Mary Burke Says Voters Should ‘Fire’ Walker Due To Slow Jobs Recovery

Mary Burke, the leading Democratic candidate for governor, said on Tuesday that voters should fire incumbent Republican Scott Walker in part because of the state’s relatively slow jobs recovery.

At a joint Rotary Club-Milwaukee Press Club forum, Burke was asked if she wanted voters to essentially fire Gov. Scott Walker. Her response: “Absolutely.”

Burke says one reason to fire Walker is that Wisconsin lags most other Midwest states in job growth. Burke compared the number of jobs created in metropolitan Milwaukee to the Minneapolis-Saint Paul area.

“If we just continued the job growth that we have had in the last three years under Governor Walker, it will take us five more years to get us to our pre-recession job numbers,” said Burke. “This is while right next door in Minnesota, Minneapolis-St. Paul has already gotten back all of the jobs that it lost during the recession, and added 18,000 more.”

Walker’s re-election campaign didn’t specifically respond to whether voters should fire Walker. The campaign has noted the unemployment rate in Wisconsin is below 6 percent for the first time since 2008, and that more than 100,000 jobs and nearly 17,000 businesses have been created since Walker took office.

Last Friday, Walker talked about Wisconsin ranking in the bottom third nationally in job growth.

“We’re so heavily dependent on manufacturing, that you see a trend in the last 20-plus years where there’s challenges in any sort of recovery for us,” said Walker.

Another Democratic candidate for governor, state Rep. Brett Hulsey, D-Madison, also campaigned in Milwaukee on Tuesday; Burke says she’s focusing on taking on Walker in November.