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| Milwaukee River Downtown |
A preacher's son, Scott Walker has back-stroked
through a lot of fishbowls.
"Where we grew up in Delavan," said Walker,
now the Milwaukee County executive and a GOP candidate for governor, "being
the son of a minister is kind of like being the son of a principal or the son
of the mayor. You are kind of in a fishbowl.
"Most people know who you are, and they have
certain expectations. I used to laugh -- anytime I was with a group of kids,
and anyone had to say the prayer or there was a question about a Bible verse,
they automatically assumed that I must know."
Walker rose from Eagle Scout at 18 to the state
Assembly in 1993 at age 25 to Milwaukee County executive in 2002 and
re-election in 2004.
Almost two years before the November 2006
gubernatorial election, he announced in January his plan to run against
Democratic incumbent Gov. Jim Doyle.
In the arena of politics, Walker is nimble. State Sen.
Bob Jauch, D-Poplar, said Walker didn't leave the Capitol with a lot of
longtime grudges festering. "He was bright and ambitious -- and the wrong
party," Jauch said.
Walker benefited, as did his Republican gubernatorial
opponent, Mark Green, from the new Republican majority in the Assembly in 1994,
moving as conservative buttoned-down rookies into leadership roles.
Walker said he carpooled with a handful of Assembly
Republicans for almost a decade -- Wauwatosa was close enough to commute, and
he had family.
"We would go home every night, while most lawmakers
stayed there throughout the week," Walker said. "In the nearly nine
years I was here, I stayed overnight maybe four times -- when it snowed.
"And it was just easier to have people to talk to
and trade off driving. It was kind of nice. Even though we were all on
different committees, . . . we had our little mini-caucus, discussing what
bills we thought were going to be hot that day."
Walker is on the road again. At Monona Terrace
Wednesday for an official appearance before Cambridge High School students, he
scampered afterward over to a campaign stop at an Associated Building
Contractors lunch at the nearby Madison Club.
"Lots of times we will double things up,"
Walker said. "I maximize my travel."
A Baptist who worked in fundraising at the American
Red Cross in Wisconsin before he ran for the Assembly, Walker advocates
President Bush's "faith-based initiative."
"In many cases, particularly for social services,
organizations that have a faith or charitable basis to them can often do the same
or even better work than the government can," he said.
He supports defining marriage as between a man and a
woman, and he favors health savings accounts as a way to cut health-care
insurance costs.
Walker doesn't have a college degree -- he left before
his senior year at Marquette University -- but he touts his experience running
Milwaukee County's government with a $1.2 billion budget, more than 6,000
employees, veto power and a Cabinet just like the governor's.
"It's a pretty good testing ground," Walker
said. "It's truly my calling card. It's make or break. If things in the
next two years fall apart, I'm not going to be much of a candidate."
In each of his three years as head of Milwaukee
County, Walker says he's offered a budget with a cut in the levy. Due to veto
overrides, the levy did increase two of the three years but even so, it was at
a much lower increase than most neighboring counties, he says.
"Any of us can talk about tax relief, but only
one of us has actually done it," he said.
Ed Thompson, a Tomah restaurant owner who ran
unsuccessfully for governor as a Libertarian in 2002, says Walker and Green are
both good men -- both ambitious. "That's what you have to be to serve that
party."
Three other interesting things about Walker:
* He proposed to his wife, Tonette, on the night the
first President George Bush gave his acceptance speech at the Republican
convention -- they married the next year on the late President Ronald Reagan's
birthday.
* He attended the American Legion's Badger Boys State
and represented Wisconsin at Boys Nation in Washington.
* He is the first Republican elected Milwaukee County
executive.
Scott Walker
* Age: 37
* Address: Wauwatosa
* Personal: Married, two sons
* Job: Milwaukee County executive
* Political experience: Won special election to State
Assembly, 1993; served nine years; won special election for Milwaukee County
executive, 2002; re-elected 2004.
* Other public service: Bush/Cheney county chair,
2000; one of statewide co-chairs for Bush/Cheney campaign, 2004.
* Education: Attended Marquette University.
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