Scott Walker Spent 88% of the Money to Get 53% of the Vote

by Peter Dreier



Here's a headline you won't see, but should: "Scott Walker Spent 88% of the Money to Get 53% of the Vote."Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) survived a recall election on Tuesday, but not without exposing the new reality of what in politics is capable of.. (Photo: Seth Perlman / AP Photo)

Political pundits will spend the next few days and weeks analyzing the Wisconsin recall election, examining exit polls, spilling lots of ink over how different demographic groups -- income, race, religious, union membership, gender, party affiliation, independents, liberals/conservatives/moderates, etc -- voted on Tuesday.



But the real winner in Wisconsin on Tuesday was not Gov. Scott Walker, but Big Money. And the real loser was not Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, but democracy.

Walker's Republican campaign outspent Barrett's Democratic campaign by $30.5 million to $4 million -- that's a 7.5 to 1 advantage. Another way of saying this is that of the $34.5 million spent on their campaigns, Walker spend 88% of the money.

Walker beat Barrett by 1,316,989 votes to 1,145,190 votes -- 53% to 46% (with 1% going to an independent candidate).

Here's another way of saying that: Walker spent $23 for each vote he received, while Barrett spent only $3.47 per vote.

But the reality is even worse than this, because the $34.5 billion figure does not include so-called independent expenditures and issue ads paid for primarily by out-of-state billionaires (like the Koch brothers, Sheldon Adelson, and Joe Rickets), business groups, and the National Rifle Association, which were skewed even more heavily toward Walker. Once all this additional spending is calculated, we'll see that total spending in this race could be more than double the $34.5 billion number, that Walker and his business allies outspent Barrett by an even wider margin, and that he had to spend even more than $23 for each vote.

In other words, business and billionaires bought this election for Walker. The money paid for non-stop TV and radio ads as well as mailers. There's no doubt that if the Barrett campaign had even one-third of the war- chest that Walker had, it would have been able to mount an even more formidable grassroots get-out-the-vote campaign and put more money into the TV and radio air war. Under those circumstances, it is likely that Barrett would have prevailed.

Pundits can have a field day pontificating about the Wisconsin election, but in the end its about how Big Money hijacked democracy in the Badger State on Tuesday, and how they're trying to do it again in November.
http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/06/06-0

Ignore the spin: Wisconsin was a disaster for Democrats and President Obama

If you pause and listen carefully, you might be able to hear the despair coming from Jim Messina, President Obama’s 2012 campaign manager, and David Axelrod, Obama’s top strategist and communications director, as the meaning of Wisconsin’s recall election becomes clear.

In the final hours before Governor Scott Walker’s victory, with the writing on the wall, President Obama and his campaign could only muster a tweet and a last-minute video for challenger Tom Barrett. But do not let that tepid support fool you: Democrats and their union allies spent an astronomical amount on a judicial election, four state legislative recalls and the recall of Governor Walker, only to lose.

The spin has already begun. On Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said the Wisconsin recall election “probably won’t tell us much about a future race.” Regardless of what you hear, the results are a colossal failure for Democrats and President Obama’s re-election efforts. Even former Pennsylvania governor and Democratic National Committee chairman Ed Rendell, speaking on MSNBC last week, said the recall election was a “mistake.”

Democrats, Big Labor and Team Obama initially put all their chips on the table, organizing a massive get-out-the-vote effort to unseat Walker. The day before the recall, Wisconsin’s MacIver Institute illustrated just how much money Big Labor has spent: more than $21 million. Earlier in the month, the MacIver Institute put up a matrix to “put an end to any stories that Big Labor, the Democratic Party and other left-wing organizations aren’t going all out to recall Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker.” The spin aside, Team Obama, Big Labor and Democrats were heavily invested and suffered a huge loss in Wisconsin.

The recall sums up a season of abject failure for Democrats in Wisconsin. Since taking office in January 2011, Governor Walker has pushed for audacious spending cuts, comprehensive improvements to public-employee union benefits and the most agitating reform to the union monolith: lasting changes to Wisconsin’s collective bargaining laws.

Democratic legislators responded by childishly fleeing the state in order to prevent a quorum in the State Senate, while the Republican majority assured passage of Walker’s budget. After weeks of wringing their hands over their absent colleagues, the Republicans found a way to pass Walker’s budget.

In response, the left tried to invalidate Walker’s reforms by attempting to alter the composition of the Wisconsin Supreme Court. Liberals organized a “record setting” challenge to incumbent Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser. Prosser’s challenger, ultra-progressive JoAnne Kloppenburg, was the left’s answer to all their union reform problems. The total cost of the race between Prosser and Kloppenburg topped $3 million. In the end, Prosser won re-election and Walker’s reforms were upheld.

