By Jeff Simpson
The election is one week away and time to make my endorsement of the Tony Evers/Mandela Barnes!
Any reader of CogDis knows that we have never been fans of Scott Walker. We have written about his failings as a Governor, failed Presidential candidate and human being numerous times. We have covered him from his bromance with Tim Russell, to his infamous fundraising email asking you to give him all of your kids Christmas money, to his wanting to "wall off Canada" to his public drunkenness, to his son stealing a state van and his being a keynote speaker at a White Power conference.
After all of that, and plenty more, an endorsement from me is far from a surprise. However, this endorsement is different. It is not I endorsing Tony Evers, as much as it is some of the people who know him the best.
We pointed out recently, that four of his highest ranking officials within his administration, recently co-wrote a letter endorsing Tony Evers, and pointing out that Scott Walkers main priority is Scott Walker.
Then Peter Bildstein, former Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions, decided to expand a bit more on this:
Even early on, however, I noticed that not everything was as it should be. At more than one Cabinet meeting, the secretary of the Department of Administration, Mike Huebsch, told us never to send him or the governor any electronic documents of consequence, and to avoid the use of our state-issued cellphones. “If you send me an important report electronically, I won’t open it,” I remember him saying, “and if you call me on your state phone, I won’t answer it.” If we had any important documents, they were to be “walked over” and hand-delivered to the governor’s office. As a result, open-record requests by the media or political opponents would be almost futile. This lack of transparency would be a hallmark of the Walker administration.
Things have gotten so bad, even the Scott Walker friendly Wisconsin State Journal endorsed Tony Evers!
Evers may lack polish and seem boring at times. But electing a lifelong educator instead of a professional politician should appeal to many voters tired of the bickering and partisan games at the state Capitol.Even though, some of the most qualified people in his administration endorsing his opponent should be enough, however, as we know there is always more.
Change is needed at the top after eight years of Gov. Walker sowing division, undermining good-government protections, and skimping on basic services such as roads while running up debt.
The State Journal endorses Evers for governor in the Nov. 6 election.
WSAW7 recently committed a blatant act of journalism. Ed Wall, Walkers former Corrections Secretary, recently came out with a "tell-all" book regarding his time in Walker's administration and how incompetent and lacking anything but blind ambition that defines Scott Walker.
Thats were a blatant and rare act of journalism happened. WSAW7 did an open Record Request and found that, while Walker took every opportunity to smear Mr. Wall, was actually lying and Wall was telling the truth.
As 7 investigates has previously reported documents show one of the governor’s main aides in 2012, Alex Ignatowski, received a letter from Racine County Judge Richard Kruel expressed shock over the treatment of a Racine County juvenile housed at Lincoln Hills, and held onto that document for more than one month.
Judge Kruel’s letter to Gov. Walker was written one year after the governor’s 2011 budget closed most of the state’s youth prisons, causing all of the state’s juvenile offenders to be moved to the Lincoln Hills/Copper Lake Schools in Irma. Opponents of the move have argued this decision led to years of problems inside the youth prisons, including inmate and staff injuries, under Walker’s leadership.It is hard to get your Wisconsin calendar correct if you are never in the state. When the Governor says he has no interest at all in visiting the prisons in your state, or pardoning anyone, you see how he feels about actually doing his job.
Full statement from Gov. Scott Walker to 7 Investigates
7 INVESTIGATES : You have personally said you did not order a cancellation of the independent review into Lincoln Hills?
GOV. WALKER: I did not.
7 INVESTIGATES: You did not? And no one on your staff did, as well?
GOV. WALKER: To my knowledge, no.
7 INVESTIGATES: Have you Investigated that at all.
GOV WALKER: No.
After eight years, we see that Scott Walker has an interest in, and does one thing very very well - Fundraise!
Wisconsin, we deserve more!
Please join me in voting for Tony Evers and Mandela Barnes on Tuesday November 6th.
Time to restore, honesty, character, decency, morality and virtue back to the Governors Mansion!
PS: One last observation. When was the last time you saw Scott Walker and Rebecca Kleefisch working together? Could it be that he does not respect her and she does not fit into his Republican climbing ambitions?