Political Heat

Governor states his aides aren't receiving help from his criminal defense fund --------- Six days until the recall election. --------- The John Doe investigation continues to gain attention, specifically over whether Gov. Scott Walker is a target in the probe over illegal use of government resources for campaigning purposes, alleged embezzlement of funds , and bid rigging within the office of the County Executive while he served there. Walker transferred more than $100,000 to his criminal defense fund in the past month from his campaign coffers. In the prior month, Walker had also transferred $60,000, for a grand total of $160,000 from his campaign to pay for attorney expenses regarding the John Doe investigation. Walker's excuse? The funds were necessary for sharing documents with Milwaukee County DA John Chisolm. Walker said he put money into the defense fund so that he could provide thousands of documents to Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm, who is headi...

Walker's time in office shows he wants to move our state in a corporatist direction --------- Seven days until the recall election. --------- The critics of the recall have bashed it incessantly , errantly claiming it's fundamentally over a singular issue, disregarding that it was they who in the past have tried to recall elected officials on the same premise. The critics are wrong , however, despite their hypocrisy, to make the claim in the first place. This recall election may have had its start over one issue, a big one even -- workers' rights to collectively negotiate their contracts. It may have snowballed since then, becoming an election over Walker's failure to create jobs in the state, his de-funding of our children's education , his appointment of cronies and the sons of political donors to high-paying positions of power , or his likely involvement in a federal investigation looking into embezzled funds, illegal campaign activities, and bid-rigging. There...

Walker's refusal to answer questions creates doubt in the current governor's leadership I could do an in-depth analysis, line-by-line, question-by-question look into who won the recall debate held tonight . Though it would be interesting to assess, it would miss the overall picture of who won the thing -- Tom Barrett or Scott Walker. My take on the debate in its entirety is this: Walker started out strong. Barrett needed a couple minutes to catch his footing, but he eventually caught back up to Walker. Well-before the halfway point, however, there was no question that the momentum had changed hands. Tom Barrett won this debate , and he won it handily. He controlled its direction , bringing up legitimate questions about Walker's record that needed to be addressed. Yet, Scott Walker chose to avoid many of the questions Barrett brought up . Case in point, the last section of the debate where the candidates were each allowed to ask other a question. Walker differed the opportu...

Whining about the recall, critics try to change Wisconsin history and values In making its endorsement of Gov. Scott Walker in the upcoming recall election, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel made it perfectly clear , one last time, that it felt it unnecessary to remove the governor over "one silly lil' ol' issue." Walker's rematch with Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett was prompted by one issue: Walker's tough stance with the state's public-employee unions. It's inconceivable that the recall election would be occurring absent that. And a disagreement over a single policy is simply not enough to justify a vote against the governor. Of course, the Journal Sentinel missed the mark completely -- collective bargaining may have been the catalyst for the recall, but it's no longer the sole reason for its necessity. The reason why recall elections in Wisconsin require a year before the process can begin is precisely why the notion that this is a "single-issue...

Governor's testimony contradicts available documents WTDY has pointed out that Gov. Scott Walker lied before a Congressional committee while discussing collective bargaining rights and his controversial "budget repair bill" that he passed in early 2011. Regarding the process in which Governor Walker went about achieving concessions from state employees, Walker thought it was important to put in the record that, "In December, after the elections but before I was sworn into office, the public sector unions and the state rushed to the lame-duck session Legislature and to the Governor and tried to pass through contracts that would have locked us into a dire financial situation." But drafting documents obtai ned by WTDY News from the non-partisan Legislative Reference Bureau reveal that Act 10 was actually being drafted in November , just weeks after Walker was elected governor . As lawmakers struggled to pass state worker contracts in December of 2010, a non-parti...

On conservative issues, Wisconsin governor still fails A lot has been said regarding the rationale for recalling Gov. Scott Walker, justifying his ouster over a plethora of issues that do Wisconsin great harm. Those issues tend to derive from a centrist-progressive viewpoint. Yet there are other reasons that Walker's re-admittance to the governor's mansion deserves to be examined closer, even from a conservative point of view. The average conservative in the state believes in smaller government, lower taxes, balanced budgets, and in Wisconsin a pro-hunter mentality. Yet Walker's time as governor has run counter to all of these tenets. Walker's budget grew by a one percent increase , more than half a billion dollars, from his Democratic predecessor's. Walker's budget also increased taxes on the poor by $70 million . And on the issue of balancing the budget, Walker has failed there as well, creating a $3 billion deficit according to his own administration's c...

