Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R.) has participated in nearly twice as many public events as his Democratic challenger, Tony Evers, who appears to have been busy working unions over in the state for cash, according to a review of both candidate's public activity.
The review was conducted from the day of the Wisconsin primaries, August 15, to late September using all available online activity documenting public events by the campaigns. Travel was determined using social media, events that were covered by the media, and events advised by the campaigns given the candidate's entire personal and political schedules are not publicly available.
From August 15 to September 24, Walker participated in 93 public events to Evers's 50 public events. Walker's schedule included the likes of primary events, meeting with flood victims and participating in flood relief, ground breaking ceremonies, farm tours, and meeting with local officials, while Evers's events included stops at restaurants, rallies, tours as towns prepared for flooding, tailgating with University of Wisconsin-Madison college Democrats, and press conferences and picnics with a number of unions.
Additionally, there are 16 total days since the primaries where Evers did not participate in any public events.
Throughout the month of September, Evers hauled in hundreds of thousands of dollars from unions, which successfully attempted to defeat Walker through a recall election in 2012. Nearly all of the committee money that went to Evers in September was from the sector, his September finance report shows. The Democratic candidate hauled in $714,511 from committees throughout the month, $611,000 of which came from union-affiliated committees.
Evers pulled in a majority of his union cash from the North Central States Regional Council of Carpenter, AFSCME PEOPLE, International Union of Operating Engineers Local 139, Laborer's International Union of North America, Wisconsin Laborers District Council, and the Wisconsin Education Association's PAC, all of which gathered together $86,000 for a combined $430,000 for Evers's campaign.
"Tony Evers is nowhere to be found in Wisconsin—probably because when he does come out from hiding it's usually to tell voters all of ways he will raise their taxes to pay for his reckless spending plan," said Alec Zimmerman, the spokesman for the Wisconsin Republican Party. "Instead of taking his campaign directly to the people of the state, Tony Evers seems content to spend his time pandering to his far-left base in Madison and begging for support from big-government special interests. Wisconsin simply can't afford Tony Evers as governor."
Evers's campaign did not respond to a request for comment on his schedule or the union cash raised throughout the month of September.
The race between Walker and Evers is considered a toss-up by Real Clear Politics, with Evers holding an average of a two-point lead.