Gov. Walker Claims He Shortchanged His Personal Political Ambitions, Not People of Wisconsin, While Not Doing His Job As Governor

MADISON, Wis. — In one of the limited handful “year-end” media interviews Gov. Scott Walker is granting to the state press corp this week, he told a reporter that it was his political campaign that was shortchanged, not the people of Wisconsin, while he ran for president instead of doing his job as Governor. In the interview Walker proclaimed, “… I short-changed my campaign. There are things that I probably needed to do to be a better candidate for President of the United States that I wasn’t able to do because of … being the governor.”

“What the what?!?,” asked stunned One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross. “From the time the polls closed in November 2014 until his humiliating withdrawal from the race for president, Scott Walker put his personal political ambitions before the well being of the people of Wisconsin and much of the time didn’t even show up to do the job for which he’s paid.”

Walker is paid over $144,000 by state taxpayers for being Governor. He is also provided a mansion to live in, is chauffeured in state cars and flown in state planes to his appearances, receives around the clock security protection and has generous pension and health care benefits for himself and his family, including his two adult sons. Records show that in the lead up to the race and during the gaffe filled 71 days he was an official presidential candidate he was largely absent from Wisconsin. During the brief times he was in state, large chunks of time were blocked off as “hold time.”

Ross noted that while Walker was spending his time on his own political ambitions, Wisconsin workers saw over 10,000 layoff notices in the first nine months of the year as the state lagged other Midwestern states and much of the nation on jobs. Not included in this number was the high-profile closing of the Oscar Mayer corporate headquarters less than one mile from the Governor’s mansion, a development Walker and his economic development team learned of from the media.

And when Walker did take time to participate in the governance of Wisconsin, it was to further his national political ambitions – ranging from submitting a budget described as “crap” by a fellow Republican to doing the opposite of what he said he would do on the 2014 campaign trail by signing laws that will reduce Wisconsin worker pay and take away the ability of Wisconsin families to make their own healthcare decisions in consultation with their doctors.

He concluded, “Any question that Scott Walker is politics incarnate and that everything he does is about the next election and advancing his personal political ambitions has been put to rest by his own words. How else do you explain the almost unbelievable contention that his campaign suffered because he wasn’t showing up to do his job as Governor?”