Wisconsin's gubernatorial deja vu - Walker vs Barrett: Let's get ready to rumble...again

By Rob Janicki
From today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel online version  come three paragraphs which give a great insight into the Wisconsin gubernatorial recall election on June 5, between incumbent Republican Scott Walker and Democrat candidate Thomas Barrett.

[...]  In a recall campaign that is a do-over of the November 2010 election, Barrett faces an obvious challenge - Walker beat him by nearly 6 percentage points in November 2010.

This time, Walker has used the state's recall law to raise unlimited donations as large as $500,000 from single donors and still had $4.9 million in the bank as of April 23. Barrett, by contrast, had to stick to the usual limits and raised $831,500 through that date and had $475,500 on hand heading into the general election.

Unprecedented fundraising by Walker and heavy spending by independent groups backed by corporations and unions have already pushed the total amounts spent and raised to an estimated $42 million. That already tops the estimated $37.4 million spent by candidates and independent groups in the 2010 governor's race.  [...]

It's hard to imagine Walker losing to Barrett on June 5, but anything is possible.  My observation, from Walker's primary efforts, is that he will work even more earnestly in the next three and a half weeks, then he did in the primary.  Walker has an overwhelming advantage in funding to get his message out, despite all the union money injected into Kathleen Falk's losing primary candidacy.  

Thomas Barrett has a history of a hard line toward unions, which might make it difficult for unions to gin up enthusiasm for Barrett.  It's possible that there may be Democrat voter exhaustion over the Democrat primary.  Combine that with a lack of enthusiasm by Falk voters and it could mean a less than optimum Democrat turnout, which is absolutely necessary for Barrett to defeat Walker.  

Barrett also has the problem of funding his campaign over the next three and a half weeks.  There is virtually no way that Barrett can match Walker's funding level in time for the June 5 election.  If the election were to be held in November, Barrett would have a much better chance to match Walker in funding, but that will never happen because the Democrats chose to have the general election so close to the primary.