In The Public's Interest!

By Jeff Simpson - Cross Posted at Purple Wisconsin. 

There are 426 School Districts in the State of Wisconsin, that currently serve over 800,000 public school students.   In each of these 426 school districts, there is a democratically elected school board that represents the community in running the School District(approximately 3000 elected School Board members in WI).
 In 1921, the Wisconsin Association of School Boards(WASB) was formed.  WASB seeks to advance education through supporting the tradition of local school board control of the state’s public schools. The Wisconsin Association of School Boards is a member-driven organization that supports,
promotes and advances the interests of public education in Wisconsin.   WASB offers various services, from advice, to training, to advocacy and information.   One thing WASB also does is send out questions to candidates running for elected office that focus on education. 
This year was no different....well it was a little different(amphasis mine):
As it has done for a number of years, the Wisconsin Association of School Boards (WASB) has conducted a question-and-answer with the gubernatorial candidates, in this case Walker, the incumbent, and the challenger Mary Burke.
According to the WASB website, “In keeping with our past practice, we posed a series of questions to the candidates on a range of education issues. Governor Walker’s response to the survey request stated ‘our campaign will not be completing any interest group surveys or interviews.’”
WASB did publish Mary Burke's responses and they can be found here!
Scott Walker has time to be interviewed by Hugh Hewitt, The right wing American Spectator Magazine, The right wing talk tank Hoover Institute, the despicable Rush Limbaugh, CNN, New York Times, and GQ, where this was revealed:
Back when Scott Walker was a young politician on the make, he was known in media circles as a guy only too happy to supply quotes. Today the governor rarely does interviews. (At the outset, his staff would only promise me two or three of what they called "pullouts"—a chance to ever-so-briefly grab him after an event and on the way to his car—though ultimately I was granted two sit—downs of about twenty minutes each.) Instead, Walker's preferred vehicle for conveying his opinions is supplied by Sykes and other (right wing)talk-radio hosts, since their deference to him is almost vassal-like. As Walker's former chief of staff, Keith Gilkes, told me, "It's a medium where the governor can go on the air and deliver a message unfiltered."
We also found out in the #walkerdocs drop, that Scott Walker enjoys telling our local right wing talk radio jocks what they should be talking about:
In 2008, after the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorialized in favor of light rail, Walker turned to his talk radio allies to make clear his opposition to government-funded rail transit.
He frequently dropped conservative talkers Sykes, Belling, Weber, Jeff Wagner and Vicki McKenna emails with talking points about major issues before the county, and often distributed treats.
“County Executive Scott Walker plans on making his rounds next week to deliver his own special holiday treat — Frosted Pecans (I have already heard just about every nut joke, but you can try) to thank his radio friends for getting the word out throughout the year on the Executive’s Ride, the Budget, and other county-related issues,” spokeswoman Fran McLaughlin wrote in a December 2007 email.

Then of course if he filled out questionnaires to let people in Wisconsin know where he stands, it might cut into his time running around the country campaigning for others!  

 

It is hard to be "open for business", when you consider public education a special interest and have no time for it in your busy schedule of campaigning.  

 

As Derek Bok says "If you think education is expensive, try ignorance." 
 

And You Thought Your Job Was Bad...

Last Friday, Scott Walker's campaign spokeswoman, Nicole Tieman, issued a brief statement that she was not going to be with the campaign anymore, effective immediately.  However, her departure was drowned out by the news of Graeme Zielinksi leaving the Democratic Party of Wisconsin.

Nicole Tieman
Image courtesy of
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

On Thursday, we learned why Tieman left the campaign so suddenly.  Like so many of Walker's other aides, she ran afoul of the law.  Only this time, it wasn't related to the campaign, or at least not directly:

Nicole Tieman who resigned without explanation Friday as Gov. Scott Walker's campaign spokeswoman has begun serving a 20-day sentence behind bars in Milwaukee County on a drunken-driving conviction.

