Wisconsin Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke voted for President Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012.
That fact seems pretty commonsense, since Obama is planning to campaign for Burke on Tuesday, as the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reported on Thursday. Burke’s campaign confirmed to TPM that she voted for Obama twice, first in 2008 and then in 2012.
Earlier on Thursday Republicans thought they’d caught Burke redhanded as an example of yet another Democrat (after Kentucky Democratic Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes) trying to avoid saying who she voted for when approached on the street. The Republican Governors Association on Thursday emailed out a clip of Burke being asked on the street whether she voted for Obama. She ignored the tracker.
“In September 2008, Mary Burke was more than happy to express her support for Barack Obama’s presidential bid,” RGA press secretary Jon Thompson said in the email. “But today, when confronted with the question of who she voted for in 2008 and 2012 – it’s nothing but crickets.”
Burke Communications Director Joe Zepecki called the clip a “mindless political stunt.”
“This is simply the latest desperate attempt by Scott Walker to distract from his own failures – which range from a lagging economy (Wisconsin is dead last in the Midwest in private sector job creation over the last three years, according to the most accurate data) to the ongoing scandals and criminal investigations following him at every turn,” Zepecki said in an email to TPM. “Wisconsin voters see this for what it is, a mindless political stunt by a career politician desperate to hold onto his job.”
Republicans have repeatedly tried to create a repeat of the Grimes episode. In Georgia, Democrat Michelle Nunn was asked the same question on the street. She later told The Washington Post that she voted for Obama.
As did a majority of other voters in WI in 2008 and 2012.
Why do Republican’s think this is a gotcha question? I hardly think anyone that was inclined to vote for her, is all of a sudden going to vote for Walker. Especially considering President Obama won Wisconsin with 52% of the vote in 2012, and 56% in 2008.
Exactly. Has anyone started asking Republican candidates if they voted for Bush in 2000 and 2004? That would be a better indication of bad judgement.
Stop the motherfucking presses! A Dem candidate supported and voted for other Dem/liberal candidates!!! This si so fucking shocking I just shit myself…and we’re not talking some oopsy-fart shit myself…we’re talking the full-on “ermahgerd pantfull…I think I got some in my sock”…I just can’t fathom this news coming to light and * gasp * what could it possibly mean about her chance s in November? They must have shifted massively with just this admission. Quick…someone let us all know what the MSM bobbleheads are saying this means. Woe is woe is me…
Geez, why does anyone care about who voted for who? Will he or she do the friggen job should be the question. By all rights the GOP should win zero, I do find it disturbing that any of these races are even close. Says a lot about the people in this country, and it’s not good.