Another Walker “massive misstep”
by digby
I know that all the smart people think immigration isn’t going to matter in 2016 and maybe they’re right. But it certainly could be a problem for Scott Walker in the primaries because he’s known as a squish on the subject even if he recently “changed his mind”. The anti-immigration people just do not trust him.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker made another massive misstep on Monday, hiring Liz Mair of Mair Strategies to handle communications and social media for his campaign-in-waiting.
Mair’s support for amnesty for illegal aliens, wide-open-borders immigration policies, and public advocacy for the Senate “Gang of Eight” amnesty bill is sure to dog Walker in Iowa, South Carolina, and other early presidential states.
During the Senate Gang of Eight bill fight, Mair very publicly and very aggressively promoted the amnesty bill—pushing it to media and making the case for the need for it over and over again. She claims her advocacy was done out of the good of her heart, for free, because for religious reasons she believes in amnesty and open borders. But Mair wouldn’t answer who was paying her bills for her advocacy during the timeframe of the “Gang of Eight” bill in early 2013 through the end of the last Congress–when asked by Breitbart News if any specific tech companies or a select group of Wall Street billionaires were paying her.
“We’re contractually barred from disclosing our clients,” Mair said.
That could mean anyone—even foreign companies potentially—were paying her during the timeframe she was publicly advocating for the amnesty bill. While she didn’t have to disclose it to the public at the time now that she’s hitched to Walker the Wisconsin governor owns everything she said and did.
She also insulted Iowans, which has conservative Iowa activists a little bit upset. (And note the “made another massive misstep.” It’s early days but you can’t keep making “massive missteps” forever.)
Unless they turn up some truly terrible tweets, her job is probably safe. Staffers aren’t of much interest to voters. But as much as everyone wants to pretend that the only important “primary” going on right now is the so-called donor primary, there’s also one that’s going on in the right wing media and they are thoroughly scrutinizing the purity of these candidates. Walker is supposed to be one of them but his stance on immigration seems to have them spooked.
Firing Line: Qs raised abt @ScottWalker ‘s New Open Borders Amnesty Advocate Staffer Who Mocks Iowa http://t.co/RVaqoEGZif
— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) March 17, 2015