Tieman, 25, pleaded guilty Wednesday in Milwaukee County Circuit Court to her second OWI offense, reversing her plea from a week earlier. Judge John Siefert sentenced Tieman to 20 days confinement starting no later than June 3, took away her driving privileges for a year and imposed a $950 fine.

She was granted work-release privileges to seek a job and to get alcohol or drug treatment.

Records show Tieman, who lives in Waukesha, was booked into the House of Correction in Franklin, formerly the County Correctional Facility-South, on Wednesday.

The article goes on to say that she was being groomed by the Republicans after having her education sponsored by the Bradley Foundation, which is of course, headed by Michael Grebe, Walker's campaign chairman.

Tieman's fate got me to thinking about Walker's other spokespeople.

Before Tieman, Walker's spokeswoman was Ciara Matthews.  Before Walker's campaign, Matthews' claim to fame was being a Hooter's girl.  After leaving Walker's campaign, she went to work for Mitt Romney, and promptly helped drive it into the ground.

And before Matthews was Jill Bader.  Bader was best know for her racist tweets and other inane stunts.  After doing a stint with the Girl Scouts, Bader is back into politics, being the mouthpiece for Right Women, Right Now - the Republican's second attempt at trying to match the success of Emerge America.

(This group is sure to enjoy the same lack of success as its predecessor.  After all, what hope do they have when our own homophobic lieutenant governor, Blinky Kleefisch, is not just one of their advisors, but is their featured leader?)

As the gentle reader already knows, Walker's official governmental spokespeople fared only slightly better.

Fran McLaughlin was Walker's spokeswoman for when he was Milwaukee County Executive.  She was given immunity in Walkergate after it was discovered that she was writing and tweaking his campaign press releases.  Now she is stuck trying to make sense of the words and actions of Sheriff David Clarke.

Walker's gubernatorial spokesman, Cullen Werwie, was also given immunity in the Walkergate investigations, due to his role and knowledge of the illegal politicking done by Walker's campaign.  Despite, or maybe because of, Werwie's role in the illegal activities, Walker has kept him on board as his spokesman.

So, gentle reader, you might think your job is bad, but it could always be worse.  Your job could come with a curse like Scott Walker and involve all sorts of legal problems.

PS: Has anyone else noticed that until now, all of Walker's campaign spokeswomen have been younger, attractive, blonde women?  Methinks it's much akin to Faux News' sexist approach  to their anchorwomen.  After all, as they say, sex sells.

Lucky Number 13!!

From Wisconsin State Journal

A 13th person has been granted immunity in a secret Milwaukee County investigation that has already led to criminal charges against six people close to Gov. Scott Walker.

Online court records say a judge on Thursday granted Fran McLaughlin's request for immunity.

McLaughlin served as Walker's county spokeswoman from 2007 to 2010, when Walker was the Milwaukee County executive. She's now the spokeswoman for Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke.

When reached for comment, defense attorney Michael A.I. Whitcomb cited court rules preventing him from discussing the case.

The John Doe investigation centers on several aides and associates to Walker before he was elected governor in 2010. The allegations range from campaigning on county time to embezzling money from a veterans program.
Walker hasn't been charged with wrongdoing.

Again I ask, as a parent, what do you tell your children about this?  Don't worry kids, we are republicans as long as your on the right side of the issues the laws do not apply to you?  or do whatever you need to then when your caught sing like a bird?    

these are NOT the family values or ethics we need in Wisconsin.

Vote for Tom Barrett on June 5th, lets change the culture of corruption that Scott Walker has started in our great state!  

 

Walkergate: Something Old, Something New

Sunday night, Fox6Now of Milwaukee had some "breaking news" that Fran McLaughlin, who used to be Scott Walker's Communications Director when he was Milwaukee County Executive, had her name appear in documents involved with the illegal politicking trial of Kelly Rindfleisch.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel followed that with a story of their own on their website iterating the same thing.

