(Wauwatosa) – Republican Gubernatorial candidate Scott Walker and Lieutenant Governor candidate Rebecca Kleefisch addressed a standingroom only crowd this month at the Rosebud Cinema in Wauwatosa.
The pair promoted their messages of fiscal conservatism and smaller government to the more than 150 people who turned out to hear them speak. Touted as a Taxpayers’ Rally, the event drew a mixed crowd of TEA Partiers, GOP faithful and the politically curious.
“I’m excited to see how many people came out on a Sunday to hear Scott’s vision and mine for how we return Wisconsin to prosperity,” Kleefisch said.
A short video played during the rally featured some photos of Scott’s and Rebecca’s children playing together and gave insight on how Walker and Kleefisch might work together. “I believe the Governor is our CEO,” Kleefisch said in the video, “and the Lieutenant Governor is our VP of Marketing.”
Kleefisch’s vision for the job heaps responsibilities into the Lt. Governor’s office unseen in recent years and plays into her experience as a TV news anchor and marketing industry contractor. In the rally spotlight, Kleefisch shared her expertise: “I understand how to effectively use new media and traditional media and I can help our next governor sell his conservative agenda to the people of this great state, but I can also help convince job creators that Wisconsin is open for business again!”
Joe LaBarbera, a 15-year Milwaukee TV news veteran, emceed the rally, confessing that he long kept silent in his work as FOX 6’s “Joe on the Go,” never letting his conservative political beliefs enter his TV reports. “Scott and Rebecca have the same work ethic as you and I,” LaBarbera said, “and they know that, when you earn a dollar, you want to keep it!”
“Today we stand up for ourselves, we stand up for our freedom and we stand up for our Wisconsin,” LaBarbera said before introducing Wauwatosa Mayor Jill Didier, who also spoke briefly. Didier welcomed attendees to Wauwatosa and led the Pledge of Allegiance.
The rally lasted about 40 minutes, the majority of which were dedicated to the two GOP candidates’ speeches. Kleefisch went first, declaring that, “I’m not a squishy moderate; I am a real conservative,” and expressing her outrage over government’s over reach into taxpayers’ lives.
“I don’t need an 800 million dollar high speed train to get me to work fixing Madison, “she said to applause, “I am a mom, and I have a minivan to get me there!”
Kleefisch herself introduced the man who could be her running mate, Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker. “I’m obviously here today with my good friend, Rebecca Kleefisch,” Walker said, “and we are blessed to have a number of great candidates, but we are going to have a super Lieutenant Governor.”
Walker was swept into power in Milwaukee County on the back of a grassroots effort to clean up government there in 2002. Former Milwaukee County Executive TomAment had negotiated a pension deal that would have awarded him more than $2 million dollars at retirement. Kleefisch, then a news anchor for WISN-TV, was the reporter who famously had her microphone snatched away by Ament after she continually demanded that the shamed County Executive answer her questions.
Walker recalled the same time period in his address to the crowd. “Eight years ago, the naysayers in this county said we could never take our government back. They said we, we the people couldn’t elect a conservative. We’ve done that not once, not twice, but three times!”
Walker also touted his campaign of “brown bag common sense” that he said included values like, “Don’t spend more than you have. Smaller government is better government, and people create jobs and not the government.”
The pair attended a business leaders’ round table discussion at the Chancery in Wauwatosa after the rally. The September primary in Wisconsin is September 14. Walker’s website is www.scottwalker.org and Rebecca Kleefisch’s website is www.RebeccaForReal.com.