For Immediate Release
November 16, 2017

Slogan is a deceptive cover-up of government run by Republican donors

(Milwaukee) – Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Matt Flynn today made the following statement highlighting the way Scott Walker’s dismal record contrasts with Walker’s new campaign slogan, “Moving Wisconsin Forward.”

Flynn said, “Since the day I announced my candidacy for governor, I have called my candidacy a campaign for ‘moving Wisconsin Forward again.’ Apparently, this message is so appealing that the incumbent governor decided to borrow the slogan for himself. The only difference is he leaves out the crucial word, ‘again.’

“Walker removed ‘again’ to leave voters with the impression that he has been moving Wisconsin forward all along. Wisconsin voters know better. Since he first took office in 2011, he has consistently moved Wisconsin backwards.

“Walker is simply a policy mule for a Republican donor cartel. These donors want to socialize all their risk, privatize any profits, and transfer the public assets of Wisconsin into their pockets. Here are a few of their objectives which Walker has obeyed:

  • Walker drove down wages by passing Act 10, Right to Work, and by repealing prevailing wage.
  • He turned down more than $800 million in train money and more than $500 million in Medicaid money.
  • He is turning over almost $3 billion in taxpayer cash to a Chinese company and exempting them from clean water regulations that American companies such as Miller Brewing and Harley-Davidson have to obey.
  • He has cut funding to the University of Wisconsin System, eliminated statutory tenure, and insulted the professors by calling their opposition ‘a collective groan,’ and falsely stating they were more interested in themselves than in their students.
  • He has permitted industry to write their own environmental permits, polluting our water.
  • He permitted a foreign private corporation to force private Wisconsin property owners to give up their property under the doctrine of eminent domain, which had previously been reserved for state purposes.
  • He broke up one of the best government accountability agencies in the world and created a giant slush fund for his campaign donors in the form of the WEDC.
  • He led the effort to add Wisconsin to the call for a Constitutional Convention that will amend the United States Constitution to permit Republican donors to steal public assets well into the future.

“This atrocious record is Walker’s idea of ‘moving Wisconsin forward.’ He has turned Wisconsin through a gerrymandered legislature into a donor occupation group. It’s time for a new governor.

Forward has been Wisconsin’s state motto since admission to the union, and it accurately captures most of our state’s progressive history. We gave America kindergarten, Earth Day, workers’ compensation insurance, and other forward-thinking ideas. Wisconsin has been called the birthplace of progressivism.

“Scott Walker’s time as governor has repealed or damaged almost every aspect of Wisconsin progressivism. His time is up. Wisconsin is ready for change.”