Trump slams Walker as governor leads in early voting Iowa

OSKALOOSA, Iowa (AP) - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump opened up a line of attack Saturday on Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, accusing the leader in recent polls in Iowa of running his neighboring state into financial trouble.

It's the latest broadside against a rival of the outspoken New York billionaire. Last week, Trump went after South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham for calling him a "jackass." The New York businessman has characterized other candidates as unfit for the office and said the party's 2008 nominee, Sen. John McCain, was not a war hero in spite of his years as a prisoner in Vietnam.

Spurred on by a raucous audience of more than 1,000 at a central Iowa high school, Trump said Walker has an advantage in Iowa because he's from a neighboring state but that the edge is undeserved because Walker has mismanaged Wisconsin's budget.

"He grew up right next door. A little advantage, right?" Trump said. "Except Wisconsin is doing terribly."

Trump faulted Walker, popular for stripping public employees of many of their collective bargaining rights, for falling short of budget projections and changing his position on Common Core education standards. The voluntary state-based benchmarks for achievement in math, reading and language arts are unpopular among a segment of conservatives who view them, if incorrectly, as a federally mandated curriculum.

Walker showed tacit support for the standards during his first term when he signed budgets that paid for implementing them. Last year, he called for their repeal and replacement with standards set in Wisconsin.

"He was totally in favor of Common Core, which I hate, I hate," Trump said. Walker changed course on the topic, his rival said, when he saw "he was getting creamed."

Trump said Walker deserved the criticism because a top fundraiser to the governor referred to Trump in a recent fundraising email as "Dumb dumb."

Trump criticized Graham, a close friend of McCain, after Graham chided Trump for faulting McCain for being shot down as a Navy fighter pilot during the Vietnam War. McCain, held as a prisoner of war for five years, was heralded by Republicans as a war hero during his 2008 campaign.