 Wise heads at the statehouse have been scratched as observers try to make
sense of the antagonistic stances taken by Illinois’ new governor. One
explanation is that he is uninterested in actually governing Illinois, but is
positioning himself as a Republican Presidential contender four years from now.Â
Evidence accumulates that, for GOP voters, what matters is not the good he does but which evils he combats. How else to explain the fact that Wisconsin’s governor (and
Rauner role model) Scott Walker is being taken seriously a White House material?Â
Heather Digby Parton notes that Walker was elected in a Republican sweep year but then recalled, then only barely managed to win re-election in another Republican sweep year. In interviews he ducks the tricky questions and his economic prescriptions have been proven bad medicine in state after state. Yet likely Republican voters see him as a winner. Pity he has turned Wisconsin into a loser.
As Steven
Benen points out, Walker’s performance to date contrasts interestingly with
that of Democrat Mark Dayton, who was elected governor of Minnesota at the same
time. Walker believes in tax cuts and union-bashing; Dayton pushed
for progressive taxation and increased public
investments.Â
The results in the two states are illuminating. In Walker’s Wisconsin,
writes Benen,
 job growth has been among the worst in the region,
and income growth is one of the worst in the country. It has a higher
unemployment rate than Minnesota. And the budget is in bad shape.
 Meanwhile, up in Minnesota, the state since 2011 has gained
more than 170,000 jobs, its unemployment rate is the fifth-lowest in the
country, the state government boasts a budget surplus of $1 billion and Forbes
considers Minnesota one of the top 10 in the country for business.
And Rauner? Any neophyte politician could use a how-to
manual about governing a Midwest state. This one has pulled the wrong one from
the shelf.Â
This article appears in Mar 5-11, 2015.
