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Walker ponders making U.S. Senate endorsement

Given the governor's immense popularity with Republican voters in Wisconsin, a Walker endorsement could easily influence the outcome of a contest that polls show is still wide open.

Journal Sentinel files


Gov. Scott Walker says he hasn't ruled out making an endorsement in Wisconsin's acrimonious GOP primary for U.S. Senate, even though he has stayed neutral for months.

"We've got about a week and half left. We still might come out and do something. I've never said I won't," Walker said in an interview Friday in Washington, D.C., where he was speaking at a pair of events.


"Tonette and I were talking about this the other day, saying, 'Is it better to stay out?' or take sides, he said, referring to conversations with his wife.

Walker has described his neutrality in the race as an effort to "play referee" in an adversarial intraparty battle and keep the infighting within bounds.

Walker said Friday he hasn't heard any "baldfaced lies" from the Republican candidates, though he said the contestants come to him "all the time" with complaints about what their opponents are saying about them.

The governor elaborated on previous complaints that the GOP campaigns were spending too much time beating each other up and not enough time talking about their differences with Democratic Senate candidate Tammy Baldwin.

Some 'petty issues'

"I don't think there could be a clearer contrast between the four of them and Baldwin and yet you hear next to nothing about that," said Walker. "Sadly, the campaign has kind of boiled down to a handful of petty issues amongst, mainly, three of the four candidates. I think it's the best field of primary candidates in the country and probably the best we've seen in years, and yet all you're seeing is kind of this nitpicking."

The three leading Republicans in the race, Tommy Thompson, Eric Hovde and Mark Neumann, have been aggressively attacking each other on the stump and on television, as have conservative groups taking sides in the race. The fourth-place candidate in the polls, Jeff Fitzgerald, has avoided the crossfire, though he has also had far less money to spend.

Walker said he thought there was very little ideological difference among the GOP candidates.

If Walker were to endorse, the two mostly likely possibilities would seem to be Thompson, who was the state's influential GOP governor when Walker was coming up in politics as a state lawmaker; and Assembly Speaker Fitzgerald, who helped pass Walker's agenda during the stormy outset of his gubernatorial term (Walker called him a "great guy."). By contrast, Neumann and Walker were rivals in a somewhat contentious 2010 primary for governor. And Walker has comparatively little history with Hovde, a political newcomer and wealthy businessman.

Walker did defend Thompson in the interview from critics on the right who've questioned his conservatism.

Walker called that a "joke," saying almost no Republican is "pure" in the sense of having nothing in their record that's open to question from conservative critics.

"You look at any of them, the only one that comes close to being absolutely pure is Fitzgerald . . . (but) you could talk about votes Neumann took (in Congress). You could talk about contributions (to Democrats), which they have about Hovde. You could talk about statements Tommy has made. None of them are going to be pure."

Talking Thompson

Walker praised Thompson's record as Wisconsin's longest-serving governor, though at the same time critiquing his campaign.

"It shows you how bizarre this race has become. To me, (in) Thompson's campaign, there's very little talk about his strengths. You think about the issues facing the country, the economy and budget. I mean this is a guy who used the line-item veto successfully more than any other governor in the country, saved taxpayers all this money, cut taxes, property taxes, income taxes, obviously was a champion of . . . school choice, welfare reform. He was a hero, and yet somehow he's on his heels, which just seems ridiculous to me," he said.

Walker said he has been surprised that the primary has been such a political struggle for Thompson, and that his own "gut" sense was that people around Thompson, "all of whom are top-notch, kind of took it for granted that he was the front-runner, which is understandable."

The governor said he thought the Thompson campaign had so far missed an opportunity to argue that Thompson's age and experience, rather than pegging him an "establishment" politician, gives him an unusual measure of political independence, because "at this point in his life, is somebody going to intimidate him?"

Said Walker: "I still think there's a very compelling argument to be made about Thompson where you say instead of experience being a liability in the sense of being in (politics) for a while, he's got all the experience to understand what's going on, yet there's nothing more he needs to prove.

"So you get that independence you normally get from a private-sector guy combined with the experience you get from somebody who's been around the block, who knows what's going on, but isn't scrambling just to hold on to their current occupation."

Whether those comments are a prelude to an endorsement, or merely the governor offering a friendly and free consultation, will become clear between now and the Aug. 14 primary.

© 2014, Journal Sentinel Inc. All rights reserved.

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