Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Walker's Disregard For The Law Costs Taxpayers Even More

There is a story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that shows the election laws that all but one politician in the state has to follow actually work (emphasis mine):
The GAB staff upheld the city Election Commission's decision to disqualify Jason Hargis, one of three would-be Wade opponents in the 7th Aldermanic District race. City election officials had previously disqualified nominating petitions filed by Wade's other two opponents, Michael (Big Mike) Hagler and Roosevelt Sanders, neither of whom appealed to the state agency.

Initially, the election commission staff had found that Hargis had submitted 200 valid signatures on his nominating petitions, the minimum needed to win a spot on the ballot. But Wade's attorney, Michael Maistelman, obtained an affidavit from one of those 200 people denying she signed Hargis' petition, and that led to the rulings against Hargis at both the city and state levels.

Wade had to hire his own attorney, the esteemed Michael Maistelman, to check the signatures and to challenge them. That's the way the law is written and it worked the way it was intended to.

Contrast that to Scott Walker, the one politician that thinks he is above the law, who is making the taxpayers foot the bill to do what his campaign should be doing.

And now the taxpayers will have to pay more and more as the GAB needs more time to do their jobs as well as Team Walker's and has the Koch-funded GOP operatives plan on pulling another stalling stunt.

17 comments:

  1. I thought it was a judge that ordered GAB to waste our money in a half hearted attempt to make a database? Or does he have a disregard for the law too? At any rate I hope there is a searchable database soon from the verify the recall people, allowing all of us to check our friends and families names. We'll see how much fraud is found then. I think that fiasco in Racine is only the beginning. I dont think it will stop the recall election, but it will point out the hipocracy.

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    1. You may not be a racist, but you certainly display a paranoid distrust of your fellow citizens. You are exactly the kind of closed-minded, biased citizen that makes democracy difficult and fascism possible.

      You have little capacity to recognize Walkerite hypocrisy yourself. I am grateful to not be your neighbor or co-worker.

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    2. Have you looked at all into what VTR has posted?

      Look at even a few of the ones they say are "bad sign dates" and you'll find perfectly *good* sign dates; look at some of their "incomplete record" signatures and you'll see just about all are 'substantially compliant' with previous GAB review standards. VTR says 4500 Walker petition signatures are 'out of area'; how can you be out-of-area in a state-wide recall? (And what the hell does "screened nm" even mean?)

      But the biggest problem with what VTR has posted is that the vast majority of it are signatures that they deem simply "questionable". But they don't say what it is they think is 'questionable' about them!

      If VTR wanted to be thought of as a serious organization, they needed to issue a serious 'challenge' document. But they haven't. Theirs may have been an honest effort, but it is a failed honest effort; what they have posted so far is a mess.

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    3. "Questionable": One of their complaint categories is "illegible signature."

      As if the *signature* needed to be legible, not just the printed name!

      Scott Walker's own signature on public documents isn't legible! Does that invalidate them?

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  2. VTR wont be allowed to challenge anything, the only positive they will provide is a searchable database. That way people can check their own name. And maybe bring some more over zealous people to light. This will go to a recall election, Walker has conceded that already.
    Palli- I think your wrong, I get along with most people. My neighbor signed the petition, but also complains about taxes going up all the time. That doesnt mean I dont help them any way I can. Maybe my rational vote will be the best help I can give!
    I assume you think Walker is a dirty politician, fine, then name one who isnt.

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    1. off the top of my head,

      Bernie Sanders, Sherrod Brown, Marcy Kaptur, Paul WellStone,Dennis Kucinich, Henry Waxman, Bill Proxmier, Gaylord Nelson, Barbara Lee, John Lewis, Mary Jo Kilroy, Bob Filner, Eugene McCarthy, Jimmy Carter, Maria Cantwell, Al Franken, Bill Bradley. Pat Schroeder, Sam Farr, Barney Frank, Rush Holt, Tammy Baldwin. Betty Sutton, Tim Ryan, Sue Morrano, Michael Dukakis, George McGovern, Deval Pstrick, Ted Strickland, Eric Fingerhut, Lee Fisher...
      It is easy to not trust politicians if you don’t for good ones.

