If this is true and the election is a referendum on collective bargaining, then Barrett is beating the collective bargaining queen, thus the referendum has failed.
The unions can kiss collective bargaining away if Barrett would win over Falk.

I would like to see Tom Barrett explain why he's waging a war on women. He pays women in his mayor's office 75% less than he pays the men in the same office. He's also been campaigning with the head of the state police union, Jim Palmer. This is the same Jim Palmer, who according to court documents, has a history of physical violence towards women.

Bren:

Can you please clarify what you mean by this?

"If that had happened in the beginning instead of dropping "the bomb" Walker probably wouldn't be facing recall right now. "

Walker was told, before he even took office that the unions would never make the concessions that Walker was planning to ask for. It was clear, even before Walker's first day in office that the unions were not going to negotiate or make any concessions to help the budget ride through the economic downturn.

It was his stance early in his campaign. He only changed direction a few weeks ago. I think that the union's strong arm tactics on Barrett will come back to bite them in the butts. After all, Barrett did use the Act 10 reforms and I don't see any evidence that he has any platform to make the changes back. If collective bargaining was an actual Barrett issue I think he would be waving it like a flag. Almost none of the recall effort is about collective bargaining, it is about everything else the dems. can stir up, including the kitchen sink.
I think Barrett restoring collective bargaining is the same as Obama closing GITMO (the first thing Obama was going to do), it sounds good during the campaign but it ain't gonna happen.

No Greg
You are wrong. Yes Barrett agreed with the kicking in of money for health care and pensions but NOT with taking away collective bargaining as a whole. There is whole lot more to collective bargaining-working conditions, safety factors, hours. etc etc that Walker took away.

Barrett used them as a whole, so I see no basis of fact in your statement. What's in it for Barrett? Ask yourself that question. If he is Governor he will have more on his plate than he can handle. We will have him under the same scrutiny that you have afforded Governor Walker. It won't be like hiding in the mayor's office, I gaurantee that.

How exactly can you have union members 'kick in' money for healthcare and pensions without taking away their ability to collectively bargain? Union leadership made it very clear to Walker that they were not willing to make concessions. Taking away collective bargaining was the only way to go...

@Cowdung - Barrett has stated he is for collective bargaining of government employees. However, as anyone that has worked within union contracts knows, everything is not readily negotiable. Also, the unions have been self-realizing that they cannot get everything they desire if they are to survive, and Barrett as a moderate Democrat realizes he needs to be and has been a strong negotiator with the unions, even the badge unions. And the public unions even agreed to paying more for their benefits under Walker, but Walker overreached as sociopaths are apt to do, and blew his career in the first few weeks. Barrett is smarter, wiser, and more experienced than Walker to make such incredibly stupid straight to hell moves as Walker did.

@Dirk, the unions agreed to concessions only after their polling showed the taxpaying public was strongly in favor of it. At the same time Union members are down to about 13 percent of the workforce and for the first time in history a majority of them work for the government.

Private sector companies who pay their union workers too much can lose market share and go out of business (unless they get bailed out by Obama.) Public employee unions have a perverse incentive to grow government. Between 2002 and 2007 overall spending by the states rose 50 percent faster than inflation; it would be interesting to know when the public employee unions had the "realization" they can't get everything they want.

Dirk:

The unions really didn't agree to pay more for their benefits under Walker. When polling was unfavorable, they made statements to that effect, but didn't follow through. MPS and Kenosha are two examples of this. They passed their contracts before ACT 10 became law and chose to not have workers pay towards their benefits. Recently, when the union at MPS was asked to reopen their contracts so that workers would start making contributions to their benefits, they refused.

Golly, who saw this coming?
http://portwashington-wi.patch.com/articles/jobs-is-top-issue-for-democrats-in-primary-collective-bargaining-is-last
Job Creation Top Issue for Democrats in Recall; Collective Bargaining is Last...
And I would say last = off the table. Barrett winning the primary is a massive loss for the public sector unions.

@Tom Barrett... no, it's not bad, rather it is quite a meaningless, non-rigourously analyzed collection of opinions.

This survey has been referenced elsewhere. CEO magazine doesn’t say much about who the respondents are; do they represent large corporations, small companies, or small businesses?

Putting that aside there is some interesting information which can be gleaned from the survey.

The ten lowest ranked states for business climate are home to 225 Fortune 500 Companies while the ten highest ranked states are home to only 140 of the Fortune 500, with Texas being the one to pull up the numbers.

The fifteen lowest ranked states are home to a total of 256 Fortune 500′s while the top 15 are populated by only 157 of the big companies.

So, it would appear that the “perception” of the survey respondents does not match “reality”.

One could also draw the conclusion that these people don’t put their “money where their mouth is”.

The validity of this survey is at about the same level as the myth that Gov. Walker had anything to do with moving Wisconsin up in the rankings.

I would suggest voting for Falk. Polls show Walker beating her by a landslide, while too close to call vs. Barrett.
I am even going to accept a ride to the polls from the DNC. As a twist, I am walking out the polls from a different door, and walking home! Leaving the driver to wait a little longer for me to prevent him from driving one less Libby to the polls.
:-P How cool is that idea?

@Craig... I seriouly doubt that the DNC is providing rides to the polls. Actually it is George Soros who is sending a fleet of limos for that purpose.

It's also a bit strange, isn't it, that after spending milllions of dollars on TV spots that Walker is in a dead heat with Barrett? With all the good that he has done for each of us Wisconsin residents one would think that he would be ahead by 20 points or more.

It's even more strange as the pollis conducted by the same individual who previously conducted polls while he was supported by the that notoriously leftwing Bradley Foundation. Strange doings here.

We vote for Walker in the primary. Isaac Weix too.

Wanna bet 10 Grand?

$10,000 really?

Or we could bet Windmills, but they won't be worth squat when Walker wins.

Money can not buy people power.

AFT Local 4848 ‏ @WPEC4848

Great photo from today's Green Bay Press Gazette. #wiunion http://fb.me/1KiR5Zgwl

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/milwaukee-journal-sentinel-endorses-scott-walker/2012/05/20/gIQA13SLdU_blog.html