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Madison - With recall elections looming for state senators and his poll numbers slumping, Gov. Scott Walker is touting his work with Democrats and their allies on issues like school reform and an income tax deal with Minnesota.

The GOP governor says that shows he's willing to work across party lines to help the state despite bruising fights over the state budget and union bargaining changes. But Democrats say it's a cynical attempt for Walker to rebrand himself after his first six months in office have made him potentially the most polarizing governor in the country.

Walker said he put forward jobs bills in January that drew bipartisan support and said he wanted to return to shared priorities like the economy as well as education, where he is working with the state superintendent of schools.

"People seeing us working together and seeing things happen from that, I think, will restore a sense of trust," Walker said in a telephone interview Friday from Salt Lake City, where he's attending the National Governors Association conference.

On taking office, Walker had to deal quickly with a more than $3 billion budget shortfall over two years. To help do it, he and GOP lawmakers made big cuts in state aid to schools and local governments and then cut public employees' benefits and union bargaining authority to help absorb the losses in aid.

The budget bills passed on partisan votes - Democratic senators even left the state seeking unsuccessfully to block them - amid often massive protests. Walker, who won November's election with 52% of the vote, found his public approval ratings sinking rapidly to the depths seen late in the term of former Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle, the figure that Walker had very deliberately made the center of his 2010 campaign.

A series of polls since February done by different pollsters for groups across the political spectrum have shown that a majority of voters in the state disapprove of the job that Walker is doing and that fewer voters find him likable compared to last fall during the campaign. So far that trend has held even as the most bitter political fights of February and March have receded.

Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca (D-Kenosha) said Walker showed little interest in working with Democrats until after his standing with the public sank.

"It's very clear, his poll numbers are plummeting," Barca said. "He's showing absolutely no evidence whatsoever that he's interested in working with us on anything."

Initiatives cited

Walker counters that he puts little emphasis on polls. He points to several initiatives he's brought forward to work with Democrats and others on the left:

Last week Walker unveiled a new initiative with state schools Superintendent Tony Evers, a nonpartisan official allied with Democrats, to track student progress and judge the quality of both public and private schools that receive tax dollars. Walker and Evers say they will seek approval from the U.S. Department of Education to allow the new school accountability system to replace the decade-old, federally imposed one they label as broken.

On Wednesday, Walker and Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton, a Democrat, announced that Wisconsin had sent its neighboring state $60 million to repay a debt from a canceled reciprocal income tax agreement and said they would work together to try to bring back the arrangement.

"I think we're going to reach an agreement where (former Wisconsin Gov. Jim) Doyle and (former Minnesota Gov. Tim) Pawlenty couldn't," Walker said.

This fall, Walker said he wants to pass with a "broad consensus" a proposal - so far delayed because of problems - to boost venture capital spending to fund start-up companies and create jobs in the state.

"There are some people who will complain if you're not working in a bipartisan way, and then when you do, they complain it's not real enough. With some people you're not going to win," Walker said of his critics.

But the road ahead for Walker and his party with Democrats is clearly a long one. For instance, Walker had a regular meeting with Barca and Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller (D-Monona) before the budget crisis.

But those meetings broke down during that battle and haven't been restarted yet, something that Walker said he would like to change.

Dems seek map veto

Democrats say it will take more than seeking a meeting or settling a debt to Minnesota that already had to be paid to show a commitment to bipartisanship. Barca said the governor could show a real commitment to bipartisanship by vetoing redistricting plans proposed by Republican lawmakers that would give their party an electoral advantage for the next decade.

"It's time to show some leadership, governor. Have your actions match your rhetoric," Barca said.

Joe Heim, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, said the governor's recent efforts to collaborate with Evers and other education leaders in the state may signal he was seeking a more centrist approach. Heim said he believes Walker was motivated in part by a desire to head off a recall effort against himself.

"The fact that Evers is working with him is a positive sign . . . I don't think he would do this unless he felt the governor was sincere," Heim said.

But education reform has always been part of the core Republican agenda, observed Charles Franklin, a political science professor at UW-Madison.

"This is not breaking brand-new ground there," Franklin said.

Walker may not be able to win back Democrats at this point, but the key to his political success will be winning back state independents without alienating his conservative supporters, Franklin said.

"The one risky point of moderation is, you're doing really well with that Republican base. The last thing you want to do is disappoint them, because they're the only ones keeping you in striking distance," Franklin said.