Last week, I wrote about the brewing civil war in tomorrow’s Democrat primary in Wisconsin. The leading candidate to face off against Scott Walker in the recall election next month is Tom Barrett, mayor of Milwaukee. He’s facing a spirited challenge from his left from former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk. Her campaign is being fueled by millions of dollars in contributions, both to her and an allied PAC, by public sector unions. It does not look like they will go quietly into the night.
The Dems are trying to minimize the tension between the two camps, as illustrated in Friday’s final debate:
The Democratic gubernatorial hopefuls were careful not to jab each other too hard Friday and risk alienating each other’s supporters; the nominee will need a united front going into June. Instead they spent most of the evening trotting out well-rehearsed talking points against Walker.
Developments today suggest that was all for the cameras:
The Democratic Party of Wisconsin (DPW) had scheduled a “Unity Rally” for the evening of Wednesday, May 9th, on the steps of the state capitol. The rally was supposed to feature all the Democratic candidates and others uniting to defeat Walker and expressing support for the winner of the Democratic primary.The DPW has canceled the Unity Rally.
DailyKos is apoplectic:
I don’t know why the rally was canceled, but there has been widespread, unsubstantiated speculation that the front runner in the primary, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, decided at the last minute not to attend. The rumor being spread is that Tom Barrett does not want to be seen in the company of union leaders and union members for fear of having images of his participation in the rally being used against him by the Walker campaign.Others are speculating that the whole thing is a last-minute dirty trick perpetrated by supporters of Kathleen Falk. Barrett has a wide lead over Falk in the most recent polls. Is it really Barrett who backed out, or did somebody design a set of conditions for the rally that they knew would force Barrett to back out so they could smear him?We deserve better than this bullshit from the establishment running the party. Tom Barrett, Kathleen Falk, and the Democratic Party of Wisconsin need to come clean… Right FUCKING NOW!
Praise the lord and pass the popcorn.