Ames Native Offers Insight Into Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's Union Fight

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Anti-Union Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker will appear alongside Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad tonight for the 4^th Annual Robb Kelley Spring Dinner, a Polk County Republican fundraiser, at the Sheraton West Des Moines Hotel.

And obviously, Progress Iowa and One Wisconsin Now plan to protest the appearance and Walker's “anti-middle class agenda.”

Those among the politically clueless who don't know why some liberal groups are riled by the visit could learn all that and more 1 p.m. Saturday when Ames native and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Reporter Patrick Marley stops at Books-A-Million, 1200 S. Duff Ave.

Marley plans to read from a book he co-wrote with Jason Stein: “More Than They Bargained For” which details Gov. Walker's 2011-12 fight over unions in Wisconsin.

Walker became the third governor in the United States to face and survive a recall election and intends to test the 2016 presidential waters though he isn't saying that yet, according to one of Marley's recent articles in the Journal Sentinel.

Walker's union fight and recall victory thrust him into the spotlight and he has been discussed as a “possible presidential candidate in 2016, and that’s why his trip to Iowa” will be watched closely, Marley said in an email response to questions.

Marley, a 1989 graduate of Ames High School, said that his book covers the sharp limits Gov. Walker placed on public sector workers in Wisconsin, the protesters who opposed him, the month-long legislative fight to pass his plan and the attempt to recall him a year later.

"More Than They Bargained For" would interest anyone who “follows politics, whether at the local or national level, as well as those who are interested in labor history,” Marley said.

Surprises in the book include details of a private meeting between President Obama’s campaign manager and top Wisconsin Democrats and labor leaders in the fall of 2011 and a secret meeting between Senate Democrats and union officials while they were stationed in Illinois, Marley said.

For More on the Book go to: http://www.steinmarley.com/