Interview With Scott Walker

I had the opportunity to interview Scott Walker yesterday.  He’s officially announcing his candidacy for governor today in a five site swing through Wisconsin.  I’ll have the text for his speech up later today.  I figure I should let him actually deliver it once before posting it.  In the meantime, here are some excerpts from my interview with him.

Owen: Why are you running for Governor?

Scott Walker: I’m not satisfied with where this state is headed and I think we can do better.  I have the experience being out there in the trenches getting it done as an executive. 

Owen: I noticed your unofficial/official announcement of your campaign on Twitter last Friday.  Is that an indication of how your campaign plans to utilize alternative media and social networks?

Scott Walker: Absolutely.  In fact, as part of my speech tomorrow, I’ll be taking an aside to invite the people of this state to be involved in this campaign and really open up a conversation.  As of 12:01 tomorrow morning we’ll have up a brand new website.  It’ll still be http://www.scottwalker.org, but it will have a brand new look to it.  We’ve got a YouTube video at the beginning.  We’re going to have LinkedIn and FaceBook and Twitter and as many different networking means as possible. 

We think it fits with the overall comments of our them as well because we’re going to talk about how Jim Doyle represents turning back the clock to the failures of the past.  We’re going to talk about how we’re going to build a brighter and better future. 

Owen: Nobody has won the governorship from Milwaukee is a very long time.  How do you plan to win over voters who are not from SE Wisconsin?

Scott Walker: Absolutely.  I have to laugh a bit because the same thing was true about nobody ever electing a Republican to be the Milwaukee County Executive.  We’ve broken that trend before and we can certainly break it when it comes to governor. 

Two things are going to be important for us when it comes to that.  One is reminding people a little bit about my background.  I grew up in Delevan in Walworth County, a little town about seven or eight thousand people.  I have small town roots and I’ve applied those values to everything I’ve done including being the Milwaukee County Executive.  My values and my roots are very similar to those all across the state. 

Secondly, unlike many politicians from Milwaukee in the past, I’m not of Milwaukee.  I’ve taken on the Milwaukee machine.  I’m not someone who has been a tax and spend liberal who asks for more money without accountability.  I’ve been the guy who has taken on the machine here not once, not twice, but three times and won.  We won not because we asked for more but because we said that people have had it.  They don’t want more taxes.  They don’t want government without accountability.  They want to take their government back.  I think that’s a message that resonates across the state. 

Owen: What are your thoughts on reports that Mark Neumann is planning on running?

Scott Walker: I think that a primary can have value.  Certainly if it’s a primary where we each talk about why we’re not satisfied with Jim Doyle and we’d like to do to turn the state around.  I think it could provide us a great platform if we can have that kind of a positive, issues-oriented primary that allows each of us to get our issues out.  I think it’s great because it would give us a broader platform to tell the people of this state not only what’s wrong with Wisconsin, but how we can make this a state to believe in again. 

I think in our case, the thing that it good to get out in a primary is also a good thing to get out in a general election and that it, I’m not just talking.  I’ve delivered.  I’ve been in the trenches and getting the job done.  When you talk about things like taxing and spending, I was elected in 2002.  Jim Doyle was elected in 2002.  Since then, I’ve done seven straight budgets without a tax levy increase.  Jim Doyle has repeatedly raised taxes even though he said he wasn’t going to.  Jim Doyle has the largest budget deficit in state history and one of the largest in the country.  We just finished off 2008 with a surplus.  Jim Doyle talked about reducing the size of the state workforce by 10,000 people and he’s going to be nowhere near that.  I’ve cut more than 20% of my workforce since we got started.  Jim Doyle’s debt is through the roof and his bond rating has gone down.  I’ve cut our debt by 10% and improved the county’s bond rating.  All these things are the mechanics of being a chief executive.  We both made promises – even under the most remarkably difficult circumstances.  While we’re not perfect here, nobody is, we have a proven track record that we get the job done and I think that’s a compelling message in November and I think it’s an equally compelling message in September. 

Owen: If you were presented with Jim Doyle’s proposed budget, as written, what would you do?

Scott Walker: Well, I know a thing or two about line item vetoes.  I would buy extra ink and get to work.  At a time when this state has unemployment higher than the national average – when the jobless rate is as high as it’s been since ’82.  When we’ve lost 112,000 private sector jobs since March of last year.  The last thing people want when the economy is the way it is is for state government to increase spending by 10% and increase taxes by nearly $3 billion.  I’d veto out the tax increases and I’d veto out the spending.

Owen: That brings me to my next question.  There’s the politicians’ version of spending “cuts” and there are real spending cuts that people in the private sector make every day.  Will you, as governor, push real spending cuts in state government?

