If there were any doubt that Gov. Scott Walker is losing support in his union-busting campaign, plans for two new television campaigns in support of Walker were announced today.
There's one reason for this carpet-bombing campaign from the air. Walker is in trouble. The right-wing nationally has a lot at stake and needs to win this fight in Wisconsin. At any cost. And his side has unlimited money at its disposal.
Both spots start Tuesday, the day Walker unveils his new budget proposal, which is certain to make him even more unpopular as he slashes nearly a billion dollars from public education.
One is particularly nasty. It's from a new group that has never been active in Wisconsin, called the Campaign to Defeat Barack Obama. The ad, an expensive 60-second spot, attributed to the Our County Deserves Better PAC and TeaPartyExpress.org, accuses "labor union mobs led by Barack Obama's Organizing for America" of attempting to "intimidate" and "harass" the governor and legislators.
WisPolitics reports:
The ad shows shots of protesters inside and outside the State Capitol, and includes a clip of U.S. Rep. Michael Capuano, D-Mass., telling a Boston rally last week that, "Every once in a while, you've got to get out on the streets and get a little bloody when necessary."
"Things have gone too far," an announcer says in the ad. "Barack Obama and public employee unions, grow up and knock off your selfish campaign of intimidation."
Watch it here.
The other spot, by the Republican Governors Assn., attacks the 14 Democratic state senators who have gone to Illinois to prevent passage of Walker's union-busting "budget repair" bill. Politico reportsthat the spot:
...accuses Democrats in the Wisconsin legislature of “fleeing their responsibility” by hunkering down in Illinois to block a quorum in the GOP-held state Senate.
“While Senate Democrats are fleeing their responsibility, Gov. Walker is leading, balancing the budget without raising taxes,” the ad says.
The commercial alludes to Walker’s confrontation with state employees, who would lose much of their collective bargaining rights under the governor’s proposed budget plan.
Walker’s budget, the commercial says, asks “state employees to contribute to their own benefits” like other Wisconsinites.
The RGA, it should be noted, usually spends its money to elect Republican governors, not prop them up after they have been in office less than two months. There must have been a big fat donation earmarked to help Walker. We'll see what the next campaign finance reports are filed, but feel free to speculate in the meantime.