Explore popular quotes and sayings by an American politician Scott McCallum.
Last updated on November 8, 2024.
James Scott McCallum is an American businessman and former politician. A member of the Republican Party, he was the 43rd Governor of Wisconsin, ascending from the Lieutenant Governorship when Tommy Thompson resigned in 2001 to accept appointment as U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services. Prior to becoming Governor, McCallum served 14 years as Thompson's Lieutenant Governor and 10 years in the Wisconsin State Senate.
Well, Bill, I don't think you're going to find many shy people that are in the political business.
My goal was never to get re-elected.
I think there can be some disagreement as to whether Kerry really won Wisconsin or not.
Maybe politically it wasn't wise but when people have different view points I think the public has a right to hear it and the public has a right to make decisions based on those view points.
My goal was to do the best job I could in governing the state of Wisconsin, in some cases making very tough decisions to have to bring our spending in line with the resources we had at the state level.
I'm not sure a candidate ever feels his message is getting out.
There are a lot of personal things that take place when becoming governor and I am happy to work with him should he ask. I will give him the best advice I can give.
The important aspect as we look at this budget, and as we look at previous budgets, is the budget system - what I'm trying to get at is changing budgeting itself in Wisconsin.
I have directed all of my cabinet to work to prepare a transition plan for the incoming administration.
The tone did take on a negativity that I didn't like and when you make the decision to go the other way as we did it very directly had an impact, you can see it with the tracking.
The important aspect shouldn't be whose administration it is, the important aspect should be how does the state of Wisconsin work, what can we do to move Wisconsin forward.
I will say we now, in the polling in Wisconsin, much different than many other races, the public didn't perceive that we were getting a fair shake from the media.
It just happened that the course of the campaign went negative we actually went positive for a little over a week and you do the tracking of poll numbers and it hurt us. So the public responded to those type of ads.
I am trying to send directions out and keep control of state government for the final month.
I said during the course of the campaign I didn't like it and I don't like the idea of having an opponent's picture on your ads and it would be nice to see candidates sign a pledge like that.
Politicians are no different than the rest of the public.
That's why I made decisions; they were tough decisions but we shouldn't feel bad at all - don't look back with any regrets, that's how I made decisions as governor.
I've said we need to look at things from the perspective of working people and taxpayers, not from the perspective of government and government officials.
I also do not like the idea of soft money, these issue ads - people don't know where the money is coming from, millions and millions of dollars outside of the control of a candidate - there's no accountability.
There's a lot of stress involved when your house is underwater.