Criminal defense fund places Walker close to investigation Who is "John Doe?" That is the question of the hour, and should be on the mind of every Wisconsinite from now until the recall election commences. John Doe investigations are secretive inquiries performed outside the public's eye. Not much is known during these proceedings, except what is leaked -- as well as who receives immunity in exchange for cooperation with the investigation. A current John Doe inquiry is underway in Milwaukee County , where investigators are looking into whether illegal campaign coordination and embezzlement occurred in the office of the County Executive, during the time Scott Walker served the post while simultaneously campaigning for governor. Though the current governor hasn't yet been formally charged, nor is their indication that he's yet been officially investigated (remember, it's all secretive), all signs are pointing towards Walker being John Doe . The smoking gun? Wal...

Walker sides with corporate interests rather than help the less fortunate "There is looming up a dark new power...The enterprises of the country are aggregating vast corporate combinations of unexampled capital, boldly marking, not for economic conquest only, but for political power. For the first time in our politics, money is taking the field of organized power. The question will arise, and arise in your day though perhaps not fully in mine: 'Which shall rule--wealth or man? Which shall lead--money or intellect? Who shall fill public stations--educated and patriotic free men, or the feudal serfs of corporate wealth?'" Edward G. Ryan, Wisconsin State Supreme Court Chief Justice The recall election can be summarized in one very short phrase, boiling down to the "politics of greed" versus the "politics of need." In other words, do we help those Wisconsinites most in need of assistance? Or do we create for ourselves a state that loses any semblance...

By his own standard, Walker shows his first year in office had slower growth than his predecessor's If there is one thing Gov. Scott Walker excels at, it's being a masterful manipulator. With a straight face he will tell you that his "reforms" are working in our schools, despite more than double the number of teacher losses and increased class sizes; he will state unequivocally that he balanced the budget without raising taxes, despite kicking debt down the road and very clearly raising taxes for the working poor by tens of millions of dollars. And now, by manipulation of more jobs data, Walker is going to tell you he created jobs in 2011 , using an entirely different standard than any other state is using at this time. Like his other erroneous claims, Walker's news on jobs in Wisconsin should be read with a skeptical eye. For starters, Walker is using a measurement that typically receives six months of attention, and following that usually gets a final check b...

Waste hauler dumps three times the regulated levels, receives slap on the wrist and minimum penalty This story is a bit dated, but it's worth keeping alive because it's relevance isn't yet fully appreciated. Herr Environmental, a waste hauler company in southeastern Wisconsin, is facing harsh criticism because it spread possibly more than three times the legal limit of waste around the homes and fields of dozens of Jefferson County residents. Scott Gunderson, an executive assistant in the Department of Natural Resources, handed down a few citations to the company, carrying out the minimum action required of him, disregarding recommendations from several within the agency to recommend criminal action against Herr Environmental. What's so controversial here is that Gunderson, who had "made an extra effort" to deal with Herr himself, had received campaign contributions from the company during his time as an Assemblyman. The violations, touted as "among th...

Governor set to change the "rules of the game" by switching standards of what qualifies as job growth Gubernatorial candidate Tom Barrett is skeptical of current Gov. Scott Walker's recent announcement that job numbers to be revised this week by his administration will somehow reveal a "brighter" depiction of the state's overall record. Barrett says Walker has "brought in a fiction writer" and is going to make up better numbers to tell a better story. Barrett is right to be suspicious, given the fact that the Bureau of Labor Statistics has already identified Wisconsin as the nation's worst state in terms of job numbers. Unless Walker legitimately finds 20,000 more jobs than what was previously accounted for, that distinction will continue to hold up. Rick Ungar at Forbes.com has a theory as to why Walker is suddenly pushing this new jobs "revelation": the Walker administration is set to use different numbers, from a different survey...

Walker's tenure as governor came with many surprises The latest video in the "Video Heat" series takes a look at the promises Walker fell short of keeping and the things he neglected to mention during his campaign.

Republican senator believes recall opponent only running per her husband's request If the newly released video of Gov. Scott Walker discussing his strategy of "divide and conquer" serves to remind Wisconsinites about the corporatist, anti-worker nature of the state's Republican Party, state Sen. Scott Fitzgerald's recent comments about who his recall opponent, Lori Compas , takes her orders from should serve to remind us about the party's blatant sexism: For the record, Fitzgerald said he doesn't buy Compas' Pollyanna image. He knows some people are painting the race as a David-vs.-Goliath contest. But Fitzgerald said he thinks her husband is one of the main forces behind her campaign , as well as unions and protest groups. " I don't for one minute believe she is the organizing force behind this whole thing ," he said. Emphases added. It isn't enough that state Republicans have to make earning an equal wage a more difficult task for ...

Governor wanted to pit citizens of Wisconsin against each other to destroy union presence Newly released footage from a documentary film shows Gov. Scott Walker (way back in his first month of office) making small talk with one of his billionaire donors over how to deal with unions, weeks before introducing his budget repair bill that removed bargaining rights for state workers. Walker makes his strategy clear : "We're going to start in a couple weeks with our budget adjustment bill," Walker said when a campaign donor asked him how he would turn the state red. "The first step is, we're going to deal with collective bargaining for all public employee unions [and] use divide and conquer ." Emphasis added. It's clear now that compromise was never a policy of the Walker administration. The governor had planned to remove public workers' rights for some time, even though he had never campaigned on it , and make Wisconsin a "right to work (for less)...

