Here & Now

Candidate Breakdown: Race for Governor

Frederica Freyberg:

Good evening. I’m Frederica Freyberg with Wisconsin Public Television.

Shawn Johnson:

And I’m Shawn Johnson with Wisconsin Public Radio. In less than two weeks Wisconsin voters will go to the polls for a primary election to decide the candidates for governor.

Frederica Freyberg:

For the next hour, we will bring you an election primer on all the candidates still in the race. We’ll look at three issue areas: the economy, education and health care.

Shawn Johnson:

We will dig into the latest from the campaign trail and hear some things you may not have known about the candidates. We interviewed the candidates several times over the past few months. What you’ll hear tonight are excerpts on the issues from those interviews.

Frederica Freyberg:

Governor Scott Walker would not make himself available for a sit-down interview for this program. We hear from him on the campaign trail. Otherwise, to begin, we asked the candidates, “What sets them apart”?

We begin with Governor Scott Walker.

Scott Walker:

We got a great story to tell. We got a great plan for the future. We’re going to tell the voters of this state what we’re for, not what we’re against. And I believe, time and time again, not just republicans, not just conservatives, but even independents and even a few discerning democrats want people to tell them what they’re for, not what they’re against.

Frederica Freyberg:

Here’s the republican challenger, Robert Meyer.

Robert Meyer:

We know what he’s done. He’s riding on the coat tails of the positive things going into the election year but he doesn’t have an economic plan to overcome or to address the structural rural poverty that we have or the concentrated urban poverty and we’re now into a farm crisis. And so people I think, are, if they become aware that there’s an alternative and a traditional moderate, fiscally conservative candidate, I think people are — I think a lot of people are very concerned about how tenuous our economy is.

Frederica Freyberg:

On the democratic side we start with Tony Evers.

Tony Evers:

I’m the only candidate that has run three times and won. Last time I won was 70% of the vote and I won 70, 72 counties. I have never lost a county in northern or central Wisconsin in my winning races. So that’s important. I’ve also lived — my family’s lived all across central Wisconsin where I did a lot of my work as a superintendent or as a teacher.

Frederica Freyberg:

Here’s Matt Flynn.

Matt Flynn:

I was the chair of this party. And I know the state and I know the government well. I’m a navy veteran. I’m the only veteran in the race and getting good veteran support around the state. And I differ from them on a number of issues. One of them is Foxconn. I think it’s a crooked deal that I will stop with litigation. None of the others say they will stop it.

Frederica Freyberg:

This is Mike McCabe.

Mike McCabe:

People are really hungry for a very different kind of leadership and a new kind of politics. There’s a big field of establishment politicians, machine politicians who’ve come up through that system, but what people are looking for is a clean break from that system because they see how it’s failed regular people. If regular folks are going to be in the driver’s seat of our government, we do need a very different kind of leadership and I think that’s what people are looking for and that’s what– that’s what they’re seeing in me.

Frederica Freyberg:

Here’s Mahlon Mitchell.

Mahlon Mitchell:

It’s going to require something uniquely different to actually beat Governor Walker this time. We’ve tried the elder statesman in the past with Tom Barrett, who I supported as well. We tried Mary Burke four years later, who had the business acumen who I thought would have made a great governor. We, me and my firefighters also supported. But it’s going to require us to get people excited around the state. We’re going to have to do well with our base but also fire people up in rural areas and across this entire state. I believe I’m the best candidate suited to do that.

Frederica Freyberg:

This is Josh Pade.

Josh Pade:

I provide a fresh vision that really provides a contrast that’s not just in opposition to Governor Walker, but a new way forward. I think that’s why I’m the best person to go against the governor for his third term.

Frederica Freyberg:

Next, Kelda Roys.

Kelda Roys:

I think a lot of the other folks in the race are eager to make this a referendum on Walker but I don’t think that’s enough. I’m running for governor because I have a vision for the state to make it the best place to raise a child and the best place to grow business. And I think people are responding to that positive, proactive message. Not just the sort of negativity that we’ve been mired in.