The Democrats’ war on Governor Walker and Wisconsin Republicans continued, with groups organizing the recall of four state senators in an attempt to recapture the Wisconsin Senate and block Walker’s reforms. In their attempt to take back the Wisconsin Senate, Democrats and their backers spent $23.4 million, with outside groups spending $18.6 million against Republicans. But the attempt failed and Republicans triumphed.

Now, Democrats have lost yet another high-profile Wisconsin race. With this string of events taking place in a state that has not voted for a Republican presidential candidate since 1984 and is considered the birthplace of modern progressivism, Republicans must be starting to like their chances in November. Once considered an unassailable Democratic stronghold, Wisconsin is moving into the almost unthinkable swing-state territory.

As if the wind was not blowing hard enough against Democrats and Team Obama, Governor Walker’s reforms have been a resounding success. Walker cut a $3.6 billion deficit without raising taxes or curtailing state services, and he is expected to create a $150 million budget surplus by the end of the year.

While Barack Obama won Wisconsin by 14 points in 2008, it’s important to remember that George W. Bush came close to winning the state in 2000 and 2004, missing by 0.22 and 0.4 percent respectively. The efforts by Democrats this season have forced Republicans to build a grassroots machine. Their actions have proven to be very successful, pushing the estimated voter turnout to a whopping 60 to 65 percent of all adults. This machine will no doubt be in full operation in November, causing Axelrod’s and Messina’s hearts to flutter.

President Obama and Democrats are in trouble and no amount of Washington spin will change the facts in Wisconsin. Unions had their way for decades, but times change. And this time, it is not just the future of organized labor that is in peril, it is the political future of one of their biggest supporters: President Obama.

The BIG corrupt money was opposing Walker...and lost!

His win is a landmark victory for the people of Wisconsin! The democRATS challenge actually gained him a larger amount of votes than he received in his original bid putting him in as Gov.

So do you think you should have the right to decide how other Americans spend their money? If not, why is this story interesting to you?

Sad Times here in the USA when the public allow everything that's been accomplish through our electoral process to be hijacked through creed,phobia and radical theories.

The big corrup money was for Walker all the facts show how much he spent to defend his job.

http://video.foxbusiness.com/v/1676887174001/rep-blackburn-walker-will-set-model-for-other-states/?playlist_id=87185

Interesting to me because it shows cleary how whoever spend the most usualy wins the election.

BS HYPE and MSM lies!

Nope,actually it was the Workers that got tired of the Unions Shenanigans!
Hope the Unions here learn a few things!

Really? I think that it shows that the most popular candidate receives the most donations.

I think the workers did pretty well considering the republicans out spent the dems 7.5 to 1.

It was a good showeing despite the incredable odds. We shall see how much money the 1% will spend on romney and how much the 1% will spend on Obama.

The Unions goofed!
Thought their Feed-Trough would run never empty!
They coerced and stole from their Membership too long!
Hope that the Unions here learn something from that!

I think they learned that the 1% will spend whatever it takes politicaly to keep their candidates in power.

Every single candidate in every single election spends incredible sums. They receive backing from many people, including gazillionares and professional/trade organizations. It still takes people getting to the polls to make the results happen. And regardless of the results, the unsuccessful candidate's supporters (and sometimes candidates themselves)cry foul.

The people of WI spoke.

Get over it.

out spent 7.5 to 1? the best political toady money can buy won this election :

Money influences elections.....sad but true, because the people most often lose in that scenario.

In this case however, most of the voters were already FOR Walker and against the unions stranglehold on local economies and workers.

Walker supporters simply had more interest in fairness, and put their money where their mouth and heart was!

WI has for some time been a democrat stronhold, so of course it cost more to defeat the dem machine and lies the people were living under.

They spoke! Hopefully DC will listen!

Forget Robme, the WI people don't like him! They sent a message to Obozo and the unions, AND Robme!

Wasn't about dem or repub, was about peoples choice! They chose Walker!

The greedy union hacks lost this election by overreaching and distorting the facts. The WI voters TWICE voted to put reasonable controls on a public union system that overpaid it's workers and gave them more benefits exceeding non-union averages.

That is the problem with union hacks. They believe they deserve anything they can get regardless of the damage it does to those who pay the bill.

The real lesson learned was people will buy anything if they are sold on it, money buys air time and its hard to counter the smears when your outspent 7.5 to 1.

It was actualy a close race all things considered but from what I understand it came down to most people think government workers should pay more for pensions and insurence because most in the private sector have neither and that is true.

Regardless of party affiliation and the outcry will still be the same from the losing camp. That's the point. Sour grapes.