Of course, for the readers of Cog Dis, this is old news.  On Friday, I wrote about it first:

The next interesting tidbit comes on the bottom of page 13, where the last arrow is pointing:

rellyk (Rindfleisch): and then I got Fran highlighting all the mistakes in the press releases that the campaign does

Fran would be Fran McLaughlin, who was Walker's spokeswoman as county executive. Yet another name to add to the corruption list. What is also interesting, at least for Milwaukeeans, is that McLaughlin currently is the Public Information Officer for Sheriff David Clarke, a pompous ass that has aligned himself with the teahadists and other conservative nut jobs and is more interested in politicking than actually performing the duties of his office. One has to wonder if McLaughlin got waived through the normal screening process and background check before Clarke gave her this political appointment.

The really curious thing about the article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article is that there is not one single mention of McLaughlin or her involvement. Why was her name omitted?

Fox6Now then followed up with an interview with Walker today, in which he trotted out the same old line about not knowing anything and claiming to put a stop to it when he found out. He did so because, you know, he's an Eagle Scout and all, and would never let his people use government property for campaigning.

But we know better than that, don't we?

For once, I would love to see a reporter actually drill Walker about this instead of just nodding their heads and taking what he says as gospel truth. How many times do they have to be lied to before they start doing their jobs and investigate a story?

To his credit, Steve Schultze of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel introduced a new name that had previously flown under my radar (emphasis mine):

Fran McLaughlin, Walker's county spokeswoman, and Jon Myhre, a deputy spokesman, were among a group of seven former county employees whose personnel records were subpoenaed by prosecutors in connection with the investigation, according to court records.

A quick Google search gives us Myhre's LinkedIn profile which shows that after he left the county executive's office the first time, he was involved with various positions in the health care field, including communications, business development and sourcing advisor.

One would think that such a position might have brought Myhre into contact with Kelly Rindfleisch and/or Andrea Boom who both worked for the Wisconsin Association of Health Plans.

Oddly, Myhre's profile is incomplete in that it does not include the two months that he served as "county policy advisor" in the spring of 2010, about the time that Walker promoted Rindfleisch to be his Deputy Chief of Staff (and somehow forgetting to mention this to his Chief of Staff Tom Nardelli).

I don't know if it is because the district attorney's office didn't ask for them or because the reporters didn't look for them, but I do note that there's at least a couple names missing from that list that really should be included.  Ah well, I'm sure the DA's office will get to them soon enough.  They just need to remember that not all the bad guys were always in Walker's executive office per se.

Walkergate: Tea Parties, Emails and Cronies! Oh My!

I have been repeatedly approached by several people stating that most of the state was not and still are not aware of Scott Walker's long record of misdeeds, corruption and misconduct in office.  In an effort to help change this, I have decided to retell and update many of the problems that we have seen in Milwaukee County during his regime here.  In return, I ask you, gentle reader, to share these reports with your family and friends, both in real life and in the cyberworld.

The following is a small but significant example of the complexity and the depth of Walker's machinations and corruption.

Before I start, I need to remind the gentle reader of a blogsite that existed back then, ScottforGov.com*, which I had mentioned in the Introduction to Walkergate.  It was long suspected that members of Scott Walker's county staff and/or campaign staff were behind this blog.  I have heard from people with knowledge of the Walkergate probe that county staff were indeed involved with this pseudo-campaign webpage.  Incidentally, I have also learned that Rose Ann Dieck, the ranking member of the Milwaukee County Republicans who was granted immunity in Walkergate, is supposed to be a bit of a computer expert.
I was also told if you want to learn more about her, you'd better do it fast because the Republicans are systematically trying to scrub her name from their documents.

ScottforGov.com was often vitriolic and only wrote paeans to Scott Walker and viciously tore into anyone who would stand in his way, like Mark Neumann, Tom Barrett, and I, your humble host and writer. (I felt quite honored that Team Walker would consider me such a threat that they had to repeatedly attack me and try to discredit me. It also told me that I was on the right track.)  Or in other words, ScottforGov.com was saying all the the things the Walker campaign wanted to say, but didn't want tied to them.

Now, on to the story.

