(WEAU) - He may be the most polarizing figure in Wisconsin politics.
In November of 2010, Scott Walker won the election for governor, and promised to put Wisconsin's house back in order financially.

At that time, there wasn't much talk of curtailing collective bargaining rights for most public employees.
But what followed that decision were massive protests at the capitol.

And Walker says the fallout and anger from his critics, has been tough on his family.
In part two of our exclusive one on one interview, Governor Scott Walker talks about the impact of the controversy on his wife and sons, and his future as governor.

One year after limiting collective bargaining, Scott Walker is criss-crossing the state, pushing an education agenda.
But the protests continue.

And looking back, the governor says the backlash has been difficult.

"They bussed in 1000-people in front of our house, they've attacked my kids on Facebook, verbally attacked my wife and others, it's not easy. There's no doubt about it, more so for them than or me", Walker said.

His critics says Walker's move to limit collective bargaining rights was designed to break the unions.
But the governor says the move was made to give local governments more flexibility in terms of employees paying for health insurance and retirement.

"What we did was put in place long term structural reforms, that help the state and ultimately our local goverments balance their budgets for generations to come."
"In retrospect, the biggest complaint i hear is, i see the reforms are working, i like that. I just wished you would have done a better job of explaining it."

In the weeks and months that followed, Walker says the atmosphere in Madison became more charged.
Threats of violence were even made against some Republican lawmakers.

Walker told us, "Thousands of people had signs that had me in crosshairs and other things. Things that were denounced a month earlier in Arizona, but when it happened to me nobody denounced it."

Walker says making what he calls "bold" moves, has taken its toll.

"I asked for the job. I realize there's all sorts of things that come with it. For my family, for my neighbors, for others, there's no doubt it's difficult."

But Walker says even with the criticism, he has supporters in the state.

"A car goes by and honks, look over the guy flips me off."
"A minute or two goes by, I hear a honk again and turned, two cars, both guys have their arms out, both of them did this.(Thumbs up)."
"For every person who's been particularly nasty in front of our house or in some similar format, there have been plenty of others who quietly came up to us, all around the state, who quietly come up and say they're praying for us, they're thinking of us. Not even political supporters, just people who understand and feel for some of the strain we've been going through this year."

Now that a recall election is all but a certainty, we asked Walker about his chances for continuing his term.
He says he's not worried about an election, because he says he did what he thought was right.

"Are you worried about how history will judge you as governor of Wisconsin? I'm going to run a campaign to win, but I'm not afraid to lose. To me, if you do things for the right reasons, long term, people will see this is one of the moments in Wisconsin's history and maybe in America's, where we stood up and did the right thing. We thought more about the next generation, than about the next election."

We asked Governor Walker if he had any advice for a future governors in the years to come, lessons he's learned in the last year.

"Don't be afraid to be bold. Because I think if you're looking out for the next generation, you've got to be bold and aggressive and fight for what you think is best for the people of the state, the people you're representing."
"Don't personalize your differences, because you're opponent today, may be your ally tomorrow", he told us.

As for a recall election, the Government Accountability Board will spend at least two months looking at signatures on recall petitions.
And political experts say it could be mid to late summer, before a recall election is held.

We called Democrat Kathleen Falk who has announced she's running against Walker in a potential recall election, for her response to Walker's interview.
She says as governor, Walker has only himself to blame for the animosity towards he and his family.

"Any discomfort Governor Walker is feeling right now he brought on himself and pales in comparison to the harm that has happened to families in Wisconsin", Falk told us.
Falk will be in Eau Claire Wednesday morning at Chippewa Valley Technical College for a campaign stop.
The event kicks off at 8:00 AM.
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(WEAU) - A little more than a year ago, Governor Scott Walker took office in Madison.

His most controversial move was the budget repair bill, which stripped most public workers of their collective bargaining rights.
Last month Chris Herzog sat down with the governor for an exclusive one-on-one interview where he looks backs on his decisions: what he believes he did right and what he may have done wrong.

On this winter day, Governor Scott Walker was reading to kids at an elementary school in Elmwood.
But it's a far cry from this time last year.

Protests erupted when it became clear the governor and the republican controlled legislature intended to remove collective bargaining rights for most public employees.

Governor Walker says, "I really looked at it and said, I'm not gonna put a band-aid on the budget, I'm going to fix it."

Walker says the budget repair bill was intended to put the power back in the hands of local and state government, giving them the ability to balance their budgets, by making adjustments to what employees pay for health insurance and retirement.

He says he knew the move would be controversial. "I never would have predicted the national attention. I knew there'd be some push back, but never knew it would be like this."

Critics say the budget repair bill hurt unions, people's choices and sense of fairness. Supporters say the move helped close a more than $3 billion dollar state deficit.

But Walker says he looks back at the protests last spring and says people from outside the state were exploiting political divisions. "We saw literally groups marching with banners from Illinois, Las Vegas, New Jersey, Washington and New York. Things changed and it got much more divisive," he noted.

Walker, who's now facing a historic recall election, says the simple fact is, his moves saved taxpayers money, and likely saved the jobs of the same public employees, who he says want him out of office. He says, "if you're a public employee, look at other states. We avoided layoffs. We don;t have furloughs like Jim Doyle's budget had before, so people aren't getting a pay cut for that."

He went on to say, "other states laid off thousands of employees. I don't want to lay anyone off, public or private." Now that Scott Walker has had a year to look back, he says he did what he thought was the best for the state. But he says he admits, mistakes were made, especially in terms of public relations.

"Looking back in time, I should have spent more time last year in January and February making the case for where there was a problem," he reflected. He goes on to say, "in this environment, you've got to tell people time and again, why there's a problem, what you;re doing to fix it and how it's going. And in retrospect, we didn't do that well enough."

While it's become clear his job will likely come down to a recall election, he says he's confident he made the right choices, and has the support of the taxpayers. "I'm 'gonna run a campaign to win, but I'm not afraid to lose."

We called democrat Kathleen Falk who has announced she's running against walker in a potential recall election, for her response to Walker's interview. She says as governor, Walker had divided people in the state and destroyed 50 years of organized labor peace.

She says, "he has shown his style of dividing us. Family member against family member, has torn out state apart. And that's why a million people are recalling this governor. It's not just his divisive style, but also what he did, he didn't have to do." Falk says she's negotiated with unions in the past to save taxpayers money, and didn't eliminate workers rights. A recall election could happen later this summer.

Chris Herzog continues his Assignment 13 report Tuesday night (2/7) with Governor Walker as the governor talks about the personal toll his controversial year in office has taken on his family.