The Republican gubernatorial primary’s descent into a full-blown battle of who can sling the most mud has taken an interesting turn, with Mark Neumann accusing Scott Walker of conducting a push poll misleading voters on Neumann’s position on the federal stimulus. The push poll referenced by Neumann’s campaign asked the question, “Would you support Neumann knowing he supported Pelosi/Obama stimulus?”
John Cornell resident of Stoughton was among those who received the polling call on June 2. He said the caller disclosed the poll was paid for by the Scott Walker for Governor campaign.
“The poll included a negative question intended to mislead me into thinking Mark Neumann ‘joined Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama and supported the stimulus,’” Cornell said. “This is simply untrue, and Scott Walker knows this is untrue.”
There are three problems with Scott Walker’s push poll campaign:
(1) It isn’t true. Mark Neumann opposed Obama’s stimulus package.
(2) Walker’s own record shows he flip-flopped on stimulus. First he wrote in the Wall Street Journal that he opposed it, then he flip-flopped on the issue. As the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported on April 16, 2009: Back in January, Walker said he wouldn’t ask for anything from the federal economic recovery plan…he has since put out a list of $130 million in stimulus funds that his agency chiefs are seeking or having secured.
(3) Walker’s campaign is on the record opposing push polling. Now they’ve flip flopped on this too. In late April, the Walker campaign accused the Neumann campaign of engaging in push polling for asking a factual question about Walker and Neumann being in a dead heat according to a recent St. Norbert College poll. A late April email from Walker campaign manager Keith Gilkes accused the Neumann campaign of making ‘illegal, misleading phone calls’ that ‘tried to pressure Scott’s supporters,’ resorting to ‘dirty campaign tricks’ and ‘lies and threats.’
In a statement released regarding the push poll, Neumann campaign manager Chip Englander asked, “Is there any issue Scott Walker won’t try and have it both ways on?” Englander went on to note, “He said he was against the Arizona immigration law before it was for it. He said he was against the stimulus package before he was for it. He said he’s going to cut spending even though he’s grown government faster than Jim Doyle. He denounces push polling and then resorts to push polls to save his flailing campaign.”
I’ve said for a while now that Scott Walker’s gubernatorial campaign has seemed to be floundering in the face of criticisms leveled against it by Mark Neumann, and the fact that Scott Walker’s campaign has resorted to push polling after attacking Neumann for push polling just underscores that point.
Ok, so now we know why Scott Walker’s recent poll shows Mark Neumann trailing Walker by 20 points. I’m suprised that the Tarrance Group would put out a junk poll like that. I am quite sure that it’s a much closer race… and I fully expect the Walker Campaign to start tearing into Mark Neumann soon. Shameful.
Actually, Walker was tearing into Neumann for a while now. Walker doesn’t have any track record that he can be proud of, so his only chance is to go negative and rip his opponents down. His problem is that tends to be a double-edged sword which will cut his own campaign at the knees.
Mark Neumann has the right idea for education when he says we should consider qualified candidates that are not “certified” by the state. Education bureaucracies support the bottom of education and do little for the top. The top and bottom determines our nation’s competitiveness. Neumann wants the flexibility for excellent teachers who don’t bow to the STATE to be afforded an opportunity to teach.
For this, Scott Walker attacks Neumann and may be doing this by commenting in blogs. In clean campaigns, candidates let the chips fall and bow to the will of the people. They don’t stack the deck with blogging comments.
For a few jobs, such as Tech Ed, Computer courses and that sort of thing, sure. But these are the exceptions, not the norm. For most fields right now, there are hundreds of applicants and a great many highly qualified individuals who have the background training in the course material as well as education training and certification. The best way to get more excellent teachers teaching is to make it easier to fire the bad ones.
Also, I should add that for the overwhelming majority of K-12 eduction, the kids are better served by good teachers than experts in the field. Understanding psychology, the different learning styles and how to use multiple approaches to present information is the more critical knowledge/skill.