GREEN BAY, Wis. (WFRV) - Your Local Election headquarters is getting you ready for next Tuesday's democratic primary in the Governor Walker Recall by profiling all four of the candidates.
Tuesday, we're continuing our series with a profile of Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett.
Local 5's Bret Lemoine spoke with Barrett when he recently campaigned in Green Bay.
On the deja vu of the election:
"I think people now have an idea of the type of leadership Governor Walker will provide."
On the "civil war" in Wisconsin and the end of collective bargaining:
"I've never seen anything like this in our state history before, where neighbors don't want to talk to neighbors, co-workers to co-workers and family members avoid each other. Those laws went into effect in 1961. We had 6 democratic governors, this is the 5th republican governor. No other governor from either party has gone after these rights."
What would happen to Act 10 (Collective Bargaining) if Barrett is elected?
"I would take a multi-faceted approach and call a special [legislative] session [in Madison], see if we can restore collective bargaining rights. I think public employees should have collective bargaining rights and I think that would help ease some of the tensions."
On job loss in Milwaukee, and creating new jobs in our state:
"As mayor of Milwaukee, I receive notice of mass layoffs. 2 weeks ago, I got a notice from a company, Talgo, located in the central city. Governor Walker and the state have terminated a contract with them. As a result, they are laying off people. Rather than have a governor who is my partner, I have a governor who literally broke a contract and caused people in the heart of the central city to lose their jobs. The one thing [Walker] talked about was creating 250,000 jobs [during the 2010 campaign]. He used that as the gauge that he wanted to be measured. Using his own measure, he's had the worst performance of any governor in the country."
What's something voters would be surprised to know about Mayor Barrett?
"I tell really bad jokes if you ask my teenage kids. I have four teenagers, they all have red hair. I didn't get married until I was 37."
