ROAD TO 2016
Scott Walker
Age: 47, born Nov. 2, 1967, in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Political party: Republican
Political experience: Governor of Wisconsin since 2011; elected to the State Assembly in 1993, chairman of a number of committees and author of Wisconsin’s truth-in-sentencing law; elected and served eight years as Milwaukee County executive, starting in 2002.
Business: Worked for IBM; in development for the American Red Cross.
Education: Attended Marquette University, 1986-1990, dropping out 34 credits short of graduation. If elected, Walker would be the first president since Harry Truman, elected nearly 70 years ago, without a college degree, according to news reports.
Family: Married to Tonette Walker since 1993; children Matt and Alex
Interesting factoid: Scott and Tonette Walker’s wedding day fell on Ronald Reagan’s birthday, and they celebrate every year with a Gipper-themed anniversary that includes jelly beans, and macaroni and cheese, according to news reports. Scott’s wife was named by her father, who had a string of jobs, including beauty shop owner, after a favorite home permanent kit.
Editor’s note: This is part of an occasional series from PolitiFact Georgia on the 2016 presidential candidates that appears on Mondays.
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker entered the crowded Republican race for president July 13 with an edge over some of his competitors: a national conservative following built around his efforts against public employee unions.
In his announcement speech, Walker, 47, said he will run for president as a Washington outsider who will cut taxes and reduce the size of the federal government.
Walker was first elected to a four-year term as governor of Wisconsin in 2010. But he was forced to face state voters again in 2012 after Democrats and organized labor collected enough signatures to force a recall election. They were upset by Walker’s controversial plan to strip most public workers of union rights.
Walker survived the recall election and was re-elected in 2014.
“My record shows that I know how to fight,” he said in a 45-minute speech announcing his candidacy for president. “And I know now, more than ever, that Americans need a president who can fight and win for America.”
PolitiFact has checked numerous statements by Walker in his tenure as governor and in the months that he has traveled the country in anticipation of entering the presidential race.
As of last week, PolitiFact has fact-checked 145 statements by Walker, rating 16, or 11 percent, True; 32, or 22 percent, Mostly True; 27, or 19 percent, Half True; 22, or 15 percent, Mostly False; 38, or 26 percent, False; and 10, or 7 percent, Pants on Fire.
Here’s a sampling. Read them all at www.politifact.com/personalities/scott-walker/.
“Our pension system is the only one in the country that’s 100 percent funded.”
Scott Walker on Nov. 16, 2012, during a speech
Walker is used to hearing cheers from conservative audiences when highlighting fiscal constraints he put on Wisconsin’s budget in 2011.
He seemed a bit surprised, though, during his November 2012 address at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library when scattered applause broke out after he mentioned the state’s pension fund.
Walker was comparing Wisconsin’s fiscal condition to that of California and of his standard punching bag, Illinois, which raised taxes to close a budget gap.
“They have a pension system that’s not even halfway funded,” Walker said of the Land of Lincoln. “Now, in contrast, in our state, our pension system is the only one in the country (that’s) 100 percent funded.”
To evaluate the claim, we examined the two most recent years with complete data, 2010 and 2011.
At the end of fiscal 2010, which began before Walker took office, only Wisconsin had a fully funded pension plan (100 percent), the Pew Center on the States concluded in a widely cited June 2012 report.
The Wisconsin Retirement System’s actuarial consultant, Gabriel Roeder Smith & Co., reported 99.8 percent funding for year-end 2010. And for year-end 2011, the firm put the Wisconsin fund’s funded ratio at 99.9 percent, according to its latest report. The report showed the Wisconsin system at 99 percent or greater since 2003.
We rated Walker’s statement True.
“Nationally, the unemployment rate for veterans is far greater than the national unemployment rate,” and Wisconsin is “one of those rare examples where unemployment is actually lower for veterans than it is for the population as a whole and certainly lower than it is nationally.”
Scott Walker on May 30, 2015, during a speech in New Hampshire
Touring the country as a prelude to entering the presidential race, Walker, has been touting his record on veterans.
