Scott Walker, who campaigned for governor for more than a year without ever mentioning a proposal to take away public employee bargaining rights, tries to recreate history in an interview with the Associated Press:
As proof that unions knew they would be targeted, Walker points to a flier circulated during last fall’s campaign by union AFT-Wisconsin that warned that Walker wanted to curb the unions’ power to negotiate.
In December, weeks after the election, he even suggested the possibility of abolishing unions altogether.
Anyone who didn’t see it coming must have been in a coma, Walker said.
Union leaders insist they were blindsided.
“There wasn’t any belief he was going to go for the nuclear option,” said Gary Steffen, president of the Wisconsin Science Professionals, the union that represents state scientists, including crime lab analysts, biologists, chemists and foresters. “We expected concessions, but we just didn’t think there was a mandate for this. We didn’t see him getting rid of collective bargaining.”
Given the response to his outrageous demands once he made them public, there is a good chance Walker would not have been elected if he had told the truth before election day. To claim now that everyone knew his plans is totally, 100% bogus.