Appearing on CSPAN’s Washington Journal, former House Speaker New Gingrich predicted that Scott Walker would become Wisconsin’s next governor:
Mister Newt made these statements two weeks prior to the red tidal wave in New Jersey and Virginia last November and the Scott Brown victory in Massachusetts three weeks ago.
We’ve had years of solid Democrat leadership here under America’s Worst Governor, Jim Milhous Doyleone. It’s become the Perfect Storm of incompetence, malaise and corruption. Factor in a Democrat candidate running on Doyle’s record and Diamond Jim’s approval numbers in the 30s and it doesn’t bode well for the Democrats in November.
Fact is, Tom “The Taxer” Barrett doesn’t want to run for governor. He never wanted to get into the race in the first place. Barrett really wants to run for U.S. Senate in 2012, when it’s expected Sen. Herb Kohl will vacate the seat he’s held since 1988. But Our Lord and Savior Barack Hussein Obama came to the state and reportedly told Barrett that if he didn’t get into the race for governor, he could forget about any help from Washington in 2012 in his planned race for Senate.
So you have a reluctant candidate with an anemic record as mayor of Wisconsin’s largest city on one hand and an ebullient, energetic candidate with a proven track record as Milwaukee COunty Executive on the other.
Scott Rasmussen took his first poll of likely voters in Wisconsin and found Barrett trailing both GOP candidates. Head to head, Walker beats Barrett 48 percent to 38 percent, and former Rep. Mark Neumann beats Barrett 42 percent to 38 percent. If I recall correctly, that 38 percent was Jim Doyle’s approval ratings/re-elect numbers, so the unpopularity of Doyle has transferred directly to Barrett. And, remember: Mark Neumann has been out of the public eye pretty much since his narrow loss to Sen. Russ Feingold in 1998 and even he’s outpolling Barrett.
I agree with Newt: the governor’s mansion in Wisconsin is a likely Republican pickup.
We need to give the new Republican governor a Republican legislature as well, though, in order to get this state moving in the right direction.
