On February 15th, Scott Walker thought public demonstrations of support didn't matter in the fight over his budget bill:
In an interview with Fox News' Greta Van Susteren on Tuesday, Walker played down the number of protesters. Van Susteren observed that tens of thousands of residents have turned out to protest, saying, "I don't think Madison has seen a protest like that in quite some time." Walker replied, "In the end though, you're still talking about 5.5 million in the state. You're still talking about a couple of hundred thousand state and local government employees. So sure, you're going to have a few riled up about this, there's no doubt about it."
Two days later, however, Walker suddenly thought public demonstrations of support mattered a lot—so much, in fact, that he decided to make them public:
"The more than 8,000 emails we got today, the majority are telling us to stay firm, to stay strong, to stand with the taxpayers," Walker said.
For Scott Walker, the majority of 8,000 emails matters, while tens of thousands of protesters don't. The key difference is that the protesters opposed Scott Walker, while those sending emails supported him.
Or did they?
Seeking a way to counter a growing protest movement, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker cited his email, confidently declaring that most people writing his office had urged him to eliminate nearly all union rights for state workers.
But an Associated Press analysis of the emails shows that, for close to a week, messages in Walker’s inbox were running roughly 2-to-1 against his plans. The tide did not turn in his favor until shortly after desperate Democrats fled the state to stop a vote they knew they would lose.
Walker's office is brushing this off by saying he was referring only to the emails sent on February 17th. On those narrow grounds, Walker's office is correct. He was technically only referring to the emails sent on February 17th, and the majority of emails sent on that day did favor him. However, it's self-serving to only mention your constituent contacts the very moment they have turned supportive.
Further, it's hypocritical to dismiss the importance of public political action one day, and then just two days later to announce to the media that you received a bunch of supportive emails. Walker's office was clearly monitoring the emails he received for support or opposition on a regular basis. Otherwise, Walker would not have known the majority of the emails he received on February 17th were supportive of his plan. This means Walker was dismissing the importance of public demonstrations even as his office was desperately looking for some action that supported Walker. The moment some came in, Walker didn't hesitate to make it public.
All of this is enough to make you sympathize with this email Walker received from a former supporter:
"Thanks for the 10% pay cut," wrote a Department of Corrections employee. "I can’t believe that I voted for you. Get bent."
Heh.