Scott Walker: Absolutely, particularly when it comes to public sector employees.  I know people all across the state in businesses and workers who are saying, “my employer offered to give everybody a 1% pay cut to keep everyone on staff and as tough as that is, we did it because who wants to see a coworker laid off?”  People are talking about paying more for their health insurance premium or putting in more for their own retirement.  Those are things that are just given.  Those are things that you just have to do when the economy is this tight, and yet, people in state government aren’t even talking about that.  To me, that’s just a slam dunk.  We’d be doing that in a heartbeat. 

Owen: As you know, there has been a lot of consternation over open carry in Wisconsin.  What would you do as governor regarding open carry and concealed carry?

Scott Walker: This is exactly why Wisconsin needs a Personal Protection Act.  Having the legal right to carry.  Having a permit.  For all the hype and hysteria after Van Hollen’s release, the reality is that if people want to feel safe in this state – well, the most important thing to do is get guns out of the hands of people who can’t legally have them – is to put in place a very reasonable right to carry law like nearly everybody else in the country.  It would allow us to know, by virtue of the permitting process, that the person has gone through a course; they know what they are doing; they are perfectly capable of doing that.  In states like our neighbor Minnesota, they have had no problem with that.  Despite all the hype about the Wild West, it didn’t come to pass.  Instead, they have law-abiding citizens who know what they are doing and are well prepared to carry a firearm. 

Owen: What are you most proud of in your role as Milwaukee County Executive?

Scott Walker: In an overall sense, that we made bold promises when we ran for office and we’ve kept every single one of them.  We talked about never increasing the tax levy.  We talked about changing the pension board.  We talked about capping pension benefits.  We talked about reducing our workforce.  All the things we talked about we accomplished.  Sadly in politics, that turns out to be something unusual.  It should be the expectation. 

Owen: Any regrets from your terms?

Scott Walker:  One of the more frustrating things is that we didn’t start out more aggressively trying to contract out services.  We have the past several years, but some of these things we’ve been able to do incrementally is part of the reason we’ve been able to reduce our workforce by 20%.  When the County Board had the greatest incentive to act on what we pushed was early on when they were so afraid of those recalls.  I would have liked to have gotten more of that through early on. 

Owen: Anything else you want to tell the readers of B&S?

Scott Walker: We’re going to talk about Doyle taking us back to the hopelessness of the past.  We’re going to talk about building the future.  And what I mean, to rattle off a few examples, taxes… spending… I think back to when I was growing up in Delevan.  We were near the state line in the 80’s in almost identical circumstances.  Tony Earl, a Democrat, was the governor.  The legislature was controlled by Democrats.  A national recession.  Budget deficits.  People giving it all they had.  And what did they do?  They raised taxes.  Things got so far out of control that so many people left the state, so many jobs left the state, that there were billboards along the state line that said, “will the last person out of Wisconsin please turn out the lights.”  It was really just that bad. 

I look at this now and say these policies, this agenda, Jim Doyle’s agenda, is taking us down the same path and I don’t think we want to go that way.  Not only in taxes, but he’s pulling us back to the days when we were a welfare magnet.  Changing things like joint and several liability that will make us a haven for frivolous lawsuits.  Taking us back to a point when personally it’s very offensive to me, I was the author of two truth in sentencing bills, when he was Attorney General he said he was for it; now he’s talking about early release.  On issue after issue after issue he’s taking us back to things that we had corrected over the years. 

My hope is that we can say to the voters of this state, we don’t want to go back to the failures of the past.  We want to move the state forward.  So we’re not going to just talk about taxes, spending, and jobs, but we’re going to talk about the quality of education.  We’re going to talk about higher education.  We’re going to talk about health care.  We’re going to talk about attracting more hard working people and entrepreneurs.  We’re going to talk about public safety.  But we’re going to talk about it in a way that has a good conservative agenda – a bold agenda that I still think that the voters of this state, given a good clear conservative message, will still gravitate to. 

1. Owen,

   You should have asked Walker if he was so good at no taxes, why the levy is 17% higher than when he started, but he is providing less services.

   Also about the lawsuits he has engendered with his privatization, the way he lost control of the Income Maintenance Program at a cost of $14 million dollars to county tax payers, and the way he wanted to raise fees on everyone, rich and poor.

   As for the promises, well that would take too long for a comment section.

   But thanks for at least a week’s worth of posts.  I’m sure Walker will be giving us even more.

   Posted by capper on April 28, 2009 at 0037 hrs




2. I think this guy is the real deal. We need some balance in Madison.

   Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on April 28, 2009 at 0147 hrs




3. Here is an online petition to expand open and concealed cary in Wisconsin:  http://www.petitiononline.com/wi1848oc/petition.html

   Radio ad fundrasiing link (to promote the petition) is at http://www.opencarry.org/carryland.html.

   Effort is dubbed “Operation CarryLand”

   Posted by Mike Stollenwerk on April 28, 2009 at 0628 hrs




4. I like Walker and I will vote for him if he makes it to the final election - but unless he finds a billion dollars from somewhere - he isn’t going to defeat the teachers, trial lawyers and the casinos.

   Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on April 28, 2009 at 0634 hrs




5. Bill: That “billion dollars” is going to have to come from people like us who need to put their money where their mouth is. My feeling about the current “conservative” movement in Wisconsin is they would rather rant about losing an election than write a $25 check to win it.

   Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on April 28, 2009 at 0641 hrs




6. I like privatization, capper. It means campaign contributions can start to flow where with a govt entity they didn’t. That’s the kind of government I like.

   That said, I think Walker is a good option, though he does not see the value of a $5 per taxpayer investment in public funding of campaigns. But of course, few conservatives do. Special interests fund elections because they want taxpayer money spent foolishly, while taxpayers want it spent wisely. For a $5 investment I’ll take the latter.

   Posted by Jack Lohman on April 28, 2009 at 0748 hrs




7. Thanks for taking the time to do this.  I’m not going to be a Walker supporter anytime soon, but it was an interesting read and I’m glad that Walker was willing to chat with you at such length.

   Posted by Recess Supervisor on April 28, 2009 at 1311 hrs




8. Walker is just the guy we need in Madison to clean up the mess that Doyle’s put us in. The list of things that have gone wrong under Doyle’s watch is crazy long.

   Walker’s has to struggle against the Common council to get most everything done plus had to deal with the elevated pension costs plus now the economy.

   Even with the all these issues he was able to keep costs capped. Imagine what it would be without his efforts?

   BTW since 2002 general inflation went up 19.87%. (http://www.miseryindex.us/irbyyear.asp) I can’t vouch for the validity of capper’s 17% higher levy under Walker yet even if correct 17% is under the inflation rate even after the massive pension cost increases Walker inherited.

   When’s the last time any government kept costs below inflation?

   Answer - never.

   Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on April 28, 2009 at 1405 hrs




9. Scott Walker: This is exactly why Wisconsin needs a Personal Protection Act.  Having the legal right to carry.  Having a permit.  For all the hype and hysteria after Van Hollen’s release, the reality is that if people want to feel safe in this state – well, the most important thing to do is get guns out of the hands of people who can’t legally have them – is to put in place a very reasonable right to carry law like nearly everybody else in the country.  It would allow us to know, by virtue of the permitting process, that the person has gone through a course; they know what they are doing; they are perfectly capable of doing that.

   What other Civil Right requires ‘permission’?  When are these politicians going to understand that the government does not endow free people with rights? The government supports and defends rights. Rights are not ‘permitted’ or ‘licensed’ or regulated. They are either recognized or denied.  I have a pistol on my hip as I write this. I don’t need anybody’s permission to carry it openly in my own defense. Neither should anyone else… anywhere in these United States.

   Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on April 29, 2009 at 1151 hrs




10. I agree, but having a permitting system to carry concealed does not preclude the right to carry openly without a permit.

    Posted by Owen on April 29, 2009 at 1210 hrs




11. Capper- Are you that dishonest as to post the question why the tax levy went up 17% under Walker or do you just not know? 

    The reason the tax levy went up is because of all the tax & spend liberals on the County Board.  Walker has repeatedly submitted NO tax increase budgets and then vetoed whatever the board has put back in.  HE cannot help if the COUNTY BOARD has overridden his vetoes. 

    Get your facts straight and come back

    Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on April 29, 2009 at 1217 hrs




12. Quote: “I agree, but having a permitting system to carry concealed does not preclude the right to carry openly without a permit.”
    Posted by Owen on April 29, 2009 at 1210 hrs

    
    Walker makes no mention of ‘concealed’.  He automatically injected some form of government ‘control’ into his remarks.  A CCW/CWP is reasonable for concealed carry… (I have a CWP). I would rightfully concede that to the States under 10A.  The 2A and most State Constitutions are rather clear on the right of the people to keep and bear arms.  These Constitutions pre-empt meddling by local ordinances while still respecting ‘private property’ concerns. What he said is no surprise.  It’s a common result of a lifetime of conditioning/inculcation and subjugation to the soft tyrannies propaganda and disinformation rhetoric. It’s a conditioned response w/o realizing it.

    Posted by (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on April 29, 2009 at 1243 hrs




13. LBB-

    Walker is the one claiming he didn’t raise taxes.  If that was true, he would keep submitting budgets at the 2003 level.  He hasn’t.

    Obviously, the Board would do what they had to to balance the budget.  What you are missing though is that the ONLY budget that did not blow up midyear is the 2007 budget, in which Walker vetoed it all, the Board overrode him, taking him out of the process.

    Every other year, there has been a mid-season budget crisis.

    And should I mention the hundreds of millions of dollars the county is in arrears?

    Those are the straight facts.

    Posted by capper on April 30, 2009 at 0045 hrs




14. Gives Thanks, Very fascinating read, you should be dramatic of your web logs. I’ve been genuinely delighting developing up your situations from meter to time. Looking forward to understand your future positions
    Many wonderful selective information, thanks for partaking.  Testament definitely be back more often….

    Posted by Online Seo company on April 30, 2009 at 0140 hrs