Two posts, when put together, suggest a possible connection.

First, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Craig Gilbert:

With so much media attention on Scott Walker’s college record and proposed cuts to the university system, we thought we’d look at Walker’s popularity in Wisconsin by education level.

Is there an “education gap” in voter attitudes toward the second-term governor and likely presidential candidate?

Are there any differences among high-school graduates, college graduates and voters with graduate degrees when it comes to their views of Walker?

It turns out there are some, but the pattern varies by political party, according to a review of three years’ worth of Wisconsin polling by theMarquette Law School, which has surveyed more than 22,000 registered voters since January of 2012.

For example, Walker’s favorability rating is sky-high among Republican voters across all education levels.  But it is slightly lower (85%) among Republicans with post-graduate degrees than among Republicans who have spent some time in college (89%) or have B.A.’s (91%).

Looking at independents, Walker’s popularity is also lower among voters with graduate degrees (41%) than it is among those at all other education levels (about 50%).

But the clearest pattern is found with Democratic voters.

Walker’s popularity is low across the board with Democrats.  But the more educated Democrats are, the more negative they are about Walker.

Since 2012, the governor’s favorability rating is 18% among Democrats with a high school education or less, 16% among Democrats with some college or an associate’s degree, 11% among Democrats with a B.A., and just 6% among Democrats with a post-graduate degree.

Charles Franklin, who conducts the Marquette Law School poll and provided the survey data, did a further analysis isolating the influence of education by controlling for race, age, gender and even ideology (whether a voter is conservative, liberal or moderate).

It confirmed that the education gap over Walker is biggest with Democrats, is smaller among independents, and is very small among Republicans.

“Among independents and Republicans, Walker draws support fairly evenly among (those with) high school, some college and those who completed four years of college. There is some drop-off among those with a post-graduate education,” says Franklin. “But for Democrats there is a steady decline of support as education rises.”

Next, Mark Cunningham:

The GOP 2016 pack is off on a 16-month war for the nomination, which means performing for the party’s base and the money men. Yet whoever comes out on top won’t take the White House unless he starts now on connecting with an entirely different class of people.

They’re the voters who didn’t come out for John McCain in 2008, and mostly not for Mitt Romney in 2012: They’re middle- and working-class — mostly men and mostly white, though some minority voters and women will respond to the same appeal.

When these voters have come out for the GOP, it’s seen congressional landslides like 1994, 2010 and ’14 — but no national Republican since Ronald Reagan has fully drawn them in.

In ’94, liberals sneered about “angry white men.” OK, but the anger is because these folks have seen their ability to provide for a family under assault for decades, by everything from economic change to politics.

They know they’re losing, not gaining, when Democrats “spread the wealth” — but they need reason to believe a Republican will fight for them. …

You’re all for college, but you don’t think the only good-paying jobs should be for college grads. Too many Americans are stuck with a choice between getting work as a Wal-Mart greeter or seeing if they can make a disability claim stick.

About college: Something’s badly wrong there. We’re graduating too many kids with $100,000 in debt and no skills to earn enough to pay it back. While the rest of America is busy doing more with less, these schools keep on paying way too much money to way too many people who don’t even teach.

It’s time to put strings on the billions Washington sends to higher education, demanding that these schools deliver value.

Blue collar? Working class? Well, consider that 73.2 percent of Wisconsinites, and 71.8 percent of Americans, do not have a four-year college degree, according to the U.S. Census.

Consider as well that the average teacher salary in Wisconsin (not counting the value of their benefits) is $53,797, according to TeacherPortal.com, while the median Wisconsin family income is $52,413, again according to the U.S. Census.