Contact: Joe Fadness
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Tells conservative radio host Jeff Wagner on five-year anniversary of recall victory that it’s time for more bold conservative reform
[Madison, Wis.] -In case you missed it, Governor Scott Walker told conservative radio host Jeff Wagner on Newsradio 620 WTMJ radio that the historic recall victory – which had its five-year anniversary this week – shows hard-working Wisconsin families want elected leaders who are ready to “go big, go bold.”
You can listen to the entire interview here, or excerpts below:
On elected officials in Wisconsin keeping their promises:
“Well, I remember someone from, I think it was NBC news if I remember right, asked me at one of the press conferences I was holding daily in the middle of the protest in the Capitol. She said, ‘Well Governor, don’t you hear these protestors? Don’t they have a right to be heard?’ And I said, ‘Sure. That’s what’s great about America.’ … But I said that the noise of the protestors should never overcome the voices of the million-plus people who voted for me to do the very things that we’re doing. I think oftentimes, not only here but also in Washington, politicians think that just because there are protests, that that equates to where the majority of the people are at. No, you need to do what you said you were gonna do, follow through, in this case follow through on commonsense conservative reforms. Go big, go bold. See them through, and then in the end, I think the people, not only the Republicans appreciate that and also independents, I think there are some discerning Democrats who are hungry for leaders who do the things they said they were gonna do. And that’s why, again not only did I win the recall and then get reelected, but we’ve seen Republicans from the Legislature gain in their majorities in each of the last three cycles.”
On the big government special interests going too far:
“… I do think they overreacted. I remember literally about this week 6 years ago, the protestors that particular day were dressed as zombies. They came out of the Capitol; they came between me and the Special Olympic athletes I was talking to at the Law Enforcement Memorial outside of the Capitol, and I think that was the start of people saying in the state, ‘Wow, those people are not like us. We wouldn’t do something like that no matter how we felt.’ And I think it’s been part of the trend ever since then that here in Wisconsin and nationally, there’s been an overreaction. I think that even this weekend you saw state Democrats say, ‘Hey, we weren’t liberal enough, to win we gotta be more liberal, more elitist,’ and I think that’s gonna continue down a negative path, versus we’re saying, ‘Hey, we’re gonna help everyone in the state move forward.’”
On Republican leaders persevering in the face of protest:
“The others, I mean, Scott Fitzgerald had someone banging on his window in a farmhouse far removed from the road, I think at like 6:45 in the morning. Robin Vos, he was then the co-chair of the Joint Finance Committee, I think he had a beer poured on him once when he was sitting at some event. You just had these awful, outrageous, nasty things you’d just really never dream of doing, I think, for most of us in the state, no matter what your politics. And we just persevered.”
On accomplishing more bold conservative reform:
“… we’ve seen it not only with collective bargaining and on things like Right to Work or giving people the freedom to work where they choose, we’ve seen it now on tax reform, regulatory reform, welfare reform. I’m proud, kind of in the spirit of Tommy Thompson’s leadership decades ago, we’re now leading the nation again on welfare reform, but other states are following through. They’re looking at what we’ve done here; they’re saying ‘Hey, if voters can respond that way, after all that pushback, after all the grievances, after all the resources brought in nationally, it can make a real difference.’”
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