In Simi visit, Wisconsin governor reflects on election’s outcome

Ventura County Star

By Michele Willer-Allred
Nov. 6, 2012
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, speaking in Simi Valley on Friday
night, said he doesn’t believe Republican presidential nominee
Mitt Romney did an effective job articulating the views of his
party with the majority of voters.
In an interview inside the Air Force One Pavilion at the Ronald
Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, the Republican
governor spoke about Romney’s election loss not only in the
country, but also in Wisconsin.
Romney’s vice-presidential running mate, Paul Ryan, is a
congressman from Wisconsin.
Walker said most of the battleground states went for Obama,
as well.

He said ironically that on the same day that Obama carried
Wisconsin, Republicans gained a majority in the state Senate by
two votes and added another vote in the state Assembly for
Republicans.
“So, from a governing standpoint, we are now completely
Republican on the state level, even though we went for a
president who is a Democrat. I think what that shows is that
each race is independently viewed by the voters,” Walker said.
“(I also believe) that long-term, what it says not just for
Wisconsin but nationally, is the fact that our future nominee
needs to do a better job in articulating the views that we
commonly hold as Republicans and to talk more optimistically
about freedom and about prosperity, and the fact that we want
every American to be able to live his or her piece of the
American dream,” he said.
“I don’t think (Romney) did an effective job, nor did his
campaign of communicating that with the majority voters in my
state and others.”
The 45-year-old Walker took office in January 2011. Early in his
term, he proposed a “Wisconsin budget repair bill” to address a
projected $3.6 million budget deficit in his state. The bill,
passed by the state Legislature, changed the collective
bargaining process for most public employees in Wisconsin.
Walker successfully kept his seat as governor after winning a
recall election against opponent Milwaukee Mayor Tom
Barrett.
On Friday, he announced Wisconsin will not set up a state-run
health insurance exchange under Obama’s Affordable Care Act.
Walker told the Obama administration he will leave that

responsibility to the federal government.
Many groups, including the state’s chamber of commerce,
urged him to have Wisconsin establish its own exchange rather
than turning over control to the federal government.
Walker said creating a state-run exchange would expose
Wisconsin taxpayers to shouldering the costs of running the
exchange, but he did not have an estimate of how much that
could run.
Walker said Friday he made it clear when he campaigned two
years ago that he opposed the Obama care plan and would
fight it legally and politically.
“In both cases (legally and politically), we lost. It’s the law,
whether I like the law or not. Today, we announced we’re in
compliance with it. … Without a noticeable difference to the
consumer, my concern is that it would expose the taxpayer of
my state to unforeseen costs, and I didn’t want to do that,” he
said.
Since Obama’s re-election victory, citizens in some states,
including Wisconsin, have turned in secession petitions to the
White House requesting that their states be granted
independence from the federal government.
Walker said “now is not the time to pull away.”
“Now is the time to unite on the things that really unite us as a
country, and talk about our aspirations for future generations
and how best to see those,” Walker said.
He said that in national polling, most Americans believe the
federal government is too big, that it spends too much, that
Americans are taxed too much and that American people, not
the American government, are best-suited to control

their future.
“So even though with the presidential outcome not the way
that many of us wanted, in the end where most Americans
stand today still parallels those core beliefs we had. I said this
even before the recent presidential election: Now more than
ever, that the states are really the places we’re going to take
back America,” he said.
“We’re going to get American working again. We’re going to get
our country back on track. We’re going to do it one state
at a time.”
Walker said President Ronald Reagan always said the federal
government didn’t create the states; it was the states that
created the federal government.
“And that’s a good reminder for all of us who are in office, be it
at the federal, the state or the local level, to think about the
fact that ultimately the government should be there to serve
the people, not the other way around,” he said.
Walker said Friday was the first time he’d been to the Reagan
Library. Former first lady Nancy Reagan invited Walker to speak
there after the recall election in Wisconsin in June.
Friday was the first time he’d met Nancy Reagan.
“She looks great. She was very engaging to talk to. She
obviously physically has got some challenges getting around,
but it’s not to be unexpected,” Walker said.
She “was very engaging and very interested in what we
accomplished in Wisconsin and what was next,” he said.
“I’m glad that we could make the visit.”