Labor Wisconsin Recall Hopes Ebb as Walker Cash Pays Off

The first vote hasn’t been cast in
the recall election of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, yet
labor unions already are offering excuses for why their efforts
to oust him could fall short.

The election is no longer a fight over workers’ rights to
engage in collective bargaining, which sparked the recall, union
leaders say. The debate has turned to the economy and negative
campaigning. In addition, they say, recall supporters are facing
a significant financial disadvantage after Walker raised more
than $20 million this year — five times that of his opponent –
in his quest to keep his job.

“The election is about a vicious mud fight between two
candidates,” Michael Podhorzer, the political director of the
Washington-based AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest labor federation,
said in an interview. “It is not a verdict on collective
bargaining at all.”

Walker is leading Democratic challenger Tom Barrett, the
mayor of Milwaukee, by 7 percentage points among likely voters,
according to a poll released May 30 by Milwaukee’s Marquette Law
School.

The outcome of the June 5 recall vote is important because
other Republican governors are likely to take a more aggressive
posture toward public employees’ unions if Walker prevails –and
some already have with mixed success.

Insight Into November

“If Walker wins, the Republicans will think they have an
opening,” said Edward Miller, a politics professor at the
University of Wisconsin at Stevens Point. “It will embolden
other governors and will give insight into the presidential
election, with the thought that Romney can win Wisconsin.”

In November, Ohio voters repealed a law pushed by Governor
John Kasich, a former Republican congressman, that lifted
collective bargaining for public employees. In New Jersey,
Governor Chris Christie signed a law increasing pension and
health care expenses paid by workers.

The governors say such changes are needed to deal with
declining state revenue after the longest recession since the
1930s. Labor leaders say it’s part of an effort to diminish the
influence of unions, which traditionally support Democratic
candidates.

“If Walker wins, everything the unions have done over 18
months have still led to annihilation,”

You can read the rest of this article at:: http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-05-31/labor-wisconsin-recall-hopes-ebb-as-walker-cash-pays-off

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Posted by RobertButler on May 31 2012. Filed under 2012 Presidential Campaign. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry