That awkward moment when a college’s liberal student paper says voters should just give up on the Democrat running against Gov. Scott Walker (R-Wis.) already.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison’s student newspaper, the reliably left-of-center The Daily Cardinal, published an editorial this week suggesting that Democrats abandon hope for Mary Burke’s gubernatorial campaign against the incumbent Walker. The editorial noted that Democratic efforts to ruin Walker through union battles and a long and expensive recall made him “too big to fail.” By comparison, Burke, a former corporate executive and state official with little momentum and name recognition, may be too small to compete.
“[B]esides the perhaps insurmountable stature of the man she seeks to beat, there is one big problem: No one knows who she is,” the editorial states. “The election is fast approaching, yet there has not been any of the build-up that has characterized recent elections here. People simply haven’t heard of or seen her anywhere.”
The editorial continues, arguing that Burke’s lack of fundraising and the lack of progressive activism in the state bode ill for her fortunes. “Even if Burke runs a masterful campaign,” the editorial reads, “it will be too little, too late. In an effort to execute Walker—politically, of course—Democrats shot themselves in the foot.”
The paper’s opinion comes even as polling shows a competitive race. Though Walker has slightly widened his lead in recent months, the latest Marquette University poll shows him with a modest 47-41 percent advantage. That spread is up from a two-point edge in October, when Walker still had 47 percent support to Burke’s 45.
The Daily Cardinal’s editorial board has consistently taken progressive stances on issues, making its frank assessment of Burke’s chances all the more noteworthy. It has endorsed President Obama twice, called his 2014 State of the Union address “refreshingly progressive,” labeled House tea partiers “catty teenage girls,” and opposed Walker on state programs. That sunny opinion of liberal causes is reflected in the editorial’s position that state Democrats “must now turn to areas of the state where Walker’s star doesn’t shine so bright and make gains in the state legislature.”
“There a progressive agenda still stands a chance,” the board beams.
A lack of enthusiasm among Democratic voters at UW-Madison and its surrounding area would be bad news for Burke, as Democratic candidates running for office typically rely on their votes. In the 2008 election, for instance, President Obama won 72 percent of the vote in Dane County, which the university calls home and has a population of almost half of a million. During the 2012 election, Politico called Dane County “Wisconsin’s partisan counterbalance” to a GOP stronghold in the state elsewhere.
