RNC: Scott Walker Win in Wis. Means ‘Lights Out for Barack Obama’
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Justin Sullivan/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) — The Republican National Committee had some strong talk about their chances next week in the Wisconsin recall and what a victory for Republican Gov. Scott Walker would mean.
“Certainly [if] Wisconsin goes red, I think it’s lights out for Barack Obama,” said RNC Chairman and Wisconsinite Reince Priebus on Wednesday.
This is on the heels of a new Marquette University Law School poll showing Walker over Democratic Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett by seven points, 52 percent to 45 percent.
Despite the committee’s tough talk, it’s not so cut and dry that a Walker win would automatically mean an Obama loss. The same survey also shows President Obama over Mitt Romney 51 percent to 43 percent.
The RNC said they have made “over two million voter contacts” and identified “nearly every Wisconsin voter” ahead of Tuesday’s vote, on a conference call the committee held Wednesday.
They also rolled out a partnership with their state parties to mobilize volunteers and activists from Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan and Minnesota to make phone calls or travel to Wisconsin ahead of Tuesday. The chairman even said he doesn’t think there is another state in the country where the party “both nationally and locally know more about voters than the state of Wisconsin.”
The RNC stressed they are ready to quickly pivot to the general election after Tuesday. Aides say they have opened 20 field offices that will be used to try and retain Walker as governor through Tuesday, but will quickly move to focus on Romney.
“One thing is really clear here, if Walker wins here next Tuesday, which we are very confident he will, Obama is going to have a much tougher road ahead in Wisconsin this fall,” Priebus said. “Clearly putting Wisconsin in the red column for the first time since 1984 is a pretty big deal.”
This comes on the same day Democratic National Chairman Debbie Wasserman Schultz visited Wisconsin to campaign with Barrett. According to the Milwaukee Wisconsin Journal Sentinel she said the party was “putting all of our effort into this fight.”
“Scott Walker has worked hard to make sure that people think that he’s the rock star of the right-wing tea-party extremism that the Republican Party has allowed to take them over,” Wasserman Schultz said. “And that is not what voters in Wisconsin want to see happen.”
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