Amelia
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Stephen Moore: The Most Important Non-Presidential Election of the Decade - WSJ.com
Much more good stuff at the link. Hard to decide what to include here without posting the whole thing.
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No American politician had a more polarizing effect on voters last year than Scott Walker. This time last year, thousands of irate protesters were occupying Wisconsin's state Capitol, comparing Mr. Walker to Hitler for trying to reform the pension and collective-bargaining systems of public-employee unions. He needed an entourage of 25 security officers to escort him through the building at the height of the pandemonium.
Now he faces what he predicts will be his most bruising fight of all: a union-funded recall election intended to toss him out of office. His opponents last week submitted one million signatures to trigger a recall election as early as spring or summer. Mr. Walker expects this to be a $70 million brawla record for Wisconsin and twice the total spent in the 2010 governor's race. Smiling, Mr. Walker says he hopes to be the "first governor re-elected twice during his first term."
The stakes here "go well beyond who will be governor of Wisconsin," Mr. Walker explains. The recall's ultimate objective is to intimidate any official across the country who's thinking of crossing swords with the empire of teachers and other public-employee unions. "This is about killing reform initiatives in every state in the country," says Mr. Walker.
In Wisconsin, the evidence is mounting that Mr. Walker hasn't brought economic Armageddon but financial stability. Last year's $3 billion deficit is now a $300 million surplusand it was accomplished without the new taxes that unions favored. "If a business is failing, you don't raise the prices on your customers," Mr. Walker scoffs.
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Still, the national unions have yet to decide whether spending another $30 million or $50 million on a recall roll of the dice is worth it given the higher priority of getting President Obama re-elected. The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which has been severely critical of Mr. Walker's power play, recently acknowledged that he has fulfilled his pledge of balancing the budget without new taxes and that "the sky isn't falling."
If unions succeed in getting voters to evict reformers, it could "set back the conservative reform agenda across the states for a generation," Mr. Walker warns. This might be the most important nonpresidential election in a decade.
Much more good stuff at the link. Hard to decide what to include here without posting the whole thing.