The Politics of Privacy

By Jeff Simpson

Why do our elected politicians have no respect for our right to privacy?

If you remember, in 2011,  every person who signed the Scott Waker recall petition(and only the Scott Walker recall petition, despite there being many others - hmmmm), names and addresses were put online for everyone who supported Scott Walker to see and use for harassment, bullying and hiring processes/
For exercising their Constitutional Rights, as written in the Wisconsin Constitution, their names, addresses and phone numbers were there for the whole State of WI to do with as they may.

In 2012, the far right wing MacIver Instutute sued Senator Erpenbach to get the names of everyone who emailed him about the ACT10 Protests.  Senator Erpenbach turned over all the emails, but blacked out the identifying information of his constituents.

That was not enough for the Mcgyver crew so they sued again and surprisingly won.   Senator Erpenbach was then forced to turnover all names, email addresses etc of people who took five minutes out of their day to let their elected representatives know how they feel about the events of the day.   MacIver needed full contact information to make sure that anyone who advocated positions they disagreed with, would now live in fear for their safety and jobs.

All the while, never caring about the privacy rights of the everyday people in WI.   I am 100% for an open and honest government and completely open records.   However, people contacting their legislators, or being on a legislators mailing list, is not Government.

It is incredibly ironic, that many of the same people who are whining the loudest about money being speech and how asking for donors records was an assault on free speech rights, are the same people requesting these records and making them public.

The hypocrisy does not end there.  The Scott Walker administration keeps finding new ways to avoid Open records request and destroy documents.  Scott Walker will not even allow us to know who visits him at the Governor's mansion, mostly because they are big donors and the moneyed base.   Their privacy must be protected at all costs.

Unfortunately for the citizens of Wisconsin, the politicians trampling on your privacy rights are bi partisan in nature.

The latest attack comes from wolf in sheeps clothing Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele.

Last month, Tia Torhorst — Abele's campaign manager — asked various Milwaukee legislators, including Larson, to turn over the names and email and street addresses for the thousands of recipients of their official newsletters over the past three months.

She didn't consider her request very unusual or difficult to fill. Besides, it didn't take much time for Larson to identify the exact number of records that his staff would have to compile.

That is the problem, this is not an unusual request as politicians on both sides of the aisle have been playing games with our privacy and it is time to tell them to end it!



Edit note:  to answer the question on what I think should be released: If you send a quick email to an elected official or are on a mailing list.  

Joe Smith 
123 Main St 
Cottage Grove, WI  53527 
Jsmith@wi.gov  

Now, if you are giving money to an elected official that changes the rules and more information should be given, including employer but we have seen recently that they want you to know more about the people who occasionally contact a legislator than they do people who spend thousands of dollars buying them.  

Chris Abele Won't Run For Governor? Sure, He Won't!

A couple of weeks ago, Milwaukee County Emperor swore up and down and sideways that he was not going to run for governor in 2018:

Democratic Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele says he “definitely” will not be running for governor in 2018.

Abele told The Associated Press on Thursday that he felt compelled to deny speculation he might run so it wouldn’t impair his ability to work with both Democrats and Republicans in Milwaukee.

He says, “I am definitely not running for governor. Not that I ever made any noise about it, but others have.”

Talk of Abele possibly preparing for a gubernatorial run has spiked since he hired former state Democratic Party chairman Mike Tate and the party’s communications director Melissa Baldauff in recent weeks.

Abele was first elected in 2011 and is up for re-election next year.

Abele jokes that he might consider running for governor “if the capital is moved to Milwaukee.”

Gee, really?!

Then maybe Emperor Abele might want to explain this website:
http://abeleforwisconsin.com
Now, I know when you click on the link, it leads to a blank page.

But a couple of minutes of research leads us to this bit of information:

Click on image to embiggen

The gentle reader will note that the website is registered to Cynthia Torhorst, aka Tia Torhorst.  It also includes the name of Jeff Peelen, his campaign treasurer.

Torhorst is the former aide to Emperor Abele who became his campaign manager and puppet candidate for the state assembly.

Now, it might be just me, but I do believe that Abele has some clarifying to do about whether he is planning on running for governor.

And while he's at it, he might want to rethink his explanation for why he hired disgraced former Democratic Party Chair Mike Tate.

And while I know it would be very difficult and a foreign concept to Abele, he might just want to try telling the truth for a change.

Tuesday's Biggest Loser Wasn't Even A Candidate

Tuesday's primary is finally over and the people have chosen their champions that they want to represent them in November's general election.  Some of the primary races ended up in routs while others were painfully close.

But the biggest loser on Tuesday wasn't even a candidate.

Milwaukee County Emperor Chris "Boss" Abele wanted to expand his "sphere of influence" by running a couple of hand-picked candidates and investing heavily into another.  But instead of gaining more power like he wanted, Abele went 0 for 3.

In Assembly District 19, Abele chose Dan Adams to be his representative of the Abele Party.  For whatever reason, Abele and Adams thought it would be a good idea to run an anti-union, pro-poverty campaign in a very progressive district.  To make matters worse, they also thought it would be a good idea to launch a series of highly negative and immature attacks against the two favored candidates, Marina Dimitrijevic and Jonathan Brostoff.

