Is Kathleen Falk’s gubernatorial campaign in trouble?
At one point in the race Falk was thought to be the frontrunner (and inevitable nominee) in the Democratic gubernatorial recall primary, but since Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett’s entry into the race, Falk’s campaign seems to have started spinning its wheels. Yesterday I noted the Falk campaign’s futile attempt to pass the Falk campaign off as a true “grassroots” campaign (while employing a bevy of seasoned political insiders from in-state and out-of-state, no less), and a recent Public Policy Polling poll released this week shows Mayor Barrett with a 14-point lead (38% to 24%) over Falk in the Democratic primary.
Compounding Falk’s bad news for the week, Democratic U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore and Democratic State Sen. Lena Taylor have both endorsed Barrett’s gubernatorial campaign, with Sen. Taylor saying, “”During the historic protests last year, Wisconsin men and women made their voices heard against Walker’s radical agenda. The Wisconsin 14 stood up to his assault on our values. And Tom Barrett will continue this fight as our next governor. He will defeat Scott Walker, end the ideological civil war and get Wisconsin moving forward.”
As if that news wasn’t bad enough, the week started with Mayor Barrett’s gubernatorial campaign announcing current Madison Mayor Paul Soglin and former mayors Dave Cieslewicz, Sue Bauman, Joe Sensenbrenner and Joel Skornicka all announced their support for Barrett in the June 5th gubernatorial election. Considering Madison is in many ways the heart of Dane County, I’m more than a little surprised that the current Mayor of Madison and his four predecessors would all endorse Tom Barrett over Kathleen Falk.
I have nothing against unions. My Dad was VERY strong union. But there are far too many people whou outright HATE unions and everybody aligned with them, which is the mistake Kathleen Falk made. This election is about WAY more than only unions. Barrett is the most well-known across the ENTIRE state, which is an absolute necessity in this race if we want to get rid of Walker! Do we want all our time and work to go down the drain? Barrett almost won last election, even WITH the millions of dollars of slanderous propaganda, written purposely to DUPE the voters. They will NOT be duped again! They are wise to the republican lies and tricks. This is not the time for any “unknown”, in even 50% of the state, to even be campaigning anymore since Barrett has joined the race. Do we want our own way, like the mess the republicans made of the presidential race? Or will we have the brains to continue to achieve our PRIMARY goal? Do we want to get RID of Walker, or do we need to bolster our egos? I am quite politically aware, but I had never HEARD of Kathleen Falk or this Vinehout woman until just recently. People who don’t even know as much as I, certainly will vote for one of the FAKE candidates, as easily as for one of those two. Sure, they MIGHT be known in Madison or in THEIR own district, but we need someone, like Barrett, who is known throughout the ENTIRE state. This is NOT the time to gamble! The interested women can run in a later election that is not this VITAL! We are THINKING Democrats! Let us be unselfish; let us think logically; and let us think AHEAD!!
I happen to be from ANOTHER PART OF THE STATE, so I have a way different viewpoint! I have said it before, and I will say it again: If we want to get rid of the puppet snake, Scott Walker, we need the ONLY candidate that is ALREADY known throughout the ENTIRE state. Both these women are UNKNOWNS in the rest of the state, except in their own areas. I had never heard of EITHER of them before, which could be said truthfilly by MILLIONS of voters. Why waste the money on unnecessary campaigning?? Do not antagonize the union haters! These may be very wonderful and well-liked people, but there is no time for a local popularity contest! This is already “THE” VITAL election to MAKE SURE Walker cannot destroy our state any further! An UNKNOWN, throughout the majority counties of our state, is NOT going to do that, ESPECIALLY with all the FAKE candidates also running. They will just dilute the vote further, when we need a SOLID majority. Union people claim to believe in solidarity?? Well, there is no more CRUCIAL time to prove it! Solidarity now is the ONLY way we’ll get rid of Walker. Be realistic and remember our goal! PLEASE THINK and PRAY! We can be selfish, OR we can win! We cannot rationally have both!
Read Senator Taylor’s statement VERY carefully. She noted that, “…the Wisconsin 14 stood up to his [Walker’s]assault on our values”. Tom Barrett was not among the Wisconsin 14. Heck, he never showed his face at a single rally in Madison. Barrett hid while others, like Falk, Vinehout and Lafollette, did the heavy lifting. When asked during Chistmas week when he signed the recall petition, Barrett said he hadn’t decided yet whether he would sign it. 600,000 voters had made up their minds by that time, but not Tom Barrett.
It’s erroneous to say Mayor Barrett wasn’t at a single rally. I stood right next to him when I was at the Capitol protesting, and while he may not have given a speech, he was most definitely there.
Well, of course Tom Barrett wasn’t among the fourteen who fled the state — because you had to be in the legislator to be in the fourteen fleeing the vote in the legislature!
Jeesh, this is the silliest attack yet.
