WASHINGTON — Scott Walker’s rivals see him as an up-and-comer in the Republican race for president and are focusing on the Wisconsin governor’s changing positions on several issues.
The still-unofficial campaigns of several Republicans have assembled internal memos, research papers and detailed spreadsheets that highlight and track Walker’s shifts on positions from immigration to ethanol to abortion. They say Walker has a broad pattern of flip-flopping that will be his greatest vulnerability.
“You have to be an authentic candidate,” saidSteve Duprey, a GOP national committeeman from New Hampshire. “If people think you’re flipping left and right, that sticks with you.”
Walker has acknowledged changing some positions, most notably on immigration. In 2002, he publicly supported creating a pathway to citizenship for immigrants living in the country illegally. In an interview with Fox News this month, Walker said he no longer supports what he termed “amnesty.”
In the heat of his re-election campaign last year, Walker softened his position on abortion, saying the decision was between “a woman and her doctor” in a television ad about legislation requiring women to have pre-abortion ultrasounds. This month, after drawing criticism from conservatives, Walker said he would sign a bill banning abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy.
“The only major issue out there is immigration, and we listened to the people,” Walker said Saturday during his New Hampshire tour when asked about his critics. “The other ones out there are just ridiculous.”
