Election 2018

Scott Walker is Gone

Written by SK Ashby

More than perhaps anything else, I wanted to see Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker go down last night.

Fortunately, I got my wish.

In his victory speech, democratic challenger Tony Evers pledged to focus on restoring sanity to the state of Wisconsin.

"My name is Tony Evers and I’m going to be the next governor of the state of Wisconsin," Evers told a raucous crowd of supporters at The Orpheum theater in Madison. "I’ll be focused on solving problem and not picking political fights. It’s time for change, folks. The voters have spoke. A change is coming, Wisconsin!" [...]

At the Evers' victory party in Madison, Joe Britt, 59, a Republican for 40 years even spending part of his career crafting policy for Republican politicians, said he had finally had enough.

Sitting in one of the theater seats alone, checking Twitter on his phone for updates on Wisconsin's key races, Britt said Walker "has governed like a proto-Trump — for his donors first, for his supporters second and for the rest of the state hardly at all."

It would be easy to sit here and say Walker lost because of his disastrous deal with Foxconn, but Walker had other problems and Foxconn may not have even been the biggest one.

Take Tony Evers for example. It's not a coincidence that the superintendent of Wisconsin's public schools rose up to challenge a man who has devastated education in Wisconsin. Walker presided over the gutting of the state's university and lower education systems.

Just the same, Walker has led an assault on the state's Medicaid program and just days before the election he finally won approval to implement new restrictions and requirements for access to Medicaid.

Rather than say Walker lost because of this issue or that, I'm sure it was a combination of all of the above and more.

Walker has not conceded defeat yet, but Tony Evers' current margin of victory (1.2 percent) is slightly above the threshold (1 percent) that would allow Walker to ask for a recount.

Ironically, Walker signed the law that prohibits recounts for margins above 1 percent.