Wisconsin win signals opportunity for Romney

Wisconsin’s Scott Walker became the first governor in US history to survive a recall election in a decisive victory that dealt a blow to the labour movement and raised Republican hopes of defeating Barack Obama in the presidential election in November.

Unions and liberal activists forced the recall election over a law curbing collective bargaining powers for public sector workers passed soon after Walker took office in 2011.

Republican Walker won by 8 percentage points over the Democratic challenger, Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett, a bigger victory for the governor over the same challenger than two years ago.

Republicans around the US were elated by the result in a state Obama won by 14 percentage points in 2008.

Obama’s presumed Republican opponent in November, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, called Walker to congratulate him. Romney had called Walker a “hero” when he visited Wisconsin earlier this year.

“A win like this shows Wisconsin may be a redder (more Republican) state in 2012 and could be bad news for Obama,” said Thad Kousser, an associate politics professor at the University of California, San Diego.

Even Obama’s campaign organisation conceded Wisconsin could be competitive in November. No Republican has won the state since Ronald Reagan in 1984.

Walker’s win may also embolden Republican governors in other states to take on labour unions.

“The unions tried to take a stand here and when you stake everything on one election and lose, politicians around the country will not be afraid to take on the unions,” Kousser said.

While Walker has ruled out serving as Romney’s vice-presidential nominee, he may be a future national candidate.

Walker struck a conciliatory tone in his victory speech, saying he wanted to try to bring the divided state together. “Early in 2011, I rushed in to try to fix things before I talked about them. Because you see, for years, too many politicians... talked about things but never fixed them,” Walker said.

The election in Wisconsin has been seen as a barometer of the US political climate going into November’s presidential election. The outcome is the latest evidence of a growing partisan climate in US politics that values confrontation over compromise and has led to gridlock in Washington.

It also suggests some voters will support a politician who seeks to balance the government budget by cutting spending, and reducing pensions and benefits for government workers rather than raising taxes.

Some voters in Wisconsin said it was only fair that union workers pay more pensions and health insurance when most private sector workers have no pensions at all.