Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is fond of pointing out that he was voted into office based on his promise to take on state employee union collective bargaining rights so that he could get on with balancing the state's budget.

Indeed, shortly after introducing his controversial 'beat down' of collective bargaining in the Badger State, Walker claimed that nobody should have been surprised by his actions because he had campaigned on the issue.

We introduced a measure last week, a measure I ran on during the campaign, a measure I talked about in November during the transition, a measure I talked about in December when we fought off the employee contracts, an idea I talked about in the inauguration, an idea I talked about in the state of the state. If anyone doesn't know what's coming, they've been asleep for the past two years. Via Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

While there have been continuing efforts to show that Scott Walker never did reveal his plans for collective bargaining in the state during the campaign, definitive proof has now emerged via a video tape of Candidate Walker being interviewed by the editorial board of the Oshkosh Northwestern— just one week before the election.

The smoking gun video was recently unearthed by Judd Lounsbury, and published on his Uppity Wisconsin blog, and reveals that Scott Walker was singing quite a different tune before winning his gubernatorial race. While you can watch the entire video at the Uppity Wisconsin website—and I recommend you do so—here is the relevant dialogue which takes place at 7:50 into the conversation -

Editorial Board Member: Before, we were talking about state employees contributing to their plan, paying their share of the pension plan. Collective bargaining come into that? Walker: Yep (nodding yes) Editorial Board Member: How do you get that negotiated and accepted by the state employee unions? Walker: You still have to negotiate it. I did that at the county as well.

Walker went on to indicate that he was willing to work with the unions, pointing out that he had used furloughs as a bargaining tool when negotiating with unions as Milwaukee County Executive and that he would "approach a similar strategy for the state." Walker further noted that he was open to compromise and that if the unions had ideas as to how to save money, he would be willing to explore what they might have to say.

Sounds reasonable to me—except that it turns out that Governor Walker had no interest whatsoever in what the unions had to say. In fact, we know that the state employees' unions attempted to agree with Walker's proposals to modify their collective bargaining agreements before the Governor introduced his legislation placing severe limits on collective bargaining.

So, Governor Walker fibbed. The question now is will Wisconsin voters care?

While it seems difficult to ignore that Walker very much sought to mislead Wisconsin voters on a very important issue, there remains considerable support for his anti-collective bargaining position in Wisconsin. Still, polls reveal that a majority of Wisconsinites disapprove of Walker's anti-collective bargaining stance, calling into question whether or not the Governor would have emerged victorious in his race had he been more forthright with the voters of his state.

Certainly, Governor Walker is not the first politician to fudge the truth during an election. There are ample examples on both sides of the political divide where dishonest campaigning is the norm.

But will Wisconsin voters punish their governor for putting his state through the political turmoil that might have been avoided had he warned them of his plans? According to the most recent PPP survey, while Walker's approval numbers in his state are upside down — 52 percent voice disapproval with their controversial governor— he fares better on the question of returning him to office. His fate, however, remains a toss up with 49 percent of Wisconsinites saying he should stay and 49 percent saying he should go.

Clearly, this is going to be a very interesting election and I cannot imagine a better opportunity for voters to voice the opinion that we would prefer our candidates to be honest about their plans before we elect them to office rather than surprise us after they've got the job.

contact Rick at thepolicypage@gmail.com

Twitter @rickungar