Frederica Freyberg:

Now, Paul Soglin.

Paul Soglin:

I’m the only candidate with a really robust poll that shows, on the issues, that I’ll defeat Scott Walker. I’m at a considerable disadvantage compared to most of the rest of the other candidates. I’ve a job that consumes between 40 and 60 hours a week. And so as much as I want to defeat Scott Walker and I intend to, I’ve got those responsibilities.

Frederica Freyberg:

This is Kathleen Vinehout.

Kathleen Vinehout:

I live in beautiful Buffalo County, a part of the state where democrats need to win if they’re going to win. I know what it’s like to have to find a cell signal. I’ve been working in the Senate for 12 years. I know where the bones are buried. I have experience on the Audit Committee, understanding what programs are working, what the governor’s done, the recommendations that he should have taken and he never took.

Frederica Freyberg:

With that, we get down to business talking more about the candidates and what’s upcoming in the final stretch ahead of the August 14th primary. We are joined by Wisconsin Public Radio’s Laurel White who has extensively covered those in the running for governor. Also of course, Shawn Johnson is here from Wisconsin Public Radio as well. Thanks you guys for being here.

Shawn Johnson, Laurel White:

Thanks for having us.

Frederica Freyberg:

Let’s start out talking about Scott Walker. Now of course he is the incumbent. He’s a moneyed incumbent. And yet, he talks to his supporters frequently about not getting complacent in this run-up to the general election.

Frederica Freyberg:

Yeah, who has said the words “blue wave” in this election cycle more than Scott Walker? He wants his base to be a little bit worried about what could happen if they’re complacent. In this campaign, you’re getting kind of a snapshot of what– the campaign that Walker wants to run when he can decide everything. He has nobody else– had nobody else on the air for months. He was the only one running TV ads. He ran ads talking about his record. He decided what the agenda was going to be earlier this year. He asked the legislature to pass a child tax credit that would give parents $100 per kid a few months before the election. They did and he’s been out on the trail talking about that for several months. In a sense, this is the campaign that he wants to run, but in a sense he’s also being forced to address a potential vulnerability with Foxconn and running region-specific ads to say, “Hey you, up in Green Bay, where I need to win, here’s are the reasons Foxconn is also good for you even though you may not think so.”

Frederica Freyberg:

Those are out just this week. Those kind of regionally-targeted Foxconn commercials, but there’s also some movement in some polls, national polls putting — where they did a matchup between Scott Walker and Tony Evers they chose because he was the front runner in our Marquette Law School polls — but in those matchups, Scott Walker is trailing. That’s got to echo his message of not getting complacent.

Laurel White:

Right, it really reinforces his message that he’s sending that republicans need to be on their toes. They need to be active leading up into November’s election because he says if republicans don’t win this election, democrats are going to undo all of their republican accomplishments that have been achieved over the past eight years.

Frederica Freyberg:

As you know, we know that the governor is touting himself as the education governor now. And then of course with Tony Evers maybe nipping at his heels. Tony Evers is the superintendent of public instruction so this is a pairing that’s getting interesting.

Shawn Johnson:

It seems like he’s bracing himself for who could be his general election opponent, right? If you’re going to be running against somebody who’s made a career out of education, try to go at their strengths.

Frederica Freyberg:

The state GOP too this week just went up with radio spots, interestingly, targeting four of the democratic candidates, those being Tony Evers, Matt Flynn, Mahlon Mitchell and Kelda Roys. And these are all specific to each of them on issues that the state Republican Party believes they are vulnerable on.

Shawn Johnson:

Yeah, and it’s noteworthy that those are the four democratic candidates who had enough money to put TV ads up.

