Jeff Stone: Walker Clone?

Chris Abele's campaign has been running an effective ad theme of comparing his opponent, Jeff Stone, to Scott Walker. This is effective because the majority of Milwaukeeans understand that Walker damn near destroyed Milwaukee County while he was county executive, as evidenced by the way Walker lost Milwaukee County in the gubernatorial election in a 68-32 drubbing.

Stemming from these ads has come the meme, "Jeff Stone: Walker Clone."  But is it entirely accurate?

After the first commercial, Stone had a hissy fit, stating that the comparison to Walker was "demonizing" him.  But apparently stone found himself comfortable with horns, pointy tail and a pitchfork once someone waved some money at him.  It would be safe to call this a flip flop, which is a trademark of Walker's.

And as Bruce Murphy points out in this week's column, Stone has been voting in 100% compliance with Walker's proposals and has expressed full support of Walker's budget, which is one of the most devastating that Milwaukee will have ever seen. However, during the few times that this has been brought up, just like Walker, Stone will talk in circles and try to act like devastation is the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Yesterday, Dan Bice broke the story that Stone has another similarity with Walker, in that they both like to use Tim Russell as an political operative.  (Has anyone heard from Darlene Wink lately?)  This should really raise questions about Stone's judgment, since Russell is one of the key subjects of a John Doe investigation into his role of politicking for Walker with county equipment and/or while on county time.  Then again, as Cory Liebmann points out, Stone has a long history of using "campaign volunteers" that were not quite reputable or were performing unsavory acts on his behalf.

But there is one significant difference between Stone and Walker.  On all of his campaign literature and on his web site, Stone boasts of being a small business man.  Walker, as we all know, is just another career politician.  We'll believe that about Stone, even though no one seems to be able to find his license anywhere.  (This could be explained if Stone chose to go with the sole proprietor option.)

What Stone doesn't mention is that his father-in-law, just like Ron Johnson's, was the money behind his "successful business."  Word is that his father-in-law is the one that plopped down the cash for their first home.  Probably bought their first Xerox copier too.  Another thing that Stone doesn't mention is that he got into a little legal problem due to his running a business in a residential zone.

So does all of this make Stone Walker's clone?   Well, a clone is supposed to be a duplicate of the original. But whether it's a photocopy or genetic clone or a political clone, the duplicate rarely, if ever, is an exact match.

I reckon that would make calling Stone a Walker clone a pretty accurate description, including being bad news and a bad leader for Milwaukee County.

Now the clincher would be if someone could find a picture of Stone with a mullet...