Mary Burke rallies her supporters in Madison (PHOTO: Jackie Johnson, file)
Former President Bill Clinton speaks at a lunchtime campaign rally for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke at Milwaukee’s Hyatt Regency hotel.
Clinton says all eyes are on this race. “The whole country is watching this race because her opponent got a lot of headlines in the last four years all related to conflict.” He says, “She didn’t make so many headlines because in her business and in her public service she’s been about cooperation.”
Clinton tells the estimated 900 people that he would like an invitation to Burke’s inauguration. He references Burke’s experience as a business executive, saying it makes her a desirable candidate. “If I were a moderate Republican I’d vote for Mary Burke for governor … because I’d rather have somebody who knew what it would take to build a small business into a bigger one and hired people and took ’em along for the ride on fair terms than somebody who thought we had to give more away to people who are already powerful whether they create jobs in our state or not.”
For her part, Burke again touts her Wisconsin roots, talks about raising the minimum wage, and criticizes Governor Scott Walker’s jobs record.
President Obama is expected to campaign for Burke in Milwaukee on Tuesday. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is due to return to the state to try and motivate the base for Governor Scott Walker. Polls still show the Burke-Walker contest as a dead heat.
After the rally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin GOP Executive Director Joe Fadness says in a statement: “We can only hope that Bill Clinton spent part of his visit explaining that Burke should know better than to plagiarize her campaign documents and that it’s time for her to finally take responsibility for her actions.”