Unbelievable. The Democrats are looking down the barrel of a humiliating defeat in Wisconsin’s recall election on Tuesday, so today they played their last card: they started a rumor that Scott Walker fathered an illegitimate child 24 years ago. The “scoop” comes from something called the Wisconsin Citizens Media Co-op. The “Co-op” attributes the story to a woman named Bernadette Gillick, who teaches physical therapy at the University of Minnesota. Ms. Gillick claims to have known Walker’s girlfriend when they were students at Marquette. The “Co-op” says it has “not been able to independently verify Bernadette’s account.” No surprise there.
Will the Democrats’ last-minute smear have any impact? It is hard to say; recall how in 2000, they sat on the fact that George W. Bush had gotten a DWI in Maine many years earlier until a couple of days before the election, and it apparently did have an effect, turning what seemed to be a safe race for Bush into an epic nail-biter. At InTrade, for what it’s worth, Walker is now listed as a 92% favorite, down from 96% yesterday.
UPDATE: A columnist for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel looked into the Democrats’ rumor. His findings:
(1) I tracked down and talked to Dr. Gillick’s freshman-year roommate at MU yesterday, and she adamantly denies that Walker is the father of her child. Yes, she got pregnant as a first-year student, but she believes Dr. Gillick is mixing up stories; and (2) I Can Read CCAP has taken a family court suit involving Scott Alan Walker and mixed it up with the governor, Scott Kevin Walker.
These people are absolutely shameless.
FURTHER UPDATE: Walker is back up to 95% on InTrade.
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