Scott Walker — The Status Quo’s Likely Foe

The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. That lies at the center of the attraction of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker as he announces his campaign for the Republican nominee for president in Waukesha, Wisconsin.

Of the soon-to-be 15 announced GOP presidential primary candidates, Walker stands alone in having a recent record of textbook Republican Platform positions that have been animated into policy. He’s got a winning record on the campaign trail that is equally matched with policy victories. Let’s size him up based on that record, which, strangely enough, seems to match his rhetoric.

First, the “average guy” persona is not merely a poll-driven mirage created by a major consulting firm. Walker is, as the Financial Times noted, the “Everyman.”

Born in Colorado Springs to Patricia and Llew Walker, Scott Walker was raised in a Christian working-class home by a bookkeeping mom and a dad serving as a Baptist minister. On the church minister’s moving circuit, the family moved to Plainfield, Iowa, in 1970 then to Delavan, Wisconsin, in 1977 when Scott was 10.

As a young man, Walker worked and attained Eagle Scout, the Boy Scouts of America’s highest rank, and volunteered in the gubernatorial campaign of Wisconsin’s Tommy Thompson in 1986 — the same year he graduated from Delavan-Darien High School and entered Marquette University. His college years featured an interest in student government, serving as a student senator, average academic achievement, and a job working for IBM.

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