The Hill News

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) was prank-called by a liberal blogger posing as a wealthy Republican donor, Walker's office said Wednesday. 

A Walker spokesman said the governor is indeed the man speaking to a blogger posing as David Koch, the Republican billionaire businessman. The audio was posted on Buffalo Beast, a left-leaning website. 

{mosads}"The governor takes many calls everyday. Throughout this call, the governor maintained his appreciation for and commitment to civil discourse," spokesman Cullen Werwie said in a statement, according to WISC-TV. "He continued to say that the budget repair b! ill is about the budget. The phone call shows that the governor says the same thing in private as he does in public and the lengths that others will go to disrupt the civil debate Wisconsin is having."

The prank call is the latest incident in the high-profile battle over Walker's budget plan. It quickly made the rounds around the political Web on Wednesday, and Walker's opponents pounced on the contents of the call, saying it shows Walker is stubbornly pursuing his budget-fix bill at all costs.

In the call, Walker openly discusses ways to get state Senate Democrats back to the state capital of Madison or bring the upper chamber back into session without t! hem.

A number of state Dems fled to neighboring ! Illinois to protest Walker's plan, which would force most public employees to pay for part of their pension and healthcare benefits and would limit their collective bargaining rights.

The bill has also sparked massive protests by union workers and their supporters.

Since the Buffalo Beast's site has crashed, audio of the call can be found on YouTube.