Lack of Job Creation in Wisconsin May Be the Real Issue in the Governor’s Recall Race

Republican Walker’s Policies to Destroy Public Employee Unions to Create Jobs is Only Partially Effective – Unions Destroyed, Jobs Not Created

The recall election of Gov. Scott Walker in Wisconsin reached the end of its first stage as the Democrats picked their nominee to opposed Mr. Walker in a June recall election.  The recall event was triggered by outrage when Gov. Walker and the Republicans enacted legislation that effectively eliminated collective bargaining for the state’s public employee unions.  Well not entirely, they preserved collective bargaining rights for unions that supported Mr. Walker and the Republicans.

While the union issue was the catalyst for the recall, the economy is now the issue in whether or not voters will replace Mr. Walker with a Democrat.

The topic of concern has switched to jobs and the economy," said Charles Franklin, who directed the Marquette University Law School poll. "It looks like that will continue into the summer."

As to why that has happened, its pretty simple.  The Republicans and the Governor instituted their union killing agenda in order to, as they say, create the business climate that would allow for job creation in the state.  But to the surprise of no one, that has not happened.

But recent employment statistics have undercut Mr. Walker's pledge to create 250,000 job in his first term. Between March of 2011 and March of 2012 Wisconsin lost 23,900 jobs and ranked 50th among the states in terms of jobs created, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In part this is because of conditions outside the Governor’s control, but in part it is also that the toxic atmosphere and decline of public services that businesses like, such as education, have discouraged job creation. 

One explanation that Republicans have borders on the ludicrous (ok, it actually crosses that border).

Republicans say the figures are taken from a volatile survey and could be updated. They add that nearly 18,000 of the losses were from the public sector, a consequence of Mr. Walker's budgets. 

That’s right, Republican policy resulted in the firing of 18,000 people and then the Republicans say they should not be blamed for job losses.  Incredible.

Gov. Walker is the favorite and will more likely than not survive.  The reason for that is not his record, nor his policies but the fact that he has an unlimited amount of money to spend on his campaign.  Conservative gazillionaires from all across the nation have poured money into the Walker campaign.  For the Democrats to win they have to not only defeat Mr. Walker, but also defeat a bunch of billionaires.  Defeating Mr. Walker alone would be the easy part.  Defeating Mr. Walker and his millions, not too likely.