Monday, February 15, 2010

Team Walker: Milwaukee County's Problems Are Barrett's Fault


A friend of mine, whose husband also happens to be a county employee, sent me an email the other day telling of a email she received from Tonette Walker, Scott Walker's wife. The mailer was the usual "Scott so wonderful, please give money" type of dreck you would expect from a politician's campaign. It was only interesting because it was almost verbatim to a mailer my wife received a few months ago.

My friend sent me another email tonight that was hilarious and still has me chuckling.

My friend wrote that she received a phone call from Team Walker today looking for her husband. The conversation, according to my friend, went something like this (the names have been redacted to protect the innocent):

Team Walker: Hi, may I speak to Mr. County Worker.

Mrs. County Worker: He's not here right now, he is at work. For Milwaukee County.

TW: Oh, well then, may I speak with Mrs. County Worker?

Mrs. CW: This is she.

TW then went through his spiel for a while before she stopped him and reminded him again that her husband works for the county. He responded by asking her for a $75 donation to Walker's campaign.

Mrs. CW reminded TW for a third time that her husband was a county worker, and that he was working today, and that they did not have the $75 because they were trying to deal with the 12 days of furlough that all county employees had to contend with. She then reminded TW that the furloughs was Walker's idea, not theirs.

Mrs. CW also added that she had to take a pay cut at her job as well.

TW came back with the "compassionate" response of lowering his request to $50, " because it would help us to 'get jobs' if we can get Walker in as governor."

My friend went on to write (emphasis mine):
After that, he went on to blame the problems of Milwaukee County on Barrett's spending, which quite frankly whether I happen to agree with Barrett or not, the money problems of the county have NOTHING to do with Barrett, do they really think people are that stupid?!?!?!?!
My friend said that TW kept at it by dropping the request to $35, stating that the race was "just TOO close to call, blah, blah, blah, blah."

My friend ended her missive with this insightful thought:
You know, around Christmastime, when I would get charities call and ask for money, all I had to do was say that I had taken a pay cut, and all of them politely would say, "we understand" and that would be it. This was unnerving, and in fact, downright rude considering I told the guy my husband worked for the county... thanks for letting me vent! If you haven't already guessed, I've traditionally leaned to the right (though not always) as I do take careful consideration in looking at the individual, and I can tell you, this guy is NOT the right choice for WI, I don't care what party he is.
I, of course, asked her permission to share her story with you, Gentle Reader. She not only readily agreed, stating that she thought the story needed to be put out there, but added:
Sure, you can use it. I wish I would have tape-recorded it. The guy also told me he had been laid off and without a job for six months now. How can a guy who's been laid off (and seemingly knows how it feels) ask another person for money?!?!? If I were that guy, I don't know how I could sleep at night. Unbelievable. I wish I would have asked him if he was getting paid to do this.
She added that it was her intuition (which she claims is never wrong) that things aren't going as well for Team Walker as they would have the public believe.

While I agree with her, I also know that things are going to get much, much worse for Walker as the year progresses. Especially if this is the kind of treatment his campaign gives people.

4 comments:

  1. They think that we're stupid enough to believe that the City taxes the county. I'm in Dane county and it is unbelievable how people who don't live in Madison blame all of the problems on the Mayor of Madison. If their village, town were so great why aren't businesses locating there and taxes non existent and welfare a thing of the past and.... Oh yeah because of the Mayor of a different town. The same thing goes for anyone (Scott Walker) running for state office promising to reduce property taxes, last time I checked the State doesn't raise propety taxes local governments do (city, county).

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  2. Actually, the states can raise or reduce property taxes- indirectly through increasing or decreasing state support of certain duties that are carried out by local governments (i.e. road assistance, K-12 education, state shared revenue).

    The kicker is that people like Scotty would lead property taxes to be jacked to the sky, because you know he'd cut the hell out of state funding for schools and municipalities to give his rich suburban buddies a tax giveaway. Either that, or he'll try the double-whammy of capping property tax levy limits while simultaneously cutting those state aids (think Jim Doyle on steroids), meaning the services get destroyed.

    Dude is not very keen on connecting consequences at one level from actions at another...or he just doesn't care as long as he and his cronies get paid.

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  3. just wondering . .. aren't there laws that say employers aren't supposed to be soliciting their employees for funds like this? seems pretty creepy to me. If they guy doesn't pay, is his employer going to retaliate against him?

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  4. Anonymous 11:36,

    Employers can't solicit their employees at work, but if said employee gets it as part of a mass mailing or random phone call, that is legal. I think.

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