Frederica Freyberg:

Let’s move along to the republican challenger to incumbent Scott Walker. And that is a man by the name of Robert Meyer. Now he is certainly a long shot candidate. He is running against, again, the incumbent. But Robert Meyer says he doesn’t believe it’s a long shot for him because of social media. He doesn’t have any money but he believed that social media might be able to help him run against Scott Walker. However when we took a look at his Twitter account, he had but 27 followers. So Robert Meyer may just be kind of a gnat for Scott Walker, but he is extremely critical of Scott Walker. So then, let’s move along to Tony Evers. Now this, this is a candidate Laurel that you did a deep dive on. You did a profile on Tony Evers. His latest campaign ad is focusing, of course, on the fact that he is the superintendent of public instruction and his education credentials and he criticizes Foxconn spending in that ad.

Laurel White:

That’s right. So Evers’ experience as an education policy expert in Wisconsin is really the basis of his campaign. So when I did a profile of him, I focused on his political foundations and what have sort of set him up to run for governor of the state. And he says that his statewide electability is really the key there. He was first elected state school superintendent in 2009 and has been re-elected twice. He mentioned in our intro tape there that he’s been elected by pretty wide margins. Now of course that’s not a partisan race. He wasn’t running in those superintendent elections as a democrat. So that could make a little bit of a difference. Right now he’s running as a democrat for governor. But he says he has that name recognition he needs. People all across the state, northern, western Wisconsin know who he is and like what he’s done as the state school superintendent.

Frederica Freyberg:

So that name recognition plays into the most recent Marquette Law School poll which put him at 31%, I believe, compared to the other democratic challengers in this race who were in single digits. He kind of continues to move up at least in that polling.

Shawn Johnson:

Yeah, they’re still, in that poll, 38% were undecided. So undecided still leads the race but if you look at Tony Evers, he has that upward trajectory over the handful of polls that Marquette has done. So it’s not that he has it locked up, it’s just that there hasn’t been somebody who’s emerged as a serious challenger to him in the polling so far.

Frederica Freyberg:

What do you think is something we might not know or remember about Tony Evers?

Laurel White:

Well there’s a different focus on candidates running for an office like state school superintendent versus running for governor. We haven’t gotten quite as much into his personal life or his back story but as we’ve gotten to know Evers a little bit more and looked a little bit more at him in that way, we were reminded that he’s a cancer survivor. It’s not something he’s talked about a lot. He actually mentioned it at the state party convention, right? Briefly.

Shawn Johnson:

Yeah, he said if he could beat cancer, he could beat Scott Walker. He might be eluding to something you’ll hear more of in the general election. But he doesn’t talk about it much now. He talks about the fact that he has won.

Frederica Freyberg:

Let’s move along to Matt Flynn. He is also up with ads, as you know. Shawn, this is a candidate that you focused on in your reporting. But as for his ads, the latest blast Foxconn, his big issue here. Again, he says he’s the only one who will go to court and stop it on day one.

Shawn Johnson:

Yeah, and when he’s asked why he’s most qualified. On your program he said he was state party chair. That was in the early ’80s. I mention that to say that Matt Flynn has a lot of reintroducing himself to people out in Wisconsin. He’s run for office four times and lost. I think if you look at that alone, he has kind of the sound of a perennial candidate. You know, somebody who runs for office regularly, never has a shot. Flynn is actually — if you look back at his races, he had a shot at becoming Congressman Matt Flynn back in 1988. Circumstances quite didn’t align that way and here he is. He made a career in law instead of politics. But Matt Flynn’s last run for office was 14 years ago. So he’s had a lot of reintroducing himself to voters.

Frederica Freyberg:

In this campaign, he’s been roughed up some by groups over his representation of the Milwaukee Archdiocese, and now the Republican Party and his challenger Governor Walker are jumping on that representation of the Milwaukee Archdiocese when they were involved in a sexual abuse scandal. So that’s something that in fact, those radio spots are targeting starting this week.

Laurel White:

It’s been a big issue for Flynn not only with the governor, potential republican challenger but within the Democratic Party as well. He’s had some democrats calling for him to get out of the race because he did represent the Milwaukee Archdiocese during the priest sexual abuse scandal. He defends that work. He says, “I’m not going to apologize for being a good lawyer and I’m not going to stand for people criticizing the Catholic Church.” He says it’s a great institution and he’s proud of working for them.

