Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Tanya! Tanya! Tanya!

By Jeff Simpson

Has done it again.

Mary Burke's "Top Political Advisor" Tanya Bjork, recently gave an interview to one of my favorite people Heather Rayne and her new blog "Purple Rayne".

In this interview, Tanya Bjork runs down her resume, which at first glance seems impressive.

Let me shed some light on Tanya’s impressive and extensive work history:

·         Senior Advisor to Protect Your Care – a national organization working to promote t Affordable Care Act

·         Senior Advisor to President Obama’s Re-election campaign

·         Director of Federal Affairs for Wisconsin under Governor Jim Doyle

·         General Election State Director for the Barrack Obama campaign in Wisconsin (winning WI               with 56% and flipping more counties from red to blue than another other state in the country)

·         Regional Director of EMILY’s List

·         AFL-CIO Regional Political Director for Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois

·         Field Director for U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone’s re-election campaign

·         Political Director for U.S. Senator Russ Feingold’s re-election campaign

·         Worked in the Wisconsin and Minnesota state legislatures facilitating and developing the passage of legislation on criminal justice, labor relations, consumer affairs,
campaign finance reform and education

·         Developed training curriculum and trained throughout the country and world for groups such            as AFL-CIO, EMILY’s List, Wellstone Action, EMERGE, Progressive Majority, Illinois Women’s             Institute for Leadership and Planned Parenthood

·         Training for National Democratic Institute in Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain

·         Winner of the 2013 Eleanor Roosevelt Statewide Impact Award

However, in typical Bjork fashion, she seems to have left some things out of her resume.   Let me help fill in the blanks.   FYI.   While I did not "ask" her persay, I did do what you need to do to get THE TRUTH in politics - Follow the Money!

Let's look at some discrepancies from her past:

2010:

2010
At some unknown point in 2010, "Know Your Care" and "Protect Your Care" are filed with the IRS.
2010 - January 2010 - According to her own Linked-In page, Bjork starts working as a "Senior Advisor" for Protect Your Care" 
2011:
Jan 27 -- Bjork attends a Families USA conference where she says she is listed as being from the "New Partners" firm.


2012 


2013 
Aug 1 -- "Know Your Care" is awarded a government grant of over one million dollars to help navigate the health care exchanges.  Bjork is listed as the contact -- at the same phone number 202-261-2380 as New Partners / "Protect Your Care" / "Know Your Care"


October -- Bjork is named as senior adviser to Mary Burke's campaign.

I know this is all very complicated, and "how sausage is made" in inside politics but consider the following points:


  • According to her own Linked-In page, which she filled out, while she was the State of Wisconsin's Director of Federal Affairs, she also served as a "Senior Advisor" to Obama's soft money campaign front group, "Protect Your Care."  The overlap of serving a campaign entity and an official government entity is more than a year.
  • In early 2011, Bjork officially becomes a member of the Democratic consulting firm "New Partners." In April of 2011, it is announced that Bjork will be the "campaign manager" of Protect Your Care. Curiously, "New Partners" has the same physical address, phone number and same staff as Protect Your Care and Know Your Care.  Everybody pushes the limits, but I've never seen anything this bold.
  • In 2013, "Know Your Care" is awarded a government grant of over one million dollars to educate people on how to navigate the exchanges.  Bjork is listed as the "fiscal"contact on the grant.
It is amazing to me, especially considering her past,  that she would set up a tax-deductible charity (gov subsidized) that is literally getting one million dollar government grants, when there is literally no separation between the charity and the political group-- same people in the same place doing the same thing.  

One of the main points of Obamacare, is that it mandates what has to be spent by companies on actual health care and limits what they can spend on money gouging by the executives.  It is unfortunate and against everything we stand for if we engage in those same practices we fought so hard to end.    

I would also like to point out that there is no lobbying reform, in the Mary Burke platform.  It seems that we needed to hammer public employees to balance the budget in 2010, but lobbying reform has no effect on it?   

This also helps debunk the stupid myth that teachers have been running roughshod over the taxpayers.   If the teachers had to much power why would their average salary be $51,000?  We see here, what happens when your allowed to pay yourself and run roughshod over the American taxpayer.  







Obamacare was designed so Americans could afford healthcare, and as we know it was very rough rollout.   Tanya Bjork was enlisted to help the navigate the exchanges, and the rollout was seriously bumbled.  Through it all though, the one person who was very successful during the Obamacare launch was Tanya Bjork!    Who in their right mind would take a job that was so important, not only to the Democratic Party and our President, but also the American people. 
 

I  however, do not have an explanation, as to why Tanya Bjork, the top political adviser for the Democratic candidate, who has made hundreds of thousands of dollars off the back of taxpayers, would counsel her candidate to say this:


Are there any parts of ACT 10 that you agree with?
Yes, I do believe [state employees] paying a fair share of health care and pension costs is something we needed in order to be able to balance the budget.
Nor do I have an explanation as to why Ms. Bjork is still part of this incredibly important campaign. 
Is this really the person we want guiding the ship, in defeating a well funded extreme right wing incumbent?




