Does Scott Walker have his first Democrat(ic) challenger?

One Andy Gronik? So much for name I.D., right? (That’s a minus -). He’s a business person (That’s a plus +) and brings personal wealth (another plus +), although has pledged not to self-fund (That’s a minus -). The man lives in Fox Point, the ultra-toney north Milwaukee suburb (another minus -). Didn’t sign the recall papers (a minus – in the Dem primary) but says he voted to recall (unprovable).

Gronik is running as a Bernie Sanders businessman — if that isn’t a whopping contradiction! Raise the minimum wage, free college, no more school choice, and abortion abortion abortion. Christmas under the tree for Democratic primary voters. In the November election: lead shoes and a strait-jacket overcoat in the deep part of Lake Michigan.

Gronik’s cri de coeur, as he pledged to Associated Press, is to repeal and replace Act 10 by restoring collective bargaining to government workers.

If you’re a Democrat in Wisconsin, you have to say that. Although, come to think of it, Mary Burke never did. (What was that woman all about, anyway?) Then again, the poobahs of the party axed any 2014 primary challengers, like the national party attempted to do for Hillary.

“Repeal and Replace Act 10” is a winning message in the union halls (those that don’t have a For Sale sign out front). But in the general election? Didn’t we already have two referenda on that — the 2012 recall election and 2014?

(You want to nick and chip Walker for missing his goal of jobs created? That won’t work by election time next year because Wisconsin already is employing 230,288 more workers since January 2011. Compare that to the supposed Democratic valhalla of Minnesota, which “created” only 180,193 more jobs in the same time period.

(At 3.1% — the lowest since October 1999 — Wisconsin unemployment is functionally eliminated. Compare our 3.1% to 4.6% in Illinois and 3.7% in Minnesota.)

No, Scott Walker runs on Act 10. He rides it like a Texas roadhouse bronco. He compares Wisconsin to that Democrat(ic) burning dumpster of a state called Illinois.

The Illinois story

There is a reason The Capital Times and our liberal-progressive-socialist acquaintances speak not the name “Illinois.” The entrenched Democratic establishment personified by Speaker Michael Madigan (since 1983 with one two-year hiatus) over-rode Gov. Rauner’s veto to hike taxes without any meaningful structural reforms. From MacIver: Illinois will tax personal income at 4.95% — up from 3.75% and the corporate income tax rate will rise to 7% from 5.25%.

Despite a 32% income tax hike, the budget package is devoid of any structural spending reforms to slow growth in the cost of government: No property tax reform. (Wisconsin property taxes, as percentage of income, are lowest since end of WWII.)

No real pension reform in Illinois, status quo on Medicaid, and come-and-get it collective bargaining.

About those government-employee pensions, Illinois faces a $130 billion unfunded mandate — part of $251 billion in total unfunded liabilities — an amount four times its entire annual budget!

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Illinois taxpayers already have to pay for state workers’ generous benefits, including the highest salaries in the nation, heavily subsidized health care, free retiree health care for most workers and overly generous pension benefits. — Illinois Policy Institute.

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Add $15 billion in unpaid bills. Moody’s Investors Service has indicated that even with the budget deal, Illinois is likely to become the nation’s first junk-rated state.

You want Illinois? Vote Gronik! Hellz bellz, even the Brewers are beating the Cubs!