Walker: The Recall Costs Money — Think Of The Children And Seniors

Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) appeared Monday on Morning Joe, discussing the upcoming recall election against him by the state Democrats and organized labor. And among other things, he said, the recall is only hurting children and seniors — by costing money.

MSNBC’s Willie Geist asked Walker: “You find yourself in the middle of this, mired in a recall election. The latest Marquette poll has you 47 approve, 47 percent disapproves, split right down the middle in the state of Wisconsin. This could be a long fight for you — a special election scheduled to take place in June, a primary in May. How distracted are you from doing the business of Wisconsin by trying to essentially win re-election in the middle of your term?” (Note: The May and June dates are not yet officially declared by state election officials, but are the likely outcome of the administrative process.)

“Well, we’re focused,” Walker responded, “but it’s a huge distraction, not just for me, for the legislature. I mean, it’s $9 million of taxpayers’ money just to run this. Think about the number of kids we could help, think of the number of seniors we could help in our state with $9 million that we didn’t have to waste on this — this frivolous recall election.

“But really, I mean, in the end, I think it’s amazing, after a year of being attacked by out of state special interests, the tens of millions of dollars that were poured in, the fact that we’re ahead of any of the Democrats in the race I think bodes well for the election.

“But you know, I had to work hard to earn the trust of a majority of people in my state two years ago. I’m gonna have to work even harder to renew that trust with a majority of voters in our state. And I think in the end, when they see that we’re heading in the right direction — we’ve turned the corner, it is a new day in Wisconsin. But we’ve got a lot of work to do to get the state working even better.

“I think elections are about the future, and we paint the picture of the contrast: Do we want to go forward, or do we want to go back to the days of the double-digit tax increases, the billion-dollar budget deficits, and the record job loss? I think that’s what really is at stake here.”