Page 9 - HOSPITAAL

A4 U.S. NEWS
Monday 12 March 2018

GOP crusader Walker reaches to center in volatile Wisconsin

By THOMAS BEAUMONT In private meetings, public should be a “wake-up call”
SCOTT BAUER forums and his own policy to the changes afoot in the
Associated Press moves, Walker has made rural and exurban pockets
JANESVILLE, Wis. (AP) — clear he sees worrisome that 17 months ago voted
Not long ago, Wisconsin signs for the GOP and the enthusiastically for Presi-
Gov. Scott Walker was the hard-line conservatism dent Donald Trump, he re-
voice of a conservative that’s marked his eight cently told a group of GOP
revolution in the heartland, years in office. Wisconsin, donors and activists.
a Republican at the van- which helped hand the Walker is acting on his own
guard and a possible future White House to Republi- advice. As he seeks a third
president. Today, he’s the cans, is looking for some- term in office, he’s em-
voice of concern, warning thing different, Walker has braced a bipartisan tone
his party — at home and said, and Democrats are and a strikingly moderate
nationally — that change is motivated. set of policy proposals. The
coming again. A recent local election man who eight years ago

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker delivers a speech during a
campaign stop in Eau Claire, Wis. Once the voice of a Midwestern
conservative revolution, Gov. Walker is now a Republican voice
of concern. Walker is pointing to a big Democratic win this year
in a Wisconsin Senate special election in a district that Trump
won easily in 2016. He says it’s a sign that voters are unhappy
and Democrats are motivated.
(Marisa Wojcik/The Eau Claire Leader-Telegram/AP)
set out to dismantle pub- fall with Democratic Sen.
lic employee unions is now Tammy Baldwin, Walker is
backing efforts that mirror worth heeding, said Matt
aspects of former President Brooks, executive director
Barack Obama’s health of the national Republican
care law and describing Jewish Coalition.
his policy differences with “There are a lot of winds
Democrats as modest. aloft that could have im-
“We heard from people pacts on the broader elec-
across the state. These toral outlook,” Brooks said.
aren’t Republican or Dem- Walker knows something
ocrat issues. These are about misjudging the re-
things people care about silience of a political mo-
in Wisconsin,” Walker told ment. Riding the tea-party
The Associated Press in wave and anti-union fer-
a recent interview. “As a vor, Walker got national at-
Republican, I might have tention for his push to strip
a slightly different angle public employee unions
about how to address it. of bargaining power, in
But these are (about) just a state that first encoded
me listening to people such rights 50 years earlier.
across the state.” Tens of thousands of teach-
Walker’s concerns about ers, prison guards and other
the mood of white work- public employees demon-
ing-class voters resonate strated in the Capitol, and
beyond Wisconsin and Walker beat back a recall
could easily translate to effort, receiving 200,000
Michigan, Ohio, Indiana more votes than he did in
and Pennsylvania — Rust his election win less than
Belt states that Trump won two years earlier. Walker
and that could go a long tried to use the platform to
way toward determining launch a presidential bid,
who controls Congress next but his campaign quickly
year. fizzled. By early November
As a battle-tested Republi- 2016, he was at Trump’s
can from such a state, and side at a campaign stop in
who shares the ballot this northwest Wisconsin.q