Unhappy times for Walker'scrabby campaign for governor

Clearly, these are not happy times for the Scott Walker for governor gang.

Signs of stress are beginning to appear, almost a year before the primary.

Walker himself fired from the lip about new regional economic development plans, sabotaging the effort as it tries to get off the ground by saying it costs too much to do business in Milwaukee. "You can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig," he said of efforts to market the Milwaukee area to employers.

That may play well with Citizens for Responsible Government, Walker's anti-government base, but it should turn off the Milwaukee area business community. It's not something a happy, confident candidate would say. Maybe he is finding out how difficult it is for a Milwaukee politician to be elected statewide, and has a new message: "I'm from Milwaukee, but I'm not like them."

Walker's campaign is in a stress-induced angry mood, too. When a Zogby poll showed both Mark Green and Scott Walker in close head-to-head matchups with Gov. Jim Doyle, the Walker campaign seemed to focus only on the fact that Green was running a few points better than Walker.

Walker campaign manager Bruce Pfaff told WisPolitics.com: "If Zogby had any credibility or ability to prognosticate, John Kerry would be president today, wouldn't he?" In 2004, Zogby predicted Kerry would beat George W. Bush. Pfaff said the poll consists only of people who have computers and the Internet and sign themselves up on the Zogby site. "Everybody is in the same margin of error," said Pfaff. "So even there what we take from it is people who have Internet connections don't like Jim Doyle."

The Zogby poll is highly unreliable, but why wouldn't Walker talk positively about how close the race is, instead of trashing the pollster? What will he say if the next Zogby poll shows Walker ahead? (My guess is they are behind, know they're behind, and are beginning to think it is a losing effort.)

Finally, Brian Fraley, who owns the consulting firm, the Markesan Group, that is advising Walker's campaign, is thinking about running for the State Senate in a GOP primary against wingnut Tom Reynolds. If, in fact, Fraley's firm is still working for Walker, that could be a little problematic, since Fraley would have his own primary at the same time as the Walker-Green primary. Or is Fraley starting to think Walker won't last that long.

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UPDATE: Fraley says: "The Markesan Group's contact with the Walker campaign has amicably expired. In Mid July we wrote the release regarding the hiring of full time staff and from that date forward, the campaign was no longer a client."

First I had heard that. It must mean that Jim Villa, who founded the Markesan Group but then left to return to Walker's office and taxpayer payroll as his chief of staff, must also be the "general consultant" and strategist for Walker -- on his own time, of course. (Wink, wink.)

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I've said all along I would like Walker to be the nominee against Doyle. But his crabby campaign has me wondering if that's even a possibility.