Milwaukee Council President Slams Walker For Anti-Milwaukee Campaign

Milwaukee Common Council President Willie Hines Jr., in a Sunday Crossroads op-ed, called out Scott Walker for an intentional effort to denigrate Milwaukee and separate it from the rest of the state to gin up his base:

One can conclude that Walker's real agenda is to "divide and conquer" our state by giving those outside of Milwaukee the impression that we are different from them. If this governor is willing to throw Wisconsin's biggest city under the bus, which city is next? La Crosse? Wausau? Hurley?

Walker has lived in the Milwaukee area for most of his adult life; he should know that Milwaukee is a great American city. It would be nice to see him help strengthen his state's largest city, instead of turning his back on it in order to score cheap political points.

Walker needs to take his ideological blinders off and realize what Milwaukee means to Wisconsin. Simply put, Wisconsin will not be able to prosper as a state without a strong Milwaukee. So when a sitting governor pits Milwaukee residents against fellow Wisconsinites, everyone loses, from Milwaukee to Superior.

It's an old Republican trick which some think plays well in Wisconsin's smaller towns and suburbs - - "stick it to Milwaukee" - - as did former Gov. Tommy Thompson when he sought out-state support for the Miller Park tax which he and legislators made sure fell only on Milwaukee and surrounding counties.

It was a reprehensible tactic for Thompson to employ, and freshly disgusting that a desperate Walker thinks this version of divide and conquer brings luster to his reputation or the office he holds.

We're all Wisconsinites here: we don't have "others" with outsider status that give them second-class status.

And we don't need elected officials who will play that card for their partisan, careerist goals.