My answer is a resounding NO!!!  

 


21 comments:

  1. Good work, Governor. Busting the hell out of an aide to a candidate for not having the exact same view as you on a single issue. Don't forget your ID when you go down to the Koch brothers to get your check. Or are you still volunteering.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You are correct, our views differ drastically. See I view public service as service to the public. I dont view it as free money. If i had the important responsibility of helping the Obamacare roll out, as someone who understands the importance of health care, I would have used that to actually help people navigate the exchanges and not to pay myself first.

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  3. What a weird post. So your smoking gun is when she updated her LinkenIn profile?

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  4. YES this post is all about her linked in profile, nothing about her pocketing hundreds of thousands of dollars of money meant to help people on Obamacare.

    ReplyDelete
  5. The author of this post doesn't appear to understand the difference between a 501c3 and a 501c4.

    Makes him look very foolish.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What is the point of your comment? "Know Your Care" is a 501(c)(3) according to the linked IRS 990 filing.

      Delete
    2. @ Anon 10:53 AM

      What does posing a, "straw man," argument to discredit the author and the main theme of the diary post make you?

      We are looking at real and potential financial rewards from various likely conflicting political affiliations not necessarily desired as being held by the person directing Mary Burke's campaign supposedly being against the political leanings of ALEC and the Walker regime.

      Delete
  6. Brilliant Diary Jeff, thanks for doing the further research.

    ReplyDelete
  7. She has some very impressive creds. I like her. She and Burke are gonna give Walker a spanking. Jeff- see this. Suck it. BTW - Jeffy - when ya gonna learn to post a link correctly.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Your posting skills suck.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Your blog is always such a hot mess of posting errors and bad formatting that it is difficult to read. I've twice read this essay and all I get out of it is that you don't like Tanya Bjork, you seem to be blaming her for the poor roll-out of the ACA exchange and you question her motives because she is married to a conservative.

    You have failed at explaining and linking all of the "facts" you strewn in this essay. Where is the proof tha Bjork has done anything that is illegal? As it is written, it is merely a hit piece aimed at Mary Burke and her employee Tanja Bjork.

    You may not like to remember this, but the state employee unions DID offer as a bargaining chip to have state employees to pay a fair share of their health care and pension costs.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You may not like to remember this, but that offer was made under duress and was made more than three years ago. Now, since you bring that up as a supposed talking point, I guess that means you're saying that Burke and her team are as bad as Walker and his team, which, of course, goes to the point of the post.

      Thank you for agreeing.

      Delete
    2. You forgot to thank asshat 11:13 for the excellent link to their excellent blog which has so much more win that it rules!!!

      Delete
    3. Fair share? So you agree with Scott Walker that the public employees were living high on the hog? I agree with you though that the SEA's in school districts making $11/hr to work with our children have no right to a house or food. Besides we need that money to remodel the kitchen at the Governor's mansion.

      Delete
  10. Really Capper - you think Burke is as bad as Walker. You and Jeff have gone off the deep end.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Jeff - with these creds - Burke will win. Then again - maybe you want Walker to win. Your blog would dry up then- wouldn't it.

    Let me shed some light on Tanya’s impressive and extensive work history:

    · Senior Advisor to Protect Your Care – a national organization working to promote t Affordable Care Act

    · Senior Advisor to President Obama’s Re-election campaign

    · Director of Federal Affairs for Wisconsin under Governor Jim Doyle

    · General Election State Director for the Barrack Obama campaign in Wisconsin (winning WI with 56% and flipping more counties from red to blue than another other state in the country)

    · Regional Director of EMILY’s List

    · AFL-CIO Regional Political Director for Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois

    · Field Director for U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone’s re-election campaign

    · Political Director for U.S. Senator Russ Feingold’s re-election campaign

    · Worked in the Wisconsin and Minnesota state legislatures facilitating and developing the passage of legislation on criminal justice, labor relations, consumer affairs, campaign finance reform and education

    · Developed training curriculum and trained throughout the country and world for groups such as AFL-CIO, EMILY’s List, Wellstone Action, EMERGE, Progressive Majority, Illinois Women’s Institute for Leadership and Planned Parenthood

    · Training for National Democratic Institute in Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain

    · Winner of the 2013 Eleanor Roosevelt Statewide Impact Award

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I wasnt aware of those "creds" since they are part of the post, but thanks for rehashing.

      I would say the Eleanor roosevelt award is similar to the NAACP giving Donald Sterling an award.

      As for the rest, see here - http://cognidissidence.blogspot.com/2014/04/political-incest.html

      Delete
  12. A union Lady - how about that Jeff and. Capper ? Hmmm
    · AFL-CIO Regional Political Director for Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wow ..... Van Waangard was in the union once also. Which is one of the failings of the unions, like any organization that is people driven, sometimes you do not always get the best people.

      Delete
    2. Alberta Darling used to be with Planned Parenthood. Do you propose we support her too?

      Delete