Governor takes credit when numbers are positive, shifts responsibility to others when jobs tank Gov. Scott Walker is trying to have it both ways. In 2011, when much of the state -- Milwaukee included -- was seeing gains in job numbers (hard to believe that now), Walker humbly took credit for improvements in the state and the city itself, using it as proof that his "reforms" were "working." Yet now, a different tune is being played. Walker has shifted the responsibility of job losses to his recall opponent, Tom Barrett, who just happens to be mayor of Milwaukee. In short, Walker takes credit when things are good, and brushes it aside when things get ugly. But those criticisms are entirely unwarranted. For starters, Milwaukee's economic conditions are primarily handled at the county level , and the city has only a limited role in job creation: The City of Milwaukee...has an unusual power sharing arrangement between the county and the city whereby most of the pow...

Milwaukee mayor will once again take on Walker in the general election The people have spoken, and Tom Barrett is their choice. The Milwaukee mayor has been selected among a highly qualified pool of candidates to take on Gov. Scott Walker in the historic recall election next month. The match-up will pit two candidates who have faced off before, in 2010 when Walker won office amid the conservative wave of electoral victories that swept the nation. Notably absent during that year were 824,443 potential voters , who took part in 2008's presidential election but sat out of 2010's gubernatorial race. Since that time, Walker has polarized the state to the point where a majority now disapproves of his job performance. And recent polling also shows that Barrett and Walker are in a statistical tie in a head-to-head general election at this point (thought it may be that Barrett could already be ahead by a significant margin ). The momentum heading towards the recall is Barrett's to...

Recalls are necessary, promote citizen-driven democracy in Wisconsin The Journal Sentinel gets it wrong on the issue of recalls, complaining yet again over costs of the process, among other exaggerated claims: It's unnecessary, it's expensive, it's ugly - and it's coming Tuesday. That's the day the primary election in the gubernatorial recall race will be held. ... This recall is seen by some here and elsewhere as part of a larger struggle taking place across the country. It also carries the potential, as Walker told the Editorial Board this week, for setting the stage for a constant recall election cycle . ... And we still maintain this is all unnecessary because it essentially boils down to one issue : last year's legislation that severely curtailed bargaining rights for most public employees. Politicians, regardless of party, should not be recalled over one issue or one (or even several) votes . Which is why we hope that state Sen. Robin Vos reintroduces hi...

Analogy conveys wrong image of Walker's dismal jobs performance Within a piece on Fox News' website that finally recognizes that the recall movement is more than about unions, Gov. Scott Walker tries to make an unlikely comparison between himself and another famous figure in Wisconsin history. Apparently not content with trying to emulate Ronald Reagan, Walker insists he's also like former Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi : "Vince Lombardi, when he took over the Green Bay Packers, the Packers were 1-10-1," said Walker, who took office in January 2011. "He didn't take them to the world championship the next year. It took a couple of years. But eventually once they got there they were one of the premiere teams in the NFL. And we can be a premiere state." There's just one problem with that analogy -- it assumes that Lombardi's first year as coach was not-so-great, that it took time for him to turn things around in what would come to be kn...

Cuts to state's school districts will be on the minds of voters across Wisconsin With the primary election a mere five days away, it will soon be clear which of the four Democratic challengers will face off against Gov. Scott Walker in the recall early next month. With that in mind, it's worth taking note of some of the issues that will become part of the general election debate over the next thirty-some days. One of the biggest concerns for voters will undoubtedly be the state of education in Wisconsin. Long-established as a value citizens have held dear to for generations in the Badgerland, education has taken a huge hit since Walker took office, with nearly $800 million in cuts across Wisconsin as part of his budget. That amounts to more than $635 cut per student , and is the largest cut to education ever seen in the state. What's more, Walker also limited how local districts could raise funds to help schools. In the end, the governor's "reforms" resulted ...

Governor's dismal performance warrants removal from his own job I don't really care much for business analogies when it comes to politics. The belief that an executive of a company and the leaders representing us in public office face any of the same challenges is one I typically reject. That said, is there any doubt that Gov. Scott Walker, based on his job creation performance as chief executive of our state, wouldn't be fired by now if he was singled out for our governor's terrible showing in his first year or so of "leading." This is a governor who, after all, made jobs his number one priority during the campaign, pledging to bring more than 250,000 to the state in his first term in office. Since that time, we've instead gone backwards and away from that goal, despite two pseudo-job creation sessions Walker and his Republican allies in the legislature propped up. These sessions, however, focused primarily on tax breaks and tort reform, changes that do...