Madison — Scott Walker took a prank phone call Tuesday, and Wisconsin learned a lot about its new governor.

A recording of the call released Wednesday spelled out Walker's strategies for dealing with protesting union workers and trying to lure Democrats boycotting the state Senate back to Wisconsin.

Speaking with whom he believed to be billionaire conservative activist David Koch, Walker said he considered - but rejected - planting troublemakers amid protesters who have rocked the Capitol for a week.

He told the caller he feared a "ruckus" would "scare the public into thinking maybe the governor has to settle to avoid this problem."

He also described a plan to get his bill taking away union rights passed without Democrats who have boycotted the Senate. He said he talked to a Democratic senator for 45 minutes who he thought could help even though "he's not one of us."

Walker discussed ways Koch - a financer of the conservative group Americans for Prosperity - could help Republican legislators, presumably with TV and radio ads.

Walker showed no indication on the tape he was aware the call was a prank.

The 20-minute talk was actually with Ian Murphy, a blogger from Buffalo, N.Y., who edits the Buffalo Beast website. On the call, Walker likened his tough stance on the bill to former President Ronald Reagan successfully combating the air traffic controllers union three decades ago.

"That was the first crack in the Berlin Wall, in the fall of Communism, because from that point forward the Soviets and the Communists knew that Ronald Reagan wasn't a pushover," Walker said, according to the recording.

In a Wednesday news conference, Walker said his remarks to the prank caller jibed with his public comments and downplayed the significance of the conversation.

"I take phone calls all the time," he said, noting he'd spoken with small-business people and average taxpayers.

"Now I'm not going to allow one crank phone call to be a distraction. The reality is we have a job to do. And the job is to debate this bill."

Walker's bill would balance this year's budget, repeal most union bargaining rights for public employees and give Walker's administration broad powers to reshape state health programs for the poor.

It has sparked nonstop protests in the Capitol since last week from unions. They have said they are willing to give as much as Walker is asking in concessions on health care and pensions, but have demanded that he not take away most bargaining rights.

Influential conservative

Koch is co-owner of Koch Industries, an energy and consumer products company that owns Georgia-Pacific paper mills in Wisconsin. He is a philanthropist and a chief backer of Americans for Prosperity, which helped stage tea party rallies in Wisconsin in 2009 and 2010 and on Wednesday announced it was spending $342,200 on advertising to persuade Wisconsin residents to back Walker's plan.

"The caller was not David Koch and we have no further response to this fraudulent act at this time," said a statement from Mark Holden, a senior vice president with Koch Industries.

Koch Industries' political action committee was one of the biggest financial supporters of Walker's gubernatorial campaign last fall, giving $43,000 to his political fund.

Koch also gave $1 million to the Republican Governors Association last year, and Koch Industries contributed another $50,000. The RGA spent $65,000 on ads supporting Walker and an additional $3.4 million attacking Mayor Tom Barrett, Walker's Democratic opponent.

On Tuesday, the RGA launched a website promoting Walker's stance against unions called StandWithScott.com.

Walker has never spoken with Koch or his brother and business partner, Charles Koch, according to Walker spokesman Cullen Werwie.

The sweeping budget-repair bill Walker is now pushing includes a clause that would allow this administration to sell 37 state-owned heating and power plants without taking bids - a provision sparking criticism that the plants could be sold to Koch Industries.

A company official has said the firm has no interest in buying the plants, and Walker said the measure was not aimed at helping the company.

"Absolutely nothing to that - 100% wrong," Walker said in the news conference.

He said he'd supported the idea of selling the plants back in the 1990s, when he was in the Assembly. He did not say why he wrote the bill to allow them to be sold without taking bids. "We're going to have an open and accessible process," Walker said.

The state Assembly began debating the budget-repair bill at noon Tuesday, and continued to do so late Wednesday. Action in the Senate has been stalled since Feb. 17, when all 14 Democrats went to Illinois.

Twenty senators must be present to pass bills that spend money, and the Republicans have only 19 seats.

Walker said during the call he would agree to speak with Democratic legislative leaders if all 14 senators return to Madison. He said he believes if Democrats return to the Capitol, the Senate would have a quorum and could approve the budget-repair bill - even if Democrats again left before the vote was called.

"Legally, we believe once they've gone into session, they don't physically have to be there" at that point, Walker said.

In response, Murphy said Walker should bring a baseball bat to the meeting with Senate Democrats. Walker laughed at the joke and noted he has a baseball bat in his office.

"I've got a (Louisville) Slugger with my name on it," he said.

Sen. Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee) said he found Walker's plan to "trick" Democrats disturbing and showed Democrats can't trust any overtures from Walker to talk. Walker said it wasn't a trick.

Murphy suggested the idea of placing troublemakers amid the crowd of protesters.

Walker responded: "The only problem with that - because we thought about that. The problem with - my only gut reaction to that would be, right now the lawmakers I've talked to have just completely had it with them. The public is not really fond of this.

"My only fear is if there's a ruckus caused that would scare the public into thinking maybe the governor has to settle to avoid all these problems."

In the news conference, Walker said he considers many options presented by staff. "As you've heard on the tape, we dismissed that and said that wasn't a good idea," Walker said.

Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) said he never considered planting agitators in the crowd. He also said he'd never talked to Walker about the plan to bring Democrats back to Wisconsin and then have the Senate vote on the bill.

Murphy asked how he could help Walker, and Walker said he wanted calls from the public to any wavering Republicans to continue.

"The more they get that reassurance, the easier it is for them to vote yes," Walker said.

"The other thing is more long term and that is that after this, the days and weeks and months ahead, particularly in these more swing areas, a lot of these guys - they don't necessarily need ads for them, but they are going to need a message out reinforcing why this is a good thing to do for the economy and a good thing to do for the state."

In the news conference, Walker said he was not talking about political campaigns when he discussed such a message.

"This isn't about a campaign," he said. "It's about getting a message out about the truth."

The governor said in the call he spoke with Sen. Tim Cullen (D-Janesville) for 45 minutes on Saturday and he hopes the independent-minded lawmaker can influence his colleagues to return.

Murphy said he would try calling Cullen, but Walker advised him not to because "he's not one of us."

During the call, Walker sounded at ease as he talked of going on national TV and radio shows and conversing with other governors.

At the end of the call, Murphy told Walker: "Once you crush these bastards, I'll fly you out to (California) and really show you a good time."

Walker replied: "All right. That would be outstanding."

Walker is the latest politician to be embarrassed when what he thought was a private conversation went public. Just before the 2008 presidential election, Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin took a call from a radio DJ posing as French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

The Buffalo Beast's website was inaccessible much of Wednesday, apparently because so many people flooded the site.

Murphy said he first spoke with Walker's chief of staff, Keith Gilkes. Murphy used the Internet service Skype to make the call and didn't have a return number to give Gilkes, so he made up a story about his maid dropping his phone in the washer.

That gambit worked, and Murphy was connected with Walker when he called back at 2 p.m.

Murphy wasn't surprised to learn Walker's office said he'd never talked to the real Koch. "He did sound very thrilled to finally get the chance," Murphy said.

Sharif Durhams, Lee Bergquist and Daniel Bice of the Journal Sentinel staff in Milwaukee contributed to this article.