Sunday, June 22, 2014

Mary Burke Strategy - Open Thread



Your thoughts on this strategy! 

29 comments:

  1. I watched Mike Gousha's interview of Mary Burke, and I was very impressed by her. Gousha tried hard to trip her up, but to no avail. Mary Burke is articulate, smart and has a plan -- all of the things that Scott Walker is not. Mary Burke shows us why she is more qualified to be our next governor -- she doesn't need to focus all her energies on proving why Scott Walker is so bad - he proves that himself with every new revelation.

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    1. "...and has a plan..."

      Pray tell, what is that plan? All I have heard was keeping parts of Act 10 while pretending to try to get rid of other parts; giving more of our money to corporations and companies. You know, just like we've heard the last two elections from Governor Barrett...oops, that's right. He's still Mayor Barrett.

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    2. People don't realize that union members (through collective bargaining) may choose to forego pay increases to keep health or pension benefits at current levels. It's not all "take". So instead of saying public employees should pay a part of their health and pension "like everyone else" (which plays into the the divide and conquer theme) I wish candidates would instead point out that given rising health care costs, etc., we need to ask employees to contribute more.

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    3. Public employees already "contribute" more for their benefits through lower pay. Yet people like Walker, Burke and Chris Abele want them to pay even more without a corresponding pay raise to make it "like everyone else."

      The end result is that the good workers leave, the bad workers help the corporatists run services into the ground until it can be privatized and profiteered from.

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    4. Good point. There was a time when public sector workers were compensated for their lower than private sector pay through health and pension benefits. It worked, and it was a choice: some chose public sector work, some chose private sector work. Then health care costs went through the roof (the question that goes unasked is “why?”) and private sector employers started to eliminate pensions. Now public sector workers are painted as the bad guys for making the choice that private sector workers could have made, but chose not to.

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  2. I think it works. She stays on the high road, above the fray, and outlines her positive plan for Wisconsin & how she'll stop the fighting. If she can stay positive, Walker's attacks on her will not be effective, or worse, he'll be viewed as a bully.

    Others can go after Walker and hammer him.

    It's not about scoring points. It's about winning. And I think this is a winning strategy.

    -- A western Wisconsin Cheesehead.

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    1. Taking the high road only works if indictments come down -- when that happens, Burke will look like a genius.

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  3. Anon 10:15, please provide a url to her interview with Gousha. Then please include the time interval in which she is explaining her "plan."

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    1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZJ3uM3ELtI&list=PL6125F78A88EEF4D3 at about the 5:00 minute mark. Also, here is the link to her plan on her campaign website: http://action.burkeforwisconsin.com/page/-/Burke%20for%20WI%20-%20Invest%20for%20Success.pdf (hope this copied ok).

      In the interview, when she talked about a need for welders, I realize that we have plenty of welders - it's just that employers don't want to pay them what they should be able to command based on free market principles (supply and demand). I also don't feel it's the responsibility of taxpayers to train a company's employees. I do, however feel it's important for the state to support educational opportunities for its citizens.

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  4. Anon at 10:22, if it's about "winning," why isn't Ms. Burke's campaign coming out solidly for legalizing marijuana?

    I would never encourage anyone, who did not already have a serious illness, to use it, but the prohibition against alcohol didn't work either. What better way to lower state and local property taxes than to replace that revenue with a tax on pot? That revenue is currently going to the drug cartels.

    You mention her "positive plan for Wisconsin." Please explain it in detail.

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  5. I think it's a smart move. Walker has tried to pretend that his legal problems are all about partisan witch hunting and that's a position that can't stand even the slightest contact with reality.

    As it is, the media are strangely doing their job for a change on this one. If Burke were to focus on it, it'd do little but lend credence to Walker's position while not bringing it to the attention of anyone new to the information.

    As Napoleon said, never interrupt your opponent when he is making a mistake. Not quite the same thing but the basic principle still applies.

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    1. I agree. She is telling people what she will do to help the state, not spewing negativity. She is very positive and down to earth. She may do a very good job if we give her the chance.

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  6. Ms. Burke should be attacking Gov. Walker from the right. What's Karl Rove got to do with Wisconsin? A lot of people in the Tea Party don't like Karl Rove.

    Judge Randa's decision was so overreaching that it paved the way for any oligarch, anywhere in the world to buy a Wisconsin election and to do deduct all the donations on his/her taxes.

    There are plenty of ways for Ms. Burke to give the media quotes (something she and her campaign staff need to get a lot better at) that won't offend the middle-of-the-road voters she's understandably courting.

    Her silence only helps Walker, O'Keefe, the Koch brothers, Judge Randa, Judge Peterson, Karl Rove, and the Republican party.

    It hurts Judge Easterbrook, Francis Schmitz, John Chisholm, Judge Nettesheim, and every District Attorneys in the state (and probably in the country). The oligarchs are trying to buy the courthouse. And they're doing it by shredding local and state District Attorneys and their investigators. That's about a half-a-step away from anarchy.

    With Karl Rove's involvement, this is even more of a national story. That means the local media have a lot less control. There's a much greater chance that they will get scooped if they don't run with something.

    Another thing Ms. Burke could and should point out is that Wisconsin is being run via the Wall Street Journal's editorial page. Mike Grebe gave Paul Gigot (WSJ editor $250,000). Rupert Murdoch owns the Wall Street Journal. When the Koch brothers want to tell Walker not to take a deal, they use the Wall Street Journal's editorial page. When the Koch brothers want to blast Francis Schmitz, they use the Wall Street Journal editorial page.

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    1. painting walker as being part of the karl rove mafia would be very effective -- bush is still wildly unpopular and will likely be considered one of the worst presidents in US history for the rest of our lifetimes (and generations to come).

