Roger Bybee
Excerpt from In These Times February 8, 2012
Read the complete article in
http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/12691/top_1_shower_walker_with_cash_but_recall_and_scandal_loom/
Walker’s latest efforts take advantage of a state law that
allows targets of a recall to ignore the usual $10,000 per-
donor cap and raise unlimited amounts until an election is
set. Walker has been traversing the country raising money
`and speaking at gatherings of conservatives from Texas to
New York and Tennessee.
On Monday, Walker was back in Wisconsin to address his fans
at a Wisconsin Bankers Association luncheon. The Bankers
Association PAC recently contributed over $14,000 to his re-
election committee after giving Walker 2010 campaign over
$41,000, said Robert Kraig, executive director of Citizen
Action of Wisconsin.
At a demonstration held outside the luncheon, Citizen Action
held up a gold-plated toilet “to represent Walker’s
relationship with the Wall Street and the top 1%,” Kraig
said.
“Bankers played a huge role in crashing the economy in the
first place, and now they’re trying to keep him in power,”
he observed. “He’s not only raised $12 million, but he has
spent almost $10 million already. And this guy is just
getting started.
“We know that he is a celebrity on the Far Right, and what
he did is playing to a right-wing movement to eliminate the
power of working people,” stated Kraig. “They probably
thought [Walker's Wisconsin law eliminating public-employee
rights] would spark more governors beyond Indiana and
Ohio.” Indiana passed a “right to work” law last week, and
voters in Ohio repealed Gov. John Kasich’s law against
public employee unions by an overwhelming 61-39 percent
margin November 8.
Walker’s reliance on out-of-state money is hypocritical,
given his earlier claims to a blogger last Feb. 22
impersonating billionaire supporter David Koch that “there’s
a much smaller group of protesters, almost all of whom are
in from other states today.” Walker’s claim was countered
rather contemptuously by the Madison police official who had
been closely observing the protesters and noted the
prevalence of Wisconsin Badger and Green Bay Packer emblems
on their clothing. (And the “much smaller group” somehow
grew into a force of 100,000 the following Saturday.)
Now Walker is asserting that he needs to raise money from
out of state on his often-secret fundraising trips in order
to counter the coming wave of money from national “union
bosses.” Citizen Action’s Kraig said that the myth of
massive union spending is a perpetual right-wing line. In
2008 federal elections, for example, corporate groups out-
spent labor by a 15-1 margin, according to the Center for
Responsive Politics.
“Labor is entirely out-gunned and the corporations are
really unloading on working people,” said Kraig.”The right
wing dominates the media with paid ads and talk-radio shows.
The notion of all-powerful ‘Big Labor’ is simply Orwellian
propaganda.”
But the long-running labor rebellion and recall campaign
have shown the power of different brand of politics, one
that relies on grassroots efforts and patient persuasion
rather than 30-second TV ads costing millions. Thus,
Walker’s deep pockets–already undermined by the state’s job
losses and the ever-widening John Doe probe–is no guarantee
of a victory for him and his corporate sponsors.
