The gubernatorial election has gone north in the final weeks of summer.
The late-July poll by the Marquette University Law School hints at shifting opinion in the northern parts of Wisconsin. In 2010 and 2012, voters Up North strongly supported Republican Scott Walker at the voting booths. But the support for Walker Up North seems to have eased, according to the poll results.
After the release of the poll results, Walker and Democratic candidate Mary Burke spent considerable time in August talking to opinion makers and average voters across the northern part of the state.
Veteran political observers probably aren’t surprised by the poll results. David Obey, a Democrat with a strong streak of Progressive views, represented northern Wisconsin in Congress for more than 40 years.
Walker easily defeated efforts to recall him in 2012 in an emotion-filled campaign. The central issue was his surprise move to cripple public employee unions and shift more fringe benefit costs to the public workers.
A University of Wisconsin researcher said the anti-public employee union move struck a chord with voters Up North. Public employees, especially teachers, often were the highest-paid workers in small towns and rural areas, she said. There was resentment at their compensation and apparent job security in hard times.
In the 2010 election, Walker promised to create 250,000 private sector jobs in four years. He has virtually conceded he won’t come close to that number, but he insists Wisconsin is doing better on the job front than it was during the Great Recession.
Burke had served as secretary of commerce during part of the Democrat Jim Doyle’s eight years as governor. But Democrats have a pointed answer to Walker’s job emphasis on the comparison with Doyle. Burke’s television ads note that during the past three years, Wisconsin has been dead last in private job creation among the 10 Midwestern states.
Economic issues offer a hint at why there may be some shifts in voter views Up North.
Matt Pommer is a veteran correspondent covering the Capitol in Madison. His columns are published with permission from the Wisconsin Newspaper Association.
