Wisconsin GOP gubernatorial candidates Scott Walker, Mark Neumann say they're outsiders

Wisconsin GOP gubernatorial candidates Scott Walker, Mark Neumann say they're outsiders

VERONA — Republican gubernatorial candidates Scott Walker and Mark Neumann sparred Monday over who was an outsider who could shake up state government, even as Walker touted his endorsement by 91 percent of party members and Neumann downplayed his two terms in Congress.

After delegates endorsed Walker at the Wisconsin Republican Party’s weekend convention, Chairman Reince Priebus joined him at campaign stops and predicted he would win the Sept. 14 primary. Priebus said the party would provide Walker with whatever resources it could to help him win, including money and voter lists.

That’s the biggest advantage Walker gets by winning the endorsement. Both he and Neumann will still appear on the primary ballot, and voters will decide who to send on to the general election.

Neumann said he wasn’t surprised Priebus expected Walker to win, and he attempted to use the prediction to his advantage.

“We fully understand we are the outsider in this race,” Neumann said. “I think the people are going to elect someone outside of government.”

Walker said his endorsement showed the breadth of his support among Wisconsin Republicans, but at the same time, he also tried to position himself as someone who could shake up the establishment.

“There’s no candidate running for governor, Republican or Democrat, who’s more anti-status quo than I,” Walker said after a rally at Doerfer Brothers farm in Verona. “Everything I’ve done is challenge the government.”

Democratic Party Chairman Mike Tate derided Walker’s statement, calling him the consummate party insider.

“Scott Walker has said some pretty incredible things in his career but this must be the most outlandish, ridiculous, far-fetched comment of the campaign so far,” Tate said.

Walker was 25 years old when he was elected to the state Assembly in 1992. He served there for nine years before becoming Milwaukee County executive, a position he’s held since 2002.

Neumann said Monday that he’s the true outsider in the race, even though he served two terms in Congress in the 1990s before returning to his business as a home builder after a failed 1998 challenge to Democratic U.S. Sen. Russ Feingold.

Tate said the only thing that makes Neumann an outsider is “he doesn’t know how to mount a winning campaign.”

The winner of the Republican primary likely will face Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, the only major Democratic candidate, in the November election.

Barrett spokesman Phil Walzak said because both Walker and Neumann support repealing tax increases on large businesses and families earning more than $300,000 a year, they “aren’t fighting against the status quo — they are fighting against Wisconsin’s working and middle-class families.”

Walker has been campaigning almost nonstop since he dropped out of the 2006 governor’s race, blanketing the state many times over and meeting with party activists. Neumann jumped in the race in July.

Neumann upset some party faithful when he had paid for a telephone poll to measure his support among party delegates and then asked them not to vote to endorse him. Neumann said he made the request because primary voters — and not what he called “Republican insiders” — should pick the party’s candidate.

But many delegates said they believed Neumann bowed out because he knew Walker would win.

Walker’s multi-city campaign tour on Monday also included stops in Green Bay, La Crosse, Eau Claire, and Wausau. It marked the second time he’s done a fly around. The first was a year ago after he announced his candidacy.

Also Monday, Neumann dropped off petitions in Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle’s office that he said contained the signatures of 25,000 people who oppose the recently passed federal health care law. Neumann wants Doyle to join a lawsuit challenging the law. Doyle supports the law and has refused to participate in the lawsuit.