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I don't think there's a war inside the Democratic Party. I think there's a war on the part of the Republicans against the public-sector unions. And they have rather shrewdly opened up this wedge between people who look at public-sector unions as people having overly generous pensions and health benefits. And, in fact, they are overly generous, because it was a social contract that was written back in the day when, instead of giving higher wages, unions bargained for better benefits. We're out of that stage now, and the unions are going to have to retrench. What happened in Wisconsin is an embarrassment for the unions, but they're going to work a whole lot harder for the rest of this year to make sure that things don't get worse; plus the fact the recall election in the state senate worked. The Democrats took back control of the state senate, which will allow them to slow, cripple, Scott Walker's agenda. So all is not lost in Wisconsin.
-Eleanor Clift |
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Scott Walker stays as governor of Wisconsin. Republican Walker beat back a recall challenge that pitted him against Democrat Tom Barrett, the Democratic mayor of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Barrett got 46 percent of the vote to Walker’s 53 percent, a seven-point spread. Walker has two and a half years to go in his four-year term. The recall Democratic stratagem was precipitated by Walker's aggressive measures to cut Wisconsin's budget, notably the ones that stripped public employees of much of their collective bargaining rights. Walker's cuts forced workers to pay more for their health care and their pension benefits. Walker's move sparked mass protests at the state capitol. Largely Democratic labor unions were able to collect almost 1 million signatures, thus forcing this week's recall election. Anti-Walkerites and pro-Walkerites assembled their respective big get-out-the-vote constituencies, spending some $75 million, half coming from outside Wisconsin. |
