Saturday, May 5, 2012
9:33 PM
In visit to Milwaukee, Vinehout says she could woo swing voters in general election
Gubernatorial candidate Kathleen Vinehout spent Saturday afternoon in the heart of Milwaukee, where she told residents of the Riverwest neighborhood that she's the candidate who can win over the small but crucial undecided vote that will determine the outcome of the recall.
With polls showing Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett in a dead heat with Gov. Scott Walker, Vinehout said it makes sense to choose a Democratic candidate who can win swing voters in what she calls Wisconsin's "fertile crescent" -- a curved swath stretching from La Crosse and Eau Claire, through Wausau and up through Green Bay and northward.
"This is where Walker's numbers are soft," Vinehout told a small group gathered at the Riverwest Public House, a community-owned bar that serves as a neighborhood center.
"We need someone to appeal to voters who do not always vote Democrat," she said. "I won when Tom Barrett got 3 percentage points less than I did and Russ Feingold got 2 percentage points less than I did, in a part of the state where Democrats have to carry in order to win."
"I provide the strongest contrast to Scott Walker," said Vinehout. "Ten years, I've spent dairy farming. Now when those dairy farmers wake up on election day and they do their chores and they come in and take off their boots and put on their going-to-town clothes, think about it -- who are they going to vote for? Scott Walker that spent his whole life in public office and is a politician or Kathleen Vinehout, who trudged out to the barn at 5 a.m. and knows what it's like to get her hands dirty and her boots muddy? Scott Walker already lost the teachers -- he can't afford to lose both the teachers and the farmers."
She added, "If you don't believe me, think about that he opened his campaign on a dairy farm in western Wisconsin and he was just in Eau Claire yesterday and today. I mean, why is he spending so much time in my neighborhood?"
Read full coverage from WisPolitics.com
Labels: 2012_recall_elections
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