Mitt Romney used a Wednesday tele-town hall with Wisconsin voters to give a strong endorsement to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican who is fighting off a recall effort led by Democrats.
“Gov. Walker is, in my opinion, an excellent governor," Romney said, according to a report by ABC News. "And I believe that he is right to stand up for the citizens of Wisconsin and to insist that those people who are working in the public sector unions have rights to affect their wages but that these benefits and retiree benefits have fallen out of line with the capacity of the state to pay them."
"And so I support the governor in his effort to rein in the excesses that have permeated the public sector union and government negotiations over the years," Romney said.
Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, also talked about other states that have passed legislation aimed at curbing collective bargaining.
“The state of Indiana, even my home state of Massachusetts, has reined in the collective bargaining excesses associated with retirement benefits for future retirees," Romney said.
The heated recall campaign has kept voters so occupied that the April 3 GOP presidential primary is barely being noticed by voters, according to one top Romney supporter. "People are not focused on the presidential" race, Ted Kanavas, a former state senator and a Romney campaign chair in Wisconsin, told the Associated Press. "They are totally focused on the recall because truthfully they should be."
Donations by Wisconsin residents to the Republican presidential primary are down more than 50 percent as compared with levels in 2008, according to Fdlreporter.