Republicans will not look back at the 2012 election fondly … except in Wisconsin.

Not the results of the presidential election or the U.S. Senate election, of course. Of course, the GOP did keep its 5–3 House of Representatives edge, helping freshman Reps. Sean Duffy (R–Ashland) and Reid Ribble (R–Kaukauna) become House sophomores.

The biggest successes, though, are at the state level. Between the November 2010 and November 2012 elections, the GOP won the legitimate gubernatorial election, won the illegitimate gubernatorial recall, and won and re-won control of the state Senate, while keeping the state Assembly.

The preceding paragraph compelled Human Events to name Gov. Scott Walker its Conservative of the Year:

His success in Wisconsin will change America. What was once thought an unattainable ceiling on possible Republican accomplishments has now become the floor for any Republican competing for national leadership in the GOP.

Walker led the effort to forbid state or local governments from withholding labor union dues from the paychecks of public sector workers, including teachers. Walker’s law forbids public sector unions from negotiating on health benefits, pensions, work rules or pay raises above the rate of inflation.

In one key law, Walker stopped one of the most corrupt practices: unions taking money from workers in dues and spending it on political activity.  Dues can run from $500 to $1,000 per year.  That is real campaign finance reform.  It protects government workers from being looted.  It protects all Wisconsinites from having their tax dollars recycled through the union to the Democratic Party to pushing for yet bigger government to continue the cycle.

Walker has set a high bar against which to measure the other 29 Republican governors.

The next Republican candidate for president will have to pass the “Walker Test.” …

Walker won his election in 2010.  The Left tried to defeat him by winning a Supreme Court race that could have undone his reforms. They failed.  The left tried to recall Walker himself—and failed.  In 2012, Walker and his Republican majorities in the Wisconsin House and Senate remain in power.  Stronger than ever.  Tested by fire.

• Walker did it first.
• Walker did it in a blue state.
• Walker defended his progress in three elections.
• Walker kept his legislative majorities intact.
• Walker’s model is scalable.  His reform can be implemented in all of the 24 other states with Republican governors and a Republican legislature.  He has a raised a standard that all Republicans can follow to success.

He has left no excuses for other Republicans who would offer themselves for state or national leadership.

By taking forced union dues off the table Walker has begun to correct an imbalance between taxpayers and the state.

The last sentence says:

Even taxpayers in Illinois and California can benefit from the Walker reforms simply by moving from Illinois and California to one of the red states that follows the Walker model.

True, but there’s one omission. Illinois’ and California’s governors, Democrats Pat Quinn and Jerry Brown, have started taking on their states’ public employee unions themselves, because they have no other choice, given the smoking radioactive crater of their states’ finances.

Human Events engages in some hyperbole from a distance. Walker doesn’t deserve the highest grade because this state still has a poor business climate because the Walker administration and the Legislature hasn’t undone the reasons for this state’s poor business climate — high taxes and gross overregulation. State finances are not balanced by the only measure that counts, Generally Accepted Accounting Principles. (Which no governor has ever been required to do.)

In a generally bad year for Republicans nationwide, though, Walker stands out. Before the 2010 election, Wisconsin had just one Republican statewide elected official, Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, and a Democratic-controlled Legislature. Since the 2010 election, Wisconsin has just one Democratic statewide elected official, Secretary of State Douglas La Follette, and a Republican-controlled Legislature. And on Nov. 6, voters put the GOP back in charge in the Capitol.