Democrats are finally investing the Scott Walker recall effort, weeks after the recall leaders accused the DNC of leaving them out to dry.
Salon has a rundown of the Democratic Party's national efforts to back up Wisconsin challenger Tom Barrett for the June 5 recall election. The White House is phonebanking, Debbie Wasserman-Schultz is sending fundraising letters, and the DNC just invested $1.4 million in the election, more than it's ever thrown at Wisconsin.
But it may be a case of too little, too late. The money has just twelve days to take effect, plenty of time to lob more shots at Walker, but little to build up interest and energy over Barrett. For that they would need something like an Obama visit or two, especially as Romney has actively campaigned for Walker.
Meanwhile, Republicans from across the country have thrown money at Walker's campaign, with Walker raising over $13 million as of the beginning of this month and blowing a lot of it on television spots. It's making a difference, as Walker has been gaining in polls now that he's running against a specific opponent rather than Unnamed Worker Friend. (Doctoring employment numbers may have helped with that.)
PoliticOlogy believes that a good portion of this battle has already been won in the recall itself. Republicans didn't want to spend $13 million on a non-November election, and the expense and extent of the effort just to keep Walker in effort has scared scores of GOP legislatures away from any labor-related legislation. At the very least, the recall effort has made workers' rights and income inequality viable political topics again, after a winter of seeing who could out-austere everybody else.
But if Walker wins a decisive victory over Barrett, it could enervate all of this progress, putting the momentum back behind Republican narratives of slashing taxes on the wealthy at the cost of public sector unions and workers' benefits, and sending the left into an election with a big ugly mark in the loss column. Wouldn't it be worth spending a few million to avoid that?
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Follow: Evan McMurry @evanmcmurry | PoliticOlogy @OlogyPolitics
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