Scott Michalak For Assembly

Scott Michalak for Wisconsin Assembly District 38!

Like his Facebook page here!

Scott Michalak for Assembly

In case you missed it over the Holidays, here is the Scott Michalak for Assembly TV spot he ran:





Send Scott a couple bucks, like his facebook page, call anyone ou know who is currently being (un)represented by Joel Kleefisch and tell them to support Scott Michalak for Assembly!  

Need extra incentive?  Read this!

Controversy Leads Into Democratic State Convention

With just two days until the kickoff of the state Democratic convention, a wee bit of controversy has kicked up, but not where one might have expected it.

I would have thought that one of the biggest issues would be the election for the Party chair.  The incumbent Mike Tate has been a lightning rod for blame, rightly or wrongly, for the series of losses the party has won, especially on a state level.  Tate is being challenged by Joe Kallas, who I guess is from the Fox Lake area.  Other than that, precious little is known about him.

The only other race which is being contested is that of second vice-chair.  The race is between Jeff Christensen and Jamie Shiner.  As with the Tate/Kallas match up, this race also has been rather quiet.

Until today.

Scott Michalak, the man who took on Joel "Get in mah belly" Kleefisch, feels he was wronged by Christensen and has been telling his beef to everyone and anyone who would listen.

Christensen, who has been striving to avoid this confrontation, realized this was no longer possible, issued this statement:

Tonight I was made aware of a Facebook post by Scott Michalak accusing me of doing wrong by him. It’s too bad that he chooses this public course, but let me state I stand by all of my actions in this situation.

First let me preface this by mentioning a process we use in the 5th Congressional District: checking the background of all candidates before the primary. We do this to remove risk of having candidates on the ballot who do not share our values. I ran this check in the spring of 2012 and Mr. Michalak came up clean. Even more so, he did not indicate to us that such an issue existed.
I also found out later that Portage County did not join the CCAP program until July of 2012, which is why the document did not appear on our first check.

In September I was notified by one of our county chairs of a potential issue for Scott on the CCAP system. We looked into it and saw a listing for a temporary restraining order (TRO) from 1999. Not wanting to judge, I had the actual case file pulled from Portage County. I received the file and immediately gave copies to the chairs of the counties in the district. A member of the DPW staff also received a copy of the file.

On the evening of September 30th, we held a conference call to discuss the case. The case is quite graphic in its descriptions of its accusations of domestic abuse. I will save you the grizzly details. Beyond the initial reaction, we noticed two key details: the TRO was put into place, and that the dismissal was not a clearance but rather was rolled into the family case.
If we had discovered this about a republican candidate, we absolutely would have made it public. Even more so, is that this is an official document that indicates the individual does not share our values.

After an extremely fast discussion we came to a collaborative and unanimous decision to suspend all support for Mr. Michalak. It was also decided that I would be the one to explain this decision to Scott in person. We figured after putting his name on the ballot, he deserved an explanation to his face.

I met with Scott that week in Jefferson, with a third party observer in the room. I gave him a copy of the file and informed him that we were pulling our support. He attempted to plead his case, which I understood in that this is a domestic “he said, she said”. However politics is the court of public opinion, not the court of law and we were dealing with a court record. I read to him a paragraph from the case and explained how this could be used against him.

I encouraged Scott to suspend his campaign for Assembly, to minimize the risk to him and his family. The last thing I thought he needed was for him and his family to relive all of this via the press. I told him I thought it was a shame, as he was working extremely hard; which is something I always respect in a candidate. As we finished the conversation he became more combative and actually referred to Erin Sievert, the chair of Jefferson County as “C**t”. I’ll let you fill in the blanks on what he said.

If you want to see the case for yourself, you’ll have to pull it; as I’m going to save Mr. Michalak that indignity. I had spoken with all of the chairs and party officials at the time and again in post mortem and am convinced more than ever that we made the right decision as leaders. I stand behind it 100%.

For the record, unaware of the allegations against Michalak, had endorsed him for that race.

It's sad that it has come to this, but politics is a contact sport.  Even if what Michalak claims about being innocent is true, he's got to be aware that most people sadly don't dedicated that much time or effort to learn about a candidate.  All they would see or hear is domestic abuse and beating the family pet.

No, it's not fair and it's not right, but that is the way it is.

Rebecca Kleefisch Speaks Truly

At Sunday's "homecoming" rally for Paul Ryan, which somehow missed his home by some 60 miles, Rebecca "For Realz" Kleefisch was quoted as saying:

When history looks back and remembers 2012, children will say 'what was in the water in Wisconsin?'

