From my email inbox comes this gem, forwarded to me by a reader:
———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Mark Apker <mapker@wisgop.info>
Date: Wed, Apr 25, 2012 at 2:35 PM
Subject: Field Director Farewell
To:Hello All!
As the heading of the email reads the Baraboo Victory Center will no longer be open full-time. Thank you for the support of those who were willing to offer their time to the effort to keep Governor Walker in office.The Victory Center is being closed for two reasons. First, there was not enough support for the program run at the Victory Center. Not many of you thought that the best use of your time would be to make phone calls in support of the Governor; that they did more harm than good. I feel the need to tell you that phone calls do provide some useful purpose, as annoying as they may be.
Second, I was specifically asked to leave both becasue of the center’s lack of support and because I questioned the effectivness of the number and type of phone calls being made. Rather than answer the questions I asked I was labeled as insubordinate and asked to leave.
Again, thank you for your support and best of luck in your effort to keep Governor Walker in office. Take those actions which you feel will be most necessary to keep the Governor in office; but, for heaven’s sake, do something!
Best Regards and Warm Wishes,
Mark Apker
I’m don’t know about you all, but shutting down a “Victory Center” due to a lack of support just 5 weeks away from one of the most important elections in our state’s history certainly doesn’t seem like a good sign for the Republican Party or their chances of holding onto the governorship.
As noted by Greg Sargent of the Plum Line blog, the Wisconsin gubernatorial recall election is likely to boil down to which party can more effectively turn out its voters:
This means the race is all going to come down to turnout — the one area where Dems and unions can match Walker in resources and organization, perhaps neutralizing Walker’s ad spending advantage, Franklin says.
If Sargent is correct and the gubernatorial recall election will in fact be determined by the GOTV efforts of the respective parties, closing a GOP victory center 5 weeks before the election certainly doesn’t seem to be helpful to Republican GOTV efforts.
“When my 1 BILLION $ chipmunk hits the big time, I’d hire the Baraboo operation 10 person team to handle phones.”
However, the children of Wisconsin public employees don’t have any $$’s left to “fritter” away on a book.
Sorry, Walker, can’t help ua out this time!
Riding out to Dunn County today, I saw quite a few “I stand with Walker” signs along those country roads. Don’t get complacent, Phil. But thanks for the encouragement.
Cat Kin,
1. Country roads hold a lot of land, owned by business/farmers, but not many voters.
2. I know the polls have Walker/Dem challenger pretty even. So the more pro-Walker signs I see, I think the more nervous his supports are getting. If Walker was going to run away with the recall, no one would bother with Walker signs.
This is email is for real? I thought it was a joke!
Nope, it’s no joke.
Why isn’t anyone trying to find out more about this line? Seems like it could be more than sour grapes.
IMHO this letter only serves as a distraction. When you’re in a competitive race you should give it everything you’ve got because watching your opponent will waste precious time and energy that should be used to win
This could also be a fake letter designed to give recall volunteers a false sense of security to stop them from getting the vote out