Posted on Monday, 28th September 2009 by Bruce
In BadgerBlogger.com’s sit-down with Milwaukee County Executive and candidate for governor Scott Walker recently, Walker shared an interesting revelation.
In the wake of a costly county government “pension scandal” which many alleged reeked of cronyism, Walker’s initial idea of mounting a campaign for county executive came from pundit, radio host, and patriarch of the right-leaning Wisconsin blogosphere Charlie Sykes.
“I remember driving over to Madison one day,” recalls Walker, “with two or three other guys in the carpool, and Sykes was on the radio that morning, and Charlie said, ‘you know, Scott Walker should run for county executive.’”
“And then, after I pulled the car back onto the road,” Walker chuckled, “all the guys in the car said ‘why don’t you run?’”
About a week later, according to Walker, he made the decision to declare his candidacy, surprised and overwhelmed by the level of frustration county residents were feeling over the scandal. What started with a group of citizens at the Brown Deer Senior Center, many of whom were veterans, soon became a movement of “young, old, black, white, Latino,” said Walker, “a real cross-section of the county.”
The groundswell of support that ensued, Walker theorizes, was driven by people who simply wanted to take their county government back. Walker believes that a similar sentiment is motivating people frustrated with what they are currently observing from their government - not only in Washington, but in Madison also - to get involved in the political process in “greater and greater numbers.”
“I remember early on,” Walker said, “a lot of people were writing us off, certainly Ament was, but a lot of the mainstream media were writing it off, thinking it was just a bunch of ‘angry old guys,’ they’ll go away.” Walker was encouraged that his supporters, in the early days of his candidacy, “didn’t believe the hype that they couldn’t do it.”
“They had 60 days to get over 70,000 signatures,” Walker explained, “and in half that time, they got 157,000. What that said to me was that the real emotion on display wasn’t just anger, it was hope that if they stood up and did something, they could take their county government back.
Walker says he’s seeing more and more “new faces” as he travels as a Republican gubernatorial candidate to town hall meetings, political fund-raisers, and rallies he’s been attending around the state, about half of which consist of people who, when asked for a show of hands, admit it’s their first time at such a gathering.
Walker compares the desire of Milwaukee county residents to have their voices heard in the wake of the pension scandal in 2002 to the emotion on display at taxpayer rallies like the one at Milwaukee’s lakefront last Saturday. “People are feeling that if they get involved, this is that important, this is that much of a turning point, they can take their government back.”
Back to that revelation of what gave Walker the idea to run: BadgerBlogger.com asked Sykes, the conservative author and veteran WTMJ-AM radio host, whether he was aware that Walker credits him with the idea to run for Milwaukee county executive, a job Walker has now held for nearly seven years.
“No, I had no idea,” replied Sykes. “I’m amazed.”
Posted in Home, Scott Walker | Comments (4) |
4 Responses to “Walker: Pension scandal or “taxpayer rallies,” driving force isn’t “anger,” it’s “hope.””
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September 29th, 2009 at 6:00 am
BadgerBlogger.com digging deep for the story behind the story!
Nicely written, great read.
September 29th, 2009 at 8:36 am
Great post…looking forward to the rest of the interview.
September 29th, 2009 at 5:12 pm
Thank you Charlie! I had no idea that he was behind the best County Executive Milwaukee has ever had!
September 29th, 2009 at 5:53 pm
I speak only for myself. My impetus is anger, it’s not hope, it’s pure and simple anger. I’m beyond the throes of “kumbaya”, I’m tired of being raped.