Indeed.

As James Rowen points out, just a little to the north of the rally site the water has an 89 octane rating.

However, Scott Michalak has other advice for Rebecca. He would tell her that maybe she should check in with her husband to find out what their corporate backers have been putting in the water around Concord.

I'm sure that there would be a lot of people willing to give each of them a large glassful of their water and watch them chug it down.

My Birthday Wish List

My birthday is coming up in ten days. In light of that, I was going to start a begathon today, asking people to donate to the old tip jar so I could buy a new monitor and printer/scanner to go with the People's Computer.

But as I was thinking about it, there is something I'd like more for my birthday, and it's something that each and every one of you could help with.

So here is my birthday wish list:

I want my state back.

And the only way that can happen is if we get true progressives elected into office. Sadly, the true progressives are running against people that have sold their souls for the chance to sell us out and are all running with big corporate/PAC money.

And that, dear friends, are where you come in.

I would like you to donate to these people instead of giving me your money. Furthermore, any money I receive between now and on my birthday will be divvied up among the following four candidates, unless you specify otherwise:

• Laura Hauser-Menting is running for the 71st Assembly District. One of her opponents in the primary is taking money from one of these national PACs, which she just "coincidentally" works for. We need to keep our state ours. Please help Laura out.
• Scott Michalak is taking on Joel "Honey Wagon" Kleefisch (and he's earned that nickname in more than one way, if the stories are to be believed). Kleefisch is on the take big time and is receiving the help of people like the Bradley Foundation and the Kochs. Please help Scott out.
• Mandela Barnes is taking on Jason Fields, a corporate Democrat who has sold out his city and his constituents to the education profiteers who would throw our kids under the school bus if it would help their profit margin. Please help Mandela out.
• Tanya Lohr is taking on the slimy, mysoginistic, utterly hateful Glenn Grothman, who just wants to watch the world burn, using Wisconsin as the kindling. He too is the beneficiary of people like the Bradley Foundation and the Koch boys, Please help Tanya out.

In advance, I thank you for the wonderful birthday present of giving these four people a fighting chance to give me us my our state back.

Joel Kleefisch Is As Befouled As A Jefferson County Well

Southern Wisconsin, along with over half of the country, is in the middle of a severe drought. While those of us along the shore of Lake Michigan are OK for now (the lake's 20 inches lower than normal already), the people inland are reliant on well water to meet their needs.  Many communities have imposed watering bans and people are starting to develop water conserving strategies.

Now imagine if you couldn't even use your well water because it's been tainted with E. coli.

That is exactly what many people in Jefferson County are facing now thanks to Herr Environmental, Inc.  Herr Environmental is the company that dumped illegal amounts of human effluence in fields near people's wells. As I reported back in May:

It all starts with a septic company called Herr Environmental, Inc. Herr Environmental was pumping out people's septic tanks and dumping the contents on farmer fields at three times the legal limits. The dumping sites were next to residential areas and could possibly affect 40 different wells for drinking water.

The story reports that this is of a concern because the raw sewage contains nitrates that could infiltrate the drinking water and cause all sorts of health problems. The story doesn't even go into the threat of E. coli.

Joel Kleefisch

To make matters worse, they tried to cook the books and had three different sets of records and over 60 inaccurate records of when, where and how much they spread.

The problem appears to be even worse than previously thought.

On Tuesday morning, I became alerted to the fact that another well located across the highway from the originally tainted wells has now tested positive for E. coli. The owners of the well have been told that they "needed to start boiling our water or buying water," per an email I had received. This directive came from the water analysis labs at UW-Stevens Point, College of Natural Resources. Keep in mind that the well owners have to pay for the testing and treatment of their wells out of pocket.

To add insult to injury, the well owners' elected official, State Representative Joel Kleefisch, had been actively working against their best interest when their wells got tainted (emphasis mine):

But Gunderson said he hardly recalled reading Villoth’s referral and said the potential health implications of Herr’s actions were not discussed at length in the meetings he had with staff on the case.

Instead, Gunderson and other DNR administrators sought to iron out the problem in meetings with Herr and Herr’s state representative, Joel Kleefisch, R-Oconomowoc, who interceded on his behalf, records show. At one meeting, on Dec. 13, Herr said he spoke with Stepp who assured him “no citations or forfeitures would be required,” according to Bolha’s notes.

Stepp, who declined several requests to be interviewed for this story, denied in an email she made such a claim to Herr. Asked if she knew Herr or had business dealings with him in the past, or if she spoke with him at all during the enforcement case, Stepp responded, “All are ‘no’ answers.”

