MediaPolitical answers: Just what Mayor Tom will do, why he will and when ?

   By Donna Cole


 This post from the Milwaukee Journal's "All Politics Blog", "Barrett to announce recall plans before mayoral election", discusses when Mayor Tom will announce whether or not he is throwing his hat in the Gov. Walker recall election. From the post;

"Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett says he'll tell voters before the April 3 mayoral election whether he's in ...or out of a likely recall election against Gov. Scott Walker."

"Barrett said Wednesday he plans to announce his intentions shortly after the Government Accountability Board certifies the gubernatorial recall. A Dane County judge has given the GAB until March 30 to decide whether enough valid signatures were submitted on petitions seeking to recall the first-term Republican governor."

 Now, the GAB making the recall election official is on March 30th, which is a Friday. Well, that is still going to be the big news of the day, so Mayor Tom will not announce then because he doesn't want to be overshadowed by this big news. He will not announce over the weekend because nobody pays attention to the media on the weekend.


 The mayoral election is Tuesday, April 3rd, and he says he announce before that. This only leaves him with with Monday, April 2nd. I believe, and I am not the only one because off the record leaks have been reported by several media outlets that Mayor Tom wants another shot at Gov. Walker, that he will run again for governor.


 Now, even though Mayor Tom has no serious competition in the mayoral election and should win rather easily, he still doesn't want hack off voters by saying, "Hey, vote for me for mayor, even though I am going to run for governor and if I win, I am going to quit the mayor gig in a couple months."


 So, this is what I expect you will see. On Monday, April 2nd, sometime after 5pm, you will see a brief press release from Mayor Tom's office saying, "Yes, Mayor Tom is running for governor, the official press conference date to be announced after the mayoral election." This might make a blip on the 10pm news or some blog on the Milwaukee Journal's website, but it will be generally not reported by the liberal media for the same reasons Mayor Tom doesn't want the story out yet.


 Then after he wins the mayoral election, he will have a big celebration. All the media will be there, all his supporters will be there and they will be all worked up over Mayor Tom's victory, presenting him with the perfect opportunity to say, with his chest all pushed out, "Oh yeah, I am now running for governor !", to the cheers of his adoring liberal fans.


 Of course, the union backed candidate, Kathy Falk, doesn't want Mayor Tom to run nor do the unions. They want a clean and easy primary, for obvious reasons. They don't need to waste money on the primary or have Mayor Tom dump a bunch of mud on Falk. But, putting that aside there is a much more important reason they want Mayor Tom out.


 Now, I will be wrong if the union goons succeed in twisting Mayor Tom's arm hard enough and he decides to Falk Off. But I don't think that's going to happen because Mayor Tom knows what I know and what the union goons know. Mayor Tom can beat Kathy in the primary, he will clean the floor with her no matter how much the unions spend because he can run to the right of Falk as a more mainstream Democrat and not a Madison liberal.


 Mayor Tom also knows once he knocks off Falk, the unions will have to eat crow and back him whether they like it or not. This causes the unions another major headache, just how bad do they want to beat Mayor Tom up. This why Mayor Tom will run. It's going to be real interesting to sit back and watch how this liberal verses liberal fight will play out.