At a “Politics and Pies” event in New Hampshire, he boasted of the success veterans have had finding jobs in Wisconsin.
“Nationally, the unemployment rate for veterans is far greater than the national unemployment rate,” Walker said, adding that Wisconsin is “one of those rare examples where unemployment is actually lower for veterans than it is for the population as a whole and certainly lower than it is nationally.”
Are Wisconsin veterans doing that well in the Wisconsin job market?
Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics supported two of the four aspects of Walker’s claim.
Wisconsin’s unemployment rate for veterans was 4.1 percent while the rate for nonveterans was 5.4 percent. So the state’s veterans are employed at higher rates than their civilian counterparts.
How rare is it? In his claim, Walker said Wisconsin’s situation was a “rare” one. But 32 other states also had lower unemployment rates for veterans than nonveterans. That’s not all that rare.
Wisconsin vs. national: Walker said Wisconsin’s veteran unemployment rate was “certainly lower than it is nationally.” Federal data confirm this aspect of the claim, with Wisconsin’s veteran unemployment rate at 4.1 percent, while nationally the rate was 5.3 percent. So the data he provided supported some aspects to his claim.
Our definition for Half True is a statement that it is partially accurate but leaves out important details or takes things out of context. That fits here and makes our rating Half True.
“My opponent supported policies that increased tuition by 18 percent.”
Scott Walker on Oct. 20, 2014, in a campaign TV ad
In the final weeks of his re-election showdown with Democrat Mary Burke, first-term Republican Gov. Scott Walker blamed Burke for past tuition increases.
“With two sons in college, I know how hard it is to pay for school,” Walker says in a TV ad. “That’s why we froze tuition at UW campuses. I want to freeze it again in my next term. My opponent supported policies that increased tuition by 18 percent.”
In the campaign, Burke has said she’d like to freeze tuition — but only if more aid can go to the University of Wisconsin System at the same time. She’s emphasized larger income tax deductions for tuition and refinancing student loans.
But, looking back, is the governor right about Burke’s support of policies that led to an 18 percent increase?
Walker’s ad itself lists no footnote as evidence for the 18 percent figure and does not cite any specific policies backed by Burke, who served as head of the state Commerce Department under Gov. Jim Doyle from 2005 to 2007.
A Walker campaign news release about the ad simply offers the history of UW tuition increases approved in state budgets back to 1967 and Burke’s statement to a reporter in April 2005 that she supports Doyle’s positions “entirely.” A Walker campaign representative pointed us to Burke’s general praise of two of Doyle’s budgets in place during her state government career.
Without any direct link between Burke and tuition increases, we rated Walker’s claim False.
“We just had someone last week in Neenah near a school kill someone with a bow and arrow.”
Scott Walker on Jan. 10, 2013, during a news conference
Questions about gun control were on the mind of reporters when Walker held a news conference in Madison in 2013.
Reporters, including one from The Wall Street Journal, asked the first-term governor about the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, where 20 children and six adults were killed in December 2012 by a man with a semi-automatic weapon.
Did the carnage affect Walker’s stance on gun control?
Walker said too much attention is paid to the weapon in such shootings and cited a recent case as an example: “We just had someone last week in Neenah near a school kill someone with a bow and arrow.”
His response to the gun control question was in line with groups fighting restrictions on guns: Don’t blame the weapons.
There was only one problem with Walker’s statement about the bow-and-arrow murder. It never happened.
We asked Walker spokesman Cullen Werwie to explain the governor’s comment the day after he spoke. Werwie responded three days later with this emailed statement: “The Governor misspoke when he said someone was killed. I believe he was referring to the recent standoff that involved a bow and arrow.”
Winnebago County Sheriff’s Department Capt. David Mack provided the details, starting with the most important one: “No one got killed.”
Walker’s staff allowed the statement to go uncorrected for four days and only admitted that it was incorrect after being asked about it by PolitiFact.
We rated his claim Pants on Fire.
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