Mary Burke
We enthusiastically support Democrat Mary Burke for governor. Burke has the skills, experience, temperament and values we need in our governor.
Burke is a Wisconsinite through and through. Her roots run deep in the state and her family has built a great Wisconsin company, Trek Bicycle, which could be located anywhere in the world but continues to proudly call Wisconsin home. Like Trek, Mary Burke could live anywhere. Someone with her intelligence, education and expertise could work on Wall Street or in Silicon Valley but she chose to help her family build up Trek and then devote her life to public service in Wisconsin. We’re glad that she did.
As governor, Burke would be a welcome return to Wisconsin’s history as the home of tolerant, pragmatic, common-sense decision makers for whom compromise and bi-partisan solutions are not signs of weakness. Burke has staked out thoughtful positions on the issues. She wants to use her private sector experience to make smart investments in Wisconsin’s economy. That means strengthening our public education system so every child has a real chance in life, making college more affordable, expanding BadgerCare, raising the minimum wage and supporting our local businesses so they can grow and create more jobs in Wisconsin. She also would be a very welcoming governor. Instead of dividing the state by backing attacks on public employees, the LGBT community, women, the poor and minorities, Burke would ensure that the government doesn’t place obstacles in their way and drive them—and their talents and resources—out of the state.
We also think that Burke has the temperament to be a great Wisconsin governor. She has a low-key style that is focused on getting results rather than winning political points. She doesn’t grandstand, doesn’t demonize her opposition and doesn’t use people as pawns in her quest for higher office. That kind of calm but competent demeanor will serve her well as governor as she works to bring Wisconsin citizens back together, focusing on our shared values.
Lastly, we are supporting Burke because it is time for a change. In 2010 then-candidate Scott Walker promised to create 250,000 private sector jobs in his first term and continually stated that we, the voters, should judge him on that promise. But Wisconsin has added just over 100,000 new jobs since he’s taken office, during a period of national recovery from the worst recession since the Great Depression, which put Wisconsin dead last among Midwestern states in job creation. Even the conservative Journal Sentinel’s PolitiFact has rated it a “promise broken.” Since Gov. Walker has said that we should hold him accountable for that promise, Wisconsin should vote him out of office on Nov. 4.
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But that’s not Walker’s only failure. He needlessly “dropped the bomb” on public sector workers, turned down more than $1 billion in federal funds to build up our infrastructure and shore up our safety net programs, removed protections for working women, refused to stand up for our LGBT community and wasted millions on his failed effort to replace the state Department of Commerce with a naïve creation called the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC), part of his massive job-creation failure.
In addition to removing Walker from office, Burke would also be a welcome check on the runaway power of the Republican-dominated state Legislature. The GOP gerrymandered the state legislative districts to ensure that they would win a majority of the state Senate and Assembly seats for the next decade, despite getting fewer votes than their Democratic counterparts. There’s nothing that we, the voters, can do to vote them out of power until we draw a fair map after the next U.S. Census. But we can vote for Mary Burke, who will force compromise and thereby create better public policies. This is a much better outcome than allowing the Republicans to continue unchecked with their extreme policies. Think about it: Do you really think that Gov. Mary Burke would sign bills or a budget that remove equal pay protections for women, gut collective bargaining rights for public sector workers, force pregnant women to undergo unnecessary ultrasounds, slash taxes on the wealthy, make historic cuts to public education, expand voucher schools or reduce tax credits for the working poor? Burke would have vetoed these terrible bills. But if Walker wins re-election, expect even more extreme legislation to be cooked up in the Capitol by unchecked Republican legislators who are drunk on one-party rule. Burke would be a welcome return to bipartisan government in Madison that serves the common good through thoughtful negotiation and compromise.
We are urging you to vote for Mary Burke on Nov. 4. You can make history by supporting this qualified candidate for governor and putting an end to Walker’s ideologically driven mismanagement of the state.
