Scott Walker Still Has a Koch Habit

Original Link: http://www.progressive.org/scott-walker-still-has-koch-habit

By Elizabeth DiNovella

Now that the shellacking of Mitt Romney is over, conservatives are ready to move on to the next Presidential election in 2016. GOP hopefuls have been wasting no time in meeting with the billionaires who dumped scads of money into this year’s race.

Politico reports that a week after Election Day, three Republican governors who want to be Prez—Bobby Jindal, John Kasich, and Bob McDonnell—paid individual visits to super PAC sugar daddy Sheldon Adelson in Las Vegas, hoping to be the casino mogul’s next Newt Gingrich.
Vegas was hosting the Republican Governors Association at the time, so it was easy to stop by and say hello.

The more ambitious GOP guvs arrived in Vegas before the Republican Governors Association conference started in order to attend to the association’s high-roller Executive Roundtable, a program for the GOP donors with deep pockets and deep connections.

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, a favorite of wealthy conservatives for going after collective bargaining, made his way to the Republican Governors Association’s Executive Roundtable. (He was also elected to the RGA executive committee.)

Walker is “not going to win a beauty contest, probably, but he’s a down-to-earth real person who is able to communicate solutions to people,” said Hubbard who wrote big checks to the super PAC backing Romney, the Koch brothers-backed Americans for Prosperity, and Karl Rove’s Crossroads outfit. “And the one thing that Mr. Romney wasn’t was a communicator. He couldn’t communicate with anybody.”

Hubbard, a Minnesota television station owner who has attended Koch donor summits for years, went on to say he would raise money for a Walker Presidential campaign and would consider donating to a pro-Walker super PAC.

On Tuesday, Walker will be among the group of governors who will meet with President Obama at the White House to discuss the so-called fiscal cliff. Will a White House visit only whet Walker’s appetite for a Presidential bid? Time will tell.

If you liked this story by Elizabeth DiNovella, the Culture Editor of The Progressive magazine, check out her story "Scott Walker’s Wisconsin Starting to Seem Like Illinois."