Herr also did not respond to telephone and email requests for comment.

At a second meeting, on Dec. 20, Kleefisch — who also received $100 in campaign donations from Herr and whose wife Rebecca received $2,250 from the Herr family during her campaign for lieutenant governor — challenged Gunderson to reconsider the citations the DNR was weighing against Herr.


“In the age of the DNR/Wisconsin Governor being pro-business, why is the DNR giving Herr 5 citations and why can’t 2 or 3 be taken away as a show of good faith?” Joel Kleefisch asked, according to Bolha’s notes of the meeting. He also reportedly asked that the fine be reduced. Kleefisch didn’t respond to a request for comment.


Bolha also noted Kleefisch asked Gunderson to write the district attorneys involved suggesting the DNR would be in favor of even lower fines.

Gunderson, Bolha reported, “did not seem enthusiastic about writing a letter” but emphasized the agency “had done everything the DNR could to keep the referral from going to the DOJ where the civil forfeitures could have reached $20,000 to $40,000.”

And Kleefisch went to bat for his campaign donor even though Herr Environmental has a long history of violating public health standards, dating as far back as 1989, where documents have shown that the DNR were pointing out in great detail where Herr was running afoul of the law.

Now that at least one well across the highway from the polluted site has also tested positive, it could very well be that the entire ground water basin for the area has been tainted by the excessive effluence.

And needless to say, the residents are outrages.

When I asked Democratic candidate for the 38th District, Scott Michalak, for a statement this morning, he responded with this:

Scott Michalak

" Mr. Kleefisch, I think that since you don't think Mr.Herr should have to pay for testing of these wells that you should pay for them yourself," said Scott Michalak, Democratic candidate for the 38th Assmbly District. "I also believe that Mrs. Stepp and Mr. Gunderson should resign their positions with the DNR effective immediately. There is no place for in-house judgments from people that received campaign contributions from Mr. Herr himself. This, at a minimum, is a conflict of interest and possible ethics violation. Furthermore, I believe this incident and any further investigation should be turned over to the Department of Justice immediately."

Representative Joel Kleefisch did not respond to my questions regarding to this new development. Apparently he could not tear himself away from the "distractions" at the country club to even answer a few questions, much less actually give a damn about his constituents.

Even without the fact that Kleefisch actively and willfully advocated against his own constituency, his current lack of concern for the people who are left without even safe drinking water in the middle of one of the worst droughts in history should be enough to show he is not fit for office.

 Or even being categorized as a man or human for that matter.

You can learn more about Scott Michalak at his website and his Facebook page.  And if you can, please help him out by volunteering or donating to his Act Blue account.

The people of the 38th District, as well as all of Wisconsin, deserve a representative that won't crap on them or their wells.

It's Good Work If You Can Get It

Lieutenant Governor Rebecca Kleefisch -  $76,261/yr + per diems, with Cadillac taxpayer funded health care
Assemblyman Joel Kleefisch - $ 49,943/yr + per diems with Cadillac taxpayer funded health care

Total amount of money that the Kleefisch family takes from the taxpayers = $126,204 + per diems and taxpayer funded Cadillac health care.   

. 

The Wisconsin State legislature adjourned on March 16th 2012, and have no plans on to meet until well after the November 2012 elections. 

For those of you scoring at home, that is a minimum of 8 months off, along with weekends and all holidays, while collecting full salary and benefits from the Wisconsin taxpayer.  As you can see the Kleefisch family is using their time well to serve their constituents.  Except of course when they had a chance to actually help their constituents and harmed them instead.  

Voters get to decide if their money is being well spent or if they want to elect someone serious about the job in Scott Michalak.   Maybe its time we stopped funding hunting trips and tried to get the people of Wisconsin back to work!   

Scott Michalak For The 38th Assembly District

This evening, I had the opportunity to speak with Scott Michalak, who is running against Rep. Joel "Get in mah bellay" Kleefisch.

Scott is a plain spoken man who doesn't have a glamorous history.  He doesn't have a history in politics.  He isn't what you might call a "rock star."

Who Scott is is a good husband, proud father and a hard-working man who, like so many of us, can't stand to see what is happening to our state.  And what he brings is what he wants to bring to the Capitol - common sense.

He is sickened by the continuous attack on the middle class and on workers like you and I.  And he knows what is going on because he's experienced it first hand.  Scott worked for 20 years in dairy food plants, making things like International Delight Coffee Creamer. (Did you know that International Delight was never meant to be put in coffee? It was originally made to be an additive to pancake batter.  The fact that it was good in coffee was found purely accidentally.)

