Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk was working the crowd at the Labor Day rally in Madison but says it wasn’t as a candidate for Governor next year. She says raising enough money, probably at least two million dollars, in the Democratic primary alone is a factor on whether she’ll run. Falk recalls losing a close race for Attorney General in 2006.
AUDIO: Falk on raising money (MP3 :19)
Falk says she’s concentrating now on balancing Dane County’s budget for next year which she says is in the worst shape since the Great Depression.
At the rally there was a lot of concern over job security according to Jim Cavanaugh President of the South Central Federation of Labor. The labor leader says there are especially worries in the manufacturing and construction sectors where there have been layoffs and downsizing.
Since Labor Day last year 140-thousand jobs have been lost in Wisconsin and Cavanaugh says indications that recovery from the recession will take a considerable amount of time.
Cavanaugh says workers are “holding their breath” to see what President Obama has to say about health care in speech to Congress tomorrow night.
Contributed by John Colbert-WIBA