      This is especially true as Iraq self-destructs and the bush minions/war criminals are featured on TV telling us what to do next.

      Folks he don't want the wall street journal running the state -- and rememer -- scott walker is part of the george WALKER bush clan.

      That won't go over well either.

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  7. Burke has a duty to hit on the many examples of corruption in the Walker Administration. WEDC. United Sportsmen. John Doe I convictions. The Quid Pro Qup of corporate contributions and resulting laws relaxing environmental regulations, e.g., Cline/GTAC and mining law, as well as Kochs/Georgia Pacific and delaying compliance of tighter phosphorous pollution. These are major reasons why Walker has got to go!

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    1. Good points. There are a lot of good people who voted for Scott Walker . . . if they knew how corrupt he and his administrations were (County Exec) and are (Governor), and how he is allowing outside interests to plunder the resources of the state they would be disgusted. As candidate for governor, Mary Burke is in a position to educate the citizens of the state on these matters.

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  8. Id like to see an ad that says, "we will not let walker's criminal record overshadow his lack of jobs record!"

    That hits it without hitting it.

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    1. I like that alot! I also like poiinting out that the righties hate when workers organize and collaborate because Scott Walker knows the power that comes with that!

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  9. You can go back to this as part of a "I won't be a crooked liar" portion of the campaign, which you can close things out with.

    I'd focus on the last in the Midwest jobs record, exploding budget deficit, and disinvestment in education if I was Burke . Leave the John Doe stuff to us, and the DPW (who should be sucking GOP legislators into this vortex). I think there will be plenty of developments in the Doe later on, so no need to get into a noisy war of words on it FOR NOW

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    1. Jake i do agree that the DPW NEEDS to tie in the GOP legislators to all of this mess but unfortunately fail miserably!

      They let the whole GOP get away with the United Sportsmen mess untouched.

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    2. I promise I won't have a criminal defense fund.

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    3. Republicans' support of Walker takes a nosedive as soon as they become acquainted with the fact that under his leadership Wisconsin's job growth has been anemic (to put it politely). The more attention drawn to this, the worse for Walker's re-elect chances.

      @Anon 8:11am: Walker doesn't have one right now (it was liquidated a little after JD1 was closed). It needs to be phrased as "I promise that I won't start a criminal defense fund".

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    4. or need one . . .

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  10. Burke is in a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation. If she doesn't go hard negative on Walker over illegal coordination, she'd effectively give bipartisan cover to corruption within the Republican Party. If she does go hard negative on Walker over illegal coordination, she runs the risk of giving the appearance of credibility to Walker's bogus claim of a partisan witch hunt against him. The best way for Burke to deal with this is to run a TV ad (I'm guessing that Burke has raised enough money to run an anti-Walker ad unless she's blowing most of her campaign money on consultants, etc.) using the email that Walker sent to Karl Rove against Walker, which is very easy to do and would effectively disprove Walker's claim of a partisan witch hunt without explicitly mentioning it.

    Of course, Walker is in an even worse situation that Burke: Walker could be indicted for violating campaign laws before the general election, which would almost certainly hand Burke the keys to the Wisconsin Governor's Mansion.

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  11. Burke is doing the right thing not attacking Walker's criminality. She can't do anything about it. The righties will not vote for someone who attacks their precious leader they took so much pride in backing regardless of how much he flubbed up.
    When he's indicted...when not if...she will be the candidate who stayed on message and out of the fray. Only after an indictment should she add that to her platform because then it's true and she had nothing to do with it. The gop party will look less trustworthy as well and voters will be looking for a clean, trustworthy candidate.

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  12. Let the DPW do the heavy lifting on exposing Walker and his co-thinkers and funders and all the dirt they have done on Wisconsin.
    Burke can work hardest at explaining her program, and why it is better than what Walker has done. Her message can stay positive and enthusiastic, much like Clinton did (say, like "Don't Stop Thinking About Tomorrow") in his beating George H.W. Bush in '92. Critisizing, after all, can be done in ways that aren't underhanded. John Nichols criticizes the Teapublicans mercilessly, but it's always backed up by historical facts and done in a way that brings hope to your cause. People generally know the negative experiences that they've had to live through from SKW & Friends, but they need to vote for a positive alternative, one that looks forward to helping all Wisconsinites, not the fortunate few.
    And just as important is having all our Democratic legislative candidates do the same. Let them concentrate on their ideas as compared to their opponents, and let the DPW expose the extensive dirt
    from the last 3+ years.

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    1. I have to admit, I am getting very curious about when the State Senate recall election campaigns will enter the collusion / coordination mix. Which of the GOP candidates were babes in the woods (or, perhaps, never got any of that nice whispery dark money support and so never wondered about it) and which knew darned well where the "issue" ads and absentee voting flyers were coming from, helped raise the money and helped craft the messages? What did Scott Fitzgerald and Alberta Darling know, and when did they know it? How come the name of the go-to consultant for setting up astroturf front groups came so easily to Mike Ellis' lips? There's a lot more to this than the man behind the curtain; Scott Walker may be evil but he's no genius. How many other GOPpers were in on the scam?

      That said, I agree that Mary Burke and the other Dem candidates should focus on getting their own messages and voters out and let the John Doe revelations speak for themselves to those interested enough to listen. The candidates will have enough of a job countering the lies that are already floating around -- and no doubt are about to become a flood -- regarding Wisconsin's economic, educational, social and environmental performance over the last three years without having to keep up with Gov. Walker's daily dose of evasion and b.s. That's the DPW's job, and the media's job, and our job. Just keep on explaining what big money corruption's about, to family, friends and neighbors friends and neighbors; sooner or later it has to sink in or democracy in Wisconsin is well and truly sunk.

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  13. Wisconsin's Republican legislators have been pretty quiet about all this . . .

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