While he’s been virtually invisible on the congressional campaign trail, President Obama has zeroed in on gubernatorial races across the country because governors are crucial to implementing the administration’s agenda, White House officials said Tuesday.
Mr. Obama has not campaigned for any individual Senate candidates in this cycle, but has made the rounds for Democratic gubernatorial hopefuls such as Maryland’s Anthony Brown and incumbent Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn. On Tuesday he’ll stump for Mary Burke, the Democrat challenging Wisconsin’s Republican Gov. Scott Walker.
“We are finding that governors are playing a very important role implementing federal law, whether it is raising the minimum wage or expanding Medicaid. There is an important role governors are playing in furthering the kinds of policies the president advocates,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters. “The outcomes of these statewide campaigns are … worthy of the president’s attention and in some cases they do have significant consequences for the successful implementation of policies the president worked very hard to pass.”
Asked whether it was more important for the president to spend his time helping to elect Democratic governors or Senate candidates, Mr. Earnest said “it is hard to assess whether one is more important than the other.”
“I think they are significantly different,” he added.
• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.
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