Here & Now

Michael Wagner On Latest In Likely Walker Presidential Run

Frederica Freyberg:

While the Governor offers fiscal reasons for denying the Menominee, could it be one of many decisions viewed through the lens of his probable run for the White House? We tick through some of those decisions in Governor Walker’s budget, and ask our next guest whether they are Wisconsin reforms or planks in a presidential platform. Michael Wagner is a Professor of Journalism at UWMadison.

Thank you for being here.

Michael Wagner:

It's my pleasure.

Frederica Freyberg:

On the Menominee gambling decision, the Governor was lobbied by anti-gambling Iowa Conservatives to not approve the casino, but what does Iowa care about Kenosha?

Michael Wagner:

Well, I think people who especially those who are Evangelical Christians or have moral objections to gambling, want to try to stop it wherever they can, especially when it encroaches closer to them.

Iowa being an early presidential state opens up Governor Walker to the criticism or the question as to whether he’s doing this for larger political ambition reasons or not.

Frederica Freyberg:

Now, so ticking through some of those budget items which we referenced: cuts to the UW, drug testing for public aid recipients, cutting scientists at the DNR, expanding school choice statewide, cutting property taxes, do these measures appeal to kind of the Tea Party Republicans or the more establishment Republicans?

Michael Wagner:

Part of what’s politically impressive about Governor Walker’s budget, and the things that he’s discussing, and that are in the news the most, are that they appeal to a little bit of everybody on the Republican side.

You see some things that appeal to Tea Party Conservatives in terms of tax cuts and cutting the UW-System, where they have longstanding objections to those kinds of things.

On the other hand, you have Governor Walker’s budget looking at traditional areas that Conservatives don’t want the government very involved in, and so maybe, you point out, the cutting of DNR scientists and things of that nature.

And so if you want limited government and you see kind of finite tax resources, these are the kind of things you like in a budget like the one Governor Walker presented.

Frederica Freyberg:

In looking at these things, is it your sense that he would do this stuff anyway or is this particularly packaged for this presidential platform? That’s four p’s, by the way.

Michael Wagner:

That’s a lot of p’s. That's a good question. It’s hard to know. Governor Walker has tended to be someone who tries to go after bold policy goals, and a lot of the goals he has in this budget, like in his last one, are bold policy goals that advance a pretty Conservative Agenda and in some cases a very Conservative Agenda.

That is the kind of thing you want to be doing when you’re running in Republican presidential primaries where the people who vote are the most Conservative members of the Republican Party.

Moderate Republicans, as with moderate Democrats, tend to sit out primaries as to the ones who have more extreme policy views.

Frederica Freyberg:

Now, Scott Walker is in the front of the pack by all the polls that you read, with Jeb Bush and others kind of trailing a little bit behind, but does he as a sitting Governor have the ability to lay out this vision in the budget, does that give him an edge over Jeb Bush?

Michael Wagner:

It's easier for Governor Walker to make news than Jeb Bush to make news because Governor Walker has a political job right now. He gets to introduce a budget. He gets to make compromises, or not, with the other side. He gets to have Legislative victories and defeats. He makes political capitalizes on political opportunities and mistakes.

Jeb Bush is not in that kind of situation, and, so, it’s easier for Governor Walker to get in the news.

One caveat to that is the Bush Family brand is pretty strong, so when Jeb Bush wants to be in the news, it won’t be hard for him to find a camera.

Frederica Freyberg:

The more critics jump up and down about what Scott Walker is doing in his budget, and otherwise, it gives him even more buzz than he’s already getting, you know, taking on the elites and that kind of thing.

So it’s good either way, kind of.

Michael Wagner:

Part of the way Governor Walker’s political narrative, and the way he’s introduced himself to the country, has played out has been, I'm the kind of Governor who has big, bold policy proposals and those proposals are met with derision on the other side. There are protests at the Capitol and there are protests at my home, and, I, as the Governor, he has said, am brave enough to stand up to these kinds of things.

When there are protests, they do fit the narrative he’s telling of a bold candidate in the image of Ronald Reagan type, as compared to the new softer Nixon. He’s a bold candidate. When these things happen, they advance his opponents agenda, but they also fit into his narrative.

Frederica Freyberg:

Speaking of protests, his absolute signature budget move had to be Act 10, and all those protests resulted.

Can he, or will he, top it and does he even need to?

Michael Wagner:

Well, I don’t know that he’s in the business of trying to top it or not, but he is referring to his proposal for the UW System as Act 10 for the UW. So he’s certainly recalling his signature policy achievement, from his last term, in the kind of major newsmaking stuff of his new term.

So he’s certainly trying to equate what he’s proposing in his new budget to Act 10. He's counting on, I think, a big fight about big ideas.

Frederica Freyberg:

And, now, Right to Work might just become the icing on the cake.

Michael Wagner:

It would certainly please the core of his political supporters if he is able to get that through, even though he has said he's not that wild about it.

Frederica Freyberg:

He says he’ll sign it when it hits his desk.

Michael Wagner:

He says that too.

Frederica Freyberg:

Michael Wagner, thanks very much.