Two years ago, there was a Tea Party rally which was held at a Milwaukee County public park.  Fellow blogger and good friend, Brew City Brawler went to said rally and took some photos of the event.  One photo in particular caught my attention:

As you can see, this is a banner that was banner outside the rally, proudly pronouncing that the rally was being sponsored by Americans for Prosperity.  (It is already common knowledge that Americans for Prosperity, and the whole Tea Party movement is funded by the Koch Brothers.)

But what caught my eye is that on the far left side, in the center, is the logo for the Milwaukee County Parks.  That made me very curious.  Did Scott Walker authorize that? Was he saying that Milwaukee County was supporting the Tea Party?  If so, that would be highly improper and a clear abuse of his powers.

So, as the Chair of Milwaukee County First, a group that was created to stand up for the people of Milwaukee County as opposed to the special interests (yes, Walker was doing the same stuff back then too), I sent an email to the county executive's office asking for an explanation of what the parks logo was doing on the banner.

The people behind ScottforGov.com saw my post and sent an Open Records Request about my inquiry.

Even before I could see the reply from Walker's office, they had their reply and had posted a piece on it.  Because the people behind ScottforGov.com wiped out their blog shortly after Darlene Wink got caught blogging on county time and on county equipment, I cannot provide a working link to their post.  However, due to the miracle of modern technology, namely Google Reader and screencaps, I have been able to recapture the post in following two pictures:

Wow! They really showed me what for, didn't they?  But more on that in a moment.

Right now, I need to point out to the reader something peculiar about how they got the information.  As I mentioned above, they did an Open Records Request, but they didn't use a name, per se, but only identified themselves by their blog title. Then Walker's office gave them their requested information rapidly and for free. That's not usually how they worked, especially if you weren't one of the faithful.

Cory Liebmann, intrepid blogger and skilled researcher, did his own ORR and found the information that I just shared with you.  In fact, Liebmann has a good summary of some of the lines Walker has blurred, if not flat out crossed, in his campaigns and job as county executive.  It really is a must read.

But now for the answer that I received from Fran McLaughlin, who was Walker's Director of Communications at the county, and who, according to sources familiar with the investigation, is embroiled in Watergate as much as any of Walker's other top aides, as well as the desperate hit piece from ScottforGov.com.

I did indeed post the answer the night I received it. But even as they gave me their answer, I found holes in their explanation. ;There was a person claiming that it was not Americans for Prosperity which sponsored the event, even though their name is on the banner, but another group calling itself the Grandsons of Liberty. (Don't you just love how all these right wing groups come up with such patriotic and completely ironic and improperly applied names?)

But I found that the person claiming responsibility for the Tea Party and Walker's spokeswoman were completely contradicting each other on at least two points:

One: Walker’s office said that the banner was not required. The rally organizer said it was.

Two: Walker’s office said that the County had no knowledge of them using the logo. The rally organizer said that County provided it.

So who's telling the truth? Who knows? For all we know, even this contradiction was contrived to help muddy the waters even further.

To summarize this whole thing, we know that there was a Koch-funded Tea Party rally held at a Milwaukee County park, and that the park logo was on the banner proudly announcing the rally. It doesn't really matter which front group sponsored it. But the request for information from the official unofficial campaign blog for Scott Walker, which all information available points to Darlene Wink of being a contributor, was directed to Wink. Then when Walker's spokeswoman supplied her answer, it immediately appeared on the blogsite. And this once mystery group was able to get the requested information and pay the obscenely overcharges that Walker would charge an average citizen.

So to summarize the summary, Walker was already playing up to the Koch Brothers using County property. To keep this relationship and overreach of his powers from receiving too much attention, he and his politically appointed cronies would give incomplete and/or inaccurate information, often at overly inflated prices, to those who did not support him. But if it was an ally (or one of his own staff) the restrictions magically lifted and accurate information was presented promptly and at very low price, if not for free.

Are you starting to see the pattern yet?


The actual url of the site was interesting in itself: http://www.milwaukeecountyexecutivescottwalkerforgovernor.com/  It does make one think it was a campaign site, doesn't it?