Gov. Scott Walker kicked off his re-election campaign and state Rep. Chris Taylor, D-Madison, endorsed gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke Tuesday in an event held by students on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.
Troy Berg, president of Dane Manufacturing in Dane County, introduced Walker and Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch at their first re-election campaign stop Tuesday.
Berg praised Walker for the economic growth that Wisconsin has seen in the past four years.
“Down to my core I believe in some simple principles and one of them is free enterprise,” Berg said. He added that Walker and Kleefisch’s shared values had created jobs and economic growth in the state.
Walker contrasted Wisconsin’s current fiscal situation with the state’s 9.2 percent unemployment rate and $3 billion deficit in 2010. He said tough decisions led to lower taxes and a nearly $1 billion surplus in the state’s budget.
The governor also reiterated his decision to extend the University of Wisconsin System’s tuition freeze, which he said stemmed from the need to make education more affordable for Wisconsin families.
Walker said his vision for the state allows working Wisconsinites to decrease their dependency on government.
“[Our campaign] wants to reduce dependency in government and increase dependency on hard work and personal pride,” Walker said.
Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate said in a statement Walker’s approach to economic growth had “failed,” dropping the state to 35th in job creation.
“Wisconsin is one of the five worst states for new business start-ups, and our rate of entrepreneurial activity declined in the past year,” Tate said in the statement.
Two University of Wisconsin-Madison student organizations also kicked off their campaign Tuesday. The UW-Madison Young Progressives and the College Democrats announced their cooperative Badgers for Burke campaign at an event featuring state Rep. Chris Taylor, D-Madison.
Taylor said she hoped students would be engaged enough to make a difference in the election.
“Young people and millennials are going to be the ones who have the power to shift this election,” Taylor said. “Everything you care about; whether it be public education, whether it be workers’ rights, whether it be women, is at stake right now.”
Taylor criticized Walker for representing special interest groups instead of Wisconsin citizens.
“[Scott Walker] hasn’t done anything for regular people in the state of Wisconsin,” Taylor said. “He’s done a lot for the most wealthy. He’s done a lot for the most privileged, but he hasn’t done much for anybody else.”
Sean Hoey, president of the campus Young Progressives and an opinion columnist for The Daily Cardinal, said the Badgers for Burke campaign will focus on registering students to vote.
“We know that students love Mary Burke, they’re just not always the greatest voters,” Hoey said. “We just want to make sure they get out there on election day.”
Student issues are focal to Burke’s campaign, according to Joe Zepecki, Burke’s communications director.
“Young people who are in college right now are going to be the leaders of tomorrow,” Zepecki said. “We want a Wisconsin where we are letting entrepreneurs have the support that they need. We want Wisconsin to be a place where young people want to stay.”
Tuesday marked the first day gubernatorial candidates can circulate nomination papers to be on the ballot.
