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Eli Kantor is a labor, employment and immigration law attorney. He has been practicing labor, employment and immigration law for more than 36 years. He has been featured in articles about labor, employment and immigration law in the L.A. Times, Business Week.com and Daily Variety. He is a regular columnist for the Daily Journal. Telephone (310)274-8216; eli@elikantorlaw.com. For more information, visit beverlyhillsimmigrationlaw.com and and beverlyhillsemploymentlaw.com

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Friday, March 20, 2015

After Aide Quits, Walker Faces Some Conservative Criticism

New York Times
By Maggie Haberman
March 19, 2015

Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin is being criticized by some conservatives after his digital aide Liz Mair resigned over intemperate Twitter posts about the sacred status of the Iowa caucuses in the presidential nominating process.

A quick recap: Ms. Mair, who was working for Mr. Walker as he prepares a national campaign, had written negative things on Twitter in recent months about Iowa, saying that the state had embarrassed the Republican Party and should lose its first-in-the-nation position.

News of the tweets was first reported by The Des Moines Register, then received broader national coverage, before Ms. Mair told The Associated Press on Tuesday night that she was stepping down. Instead of ending the flap for Mr. Walker, the move created a new one.

Jonah Goldberg, a conservative writer, took to National Review to suggest that Mr. Walker, who has attracted interest among Republican Party elites in recent weeks, had flunked an early test.

“I get that Walker needs to win Iowa and that staffers aren’t more important than the candidate,” Mr. Goldberg wrote. “But principles are. If Walker didn’t want a critic of the Iowa caucuses on his payroll he shouldn’t have hired one. But he did. And throwing her under the bus for this, suggests not only that he’s got some problems getting ready for prime time, it also suggests he can get rolled by the Iowa G.O.P. establishment. What happens when he gets to Washington?”

Erick Erickson, a conservative commentator and founder of the blog RedState, wrote: “Given Liz’s work history, I will put it to you this way — Team Walker has botched this.”

“There’s just no way Liz Mair resigned with it being her idea. I haven’t talked to her yet, but there’s just no way,” Mr. Erickson wrote. “So instead of Walker owning this, he’s passed the ball and made a staffer off herself. That’s unfortunate and plays into the ‘not ready for prime time’ theme already developing around Team Walker. At least it is early.”


Mr. Walker’s strong showing in the early so-called invisible primary among donors and activists has been fueled by a strong speech he gave at an Iowa candidate forum, one that wildly exceeded fairly low expectations for how he would fare. The flap over Ms. Mair’s resignation could prove to be a distraction for someone trying to prove a level of seriousness, and for someone who needs to perform well in Iowa.

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