Scott Walker’s Election Year State of State Promise Primer

MADISON, Wis. — Career politician Scott Walker is in full election mode, ensuring today’s State of the State speech will be loaded with campaign slogans and election year promises, according to One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross. But Ross warned that Gov. Walker’s record shows election year promises have a long, documented history of expiring right after the polls close on election night.

“There’s no question Gov. Walker’s speech will be packed with campaign slogans and election year promises,” said Ross. “There’s also no question that there is zero commitment from Gov. Walker to following through on his promises once the polls close on election night.”

Ross pointed to three 2014 campaign promises made by Walker as prime examples of his willingness to say anything to try to win an election and subsequently do the exact opposite.

In October 2014 Scott Walker ran an earnest campaign ad in which he, speaking directly to camera, declared that on abortion, he would “… leave the final decision to a woman and her doctor.” By summer of 2015 Walker had signed into law an extreme abortion ban that did not include, at his request, exceptions for rape or incest.

Also in October 2014, Walker, who was considering a run for President, was quoted as saying, “My plan is if the people of the state of Wisconsin elect me on Nov. 2 is to be here for 4 years …” In his election night speech Walker said “Washington D.C.” more than “Wisconsin”. He spent much of 2015 gearing up for a presidential campaign that was officially announced in July. His run lasted only 71 days before he bowed out, deeply in debt and polling at 0 percent among the contenders.

Walker also tried in the lead up to election 2014 to moderate his image as a foe of rights for workers and labor unions. He responded to charges that his election would mean a right to work law that lowers wages would be imposed in Wisconsin by saying, “Absolutely wrong, couldn’t be more inaccurate.” In February, one month in to the 2015 legislative session, Walker declared he would sign the bill into law. It became 2015 Wisconsin Act 1.

Ross also noted that Walker’s latest campaign finance report reveals he spent over $50,000 for a poll at the end of 2017 as he officially announced his intentions to seek re-election. He concluded, “Gov. Walker has his finger in the wind, his lips wrapped around his racist dog whistle and his rhetoric on full pander as he scrambles to keep his backside in the government hammock in which he’s been planted for the last quarter century.”