Final Wisconsin Recall Debate a Bruising Stalemate

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, left, and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.Brian Cahn/ZUMAPRESS.com

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


After avoiding confrontation in his first debate with Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, Gov. Scott Walker punched back hard and often on Thursday night in second and final debate of Wisconsin’s bruising, cash-soaked recall campaign. Walker ripped Barrett as weak on crime and suggested he was clueless when it came to a plan to jump-start Wisconsin’s economy. Barrett, meanwhile, kept up his attacks on Walker’s integrity by highlighting the so-called John Doe investigation that has resulted in criminal charges against three former Walker aides, a Walker campaign donor, and a political appointee.

“I have a police department that arrests felons. He has a practice of hiring them,” Barrett said in one of the night’s most memorable lines.

The debate, ably moderated by Milwaukee broadcast journalist Mike Gousha, veered from the investigation swirling around Walker to job creation in Wisconsin to right-to-work legislation to the impacts of Walker’s Act 10 legislation that curbed collective bargaining rights for most public-sector unions. Both candidates sounded sharp and on message, yet it’s unclear if either said anything groundshaking enough to win over undecided voters.

Walker repeatedly said that his economic reforms, including his anti-union legislation, were benefitting Wisconsin’s schools and businesses. He also stood by the newer set of jobs figures he released, claiming they showed progress in the state. “I realize this undermines the whole focal point of your ads for the last few months, but the facts are the facts,” Walker said. “Wisconsin gained jobs in 2012, we gained jobs in 2011.”

Barrett questioned the accuracy of the numbers, and again used them to attack Walker’s integrity. The Milwaukee mayor also highlighted Walker’s comment to a wealthy donor that he would “divide and conquer” labor unions in Wisconsin.

Barrett also took a stand on the issue of money in politics in Wisconsin. More than $3 of every $5 dollars raised by Walker for the recall has come from out-of-state donors. “People fundamentally know there’s something wrong when you have a sitting governor raise, 60, 65 percent of their money from out of state,” Barrett said, adding that Walker’s donor “found the place where they can push through the tea party agenda.”

In the end, Barrett returned to the theme of integrity as the reason to choose him on Tuesday. “This is an important election,” he said. “It’s an election about trust. And I’m asking you to trust me.”

Walker, repeating his theme of moving Wisconsin forward, said he’s the guy with the “courage to take on the tough challenges.” He added, “I want to make sure they inherit a Wisconsin at least as great as the Wisconsin we inherited.”

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

AN IMPORTANT UPDATE

We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

The crisis facing journalism and democracy isn’t going away anytime soon. And neither is Mother Jones, our readers, or our unique way of doing in-depth reporting that exists to bring about change.

Which is exactly why, despite the challenges we face, we just took a big gulp and joined forces with the Center for Investigative Reporting, a team of ace journalists who create the amazing podcast and public radio show Reveal.

If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

Editor-in-Chief Clara Jeffery said it well to our team recently, and that team 100 percent includes readers like you who make it all possible: “This is a year to prove that we can pull off this merger, grow our audiences and impact, attract more funding and keep growing. More broadly, it’s a year when the very future of both journalism and democracy is on the line. We have to go for every important story, every reader/listener/viewer, and leave it all on the field. I’m very proud of all the hard work that’s gotten us to this moment, and confident that we can meet it.”

Let’s do this. If you can right now, please support Mother Jones and investigative journalism with an urgently needed donation today.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate