An Apple for Evers

Here in Wisconsin, State Superintendent of Public Schools Tony Evers is the Democratic gubernatorial candidate running against incumbent Republican Governor Scott Walker.

Having made it difficult for urban public school districts to fund themselves and simultaneously diverting public funds to private schools, Walker now touts himself as a leader in education. Whatever gains have been made in Wisconsin education he has claimed for himself, while blaming Evers for everything that has gone wrong.

Third-party ads by shadowy outside interests — Republican groups have outspent Democratic groups two to one — accuse Evers of not using his office to illegally revoke the teaching licenses of some teachers who were caught using school computers to view pornography. (In the most prominent case, the teacher's sister had sent him risqué emails, which he passed along to other staff.) In fact, state law at the time only addressed sanctions against teachers whose conduct directly affected students; Evers supported resulting legislation to expand the law to include sexual misconduct in which no actual student was involved.

Polls have suggested that the race is a toss-up, but I tend to believe that Walker still has the edge here. Including the effort to recall him in his first term, he has won statewide election three times. Suburban and rural resentment of Milwaukee and Madison, the disappearance of good-paying union jobs, and a steady sprawl of exurbanites from Chicago and the Twin Cities are turning Wisconsin more red than purple.

The Democrats' argument against Walker in past elections, that Wisconsin's economy has lagged behind neighboring states, doesn't work for them this year. (Apparently, it didn't work for them in past years, either, but let's move on.) Instead, Democrats now complain that current employment gains have come at the cost of profligate give-aways to firms such as Uline, Amazon and Foxconn.

Another Democratic campaign theme is that our roads are falling apart because Walker refuses to pay for their upkeep. And the savings get passed on to you in the form of auto repair bills!

Doing anything about shoring up public education, trimming corporate welfare, or fixing potholes costs money, and if Republicans are about anything, it's whipping up preemptive sticker shock. Fighting back against being painted as a Taxandspendliberal is going to require more charisma and dynamism than I've seen out of Mr. Evers so far.

Even if Evers should win in November, he'll face a legislature gerrymandered to tilt so Republican, there would have to be over a dozen Republican legislators each caught in bed with a dead girl, a live boy and a Colin Kaepernick jersey for Evers to get any of his agenda passed.

Besides, see how your auto repair bills boost the private sector economy?