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  3. Keep up, you who must be a racist. Yes, a Waukesha County judge ruled for Walker, an activist judge who was trying to rewrite the law, but he was overruled by wiser judges up the line who actually read and followed the law. They know that's the job of judges, and that if you want to change the law, you can take that to your legislator who writes it.

    VTR also could have benefitted by reading and following the law about petition signatures -- the law that is explained right on the petition forms and is easily accessible online. Go look for it and read it, as well as how our judicial system works, before wasting bandwidth again.

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  4. Thats terrific. If the ruling was overturned by more "honorable"judges then they dont need time to verify anything. Whats the holdup?
    The verify people are doing us a service. By pointing out the problems in the process th next legislature can use that information to improve the process. I will contact my legislator and request they remove the GAB and replace it again with a better system that will serve more than the 800,000 it seems to be serving now.
    Wasting bandwith? I thought this is what democracy looks like?

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    1. Why must we reconstruct our elections board at an exponential rate?

      I understand that telling people its OK to sign multiple times was dumb, but the intentions were to assure the public that the process would accommodate their suspicions that troublemakers like OP Burn Notice who would like to destroy certain petitions or cause general havoc could not intimidate a legitimate petition procedure. This whole deal about the GAB being politically corrupt is a joke. Say you want to change the recall process...don't attack a governmental board which has done its best to balance concerns of both sides while protecting constitutional rights to direct petition.

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    2. You might want to be careful about touting this group until you research them, lest people start believing you nom de blog is genuine.

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  5. I know Cap you want this whole election thing to remain anomynous, so cheating can continue. We'll see, maybe it will be a waste of time to database the signatures. I for one, am glad somebody is doing it, even if it is just to remove the doubt.
    And Tyler, the fact that nobody on this site has any problems with the GAB should tell you they are partisan.

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    1. Now that's funny coming from a person defending Republicans who are the ones that want to make campaign finance laws secret. I say make it all open, including who is financing the True The Vote and Verify the Vote people.

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    2. Where is your own commitment, IMBAR? The petitions are all on the net, check yourself. Invite those friendly neighbors of yours to a ‘check the names’ party. Oh, volunteerism is not your thing?

      Why did Walker groupies need out of state funding?

      What is Walker saving his millions for anyway?



      It looks like a get rich quick scheme- Walker trying to run out the clock for koch money before indictment. Will Walker have a hidden compartment in his car when he skips town?

      Sorry, Chris, for the snide discourse on your site but I have finally dipped to "Koch/coke" in print. It's just too apt here.

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    3. Wasn't it your hero Feingold who came up with finance laws as they exist? But I agree with Capper, open book.

      Actually not all of them got published, but they are fixing that. you might be right, maybe I will need to do more than vote from now on. I will have that party as soon as the database is searchable. I am a giving person, so don't judge me quite so fast.
      All that money will be spent right here in Wisconsin, that's a good thing.

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    4. the names are on the internet: use your eyes
      Do what did people do before automatic databases?

      the mental exercise is good to ward off Alzheimer's anyway

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  6. "...the fact that nobody on this site has any problems with the GAB should tell you they are partisan."

    The GAB's board is made up of six retired circuit judges. Of the six, two served in the state legislature before becoming judges, elected as Republicans. Another one had been a DA before becoming a judge, elected as a Republican. One more was appointed by Gov Walker. And the last two were originally appointed to their judgeships by Republican Governors.

    Now, saying that, I am NOT alleging any sort of bias or partisanship; I watched the hearings into the senate recalls in 2011 pretty closely, and I thought the board was quite fair and diligent and thorough in reforming their tasks.

    But dude, seriously...

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    1. We'll see, maybe I'm the only one who feels this way.

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