Daniel Bice

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

To hear Gov. Scott Walker tell it, his campaign has been all sunshine and rainbows.

Walker declared on Thursday that he's running "an extremely positive campaign."

But that's not the sense you get from Team Walker's latest private poll, the audio of which was provided to the Journal Sentinel. The person who recorded the call did so Wednesday evening.

The 11-minute poll for the second-term Republican governor tests eight lines of attack against his Democratic foe, state Superintendent Tony Evers, possibly offering a window into Walker's future media strategy.

"Experts say Tony Evers' proposed government spending will cost Wisconsin taxpayers over $4 billion, requiring state taxes to go up nearly 8 percent," the interviewer stated. "Does knowing this make you more likely or less likely to vote for Tony Evers?"

She then said Evers wants to raise gas taxes by as much as $1 per gallon, asserting that everything is on the table for the school chief. She followed that up with the statement that the Democratic nominee wants to remove the state property tax freeze, which she says will cause property tax rates to "skyrocket."

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"If elected, Tony Evers said he will eliminate the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., making us the only state in the country without an agency dedicated to attracting business and growing jobs," the interviewer said. After each, she asked if the statement made the respondent more or less likely to support Evers.

The audio from the poll has several humorous moments.

For instance, the respondent — a stay-at-home mother who asked that her name not be used — tries unsuccessfully to correct the interviewer, who mispronounces Evers' name throughout the survey. The first letter in Evers' last name is pronounced with a long "e," not a short one, as the interviewer says throughout.

Also, the mom is a hardcore Democrat who doesn't want to concede any ground in Walker's favor during the poll.

So the interviewer said Evers wants to cut the state prison population in half, which she said would mean releasing "thousands of violent criminals into our communities." The mom said this would make her much "more likely" to vote for Evers.

Two questions dealt with Evers' role in handling license revocation cases for teachers in the state — a common point of attack in Walker's ads. One of the questions tied Evers to "union bosses" who oppose revoking licenses for bad teachers.

Some of the questions were rooted to political gaffes by Evers or statements he made that could open him to criticism.

He said last month, for instance, that he wanted to disband WEDC and "and return the majority of economic development dollars to local communities and regional organizations." An Evers aide later reversed course and said the candidate would replace Walker's embattled agency with a new state-level jobs office.

The school superintendent also told the Weekly Standard that he favored allowing Medicaid dollars to be used for abortions, just as tonsillectomies are covered. The Walker poll asked about this remark.

Britt Cudaback, a spokeswoman for Evers' campaign, criticized the poll and the "disgusting, false attacks" being leveled by the governor's campaign.

"It’s obvious that Scott Walker can’t run on his failed record, so he’s forced to throw smear campaign spaghetti at the wall to see if anything sticks," Cudaback said.

Walker's poll also tested two attacks about the incumbent.

First, the pollster said some people say that health care costs have risen in Wisconsin because the governor refused to accept federal funds to expand Medicaid coverage in the state. The next one repeats the same "some people say" line, followed by the assertion that "because Scott Walker has ignored the problem, Wisconsin is now suffering from thousands of miles of broken roads with no plan to fix them."

Walker officials responded to the questions about the audio of their poll by posting on YouTube two excerpts from a recent survey taken by the Evers campaign in which it tested different messages for the superintendent.

Some of the concepts were positive. The interviewer asked if the respondent considers Evers a "strong leader" or believes he "is working to improve education in Wisconsin." But the poll also asked if the Democratic candidate is too close to unions and special interests or "allowed sexual predators to put our kids in danger."

It also quizzed people on whether they thought Evers "opposes President (Donald) Trump too much." Evers' running mate, Mandela Barnes, recently suggested he's not interested in winning the support of voters who backed President Barack Obama in 2008 or 2012 and then voted for Trump in 2016.

Brian Reisinger, a spokesman for Walker, said he saw a common theme in the two vastly different surveys.

"Tony Evers is so full of false attacks and positions that you could conduct a poll a day," Reisinger said. "Just reading the questions both campaigns are asking, it looks like we’re in agreement — Tony Evers has a lot of explaining to do between now and Election Day.”

Harsh? Nah, just another "extremely positive" day for Team Walker.

Contact Daniel Bice at (414) 224-2135 or dbice@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanielBice or on Facebook at fb.me/daniel.bice.