Frederica Freyberg:

Moving along to Mike McCabe. Laurel, again, this is one of the candidates that you looked at. Interestingly, a Marquette Poll earlier this summer, in a match-up with Scott Walker, had him closest, the closest margin to Governor Walker.

Laurel White:

McCabe is an interesting candidate. People who’ve been following Wisconsin politics for a while are probably familiar with him as a sort of government watchdog figure. He was involved in the founding of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign and led that organization for about 15 years, I think. What that group does is track money in politics. That’s a big issue for McCabe is outside spending, special interests. He calls it the legal bribery that’s worked its way into campaigns these days.

Frederica Freyberg:

And it is true he hasn’t taken donations over $200?

Laurel White:

It’s a big push in his campaign now. Someone can give $200 more than once.

Shawn Johnson:

Yeah, up to $1,000 per person.

Frederica Freyberg:

Isn’t he also the candidate who won’t promise to endorse the eventual primary winner?

Shawn Johnson:

That is part of his pitch is that if you do that, you’re telling voters that you value the party over them, essentially. He has a Hulu ad up right now. He doesn’t have money to really go like at a statewide TV advertising campaign, but he has an ad up where he begins it by showing video of failed democratic presidential candidates: Michael Dukakis, John Kerry. He goes on to the governor’s race with Mary Burke from 2014. He is sending a pretty strong message that what democrats have done hasn’t worked and what he’s doing is something different.

Frederica Freyberg:

Let’s look at Mahlon Mitchell. Again Shawn, this was one of the candidates that you looked at closely. Again, I don’t mean to be the ads and polls person but he is up with a new ad this week promising to heal divisions and be a uniter.

Shawn Johnson:

He would be the state’s first African American governor. That is something that he’s not shy about pointing out. I mean he says it would be historic. It’s not the only reason he’s running. He is also the union candidate in this race. Without a doubt, he has all the major union endorsements. They donated to his campaign. And he cut his teeth in union politics during the Act 10 protests. Scott Walker had just became governor. Mahlon Mitchell had just became the head of the statewide firefighters’ union. And those giant rallies happened at the capital. To hear Mahlon Mitchell describe it, that’s where he learned his public speaking was at those rallies. His career really in politics tracks Governor Walker’s. I mean Walker’s disruption on the Wisconsin political scene is what gave Mitchell this opening.

Frederica Freyberg:

And about as different as two candidates could be therefore. He’s got the endorsement of Senator Kamala Harris, which is interesting. I mean she’s a big name in Democratic Party politics.

Shawn Johnson:

She is. He also has the endorsement of Congresswoman Gwen Moore. So while some of Wisconsin’s congressional delegation are staying neutral in this primary, they don’t want to pick any battles they don’t have to, Gwen Moore got up there early and said, “Mahlon Mitchell fires people up. That’s what we need to have on the ballot.” He’s making a big push for votes in Milwaukee and neighborhoods that don’t traditionally turnout in a primary race. Whether or not that’s fruitful, we don’t know. The thing is we don’t really know what the winning formula is in an eight-person democratic primary. That’s what he’s trying though.

Frederica Freyberg:

Josh Pade is a candidate who got 0% of the vote in the latest Marquette Law School poll, says he’s not dropping out but his entry into the race wasn’t greeted warmly by a lot of people because it just expanded the numbers is what they were saying.

Shawn Johnson:

Yeah, we already had an historically large field of four democrats in Wisconsin and that’s when Pade got in. It’s not running for assembly as his first job. It’s making a pretty big leap. On the other hand, if he had big financial backing in this race, nobody would think twice about it. It’s happening in the U.S. senate race in the republican primary for example. And people treat Kevin Nicholson seriously in that race because he has the money behind him.

Frederica Freyberg:

Money and we’ll be talking about money in a later segment on this program, but let’s jump to Kelda Roys. Could it be the year of the woman as people have suggested? She made a splash with a commercial that went viral when she was breast feeding on camera.

