Here & Now

Dave Umhoefer Fact-checks Governor's Race

Frederica Freyberg:
With just a month to election day, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s PolitiFact service becomes an even more valuable tool for voters. Tonight, we sort fact from fiction on two truth tests that are scheduled to be released this weekend. PolitiFact Wisconsin reporter, Dave Umhoefer joins us from Milwaukee. Thanks for doing so.

Dave Umhoefer:

Thanks for having me.

Frederica Freyberg:

Well, as you very well know, these PolitFacts that we’re talking about tonight deal with claims on jobs from the Mary Burke and Scott Walker campaigns that they repeat over and over, namely that Wisconsin is, dead last in the Midwest for job growth and that Mary Burke’s time in commerce resulted in 130,000 fewer jobs.

Male TV Announcer:

Scott Walker promised to create 250,000 new jobs. Instead, he gave tax cuts to the wealthy, cut education, and we’ve fallen to dead last in Midwest job growth.

Female TV Announcer:

The truth is, Burke’s record is one of failure and job loss, with plagiarism to cover it up. Don’t go backward with Mary Burke.

Frederica Freyberg:

So nothing if not very negative on both sides. But let’s take a look at that dead last in the Midwest claim from Mary Burke. How do you rate that?

Dave Umhoefer:

We are rating that false. This has been a common talking point that she has used. And what’s happened recently is that there’s been a new batch of numbers out, and the claim of dead last, it held up for a long time, but the new numbers over the last year show that we are now eighth out of ten in the Midwest. There is a three year time period during the Walker administration that we are still dead last in the Midwest. But the data– There’s a quirk in the data that means that to get to dead last now, they have to leave out the first quarter of the Walker administration, so that really doesn’t hold up anymore. Obviously, eighth is still not great, but dead last just isn’t correctanymore.

Frederica Freyberg:

And it’s not even still the argument that the use of dead last in the Midwest was by using these kind of gold standard quarterly census numbers?

Dave Umhoefer:

No, The numbers are fine. There was no playing games there. It’s just a quirk in how the timing of the data doesn’t allow them to perfectly match up the data with the start of the Walkeradministration. So the point just doesn’t hold up anymore.

Frederica Freyberg:

Scott Walker, this week, is saying that we’re third in the Midwest, saying that year over year, July to July, we’ve done better. Are these just examples that are, I think, probably very confusing to voters, but examples of candidates mixing and matching numbers to best effect?

Dave Umhoefer:

Yeah, there’s a lot of cherry picking. The numbers change frequently, sometimes they’ll use outdated numbers, and you really have to stay on top of it. It is confusing unless you’re really following it closely.

Frederica Freyberg:

On the governor’s claim, going to that, that Wisconsin lost 133,000 jobs because of the politics of Jim Doyle and Mary Burke, how are you rating that?

Dave Umhoefer:

That’s false as well. The Republican Governor’s Association ad tries to tie the job losses during the Great Recession to Mary Burke. She did serve as commerce secretary under Governor Jim Doyle during the Great Recession, but the problem is she left before the job losses actually started.
When you look just at the time she was at commerce, there was actually 43,000 jobs gained, not lost. So that point does not hold up well. She also served during part of Jim Doyle’s first term, when 86,000 jobs were gained. So you can see that they’ve they want to tie her to the second term, but she was only there ten months at the beginning of it. So that struck us as unfair, and we put a false rating on that as well.

Frederica Freyberg:

Have they responded to you on that at all yet or have they not seen that?

Dave Umhoefer:

In the past, the Republican Governor’s Association has said that because she had a hand in developing some of the policies of the Doyle administration, that, you know, some of the blame for what happened after she left should accrue to her. As we’ve pointed out in the past, governors have a limited ability to effect jobs growth, despite what they say. And she was commerce secretary,so she would have even less ability to effect that. But in this case she wasn’t even there during the job losses, so that one really struck us as off base.

Frederica Freyberg:

All right. So again, keeping tally here, false and false on both of these claims from the perspective campaigns.Dave Umhoefer, thanks very much.

Dave Umhoefer:

You’re welcome.