House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., said Thursday that he is “nervous” about the upcoming recall election of Gov. Scott Walker, a fellow Republican in Ryan’s home state, and believes the outcome of the contest will influence the critical fall general election nationwide.
Ryan told editors and reporters of The Washington Examiner that the race between Walker and Tom Barrett, the Democratic mayor of Milwaukee, will be close despite a poll released Wednesday by Marquette Law School that shows Walker leading by a comfortable 6 percentage points.
“I’m nervous about it because this is [about] execution, this is turnout, this is too close to call,” Ryan told The Examiner. “But I would rather be Scott Walker than Tom Barrett at this point.”
Walker was drawn into a recall election after he signed into law limits on the collective bargaining rights of public employee labor unions.
Ryan said the outcome of the June 5 recall election will have repercussions on national elections well beyond the Badger State.
“It is a momentum maker or breaker for either side,” Ryan said. “If we lose we suffer momentum loss. If we win it’s a huge, huge momentum maker for us.”
