Can Scott Walker Become A National Winner?

[Webster]

Yahoo Politics: In Wisconsin, Scott Walker was a political survivor. Can he become a national winner?

WAUKESHA, Wis. — Gov. Scott Walker is a political survivor. And the announcement of his presidential campaign here Monday was an enshrinement of that survival, a reminder of the obstacles he overcame to launch this bid and the threat he poses to Democrats who despise his policies but have lost in every fight they’ve picked with him.

Walker didn’t begin his road to the White House in Madison, the state’s capital that in 2011 filled with thousands of pro-labor union protesters and became ground zero for his ascension to national political fame. Instead, he started his presidential journey 60 miles to the east, at the Waukesha County Expo Center, the same venue where he held his election night victory celebration after his improbable win in 2012, when he became the first U.S. governor to survive a recall bid.

In a sweltering-hot round auditorium at the Expo Center, the governor’s supporters traded their 2012-vintage, defensive “I Stand with Scott Walker” signs for “Walker 16” placards, shirts and buttons. And the candidate himself, buoyed by three gubernatorial wins in five years, outlined how in this fourth and bigger campaign he can out-conservative the competition an already packed, right-leaning presidential field.

In other words, Walker is looking to do what he does best, but in a brutal GOP primary: survive and advance.

“We need new, fresh leadership; leadership with big, bold ideas from outside of Washington; the kind of leadership that can actually get things done — like we have here in Wisconsin,” Walker boomed. “Since I’ve been governor, we took on the unions and won. We reduced taxes by $2 billion and lowered taxes on individuals, employers and property. … We defunded Planned Parenthood and enacted pro-life legislation. We passed Castle Doctrine [to expand rights to people defending themselves in their homes] and concealed carry.

“And we now require a photo ID to vote in the State of Wisconsin,” Walker said, to perhaps biggest applause of the evening. “If our reforms can work in a blue state like Wisconsin, they can work anywhere in America.”

In the week leading up to his announcement, Walker signed into law a controversial 20-week abortion ban that did not include exemptions for cases of rape and incest.

For conservative base voters in early primary states like Iowa, Walker’s rhetoric — and record to back it — could be a salve for the burn they have felt from two terms of President Obama and a Democratic frontrunner, Hillary Clinton, who has been in Washington politics for more than 20 years.

But Walker’s conservatism raises questions about his viability in a general election compared to a candidate like former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, whose campaign and affiliated groups have raised $114 million and who is generally considered a more moderate, though still decidedly right-leaning, alternative.

The difficult balancing act of running a hardline conservative primary campaign and then pivoting to a more moderate general election approach was widely considered one of the greatest flaws in the campaign of the last Republican nominee for the White House, Mitt Romney. And while nothing in Walker’s actual record suggests he could follow that path, his evolving positions on immigration — where he can’t seem to hold a steady opinion on whether undocumented immigrants should have a path to citizenship — and recent comments from an anonymous operative to National Journal raise the specter of a softer long-game for Walker in the event he emerges as the nominee: “It’s much easier to move from being a conservative to being a middle-of-the-road moderate later on.”

And Democrats certainly are not going to change their minds, regardless of whether Walker continues on his hard-right platform or slightly softens his tone to reach more voters.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, perhaps still wounded from the millions the pro-labor group spent and helped raise in Democrats’ unsuccessful recall of Walker, had a six-word statement in reaction to Walker’s formal announcement Monday.

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[Webster]

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“Scott Walker is a national disgrace,” Trumka said.

This side of Hillary Clinton (and Donald Trump), there is perhaps no candidate who evokes stronger feelings from Democrats and Republicans alike.

But the Democratic vitriol that fueled the 2012 recall also has handed Walker a serious weapon to use against Bush in his attempt to derail the presumptive favorite for the GOP nomination: a serious Rolodex of big-dollar donors. To that effect, one of the reasons Walker has been widely considered as a top threat to Bush is because of his ability to build a campaign war chest. His massive fundraising totals in his recall campaign, for which he raised $37 million, were amassed in large part because of the ability of big-dollar donors to give unlimited money.

A political ally of Walker, who was not authorized to speak on the record about the campaign, said that in the early stages of the primary, the governor’s official campaign and affiliated groups are looking to combine to be at the top of what they believe is a “second tier” of 2016 Republican candidates in terms of fundraising numbers, with Jeb’s massive campaign money haul being the top tier. The target, for now, is to raise between $25 to $30 million by the next campaign filing deadline.

Walker has significant support in Washington, from Republican power brokers who appreciate his ability to promise policy changes in his campaigns and then to actually follow through with them once elected.

Grover Norquist, the powerful anti-tax-hike lobbyist, released a statement in the lead-up to Walker’s announcement, touting Walker’s history of campaigning on a message and then following it through with policy once elected.

“Walker signed the Taxpayer Protection Pledge when he first ran for governor. He has kept that pledge. He has cut taxes repeatedly and significantly. He has seen every challenge as an opportunity to reform government to cost less rather than as an excuse to dig deeper into the pockets of taxpayers,” he said.

And while insiders like Norquist know Walker’s record, the campaign and its affiliate groups see the next few months as their time to show the rest of the country what they believe they already know: that Walker is the most consistent conservative in the GOP field, especially on fiscal issues.

“He’s got a consistent conservative record of proposing policy ideas and then following through and doing them,” the Walker ally said. “For those bringing up questions on the governor’s consistency, our job is to let people know his record.”

And on that front, Walker’s friends and foes have a lot to work with.

 

[WHO IS SERAFIN]

Ted Cruz or Walker I can be equally happy with either one.