Walker offers toughness, experience
Scott Walker has said repeatedly during his campaign for governor that he will develop strategies to create 250,000 new jobs during his first term.
It's a big promise - one that has been derided by his critics. But for the sake of Wisconsin, Walker had better be right.
We have watched Walker and his opponent, Tom Barrett, for years. Both are decent, honest, principled public servants. If a ledger existed, it would no doubt show that we've agreed with Barrett more often than with Walker.
But in a time of economic peril and at a time when government must be reformed, it's time to throw away the playbook.
We recommend Scott Walker to be Wisconsin's next governor.
This election comes as Wisconsin reels from a recession that the experts tell us is over but that still feels very painful.
Systemic deficiencies exist in how the state is run and in how state services are funded.
Deep fissures exist in the foundation upon which businesses create jobs and pay taxes.
Average residents worry whether there is a viable future for them in Wisconsin. Property taxes unduly burden them, public education fails too many of their children and higher education is in danger of becoming unaffordable.
Both candidates for governor acknowledge this landscape, but one is better equipped to move Wisconsin forward because he has been tested in the kind of crucible that mimics the governor's job in this environment. That is Walker.
Relevant experience is the argument we made when we recommended Walker over Mark Neumann in the Republican primary in September. It holds in his general election race against the Democratic candidate, Barrett.
And there is this: Democrats have held the governorship and two legislative houses and have failed to demonstrate they could collaborate even among themselves to address problems that don't even rise to the level of systemic and structural.
Walker was elected Milwaukee's County executive in 2002 amid a pension scandal that drove his predecessor and others from office, and he manages an institution with financial travails and other dynamics that mirror the state's:
Structural deficits promising future implosion.
A constant tension between what is necessary and what is affordable.
The need to exact concessions from public employee unions.
An intransigent legislative body, in many ways in thrall to these interests.
This is the Milwaukee County that Walker inherited. But it is also an apt description of the state he seeks to lead.
There can be no more kicking the can down the Wisconsin road. If there is one thing Walker has shown in his tenure as county executive, it is an abiding intolerance for the failures of business as usual.
Walker's habit of upending the status quo has been a disquieting reality for a County Board with a majority that obstructs progress as much as it acts as a check on the county executive. Walker's approach has put public employee unions on notice that, though no one diminishes the value of the members' work, they cannot be exempt from the economic distress that plagues the taxpayers who pay their salaries.
The persisting dysfunction in Milwaukee County is not of Walker's making and arguably - with tight-fisted stewardship - is better than it was before he took office.
Still, Walker's record as county executive is not unblemished.
The county's Mental Health Complex has been so badly managed under his watch that vulnerable people have been needlessly victimized. His budgets have failed to meet the need, even as overtime salaries for some complex employees boggle the imagination. The Milwaukee County Transit System has suffered route cuts and fare hikes, a victim to diminished county revenues and lack of vision. The state took over what state officials said were badly managed public assistance programs - though county officials said those programs simply were underfunded by the state.
We differ with Walker on some of the stances he's taken during this election. Stopping the fast train between Milwaukee and Madison reflects the kind of fiscal conservatism for which he is known, but it still is shortsighted.
Also of concern was his answer to whether he would support state legislation to require the shadow groups pouring in millions of dollars into surrogate ads to reveal their donors. We fear he would veto such efforts.
We worry about his views on embryonic stem cell research, which holds great promise for treatment of a variety of ailments. Wisconsin is a world leader in this important work. In the past, Walker has gone so far as to say he would sign a bill banning such research. More recently, he has been less strident, saying, "I'm going to put the money (state funding) behind adult stem cells - not embryonic." That would be a colossal mistake.
But Walker's trademarks are austerity and out-of-the-box thinking, up to and including his proposal to do away with Milwaukee County government altogether. We've not agreed with his no-new-taxes pledge as county executive, but we recognize that it has forced frugality on the County Board that taxpayers might not have gotten otherwise.
His pitch to sell Mitchell International Airport and moves to outsource some county jobs were innovative.
Barrett, meanwhile, has run a spirited, though at times too negative, campaign. His jobs and deficit proposals are far more detailed than Walker's and should be considered even if he's not elected.
But Walker's strokes on these topics are promising, too. He is open to the economic ideas contained in the "Be Bold Wisconsin" report, which suggests, among other things, revamping the state Department of Commerce.
We would hope the Legislature would right-size Walker's proposal for broad tax cuts that would threaten to deepen the state's budget deficit. On this point, Barrett's targeted tax cuts are the better approach.
But in this election, we're looking for a kind of fiscal tenacity that this state has, perhaps, never seen. Talk that Barrett isn't "tough enough" is a bum rap. But, on fiscal matters, there is tough and then there is the right kind of experience.
Walker has both, and that makes him the better choice.
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