Wisconsin recall theme turns from unions to jobs

MADISON, Wis. – When Wisconsin Democrats launched their recall drive against Republican Gov. Scott Walker last year, it was all about unions. They wanted Walker to pay with his job for pushing legislation that stripped almost all public workers of nearly all their collective bargaining rights.

More recently, Democrats, buoyed by fresh federal statistics that show Wisconsin's economy is still sputtering badly, have tried to transform the election into a referendum on the governor's failure to put people back to work. Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and a group supporting Kathleen Falk, the two front-runners for the Democratic nomination, launched new television ads over the last three days ripping Walker for not creating jobs.

"Gov. Walker has counted you out," the Falk ad proclaims. "He destroyed workers' rights, then Wisconsin's jobs."

Walker has tried to meet the new attacks head-on. He is quick to tout that the state's unemployment rate stands at its lowest levels in four years and has been trumpeting even the tiniest positive job creation news. He has also asked that people be patient.

"Vince Lombardi, when he took over the Green Bay Packers, the Packers were 1-10-1," said Walker, who took office in January 2011.. "He didn't take them to the world championship the next year. It took a couple of years. But eventually once they got there they were one of the premiere teams in the NFL. And we can be a premiere state."

Democrats began their push to boot Walker out of office in November, about eight months aftad Monday touting himself as "the jobs governor" and ripping Walker for failing to deliver on a 2010 campaign promise to create 250,000 jobs.

"By focusing his attention on this ideological civil war he took his eye off the prize," Barrett said at a news conference in Milwaukee Wednesday. "And the prize was what he campaigned on in 2010, which was jobs. And I believe that a large part of the reason that Wisconsin ranked dead last in the country last year in jobs was because he was focusing his attention on this ideological war."

Falk issued a statement last week claiming Walker has failed the state on jobs. On Wednesday, a political advocacy group backing the former Dane County executive, Wisconsin for Falk, pushed out an ad accusing the governor of counting Wisconsin workers out.

Vinehout and La Follette haven't launched any major attacks on Walker over jobs; both campaigns are starved for cash.

Walker, for his part, notes that he has called two special legislative sessions to address job creation since he took office and that the state's unemployment rate was 6.8 percent in March, the lowest rate since 2008. This week, he announced a $100 million economic revitalization plan for Milwaukee.

Walker campaign spokeswoman Ciara Matthews said Barrett has no plan for putting people back to work in Milwaukee and is simply trying to distract voters from his record. She did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment about Falk.

Walker visited a Waukesha concrete maker Wednesday to celebrate its plans to return at least 55 laid-off employees to work and create 30 new positions.

"Every job makes a difference to that person and that family that benefits from that," Walker said. "And every job sends a message to every other small business across the state that it's OK to jump on in, the water's just fine. That's how we've tried to change the climate."