However, I do agree that we need a governor with legislative experience to roll back the work of the Fitzgerald brothers. And, of course, Falk has not had that experience. Only Vinehout and Barrett have had legislative experience, and Vinehout only briefly — and only to vote against women’s reproductive rights — while Tom even served us well in Congress for many years.
The choice is clear when you know the facts and don’t come up with silly stuff like “Barrett was not one of the fourteen!”
Lane glass: be carefull for what you wish for. you say you hate walker so bad. bull crap. you made it very clear that you don’t hate walker cause you would never vote for falk. it’s people like you that cut off your nose to spite your face. you also care only about your self when you should set your hate aside and care about the thousands of grass root people who were out there everyday to recall these people. wheres your loyalty, is it for the people or your self interest. THINK BEFORE YOU STAB EVERYONE ELSE IN THE BACK FOR YOUR OWN SELFISH SINGLE REASON
The last debate is only 4 days before the primary. I certainly HOPE there is SOME agreement on a SINGLE candidate by that time. It sounds as if they’ve mostly LOST the PURPOSE of the election, which is STATEWIDE, people. 3/4 of the voters never even HEARD of these women. We have OTHER elections, OTHER years to change the goal to “getting a woman” in the governor’s seat.
THIS YEAR our ONLY goal is to UNSEAT the Koch’s puppet who is destroying the good reputation of our state! Nobody else can be as bad!!
This thread has brought us in a full circle.
People are again asking to forget ideas and choose the most popular personality.
It is important to remember that the DPW controlled the legislature and the governor’s office from 2008 to 2010.
We did not get tax fairness, single payer health, school funding reform, campaign finance reform, or movement towards a new sustainable economy based on local food and fuel production.
That’s because the people running on these issues were ignored by the conventional wisdom,( and in fact instructed by the party machine to not mention them) and the majority who did win in the name of the DPW had no plan (or had sold their vision)
A primary’s purpose is to get people educated, and then let them choose.
(The only kicker this time is the fake dem.)
A true prescription for long term disaster is to fail to mobilize the grassroots, formed from this reaction to Walker, around actual ideas, and then to allow Vanilla to return to conventional wisdom and not accomplish anything.
No, the BIGGEST kicker is to direct the vote toward ONE candidate who is KNOWN THROUGHOUT the state, and who can mobilize some UNITY toward our goal, which is getting RID of Walker’s ruination of our state. The ONLY candidate who is KNOWN statewide is Tom Barrett, and I do believe he is the ONLY candidate who can deliver the prize we have ALL worked so hard for! Do we really want over a YEAR’s work to go for naught??
Maerzie what do you base that on? kathleen Falk ran a statewide campaign against JB Van Hollen and faired pretty good.
I base it on living up north in an entirely different area away from Madison, as the whole northern area of our state IS, and I haven’t found anyone who has ever heard of EITHER of these Kathleens. And, that’s a fact we have to face for this race. If either of these ladies was ever on a ballot, it was never even taken as anything important by a great number of voters. It would be like knowinmg who all the VicePresidents of the United States have been. The names are NOT the top, most important position, so they just get their votes by association, NOT because they are known. How many Vice Presidents of the United States can MOST people name?? One or two would be the maximum. And THAT’s a MUCH more important office. Whether anyone likes it or not, Barrett is the ONLY one known by the majority around the state. The southern counties alone will be a laughing stock when the results of all our efforts com in, if we use either of these woman. We either want our own way and our own candidate, OR we want to beat Scott Walker. And that’s a fact! We will NOT get bothe. Those women can run some other year when we the election goal is normal! We can be selfish, OR we can win!
We don’t need a candidate who “fairs pretty well” this time. We MUST have a well-known candidate who can win, and the closest we have to that, and he has PROVED it, is Tom Barrett.
What barrett proved when he ran was that he ended up 5 points behind walker.
Well, what Falk proved was that she can only lose statewide, too?
And that she quit the job that she had, halfway through. . . .
C’mon, Jeff Simpson, stop with this nonsense, as everything that you say can be countered in a way that only makes your candidate look worse, with your determination to attack other Dems. We have no time for that now.
Yes, Jeff! But, if you had paid more attention, you would ALSO know that the ONLY reason Barrett DIDN’T win is because the Koch’s funnelled in MILLIONS of dollars of malicious, slanderous lies and othe propaganda to intentionally DUPE the voters (which is how that slime operates), which people will NOT be stupid enough to fall for this time because they are so angry they FELL FOR it the first time! MANY of these people signed our papers to RECALL the lying puppet, who didn’t even graduate from college and is RUINING our state. I’m surprised he got through highschool, and he probably LIED his way through THAT too! Barrett almost won last time WITHOUT all that inherited money backing hum! The Koch’s are no geniuses either. They got THEIR billions handed to them by relation, who EARNED the money. THEY certainly didn’t!! Now, in their lazy GREED, they want to OWN and RUN our country. They BUY every single WEAK puppet who doesn’t mind being OWNED! Walker is only ONE of their spineless pieces of property.