Brostoff managed to eke a victory over Dimitrijevic, winning by a couple of hundred votes.  Adams came in a distant third.

Likewise, in Assembly District 10, Abele chose to run his own staffer turned campaign manager, Tia Torhorst against Milwaukee County Supervisor David Bowen.  Torhorst wasn't much better than Adams, getting caught in lies and boasting of her support for her support for Act 14, which reduced the amount of representative government in Milwaukee County.

Torhorst came in second in this race, but got less than half the votes that Bowen did.

As bad as it was that Abele tried to buy these two elections - and failing miserably - that wasn't the worst of it.

Abele, who has had a longstanding feud with Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, decided to intervene in this race by dumping hundreds of thousands of dollars in support of Clarke's opponent, Chris Moews.  Abele had the local airwaves flooded with ads filled with flimsy talking points and misleading attacks.

Instead of helping Moews, all he did was rile up Clarke's base so much that numerous Republicans chose to cross over and vote on the Democratic side in order to support Clarke.

Moews ended up losing by about 4,000 votes, sticking Milwaukee County with another four years of a loud-mouthed, ineffective and incompetent fool for a sheriff.

Abele's problems don't end with losing three races that he had invested in so heavily..

In his power grab attempt, Abele has burned a lot of bridges behind him.

Not only has Abele attacked fellow Democrats, but he has gone as far as supporting some of the most rabid Teapublicans over good Democrats, just in an effort to get his way.  As one might expect, this has made a lot of people angry and leery of him.  And this doesn't mention the other groups that he has alienated over the course of the last year or two, including veterans, park lovers, art lovers and the unions, to name just a few.

Abele has painted himself into a corner that he doesn't want to be in with his own reelection coming up in a year and a half.

That said, it's nice to see Abele screwing himself instead of everyone else for a change.  And he's doing it like a boss.

Boss Abele Pulls Some (Purse)Strings For Torhorst

Apparently realizing that Dan Abele Adams is a lost cause, Boss Abele has decided to focus on trying to salvage the race for his other hand-picked candidate, Tia Torhorst.

Like Adams, Torhorst has been caught repeatedly misrepresenting herself to the voters and needed a boost.
So Boss Abele pulled some purse strings for his aide and got former US Senator Herb Kohl to give a generic endorsement for Torhorst.

At first, I was surprised at the endorsement.  Kohl is not one to often give endorsements and when he does, it's usually just for a big race, such as a statewide race or a federal race.

But it started to make sense when I realized that Abele and Kohl have a tight relationship because of the Milwaukee Bucks and the plutocratic dream of a new arena for the lackluster team.  Cementing the relationship even further is the fact that John Zapfel, who currently Abele's Deputy Chief of Staff, was a former legislative aide to Kohl.

There's a few strings for Abele to pull to get Kohl to say something nice about Torhorst.

The laugh line about this though is the reaction that Abele got when he gushed over the news on Facebook:

Notice the box with the names of the people that liked it.  Those are all either Abele's people, most of them his employees.  It's like Boss Abele is demanding the same kind of loyalty that Scott Walker requires from his people.

Fortunately, the good people of Assembly District 10 have a candidate that will represent them and not Abele.  Please make sure to get out the vote on Tuesday in support of David Bowen.

QOTD: AD 19

Lisa Kaiser of the Shepherd Express has written an overview of the primary races coming up in August.  Her recap of the primary for Assembly District 19 is just about perfect:

Assembly District 19 runs along the East Side from UW-Milwaukee to Bay View and has been represented by Jon Richards for the past 16 years. He is now running for attorney general, so this seat is wide open. Four Democratic candidates are on the ballot: Dan Adams, Jonathan Brostoff, Milwaukee County Board Chair Marina Dimitrijevic and Sara Geenen. Adams is backed by Abele, while the others are viewed as the progressives in this campaign. Look for tons of money to flood this race from labor, voucher supporters, business, the 1% and women’s groups. No Republican is on this ballot; the winner will face Joseph T. Klein of the Wisconsin Pirate Party in November.

No matter how much Abele and his supporters stomp their feet and come up with little labels for themselves like "pragmatic progressive," the fact is that they are anything but pragmatic or progressive.  Candidates like Adams or Tia Torhorst in the AD 10 race are nothing more than sockpuppets for the 1%.

Tia Torhorst - The Abele Party Candidate for AD 10

Milwaukee County Emperor Chris Abele has been heard to say that he is seeking to increase his "sphere of influence."  By increasing his "sphere of influence," he, of course, means buying off politicians.  And his if off to a good start in that area.

He has already given money to rabid Teapublican state legislators Joe Sanfelippo and Dale Kooyenga.  He has also given money and held a fundraiser for the Teapublican county supervisor Deanna Alexander, who has been such a useful tool for him.

