Mary Burke speaking at state convention in the Dells.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke appears more confident and ready to fight what she calls “lies” and “dirty tricks” of Republicans and Governor Walker’s quote “playbook written and paid for by outside special interests.” She says, “This will be an epic fight, but I would not have gotten into it if I wasn’t going to win.” Burke adds, “They will throw at me every lie and dirty trick in the book, and in fact, they already have.”
Burke keynotes her party’s state convention in Wisconsin Dells over the weekend. She says Republicans have already spent $2 million in negative adds against her, though, she says, “they didn’t even land a punch.”
As Burke campaigns to take Wisconsin “in a new direction,” she says she’s “not intimidated.” Burke sent out a message to her Republican opponent in the race: “So Scott Walker I have only one message for you, it’s pretty simple,” she says, “Game on.”
A WisPolitics straw poll shows conventioneers overwhelmingly back Burke for the party’s gubernatorial nomination and favor Hillary Clinton for president in 2016.
Burke is a former Trek Bicycle executive and former Commerce Secretary under the Doyle Administration.
Joe Fadness, Executive Director of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, issued a statement after the convention: “As expected, Madison Millionaire Mary Burke failed to outline any concrete plans for Wisconsin, while desperately running from her alarming history of outsourcing jobs overseas and avoiding taxes. The reality is that Burke has a long record of raising taxes on hard-working families, both on the Madison School Board and in the Doyle-Burke Administration, and we can’t afford to go back to the failed leadership that left billions in deficits that Scott Walker eliminated.”