Wisconsin Democrats Get No DNC Support For Walker Recall

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker

May 16, 2012 - The Democrat National Committee (DNC) is not giving enough financial support to Wisconsin Democrats' effort to recall Gov. Scott Walker. 

The recall election will be held on June 5th. In addition to the DNC being MIA in the Badger State, Walker is polling better than his Democrat challenger, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. A poll released today by Marquette University Law School shows Walker ahead of Barrett by 50 percent to 44 percent "among likely recall voters," as reported by NationalJournal.com.

That's according to a report by the Washington Post earlier this week. Henry D'Andrea analyzed the lack of national support in his Washington Times Communities column today.

"In an exclusive report by the Washington Post," wrote D'Andrea, "top Wisconsin Democrats are furious at the DNC for not helping to fund Barrett’s gubernatorial bid against Walker."

D'Andrea notes that the DNC is all talk and no bankroll in the Recall Walker effort.

It's so desperate, it would seem, that Barrett out an odd email on May 8, asking ordinary folks for donations of $12.00. That's an odd number, as pointed out in a great column today by Bill Lueders at WisconsinWatch.org. "Between March 20 of this year, just before launching his campaign, and May 7," wrote Lueders, "the eve of the primary, Barrett raised $1.1 million, including reported late contributions, state Government Accountability Board records show." Walker, in contrast, has garnered more that $25 million in contributions since taking office on January 3, 2011.

According to the Washington Post report on May 14, a "top Wisconsin Democratic Party official said that they are "frustrated" by a lack of support not only by the DNC, but by the Democratic Governors Association (DGA). “Scott Walker has the full support and backing of the Republican Party and all its tentacles. We are not getting similar support,” the Post quoted the official as saying.

That Wisconsin Democrat official (who is apparently too cowardly to allow the Post to use his name), said that the state part requested the DNC for $500,000 to help finance its statewide campaign against Walker. "While the DNC has made generally supportive noises," said the Post, "the money has not been forthcoming, the official says — with less than a month until the June 5th recall election."

Even if the DNC did suddenly infuse half a million dollars into Wisconsin tomorrow, there is not much time left for it to make much difference. "The DNC," said the Post, "did not immediately respond to a request for comment."

Wisconsin Dems are worried about the consequences of their recall effort failing. It could, after all, have national repercussions.

The unnamed Wisconsin Democrat official also told the Washington Post that if Walker survives the recall election next month, "he will turn his victory into a national referendum on his ideas about the middle class. It will hurt Democrats nationally. The fact that [national Dems] are sitting on their hands now is so frustrating. The whole ticket stands to lose."

"Though DNC Chair Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz is supposed to host a fundraiser for Barrett," wrote Jonathan S. Tobin in Commentary Magazine today, "the party has yet to respond to a request from Wisconsin Democrats for a quick half million, but the check is apparently still in the mail. The Democratic Governors Association has already spent $2 million helping their union allies to push for a recall, but it’s not clear if they’re going to be throwing more good after bad."

The situation is so bad, noted Tobin, that some Democrats may be just giving up - including the White House. As pointed out above, the recall is just a few weeks away. "If, as now seems likely, Walker survives the recall," Tobin wrote, "it will do more than just strengthen the rising GOP star. It will be rightly seen as a harbinger of other, even more significant defeats for the Democrats later this year. That’s why the DNC and the president are now bailing out of a Wisconsin fight that may turn out to be a huge mistake for the left."