"Kathleen [Falk] is open to being a candidate for governor if the recall effort against Walker is successful," says Melissa Mulliken, Falk's longtime campaign adviser, when asked if Falk would be interested in a run for governor, reports the Capital Times.*If I'm not mistaken, Kathleen Falk is the first candidate to announce such an intention since an early favorite, Russ Feingold, declined to.
It doesn't make a whole hell of a lot of sense to me to launch a recall effort without a replacement candidate in mind. If somebody came pounding on my door asking me to sign a Scott Walker recall petition, the first question I'd ask is, "Who you going to replace him with?"
I doubt I'd take "We don't know yet" as a satisfactory answer. Also, 'I'll consider running if and only if these other people pull enough signatures together' is not among the most inspiring political messages I've heard.
While there's reportedly considerable enthusiasm for recalling Walker there's been zero to little inclination toward actually running against him. And if the proponents for an early recall seize their earliest opportunity — which is less than a month away — then the general election in 2012 would be earlier rather than later as well so somebody sure better get on the stick and start raising money tout de suite.
(The last gubernatorial election cost the candidates $17.85 millions.)
Otherwise the recall petitioners could end up gathering 540,000 signatures two times: once for a spring election that coincides with historically high Republican turnouts and again for a November 2012 contest that is not boding particularly well for Democrats either.
Of course that might be why nobody's interested. On the other hand, Scott Walker is apparently taking it all very seriously. Perhaps Walker knows who's going to run against him. Maybe he can give us a hint.
* But not until the twenty-first paragraph!
7 comments:
You're absolutely right that the Democrats need a candidate (or candidates), but please god not Kathleen Falk. She did a fine job as Dane County Exec, but she's shown in her races for governor (2002 primary) and attorney general (2006) that she can't run a decent statewide campaign.
I would agree with that. She's had two cracks at statewide campaigns and lost the second one in a year when no other Dems lost.
Thank you for posting on this critical issue. It's crazy to go into a recall campaign without a candidate, and it's far less than inspiring to go into one with Kathleen Falk kind maybe into it.
Yes, we should at least have a few exciting candidates lined up right now. The hate for Walker still runs very strong, but people need/want a candidate so they can visualize this fight. As for Falk and company- love Kathleen - but agree w. your assessment.
This is Melissa Mulliken, the person quoted in this post. Just a clarification: I said to the Capital Times that Kathleen is open to running for governor "when the recall succeeds" not "if the recall succeeds" as is reported here. Thanks. Here's the link to the article:
http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/govt-and-politics/capitol-report/article_51aacc22-f2ef-11e0-8801-001cc4c002e0.html?sourcetrack=moreArticle
The most charismatic & articulate of the Dem 14 should run but if this is not possible then my second choice would have to be Barrett because he has got the name recognition & is still fresh in the voters minds. If he would have run a stronger campaign he most likely would have been elected Governor (even with the low turn out) . Whoever runs must be well known to most Wisconsinites & but unfortunately Barrett's popularity is mostly regional. I almost forgot about Ed Garvey but he is definitely well known statewide (come on Ed give it another go!) & is popular. BTW, what's Anthony Earl doing these days?!
Indented text is a copy/paste so the Cap Times must have revised its story.
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