Who really needs to go back to school?

Earlier this week, I noted Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Neumann amped up his attacks on fellow Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Walker, showing up outside Walker’s County Executive office to make the point that Walker isn’t as fiscally conservative as he’d have voters believe. Complete with charts and graphs, Neumann hammered home the point that spending in Milwaukee County government has increased faster during Scott Walker’s term(s) in office than spending has in state government during the two terms of Gov. Jim Doyle, who conservatives have made a sport of attacking as being a fiscally irresponsible “big spender,” noting that Milwaukee County’s budget has increased by 35% since Scott Walker took office as Milwaukee County Executive, while by comparison state spending has increased by only 27% under Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle.

In response to Neumann’s criticisms, Scott Walker issued a statement noting, “He [Neumann] apparently needs to go back to school on doing a little more math here.” Shortly after Walker’s statement, the Neumann campaign shot back with a response of their own, noting Scott Walker shouldn’t be lecturing anyone about going back to school. Neumann’s campaign highlighted the fact that prior to starting his business, Neumann was a high school math teacher for four years. Chip Englander, Neumann’s Campaign Manager, issued the following statement:

“This is the first time I’m aware Scott Walker has ever trashed someone else’s education background. He’s getting awfully defensive over his own budgets.

“But let me help him. Math 101: subtraction. First take the last budget Walker proposed—$1.48 billion—and then subtract the first budget he proposed—$1.1 billion. That equals $380 million.

“Math 201: division. Divide $380 million by $1.1 billion. That’s 35%. That means Walker’s increased spending by 35%.
“Repeat for Governor Doyle. He increased spending by 27%.

“Now this is easy. 35 (Walker’s spending growth) is a bigger number than 27 (Doyle’s spending growth). That means Walker increased spending faster than Doyle.

“Spending more than the Democrat Governor won’t win you a Republican primary. That’s politics 101.”

“If Scott Walker had graduated from Mark Neumann’s class, he would know all this too.”

Scott Walker’s most recent attack on Mark Neumann’s education level shows how desperate his campaign has gotten now that Mark Neumann’s taken the gloves off and is exposing Scott Walker’s record of mismanagement as Milwaukee County Executive, and if I were Mark Neumann, I’d keep pointing out how Scott Walker’s rhetoric simply doesn’t match his record.

H/T to xoff over at Uppity Wisconsin.

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2 thoughts on “Who really needs to go back to school?

  1. It really makes me sad to see such petty attacks in political campaigns. A part of me wonders: are they necessary? Do most people that run for politics that keep it decent and stick to their real issues of policy get trampled by negative campaigns that will find anything to attack them for, with taking the high ground and not retaliating in kind dooming a campaign?

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