In Case You Missed It: Wausau Daily Herald Endorses Walker

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Jill Bader (414) 453-2010

Paper Notes Walker’s Executive Experience and More Substantive Plans

When it comes to actual policy positions, there is not a lot of daylight in between the Republican candidates running for governor. But based on his record and his ability to take on quite specific policy details, we believe Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker is the best Republican candidate for governor. He is the candidate best suited to carry out the reforms and make the cuts to the state budget that will be necessary under the next governor, whomever it is.

With the state staring down a budget deficit of at least $2.5 billion, that person will have to make some truly difficult, even wrenching, decisions about where to cut while preserving vital state services. In his interview with the Daily Herald's Editorial Board and in the course of the campaign, Walker has presented some quite detailed plans involving, for example, the consolidation of state employees' benefits packages. It's not that any one of his proposals will be simple -- it's that he has a detailed blueprint for the changes he wants to make.

Walker's Republican opponent, Mark Neumann, R-Nashotah, instead has tended toward broad strokes and abstract statements of intention. And on his most ambitious proposal, a plan to eliminate 2011 property taxes that he calls "the biggest one-year tax cut in Wisconsin history," we are not convinced that the plan is either workable or responsible.

Neumann does have some detailed and promising plans to reform education in the state, but on budgetary matters he does not match Walker's level of specificity, nor does he exhibit Walker's vision.

Wisconsin Rapids financial adviser Scott Paterick also is seeking the high office, but with no political experience and a virtually nonexistent campaign presence we do not see handing him the reins to the state's top job.

It helps that, as head of the state's economically largest county, Walker has experience serving as an executive and working with an elected board -- a job description not dissimilar to the job of governor.

Walker brings a well-articulated set of ideas for addressing Wisconsin's budget troubles and as the Republican nominee would make a strong conservative case. We endorse Walker.

http://www.wausaudailyherald.com/article/20100908/WDH06/9080378/Our-View...