Can Senators Work Together? Walker Says Yes

Gov. Scott Walker remembers debates as heated, egos as big and tensions as heated as those in Madison today from the days he was in the State Assembly.

And every time, the two parties eventually got over the name-calling and bickering and got back to business, he said.

And while the budget-repair bill, the Democratic Senators’ decision to leave the state and his budget proposal have all garnered national media attention, and Democratic Senator Chris Larson said “,” Walker expects the same to happen again soon.

“We’re going to try to find ways to work with them,” Walker said at a press conference at the Tommy G. Thompson Center at State Fair Park in West Allis on Thursday. “Obviously, this has got a lot of national profile … but in the end, things cool down, people move on.”

Walker’s comments came on the heals of Republican Senators of the controversial budget-repair bill Wednesday evening while 14 Democratic Senators remained in Illinois, where they have been for three weeks.

The Democrats argue they were not given enough time to return to Madison to vote. Walker argues .

“For the last three weeks, we have reached out to some of the reasonable members of the Democratic Senate caucus,” Walker said. “Time and time again we reached out and thought we had, not a deal, but the framework of a deal, a framework of the pathway home. And each and every time, (Democratic Minority leader) Sen. Mark Miller stood in the way of that agreement.

“We were willing to talk, willing to work, but in the end, at some point, the public wants us to move forward.”

On Wednesday, the Senate voted on and passed the budget-repair bill after a committee stripped some of the financial elements from it. The committee was formed just two hours before the vote. Walker was asked if the Republicans’ actions could be conceived as a dirty trick.

“A dirty trick is what those 14 have played the last three weeks,” Walker said. “We live in a democracy and to participate in a democracy, you have to be in the arena. The arena is not in Rockford. It’s not in Freeport. It’s not in Chicago. It’s in Madison, Wis., our capital. Three weeks ago, they gave up the right, every day they stayed out of the capitol, to have a vote on the measure. You cannot mail in your vote.”