Elect Tony Evers/Mandela Barnes For Integrity and Honesty

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.
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. 

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. 

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.
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.
 

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. 

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?   

Micromanagement, Manipulation and Mischief.

By Jeff Simpson 

Add one more name to the list of old Scott Walker friends who have come out saying they won't vote for him ever again and neither should you!    This time it is Paul Jadin, who resigned a job where he was making $208,000/yr, so he could satisfy his conscience and speak his truth.  Jadin, along with former colleagues Ed Wall and Peter Bildstein sent out an open letter today explaining why they are endorsing Tony Evers!

The letter writers say they will not be voting for Walker because of his handling of transportation, education and safety issues as well as "pervasive questionable practices within the administration."
"Governor Walker has consistently eschewed sound management practices in favor of schemes or coverup and has routinely put his future ahead of the state." the letter states. "The result is micromanagement, manipulation and mischief. We have all been witness to more than our share of this."
The letter doesn't list specific examples of "mischief" or "coverup" but said when Walker was traveling the country in 2012 to raise money for his recall election he stopped attending cabinet meetings and delegated responsibilities to his chief of staff.
"When he decided to run for President in 2015 he subordinated Wisconsin interests to those in Iowa and New Hampshire and his policy/budget proposals started to clash with members of his own party who still would have to stand for election in Wisconsin," they wrote.
Jadin, Bildsten and Wall described themselves as having "served our state and local governments in many capacities over our careers and have voted for and supported Republicans." They said the decision to endorse Evers comes with "a great deal of reflection and discernment."

We have seen two different kinds of people emerge in the Republican party.  The conservative Republicans (like these letter writers) who have a set of values and want to make society and our state a better place (even if we disagree at times).   The second kind of people are the ones who have no room for values because they are loaded with personal ambition and do not care what it takes to get more money and power. 

Enough time with group 2 and group 1 was completely fed up and could not stay quiet any longer. 

While Scott Walker will go into pure smear mode on anyone who speaks up, let's take a quick look at the realities behind that.

The people speaking truth to power about Walker, like Jadin, a former Mayor of Green Bay, are people who have held major non partisan jobs and will again.  While Walker criticizes the job that Jardin has done, remember that Walker himself hired Ryan Murray to run WEDC, despite the fact that he was incredibly incompetent, because he was a donors son. 

These brave people are doing Wisconsinites a service, and yelling from the rooftops that Scott Walker is not worthy of running the Great state of Wisconsin.

The question is, will we listen?