Friday, October 17, 2008

Walker's Pattern Of Disregard For Ethics And Laws

I wrote yesterday about Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker's questionable practice of using Milwaukee County resources for political purposes. Walker used the County's official website to post a "newsletter" in which he politicked against the upcoming sales tax referendum.

James Rowen and Jay Bullock were kind enough to link to my post, and a commenter on Jay's site got me thinking. The commenter, "John," asked:

Didn't Walker spend tax money on automated phone calls a couple years ago on a referendum?

Well, John, yes, yes, he did. He got nailed for a $5,ooo fine for failing to have a disclaimer that his campaign paid for robocalls, asking people to call the County Board and urge them not to raise taxes.

This then caused me to wonder if this was some sort of pattern for Walker.

So I went back to Walker's official government website, and found this week's "newsletter", in which he again waxes political about the sales tax referendum with his misinformation and political posturing.

Un-fricking-believable.

So then I started backtracking his other "newsletters." I was flabbergasted by what I found:

  • October 3, 2008 - Walker pushes his efforts to privatize the parks and the airport.
  • September 26, 2008 - Walker promotes his budget, which is OK even though I think it is a pile of garbage, but also tries to justify the outrageous raises he gave his cronies in his administration, while laying off workers.
  • September 19, 2008 - Walker promotes an event with Paul Ryan and spreads the voter fraud/ACORN/right wing talking points.
  • September 12, 2008 - Walker pushes for his version of what to do with the $91.5 million waiting to be used to fix our transit system. This one may be marginally OK, but if it is, it's only by a hair's width.
  • September 5, 2008 - Again with the sales tax referendum.
  • August 29, 2008 - Hey, what do you know? This one is actually like it's supposed to be.
  • August 22, 2008 - More ACORN/voter suppression propaganda.
  • August 15, 2008 - More promotion to privatize the airport.
  • August 8, 2008 - More privatization.
  • August 1, 2008 - What, is he running for governor, or is he the County Executive? Stop the propaganda already!

The list could go on forever. Click here to look at all of these "newsletters" yourself.

Such a long record, spanning years, shows a very distinct pattern of what appears to be Walker using questionable practices of politicking, either by failing to follow election laws and/or using government resources to promote his political agenda (which I'm sure ends up with the ultimate goal of running for governor - again).

The question is whether he does this out of ignorance of the law, or just a plain disregard for the law. Either way, isn't it way past time to hold him accountable for his actions?

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