Obama heads to Scott Walker’s backyard
President Obama will head to Milwaukee on Labor Day, wading into one of the nation’s closest gubernatorial races just two months before Election Day, according to multiple Wisconsin news outlets.
It’s unclear if Obama will appear alongside Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke — who is attempting to unseat Gov. Scott Walker, who is being floated as a possible Republican presidential candidate in 2016 — while he attends the 55th annual Laborfest celebration.
{mosads}Burke is also slated to appear at Laborfest, which regularly draws thousands of union workers and their families to downtown Milwaukee, but she notably did not attend an event with the president in January at a GE engine plant in Waukesha.
In addition to an appearance by the president, this year’s event is expected to include live music, an auto show and a parade through a downtown park. Obama last attended the festival in 2010.
Burke holds a slim 49 percent to 47 percent lead over Walker, according to a Marquette University Law School poll released Wednesday — although that advantage was within the survey’s 4-point margin of error.
The same poll found that half of Wisconsin voters disapprove of the president’s handling of his job, while 45 percent approve, underscoring the president’s potential liability to Burke.
Still, voters in Wisconsin remain split on if they have a favorable or unfavorable view of the president, and in 2012, Obama handily beat Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney 53 percent to 46 percent in the Badger State.
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