Saturday, May 26, 2012

Ouch: Unions have blown $60 million on doomed effort to recall Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker

The public sector union hacks bosses could have found a lot more productive ways to blow $60 million, if this report is accurate.

Barrett’s internal polling suggests his campaign is dead

Independent polls show Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker leading opponent Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett by 6 to 7 points in the June 5 recall vote. So what’s the public to do with Barrett’s own data — polls ... that show the recall is a statistical dead heat?

Veteran campaign staffers on the left and right will tell you Barrett’s internal polling suggests his campaign is dead.

Sometimes, the release of such internal polling is meant to bolster the sagging spirits of campaign staffers and volunteers looking into the oblivion of total defeat... But don’t take my word for it. Kristen Soltis, director of policy research and pollster for the Washington, D.C.-based Winston Group and contributor to the Huffington Post’s Pollster.com, defended the Barrett campaign and We Are Wisconsin pollsters... "[They are] very good pollsters who have rock-solid reputations on the Democratic side of the aisle.”

Then she offered sage counsel to the average consumer of internal polling data. “You have to remind yourself that pollsters only crunch the numbers,” Soltis told me. “It’s the people who are pushing these numbers out who have an agenda they must be served.”

In short, Wisconsin voters are going to march to the polls on Tuesday and repudiate the public sector unions' efforts to return to fiscal irresponsibility and wasteful spending.

And how much money have the unions spent?

In April, Gary Larson reported the total at $60 million:

Led by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and Wisconsin-based and other states' teachers unions, [the Democrats'] attack is aimed at sinking Gov. Walker and his Republican majority in the Wisconsin Assembly, thus to reclaim power over how taxpayer dollars are spent.

...To win, vituperative anti-Walker forces are putting up an estimated $60 million in ad dollars, all derived from union brethren from all parts of America. Call this solidarity. Last year union activists unleashed 3,000 recall petition carriers across Wisconsin, apparently not content to await the next election.

The good news? That's $60 million these Statist hacks won't be able to waste backing Barack Obama, the most destructive president in U.S. history.


2 comments:

Matthew W said...

In the end, how much is it going to have cost EVERYONE because the Democrats had a hissy snit and began this childish recall???

Nomadic100 said...

Probably about $10-12 million for us in Wisconsin. But that's a narrow view. I suspect that Walker's win will have ripple effects in Wisconsin and throughout the country, giving encouragement to those of us who want to roll back the weakening leftist tide. If that happens, it will have been worth it!