Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz on Sunday attempted to mitigate the potential fallout of a Democratic loss in the Wisconsin gubernatorial race next month, saying that the race has no national implications and has been useful even if Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett loses there.
“I think [Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett] has a real opportunity to win,” the Florida congresswoman said on CNN’s State of the Union.
But with recent polls showing Gov. Scott Walker in the lead, Wasserman Schultz took a decidedly less optimistic tone on C-SPAN’s Newsmakers, asserting that it was impossible for Democrats to respond to the amount of outside money poured into the race by Republican supporters.
“There's no way that we were ever going to be able to counter the massive efforts that was dropped into Wisconsin by Republicans' special interests,” she said on Newsmakers.
On both shows, the Florida Democrat attempted to play the race as a win for Democrats, even if they lose.
“Ultimately I think Tom Barrett will pull this out, but regardless, it's given the Obama for America operation an opportunity to do the dry run that we need of our massive, significant, dynamic grassroots presidential campaign which can’t really be matched by the Romney campaign or the Republicans, because they’ve ignored on-the-ground operations,” she said on State of the Union.
But she asserted on Newsmakers that the race, which Democrats have long portrayed as an example of the power of unions battling against the hostile tea party, will have no ripple effects on other races throughout the nation.
“I think, honestly, there aren't going to be any repercussions. It's an election that is based in Wisconsin,” she said.
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