the Kansas Arts Commission, arguing that arts are a quality-of-life issue, particularly in rural communities.

As House minority leader, Davis showed a willingness and ability to work with others to find practical solutions. He pledges to continue that bipartisan outreach and cooperation as governor.

But this election is less about Davis than about the bad policies and hostile attitudes of the current administration.

This editorial board endorsed Republican Gov. Sam Brownback four years ago, hoping for the best. That’s not what Kansas got.

Brownback pushed through fiscally irresponsible tax cuts on the blind faith that they would act like “a shot of adrenaline into the heart of the Kansas economy.” As many warned, the trickle-down economics hasn’t worked.

Though Kansas has seen some job growth, it trails the nation and most surrounding states (which didn’t cut taxes). And the growth has not been nearly enough to replace the lost tax revenue-- leaving Kansas with deficits at a time when nearly every other state has surpluses.

Brownback won’t admit his tax cuts aren’t delivering as promised (“The sun is shining in Kansas and don’t let anybody tell you any different,” he says in one of his campaign commercials), and still insists that job growth will cover any future shortfalls.

But wishful thinking won’t balance the budget. That’s why the nation’s two leading bond-ratings agencies downgraded Kansas’ credit rating-- which should be an embarrassment to Kansans and an authoritative judgment on Brownback’s “real-live experiment.”

In addition to wrecking the state’s finances, Brownback also enacted policies that punished the poor. His administration raised eligibility requirements for receiving welfare and food stamps and turned down federal funds aimed at helping needy Kansans. It pushed out dedicated social-service professionals, replacing them with inexperienced ideologues.

Brownback and his administration also rejected the desperate pleas of families to keep developmentally disabled Kansans out of KanCare. And his refusal to allow an expansion of Medicaid is costing Kansas hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding (our tax dollars) and denying needed health insurance to more than 75,000 low-income Kansans.

Because of the elimination of certain tax credits, Brownback’s tax cuts financially harmed some low-income Kansans-- particularly after he pushed the Legislature to make permanent part of the state’s temporary sales tax increase.

Brownback also supported some of the worst ideas of the Legislature-- including signing and endorsing a plan for the state to take control of Medicare.

Brownback pushed for more control of the judicial branch and sought to undermine its independence-- leading 14 past presidents of the Kansas Bar Association, Republicans and Democrats, to endorse Davis. And former Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Foulston is correct: Brownback’s campaign commercial trying to link Davis to a Kansas Supreme Court decision regarding the Carr brothers is “beyond disgraceful.”

In his quest to gain control of the Legislature, Brownback led an ugly campaign to purge moderate GOP state senators. Given this hostility and the wreckage caused by his policies, it’s no wonder so many former GOP officials endorse Davis.