At a private Washington dinner last night, one of the nation\u2019s most prominent political scientists and pollsters said that the battle of Wisconsin is over. \u00a0Governor Scott Walker has won.<\/p>\n
The remark came amidst a flurry of wide ranging discussion and passed almost unnoticed, until one guest interrupted, \u201cWhat did you say a moment ago? \u00a0Walker has won?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSure,\u201d the professor and pollster replied. \u00a0\u201cWe are seeing polls out of Wisconsin that show the public has clearly turned in favor of the governor.\u201d \u00a0He cited one by the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. \u00a0But he could as easily have pointed to other samplings of both national and local opinion.<\/p>\n
For example, the Rasmussen poll (http:\/\/tiny.cc\/eydja)<\/a> has found 48 percent of voters around the nation supporting Governor Walker, only 38 percent supporting the public employee unions. \u00a0Meanwhile, former pollster to both Democratic president Bill Clinton and numerous Republicans, Dick Morris, has reported similar results among Wisconsin voters (http:\/\/tiny.cc\/v03w6).<\/a><\/p>\n On Thursday, Morris posted on his blog results from a survey taken in the prior two nights: \u00a0\u201cBy 74-18, [Wisconsin voters] back making state employees pay more for their health insurance. \u00a0By 79-16, they support asking state workers contribute more toward their pensions. By 54-34, [they] support ending the automatic deduction of union dues from state paychecks and support making unions collect dues from each member. By 66-30, they back limiting state workers\u2019 pay increases to the rate of inflation unless voters approve a higher raise by a public referendum.\u201d<\/p>\n He continued: \u201c[If the collective bargaining issue is] related to giving schools flexibility to modify tenure, pay teachers based on merit, discharge bad teachers and promote good ones, [Wisconsin voters] support such limits on collective bargaining by 58-38.\u201d<\/p>\n Morris concludes: \u201c[If Governor Walker] emphasizes the positive intent that lies behind the proposal (i.e. giving schools the flexibility and freedom to implement education reforms), he will find a solid public majority behind him.\u201d<\/p>\n