[Madison, WI] – In scathing interviews with POLITICO, Wisconsin Democrats are ripping Governor Tony Evers for his weak response to the Kenosha riots earlier this summer. Evers’ sleepy actions led one Democrat interviewed to question, “Is he governing? Because it doesn’t feel like it.” Now Democrats fear that Evers’ feckless leadership might drag Joe Biden down in November.
Meanwhile, Republicans in Wisconsin have built one of their strongest ground games ever during a presidential election year.
Read the full story online here or find excerpts below.
Dems fear Wisconsin governor is becoming liability for Biden
Natasha Korecki
POLITICO
September 17, 2020
Tony Evers pulled off one of the Democratic Party’s biggest feats of 2018: ousting liberal villain Scott Walker after earlier attempts to take out the Wisconsin governor fell short.
But having one of their own atop the critical 2020 battleground isn’t turning out to be the boon that Democrats hoped or expected.
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Evers is drawing heat from some in his own party for not moving quickly enough to tamp down rioting in Kenosha. Like Walker before him, Evers is facing a nascent effort to recall him from office. He’s been steamrolled by Republicans who dominate the legislature and have repeatedly blocked his initiatives, including police reform.
And while Evers is still above water in polls, his approval rating slid 6 points after his handling of the Kenosha unrest.
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But interviews with more than two dozen activists, strategists, local officials and voters surfaced serious concern that in such a pivotal year, in such a pivotal state, Evers is diminishing what should be a significant advantage for the party. Rather than act as an attack dog or savvy politico who helps amplify Joe Biden’s message to combat President Donald Trump, they say, Evers instead has allowed Republicans to cast him as weak and ineffective.
“I don’t think that he has his pulse [on] what is going on in this state. He doesn’t have a forceful personality. He doesn’t have, in my view, the qualities of a great leader and that’s what we need now,” said Terry Rose, a former county supervisor and Democratic Party chair in Kenosha County. “We need a Winston Churchill, not a Neville Chamberlain.”
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Read the full story here.
