MADISON, Wisc. – Newly elected Wisconsin Republican state Sen. Leah Vukmir, a Tea Party favorite, told The Daily Caller that the “silent majority” of Wisconsinites agree with Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s new budget plan, despite mass union protests.
“While there may be some loud protesters around the capitol all week, the silent majority, who are working during the week, agree with the Governor’s plan,” Vukmir told TheDC.
Vukmir also said one her Democratic counterparts, state Sen. Jon Erpenbach, was exaggerating when he said that the governor’s new budget plan has “torn the state of Wisconsin apart.”
“That’s not the right way to go,” Wisconsin Democratic Sen. Jon Erpenbach told CBS News. “The state employees have talked about the money and giving up the money, and that’s fine. But what they have a problem with — and what a lot of us have a problem with — is the fact that Governor Walker is taking decades of union law and throwing it out the window and trying to bust the unions altogether, and that’s just not the right way to go.”
Vukmir said that Erpenbach should’ve paid attention to the message of November’s midterm elections.
“I think that that’s overly exaggerated and whoever that colleague was didn’t get the message of the last election,” Vukmir told TheDC.
Vukmir also said that Democrats can hide as long they want to, but that she’s certain Walker’s budget will pass in the end.
“Contrary to what they’re going to say, this bill is going to pass,” Vukmir said in a phone interview. “They’re just shirking their constitutional duty to serve the people.”
Like fellow Republican state Sen. Glenn Grothman, Vukmir said she doesn’t intend to push to have the Democrats criminally charged for fleeing the state to stall the budget vote as that would likely cause more problems than it’s worth.
Tea Partiers are staging a counter-rally in support of Walker on Saturday at noon CT. Likely 2012 presidential contender Herman Cain and conservative media guru Andrew Breitbart will be there.