WASHINGTON -- "Big Union-sponsored mercenaries." "Bare-knuckle union attacks." "Strong-arm tactics."
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's (R) most recent fundraising letter to solicit donations for a potential recall election minces no words in going after his Democratic and union opponents. The four-page letter uses a variation of "Big Labor Bosses" 14 times. It also calls out other classic bogeymen for the right: the "Moveon.org Radicals," "Liberal Billionaire George Soros' attack organizations," "President Obama's Political Machine" and the "Ultra Left-Wing Elites from Hollywood and Manhattan."
These menacing forces are all coming together to, according to the letter, carry out a "naked power grab" in Wisconsin.
"Mark my words," reads the letter, "if they barge and bully and get there [sic] way here, your state's next...so, together, we must fight them tooth and nail right here and right now."
Ciara Matthews, communications director for Friends of Scott Walker, told The Huffington Post that the political action committee sent out the fundraising letter on Dec. 30. The group's next fundraising report will be out on Jan. 23.
The letter is part of Walker's effort to amass a war chest in case he faces a recall election in the coming months. Democratic organizers needed to turn in 540,208 signatures by Jan. 17 in order to trigger a recall; they turned in more than 1 million.
Republicans plan to challenge the signatures collected by Democrats, and the state Government Accountability Board must certify that of the signatures that were turned in, there are indeed 540,208 valid ones. Democrats had hoped to collect a significantly higher amount in order to buffer against any signatures that may get disqualified. The verification process will take months, and GAB plans to ask a court for more than the allotted 60 days to complete its review process. A recall election -- if it happens -- may not occur until at least June.
While Walker bemoaned the "deluge of liberal money flowing into Wisconsin" in his letter, the fundraising appeal was sent to out-of-state individuals. The copy received by The Huffington Post was sent to someone in Oregon.
In mid-December, the Wisconsin State Journal reported that Walker had raised more than three times the amount of his recall opponents. Half of it came from outside of Wisconsin.
Walker recently came to Washington, D.C., for a fundraiser at the Capitol Hill Club, and on the day that Democrats were turning in their petitions for a recall election, Walker was in New York City for another fundraiser.
The governor told The Huffington Post while in D.C. that he has had to raise a significant amount of money out of state because of the efforts on the left.
"I wouldn't be raising a penny right now if it weren't for these recalls, which were largely driven by the national unions," Walker said. He added that "even money that's coming in from outside of Wisconsin in many cases is coming from people giving us $10, $15, $20, saying, 'We want to help you counter money coming from Washington and elsewhere.'"
In his fundraising letter, Walker painted the battle in more colorful terms. "The vicious attacks by Big Labor and President Obama reinforce the importance of your immediate help," he wrote. "The fight to stop them starts here and now in Wisconsin before it spreads like an out-of-control wildfire in your state and across the nation."
Ironically, the people who put out fires are firefighters, who are generally members of the "too-powerful labor unions" Walker goes after in his letter.
The Friends Of Scott Walker fundraising letter: