Editor:

Scott Walker should be voted out of office for two main reasons. First, during his 2010 campaign, he gave the people of Wisconsin no notice of the extreme agenda he had planned for us once elected. In his own words, he “dropped the bomb” in February last year-and has been lobbing grenades ever since. Second, the unilateral and partisan methods he has used to pass his agenda are just not the Wisconsin way. He has grabbed more power for himself than any other leader in Wisconsin history. A governor should work with honesty and transparency for all the people of his state, not for the corporations and billionaires who write the legislation they want enacted.

Driving around and seeing the giant pro-Walker signs paid for by people in Florida, New York and Texas makes me wonder, “Where do these wealthy donors-and Wisconsin’s own citizens-stand with Scott Walker?” Do they stand in the unemployment line with the thousands of Wisconsinites who can’t find a job that will support their families? Are they standing with a young mother who can’t take her sick child to the doctor after losing their BadgerCare? Will they be there to help a first grader learn to read in his class of 35 kids? Are they with the student on a tech school waiting list because of Walker’s 30 percent cuts to those programs? Are they standing with arms around the woman who has undiagnosed cervical cancer because Planned Parenthood can no longer provide her annual exam? Or will they be standing in a Milwaukee courtroom if/when Walker is charged in the John Doe investigation?

Please watch and listen to Walker the next time he talks about all the jobs he has created, and then look at the actual statistics on Wisconsin jobs over the past 16 months. If you are happy with our steady march to the bottom since his budget took effect, and the blatant lies he continues to tell, then continue to stand with him. It’s clear to the rest of us that the emperor has no clothes.

Cheryl Andrist, Rhinelander