newjerseynewsroom.com

BY GINA G. SCALA

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

How Gov. Scott Walker’s recall victory in Wisconsin plays out on the national stage ahead of November’s presidential election is a question with many answers.

Walker, the only governor in U.S. history to survive a recall election, outpaced Democrat and Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett Tuesday. On Wednesday, many Republicans and their supporters heralded Walker’s victory as “a warning for President Barack Obama about the potential hurdles he faces as he fights to hang onto a traditionally Democratic battleground he won comfortably in 2008,” the Huffington Post reported.

Wisconsin has solidly voted for the Democratic nominee since 1984; still, Republican Mitt Romney feels optimistic about his chances of winning there in November.

“Tonight’s results will echo beyond the borders of Wisconsin,” Romney tweeted Tuesday, the New York Daily News reported.

Tuesday’s win was hard fought on Walker’s part, with lots of campaign contributions from outside the state. Still, it was Walker who took on collective bargaining in the state, ending it for most public employees and teachers.

Walker told Fox News Channel Tuesday, "Gov. Romney has an opportunity ... to come in between now and Nov. 6 and make the case that he's willing to make those same sort of tough decisions.”

Romney had been waiting until after the recall election to determine how hard to compete there, the Associated Press reported. Now, he’s looking to capitalize on the momentum from Walker’s victory. He’ll still have to contend with the president’s easy victory there in 2008.

Exit polling on Tuesday showed Obama holds an advantage, the Washington Post reported. 51 percent of voters said they will back Obama; 44 percent said they will support Romney.

That, of course, is if Obama’s re-election bid can withstand what has begun as a dismal June. First, there was last week’s abysmal unemployment numbers, then the blows associated with Walker’s victory, the Supreme Court’s expected decision on healthcare reform and the current administration’s challenge to Arizona’s immigration law, according to the Associated Press.

The economy trumps all issues, and the worse-than-expected 69,000 jobs created in May and an uptick in the unemployment rate to 8.2 percent worry Democrats, The Associated Press reported.

"That's a bad number so there's concern," Rep. Peter Welch, D-VT told the Associated Press. "We can defend the Obama record. We've created jobs. The legacy of the Bush collapse is real. But what affects the mood; traditionally it's been the economy as perceived by voters about six months out."