Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker announced Monday that he will challenge Gov. Jim Doyle in the 2006 gubernatorial election.
Walker's campaign will be centered around tax reform, the issue that has driven his meteoric rise from the Assembly to the head of Wisconsin's most populous county to a bid for governor in a mere three years.
\No matter how cold it may be outside right now, we need the Freeze,"" Walker said in a statement.
""The Freeze"" refers to a proposal to limit local governments' abilities to increase school and property tax levies, an issue high on the Republicans' agenda for the current legislative session. Doyle has previously vetoed a freeze and said he will veto it again if the same legislation is passed.
Walker, 37, is the first Republican to officially seek the governorship this year. The GOP is likely to field a who's who of up-and-coming Republicans seeking to dethrone Doyle, with state Assembly Speaker John Gard, R-Peshtigo, and U.S. Rep. Mark Green, R-Green Bay, also widely presumed to be seeking the nomination.
If Walker survives the Republican primary in April 2006, it appears Doyle and the Democrats will attempt to label him with an all-too-familiar charge-the dreaded ""flip-flop"" that undermined the campaign of former presidential candidate John Kerry.
""The one thing we're looking forward to is when the record of Scott Walker the county executive is put up against Scott Walker the state legislator,"" said Seth Boffeli, spokesperson for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. ""Walker will be anything at any place at any time, provided it's a popular stance.""
Boffeli charged Walker with being indecisive on his central issue of tax reform.
""His campaign is going to be based on freezing propety
taxes-well, he never did that in the Legislature. It's going to be about holding the controls on spending and he's never done that before in the Legislature, he said""
But Walker has proved popular in Milwaukee County for cleaning up a pension-payment scandal and reining in spending. He won 58 percent of the vote in his re-election last April.
Gard's spokesperson, Steve Baas, was mum on whether Walker's announcement would have an impact on Gard's decision to run for governor.
""The best way to get a promotion is to do a really good job at what you're doing,"" Baas said. ""Right now our focus is going to be doing a great job here in the Assembly.\