Laurel White:

She did. Some people might have seen that because it did make quite a splash. It was covered by Glamour Magazine and all sorts of national publications. She was breast feeding her infant daughter in the first campaign ad where she was talking about some work she did as a legislator. She was a former state representative. And she said that she didn’t plan on breast feeding in the ad. She was filming the ad and it just kind of happened but obviously it was a choice by her campaign to include that footage. And it’s a big part of the campaign that she’s pushing really. She’s talking a lot about being a mother. She’s talking a lot about her daughters and the future of the state. She released a TV ad and she has her family in the ad and she talks about abortion because she was actually also the head of an abortion group, a pro-choice group in Wisconsin.

Frederica Freyberg:

In fact her endorsements include Emily’s List, NARAL Pro-choice America, NOW, and some interesting kind of Hollywood types: Sarah Silverman and Chelsea Handler.

Laurel White:

Right. Well she has gotten some national backing, sort of like Mahlon Mitchell. We’ve seen some national groups come out to support him. She’s gotten money from Emily’s List, a sizeable check from Emily’s List and Sarah Silverman and Chelsea Handler. We don’t know for sure, but maybe that’s because of that breast feeding video, kind of that viral presence. A woman, a young woman, she’s 39 years old, running for governor.

Frederica Freyberg:

Are democrats still upset over the primary against Mark Pocan for Congress?

Laurel White:

That’s definitely an element of her campaign. So Kelda Roys ran against Mark Pocan in 2012 for Congress and it was a pretty bruising campaign. She got pretty negative in her ads and some thought unnecessarily negative. A bit too harsh saying that Pocan didn’t stand up to Scott Walker on Act 10 the way that he should have. There was also a little bit of back and forth about a rally where she may have portrayed herself as being gay. And of course, Pocan is openly gay. So there have been some feelings and some elements of that 2012 race that have definitely come back this year.

Frederica Freyberg:

All right. We move along to Paul Soglin. Someone Shawn that you took a look at. He has repeatedly said that a poll showed that he would beat Scott Walker and that’s why he ran.

Shawn Johnson:

That poll’s been out for a while though now. The race may have evolved, but he did. He paid for that poll from a reputable Madison firm, respected widely in politics and it showed him as having a shot against the governor. He has not though run as active of a campaign as some of the other candidates. If you’re in Madison, Paul Soglin’s reputation is pretty well established. I mean he has been in politics. He became mayor in 1973, won his first race for city council in 1968. Paul Soglin’s roots are deep in Madison. So deep to the point that like I’m not sure that everybody is completely familiar with the back story of how he actually became known as this campus radical in 1968. I mean he had a prominent role in Vietnam War protests then and that launched his political career. Paul Soglin has been mayor for three stints. He announced he’s not going to run again next year. So it is this run for governor he is focused on and he’s one of the eight who are vying for it.

Frederica Freyberg:

Paul Soglin from Madison and then Kathleen Vinehout from the western part of the state. That is a candidate again Laurel that you looked at. She believes that her roots there in western Wisconsin are what would make a difference.

Laurel White:

Right. Vinehout lives on a dairy farm in western Wisconsin. That’s a big part of her campaign. She says that she can really appeal to voters that are liberal voters outside of the main hubs of Madison and Milwaukee. Vinehout’s also a policy wonk in the capitol and that’s a big part of her campaign and how people know her. She’s written her own state budget every year, kind of an alternative to the governor’s budget. She said that started during Act 10 when the governor said, “Cuts needed to be made.” And said, “Well, do we really need to cut things?” She went in and crunched the numbers herself and she’s been doing that ever budget since.

Frederica Freyberg:

Does she have some vulnerabilities?

Laurel White:

She does. So Vinehout has departed from the party on a couple big issues. And one issue that is especially big this year and that’s gun control. She’s made some pro-gun votes in the past, particularly recently about the 48-hour waiting period for hand gun sales.

Frederica Freyberg:

All right. We need to move along. But Laurel, thank you so much for being here and all your work on this.

Laurel White:

Absolutely. Thanks for having me.