Mark Neumann and the Scott Walker cult of personality

Part of the reason I opened this blog was specifically to make this post.  It is also one of the primary reasons why I am doing this anonymously, because I would be ceremonially drawn and quartered by Republicans all over the state if I attached my name to these comments publicly.

I like Scott Walker personally.  He is a great guy and a good communicator – just the type of guy with whom I would like to take in a Packers game on a fall Sunday in Wisconsin.

I don’t like Mark Neumann personally.  Prickly and cold, he is not a nice man and I can’t think of anyone I would less like to hang out with – except for maybe Jim Doyle.

But Neumann would be a far better governor than Walker.  He is a private sector guy with amazing success as a business owner and entrepreneur.  Pretty much everything he touches turns into a hugely profitable enterprise and millions of dollars.  This dude knows how to run a railroad.  He would come in with new ideas and approaches to reforming state government and would not likely play the usual games with bonding, fund transfers and tax/fee increases in order to balance the budget.  One gets the impression from his business experience that Neumann would come in and clean house.

Walker, on the other hand, has been in government for pretty much his entire professional life.  He was elected to the State Assembly basically right out of college in the early 1990s – and has been in government ever since.  While he has a reputation as a reformer and fiscal hawk, there are some substantial holes in his record as Milwaukee County Executive.

To be sure, he has not been a terrible exec and he would certainly be a better governor than Tom Barrett.  But he has some very legitimate questions to answer about Milwaukee County’s financial position and tax levy under his watch.  This report from the extreme-left smear shop One Wisconsin Now punctuates the point (yes, I am aware that the source is not credible, but their Milwaukee Co. levy numbers are accurate).  Walker claims to be a tax freeze guy while the levy has actually increased substantially under his watch.

How did this happen?  Well, Walker simply let the county board raise the levy for him.  Yes, he would propose a budget that didn’t increase the levy over the last budget, but the board would make changes that increased the levy.  To his credit, Walker would veto most of the changes, but the board would subsequently override many of his vetoes – resulting in a final budget with a levy increase.  Then, Walker would start from that final post-override baseline in the formulation of his next “tax freeze” budget.

It is the perfect racket for Walker.  He gets to take credit for holding the line on spending while throwing the county board under the bus for raising taxes.

But this system is indicative of a major leadership problem.  I believe that Walker truly wants to freeze spending and taxes in Milwaukee County, but he has failed to do so.  He should have gotten involved in the recruitment and election of candidates for the county board who share his fiscal conservatism so that the board could actually sustain more than a handful of his vetoes.  Obviously, this has not happened.

I have no way of knowing how Neumann would have handled the situation, but it is time that the Republican grassroots acknowledge Walker’s weaknesses.

For some reason, the GOP base is completely sold out for Walker – so much so that to openly suggest Neumann might be a better choice for governor is unthinkable to someone hoping for a future in the Republican Party.

But Neumann would be a great governor and might be the ideal candidate for Republicans in 2010, a year when being an outsider will be rewarded.  Walker has spent his life in government while Neumann has spent just four years in Congress and the rest of it building businesses, creating jobs and overcoming challenges.  The approach Neumann brings to the table is unlike any our state government has seen in decades – a break in the nauseating tradition of electing career politicians and bureaucrats to the governor’s mansion – a tradition that has brought nothing but fiscal ruin and economic calamity.

I believe that, in 2010, Neumann has an equal – if not better – chance at beating Tom Barrett than does Walker.

This doesn’t change the fact that Neumann comes off as a cold fish, but Jim Doyle has proven that you don’t need to be widely loved (a la Tommy Thompson) in order to be a two-term governor in Wisconsin.

In 2008, I voted for John McCain in the Republican primary because he was going to win – not because he would have been the best president of those who were on the ballot.  That’s what hundreds of thousands of Wisconsin Republicans are about to do in 2010.  A movement that prides itself on a private sector mindset will nominate for governor a career politician with a record of accomplishment that is far inferior to his opponent – and there’s nothing anyone can do about it.

Oddly, this probably won’t scare Neumann out of the race and may only serve to keep him in longer.  More on that in a future post.