Departing Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) told the Associated Press that he’s keeping his campaign accounts open and wouldn’t rule out running for governor again in four years.
He also said he would consider running for U.S. Senate in 2022 to replace Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), who has said he would not seek a third term.
Outgoing Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) “signed lame-duck legislation Friday that will scale back the authority of his Democratic successor — approving the entire legislation after saying he was inclined to veto parts of it,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
“The move came a day after Walker announced a $28 million incentive package for Kimberly-Clark Corp. using powers the legislation strips from incoming Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. If Walker had signed the legislation earlier, he wouldn’t have been able to cut the deal with Kimberly-Clark without permission from lawmakers.”
Wisconsin’s Gov. Scott Walker (R) “lost a very narrow race for reelection to Democratic challenger Tony Evers on Tuesday. But it wasn’t close enough to qualify for a recount — thanks to a law he signed himself last year,” CBS News reports.
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“The wind’s not at our back. It’s not at our side. It is firmly in our face. This election is going to be tougher than any one I have been involved with, including the recall.”
— Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R), quoted by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Gov. Scott Walker (R) has warned that a “blue wave” may be coming for the midterm elections after a Democratic-backed candidate won a seat on Wisconsin’s supreme court, CNN reports.
Said Walker: “Tonight’s results show we are at risk of a blue wave in Wisconsin. The far left is driven by anger and hatred — we must counter it with optimism and organization. Let’s share our positive story with voters and win in November.”
“Scott Walker’s political rebound is supposed to be grounded in Wisconsin, where he’s expected to run a robust gubernatorial campaign in a state where he has done nothing but win,” BuzzFeed News reports.
“But Walker, whose surprisingly quick rise and fall as a Republican presidential contender hurt his standing at home, also is carefully and somewhat quietly maintaining his national brand.”
“After a three-month delay, a lightning-quick lawsuit and three orders from as many judges, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) called two special elections Thursday and GOP senators dropped legislation to block the contests,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
“Republican efforts collapsed following a Wednesday ruling by an appellate judge ordering the governor to call the May primary and June general elections. In less than a day, Walker abandoned a state Supreme Court appeal to overturn the ruling and lawmakers in both the Senate and Assembly canceled plans to vote to leave the seats vacant.”
“Dealing a setback to Gov. Scott Walker and other Republicans, a judge ruled the governor must call special elections to fill two vacant seats in the Legislature,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
“Walker declined to call those elections after two GOP lawmakers stepped down to join his administration in December. His plan would have left the seats vacant for more than a year.”
“A group led by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder sued Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) over his refusal to call special elections to fill two open legislative seats,” the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports.
“Fresh off a victory in a Senate special election last month, Wisconsin Democrats have demanded that Walker call these two additional special elections and give their party an opportunity to notch more wins.”
“With Democrats seeing an opportunity — and Republicans seeing a threat — the controversy over the special election has taken on a strong political cast.”
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) will not call special elections to fill seats in the Wisconsin legislature, following Democratic upsets in recent elections, The Nation reports.
After two years of mending fences after a failed presidential bid, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) “has clawed his way back. His numbers have inched up each of the past four quarters, and his approval rating is now back in the mid-to-high 40s,” according to James Hohmann.
“As the GOP primaries continued without him from New Hampshire to South Carolina and beyond, Walker convened the first of more than 100 ‘listening sessions’ in all 72 of Wisconsin’s counties. His advance team would set up two whiteboards in the front of every room. The governor would spend the first 20 minutes asking attendees to say something positive about the state, which he’d write down. Then he’d spend the next hour asking how Wisconsin could be better, filling up the second whiteboard. He tried to talk as little as possible.”
“The governor offered several concrete proposals in his budget around the themes that came up again and again, such as opioid abuse and broadband access, but he said the most important result of the sessions was conveying to Wisconsinites that he had not ‘moved on.'”
In a new campaign video, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) “touts his record and makes clear he wants to run for a third term in 2018,” the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports.
Said Walker: “At the end of each day, after all of the miles and conversations, I can’t wait for the alarm to ring to see what opportunities tomorrow will bring. Are you with me?”
“Unlike others, I’d tell him to tweet more, to be on Facebook more, to get the message out more, but to be focused.”
— Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R), offering advice to President Trump in an interview on Fox News.
“In clearing more than $1 million in campaign debt over the past year, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker got the majority of the money by selling his donor list to other candidates,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports.
“In 2016, Walker brought in more than $823,000 by selling his donor list to other GOP candidates such as U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida; Ohio Gov. John Kasich; and Ben Carson, the nominee to serve as U.S. Housing and Urban Development secretary, Federal Elections Commission records show. His massive list of contributors was marketed aggressively for him by Granite Lists of Dublin, N.H.”
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) ruled out a 2018 Senate bid but indicated to the Washington Examiner that he is leaning toward seeking a third term as governor.
“The governor said he would sit down with his family in the next couple of weeks to discuss a 2018 re-election bid and make a final decision next year after passage of the state budget.”
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) said in the wake of Donald Trump’s surprising victory that Republicans should get rid of the Senate filibuster, CNN reports.
Said Walker: “You cannot use, they cannot use inside-the-ballpark Washington procedural reason to justify why things don’t happen.”
“A new batch of leaked documents provides the most complete record yet of how Gov. Scott Walker raised millions of dollars for a supposedly independent, tax-exempt group during the 2011 and 2012 recalls — activity that prompted a now-halted John Doe investigation into whether Walker’s recall campaign circumvented state campaign finance law,” the Wisconsin State Journal reports.
“The more than 1,300 pages of documents were posted online by The Guardian… It’s unclear how the newspaper obtained the documents, which had previously been held under seal.”
Gov. Scott Walker (R) “says he has no interest in participating in the ‘Draft Walker’ movement seeking to displace Donald Trump as the Republican presidential nominee,” the Kenosha News reports.
Said Walker: “If I run for anything — and I haven’t made a decision yet — it’s going to be for re-election in two years.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.
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