Wishing to buy even more politicians increase his influence further, he had convinced Dan Adams to run against his nemesis, Marina Dimitrijevic, in the AD 19 race.  At last count, Abele has held four fundraisers for Adams and lent him some of his campaign staff to help run his feeble campaign.

Now he has a hand-picked candidate for the AD 10 race to replace the retiring Sandy Pasch.  The candidate from the Abele Party (Motto: Bribing towards a more perfect plutocracy) is Tia Torhorst.  Torhorst was one of Abele's legislative aides at the county before becoming the political director for Abele's campaign - a job she lists as still holding even as she is running her own campaign.

Indeed, Abele just had lent his campaign a third of a million dollars, of which, $14,000 went to Torhorst at the end of 2013.  That would make a nice beginning war chest for someone looking to run for office.

Another sure sign that Torhorst is part of the Abele Party is her misleading campaign literature and website.  Torhorst labels herself as a "Proven Progressive" and a "Progressive for Responsible Leadership," but a minimal look at her claims versus her record shows her to be anything but progressive or responsible.

Her campaign website's "Issues" page has only two issues, which not only shows just how out of touch she is with the community Abele wants her to represent, but is also, shall we say nicely, very misleading.

The first issue she has listed is education. This blurb sure makes it look like she is progressive:

As the only candidate who lives in the district and the only candidate with a child in a public school in the district, I fully understand the concern about our schools. Scott Walker has spent four years cutting funding for public education while at the same time he’s decimated the morale of teachers with Act 10. As a result, we face a serious problem with maintaining the most important economic tool in our state’s toolbox – a high quality education system. I will work to restore collective bargaining rights for teachers and increase funding for our public education system.

Boy, there's more than a few issues in just that one paragraph.

As far as living in the district, I do know that David Bowen has bought a house in the district and is having it renovated, showing that he is committed to the entire district.  She is also giving a backhanded slap at the retiring Sandy Pasch who did not live in the district when she was running for the seat two years ago.

It should also be noted that how Torhorst is targeting teachers with her comments about Act 10 and restoring collective bargaining, even though that maleficent law affects all public sector workers.  This is a classic example of divide and conquer, like Scott Walker did with the police and public safety versus the rest of the public sector workers.

Torhorst isn't really all that pro-union.  She refused to even acknowledge the invitation to interview with PEOPLE, the political arm of AFSCME much less try for an endorsement. Then again, given Abele's vehemence and loathing against AFSCME, Torhorst probably isn't allowed to go near them.

As troubling as this first blurb is, the one in the section regarding job training is quite egregious.  Talking about "Economic Health," Torhorst makes this claim:

I’m proud that when I was Legislative Director for Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele we funded a job-training program that took 500 people who were making $8/hour and taught them new skills for jobs that pay more than $15/hour. This is a model we should expand across the 10th District and all of Wisconsin.

She couldn't even get the facts straight.  The program, which was developed by Supervisors Eyon Biddle and Theodore Lipscomb, actually worked with unemployed people, not making any money, and gave them the skills to work in jobs that averaged $15 per hour.

It is understandable that Torhorst would get these facts wrong, considering that she actually worked to try to get the program killed before it was approved and then worked feverishly to get supervisors to support Abele's veto of the program.  Like he does now, Abele felt that was a waste of money to help workers get living wage jobs. It should be noted that once Abele's veto was overridden, it took another ten months and action by Supervisor Lipscomb and the county board to get Abele to actually implement the program.

Understandably, these false claims of credit for a program that Torhorst actually fought against has really angered the actual authors of the resolution.

On his Facebook page, which I reproduce here with his permission, Eyon Biddle tore into Torhorst for her false representation:

Normally, I would let this go. Tia is running for Assembly in the 10th District. She used to work for Chris Abele, the so called progressive wolf in sheep's clothing. He's only progressive on LGBTQ issues and because he throws generous checks at organizations. Don't be fooled here. But what pissed me off is her trying to take credit for the Biddle-Lipscomb Ready To Work Plan. Not only has this job plan been widely successful but it has taken shots from the Chris Abele and Tia who tried to sabotage it. They vetoed it, tried to ruin my credibility on the County Board and undermine the success of the program.

This piece is dishonest. This is the type of leadership that we don't need at the State Assembly.

I reached out to Lipscomb as well, who told me:

"She is knowingly revising history and it bears no resemblance to the truth. The very thing she says that she supports and that we should replicate is what she worked hard against and what her boss energetically vetoed."

Apparently, one thing that Torhorst shares with her boss is the disturbingly ease with which they can tell barefaced lies.

As Biddle also stated in his post, a vote for Torhorst is a vote for Abele.

If the good voters of AD 10 wish to support and vote for a true, undeniable progressive, that person is David Bowen, who championed the living wage ordinance and who has been an actual supporter of the Ready to Work program.

I hope to have the chance to interview Bowen before the primary, but in the meantime the gentle reader can learn about Bowen at his website and his Facebook page.  And if you can donate to help him and keep a real progressive in the seat, please help support him.  He'll need as much help as he can going up against Abele's dark money support of Torhorst.