Meet the New Candidate, Same as the Old Candidate

How do you solve a problem like Scott Walker?

Not with Mary Burke.Or, at least not with the current messaging.

Images of rural Wisconsin farmland fill the screen, a voice-over intones the virtue and work ethic of small town America. The music swells as assurances are made that the candidate will work hard for Wisconsin, create jobs, and stay grounded in what makes Wisconsin great.

Pop quiz hotshot: Is this ad from 2010, the 2011 recall, or 2014? Is it touting Tom Barrett, Mary Burke, or some other unknown entity?*

(*Answer: yes)

Scott Walker, Wisconsin Governor and potential 2016 candidate for President, is up for reelection less than a year from today. Seriously, an honest to goodness election that isn’t organized by grassroots and labor groups. This time around midwestern politeness doesn’t need to keep people home from the polls. Governor Walker is up for reelection and there is no real reason why he shouldn’t be considered vulnerable.

Enter the Wisconsin Democratic Party.

With potential candidates such as former Senator Russ Feingold and Congressman Ron Kind passing on the chance to run against Walker, and other populist choices dragging their feet, many have begun anointing Madison school board member, former WI Commerce Secretary, and Trek executive Mary Burke as the standard bearer for the latest battle with Scott Walker.

Who?

Not to worry, even with less than 20% of voters knowing who she is according to a recent Marquette poll, Burke would only lose a hypothetical election to Walker by about two percentage points.

Thus the big question becomes, what will happen when the other 80% gets to know Mary Burke? There seems to be two competing answers to that question:

Some point to the recent hiring of key Democratic campaign staff and her business experience/being a woman as indicators that Burke will put up a strong showing by placing the focus on jobs and women’s issues, debates that Walker can’t hope to win outright.

Early messaging by the DPW and the Burke campaign however hints at a more disheartening reality for liberals in Wisconsin, this campaign will be waged in much the same way that both races against the Republican governor in the past were conducted.

The focus will fall largely on Act 10 and Gov. Walker’s failure to create the jobs that he promised when he took office. He’ll be labeled an out of touch, divisive ideologue when what is needed is cooperation and a return to what “the people of Wisconsin care about.”

Whether this is mainly perpetrated by the Burke campaign, the DPW, or outside groups is unimportant. My belief is that the sour grapes of the last few years have only fermented with time and many will seek to retread the same sore points and complaints they had with Walker and state Republicans in the 2011 recalls. This was not the path to victory then, and it will bear little fruit now.

There are many legitimate reasons for folks to be unhappy with the job that Governor Walker has done. Stripped of context, many of his accomplishments seem to be mana from heaven for a conservative candidate. It should be the job of a competent Democratic campaign and candidate to drive home the realities and complexities of what has taken place and turn that sweet bread to ashes in Walker’s mouth.

As of now, neither the Democratic Party of Wisconsin or Mary Burke appear to be equal to the task.

We are roughly 51 weeks out from the 2014 gubernatorial election here in Wisconsin. Campaigns are still in their early stages and much is yet to be seen. But from where I am sitting at the moment, Governor Scott Walker is right to be Unitimidated by his likely rival next fall.