Swift resignation of Scott Walker aide raises questions of campaign viability

[applegrove]

Swift resignation of Scott Walker aide raises questions of campaign viability

by Ben Jacobs at the Guardian

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/mar/18/scott-walker-aide-liz-mair-resigns-24-hours

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In a whirlwind 24 hours that saw him hire and then quickly lose a well-respected digital strategist, the Wisconsin governor and presidential contender Scott Walker went out of his way to appease Iowa Republicans – and in doing so may have damaged his role as a darling of the conservative media.

On Monday, Walker announced the hiring of Liz Mair, who worked for his recall campaign as well as for Rick Perry’s 2012 presidential run. And by Tuesday evening, Mair had resigned.

The outspoken Republican operative had come under a concentrated attack from both Democrats and conservatives for her past criticism of the Iowa caucus process and ethanol on Twitter, as well as her advocacy for gay marriage and immigration. Democrats leaked her derogatory comments on Iowa to the Des Moines Register, which accused her of using the state as “a punching bag”.

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But the coup de grâce came on Tuesday afternoon, when the New York Times reported that Jeff Kaufman, chair of the Republican party of Iowa, had called on Walker to fire Mair. “It’s obvious she doesn’t have a clue what Iowa’s all about,” he said. “I find her to be shallow and ignorant. And I’ll tell you, if I was Governor Walker, I’d send her her walking papers.”

But while Mair’s quick departure from the Walker campaign may have appeased the offended Iowans, it alienated conservative pundits, whom Walker needs to win over if he is to mount a successful presidential run. The Wisconsin governor has been using his resolve in fighting a recall and systematically crushing public-sector unions in his home state as his calling card, telling a crowd at CPAC in February: “If I can take on 100,000 protesters, I can do the same across the globe.”


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