{image1} Although Gov. Jim Doyle's overall budget is riddled with financial question marks and spending and fee hikes, his proposed "property tax freeze" was a shrewd move of political gamesmanship, designed to shoot a poison arrow directly into the heart of the Scott Walker gubernatorial campaign.

Walker is a savvy politician with a strong message and base in southeastern Wisconsin that positions him as a real threat to Doyle. And Doyle no doubt knows it.

But Walker's message has been somewhat narrowly defined thus far: It's Doyle's property tax freeze veto, stupid.

Even Walker's campaign slogan says it in part: "Lower taxes." His entry speech into the governor's race emphasized and slammed Doyle's veto of a Republican property tax freeze. In an interview in early January, Walker said he might even reconsider running for governor if Doyle allowed the freeze. The Milwaukee county executive staged a "we need a freeze" mission, sending his property tax bill to Doyle. In short, he made the centerpiece of his campaign about taxes and about Doyle's veto of the Republican property tax freeze in particular.

About a month ago, this message had incredible resonance. Walker could run on the impressive record he's established holding the line on taxes and spending in Milwaukee County and contrast that with the governor's refusal to give property taxpayers a break.

Other Republicans also continually dangled the tax freeze carrot in front of Doyle as a potent political hammer. Assembly speaker John Gard, then still considering a run for governor, said at one point that the tax issue would evaporate politically if Doyle would just sign the freeze.

In contrast, the other likely Republican gubernatorial wannabe, Congressman Mark Green, has been pounding away at Lincoln Day dinners and in the press with a somewhat broader message, hitting the tax issue but also deriding Doyle as an out-of-touch Madison liberal on a score of hot-button topics.

All of this tax-freeze saber rattling clearly got the governor's attention. Whatever you think about Jim Doyle, there's no question he plays hard-knuckle politics. So Doyle called the Republican bluff and surprised Republicans with his own version of a "property tax freeze."

Doyle's hypocrisy is striking. Back when the property tax freeze was a Republican-only idea, he was harshly critical of the concept, saying it was a political gimmick and deriding the loss of local control that would result. Now, suddenly, he thinks property tax freezes are a great idea -- but only if they are done his way (and only if he jacks up spending along the way). In a way, it's a win for the Republicans, who struck a political lode so powerful they forced the governor to buy into their idea.

But the problem for Republicans politically -- and especially Walker, who has staked the most on the Doyle-is-against-property-taxes-theme -- is that Doyle has now changed the debate.

Republicans now have to argue that Doyle's tax freeze isn't really a freeze, or that Doyle used to be against property tax freezes but now is not, or that his budget is so larded with reckless spending transfers and spending increases as to be fiscally irresponsible anyway.

But none of that has the resonance of the simple and clean message they had before. Now it's a war over the nuances -- a "my-freeze-is-better-than-your-freeze" spat that threatens to annoy voters if nothing gets done as a result.

Doyle can say the Republicans shot down his freeze; they can say he shot down theirs. Stalemate. That's a lot different than the Republicans being able to say the governor's against freezing property taxes.

And now Republicans have put forth a new property tax freeze measure. Senate Majority Leader Dale Schultz actually was quoted as saying of Doyle: "We've heard you governor. We do understand that you believe that property taxes are a problem. We want to join you right away in keeping that commitment to the property taxpayers."

The debate has changed.

If neither side compromises and no freeze occurs as a result, both sides will look transparently political to voters, more concerned about winning the political chess match than about truly helping property taxpayers. But a compromise also would mean the Republicans won't be able to use the issue effectively against Doyle in November 2006. In essence, the governor's maneuvered them into a Catch 22 box.

Walker can recalibrate his message. He's got almost two years to do so. He's a smart politician, and he's got a lot of material left: Concealed carry, Indian gaming compacts, photo ID at the polls, just to start. Doyle seemed to wear the cloak of a moderate as attorney general but he's shifted far to the left as governor.

And Walker -- and the Republicans -- is already shifting to a new theme. "It's Doyle's out-of-control spending, stupid" is the new message. That's got resonance of its own considering how many fee and spending increases Republicans are unearthing from Doyle's budget on a daily basis.

Walker's also got a convincing argument on the stump for why he's in the best position to take out Doyle in a general election because Doyle still has to contend with Walker's popularity in the Democratic stronghold of Milwaukee County.

But Doyle can put out his spin about trying to help relieve the property tax burden. In reality, there's no question about it: Doyle's latest move was political, and it was aimed right at Walker's knees.

McBride, a former Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter who teaches journalism at UW-Milwaukee, is a frequent commentator on Milwaukee TV and the wife of Waukesha County DA Paul Bucher.

The opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect the opinions of OnMilwaukee.com, its advertisers or editorial staff.

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