Scott lost his job when, like we've been seeing all to often in our state, the companies decided that they wanted to increase their profit margins by closing plants and laying off workers.  Now he drives a truck for a living.

Scott's worked in both union shops and in non-union ones, and so he knows first hand the importance of unions in protecting workers' rights and making sure they are able to get paid a fair wage for the work they do to make the company successful.

Another reason why Scott knows what is going on and is outraged by it is because his wife is a teacher.  He compared Wisconsin's high ranking in ACT scores, graduation rates and other measures against the non-unionized states like Texas, which came in dead last in the nation in these same categories.  He knows that the Republicans' agenda will bring our schools down to these pitiful examples. As Scott pointed out, when it comes to the quality of education, you get what you pay for.  And people like Joel Kleefisch don't want to pay for a quality education for our children.

Scott is also fed up with the blatant disregard and disrespect that Joel Kleefisch has shown for his own constituents.

Scott has already been calling his opponent out on the prime example of how much disdain Kleefisch holds for the people - the way Kleefisch used his influence to protect the wealthy Richard Herr, the man who dumped many times the legal limit of effluence on fields near the drinking wells of dozens of homes.  Kleefisch did so for no other reason that the fact that Herr is a campaign contributor to both him and his wife, Lt. Governor Rebecca "Stop looking at me that way, end table" Kleefisch.  From Scott's press release on this matter:

“Out on doors I heard a theme from voters: What the heck are they thinking in Madison?” stated Michalak. “Their questions were simple, but blunt: Is my drinking water clean after Herr Environmental dumped human waste in our neighborhood? Why isn’t Herr Environmental paying to test my well? How did Herr Environmental get such a light punishment from the DNR? And why did Joel Kleefisch stand up for polluters instead of me?”  

An investigation by the Wisconsin State Journal found that Rep. Joel Kleefisch (R-Oconomowoc) quietly lobbied the DNR for leniency for a campaign contributor that dumped human waste near drinking water wells.  

“Rep. Kleefisch doesn’t need to answer my questions; he needs to answer the questions of the good people of our district,” said Michalak. “The fact that he’s putting the interests of a campaign contributor ahead of constituents is sleazy and wrong. These people deserve answers from their representative in Madison.”  

Recently, the Department of Natural Resources stated that they would not order Herr Environmental to pay for private well tests to see if their wells have been contaminated. For the human waste spreading violations in the Town of Concord, Herr Environmental has only been fined $4000; a figurative slap-on-the-wrist.  

Michalak finished with: “It’s disgusting that spreading human waste has drawn such light punishment from the DNR, which is charged with protecting our natural resources. But for Rep. Kleefisch to stand up for polluters and not have the guts to answer these questions is reprehensible.” 

Scott told me that he has spoken to many of the people that were affected by Herr's dumping of effluence which worked its way into their drinking water.  People reported getting sick and even developing serious illnesses they believe are attributable to their drinking this now tainted water.  

One of these wells were tested for the pollutants and came out way above safe limits.  It cost the owner $1,000 for the test and another $300 to get the water potable again.  The well owner will have to do it again in a few months as well.  And this money is coming out of the owner's pocket since Kleefisch didn't think that this family, or any of the others likewise affected, were as important as his campaign contributor.

Kleefisch also turned the blind eye when Herr had a second, unapproved and unlicensed storage tank put in or when he tried to charge people $6,000 for a job that another company charged only $350.

Other things that Scott mentioned is Kleefisch's hypocrisy by supporting the Voter ID bill and then turning around and voting for all of his Republican friends, betraying his own stance of one person, one vote.

You can learn more of the common sense ideas he stands for and wants to bring to Madison at his website and his Facebook page.  It is these common sense ideas which has earned him the endorsements of the Teamsters, SEIU and Clean Wisconsin.

But Scott does have one problem. He's going up against a guy that has the wealth of the Koch brothers and the Bradley Foundation behind him.  Meanwhile, everyone was donating to Tom Barrett and Lori Compas.  He doesn't begrudge them this, but he is in need of raising some money fast.

You can either donate to his Act Blue page or attend his kickoff fundraiser at the Keystone Grill in Cambridge, WI on July 11.  He is going to have State Representatives Andy Jorgensen and Brett Hulsey as guest speakers.

But whatever you can do, please help. We need people like Scott to stand up for us as opposed to people like Kleefisch who would rather stand on our necks.