20 of the Biggest Lies Told by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker
The level of deception and dishonesty Walker has exhibited in the battle over his union-busting “budget repair” bill sinks to astounding new lows.
Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons
Russ’ Filtered News / By Russell King March 8, 2011 |
We’re used to politicians stretching the truth, but the level of deception and dishonesty Wisconsin’s governor has exhibited in the battle over his union-busting budget repair bill (even the name is a falsehood) sinks to astounding new lows. What follows are the 20 lies I’ve identified in a quick review of the record. If you find or recall others, please let me know. We’ll keep updating.
Walker: His bill is about fixing a budget crisis.
The truth: Even Fox News’ Shepherd Smith couldn’t swallow that one, declaring that it’s all about politics and union busting, and “to pretend that this is about a fiscal crisis in the state of Wisconsin is malarkey.”
Walker: says he campaigned on his budget repair plan, including curtailing collective bargaining.
“We introduced a measure last week, a measure I ran on during the campaign, a measure I talked about in November during the transition, a measure I talked about in December when we fought off the employee contracts, an idea I talked about in the inauguration, an idea I talked about in the state of the state. If anyone doesn’t know what’s coming, they’ve been asleep for the past two years.”
The truth: Walker, who offered many specific proposals during the campaign, did not go public with even the sketchiest outline of his far-reaching plans to kill collective bargaining rights. He could not point to any statements where he did. In fact, he was caught on tape boasting to what he thought was his billionaire backer that he had “dropped the bomb.”
Walker: keeps saying that “almost all” of the protesters at the Capitol are from outside the state
The truth: “The vast majority of people protesting are from here — Wisconsin and even more from Dane County,” said Joel DeSpain, public information officer for the Madison Police Department.
Walker: He wants to negotiate.
The truth: He won’t negotiate, but he’ll pretend to so he can trick the 14 Dem senators into allowing a vote on his bill. Walker recently offered to actually sit down and speak with the minority leader – something he should have done anyway and long ago – but only if the rest of the senators came back with him. Why?
“…legally, we believe, once they’ve gone into session, they don’t physically have to be there. If they’re actually in session for that day and they take a recess, the 19 Senate Republicans could then go into action and they’d have a quorum because they started out that way…But that would be the only, if you heard that I was going to talk to them, that would be the only reason why. We’d only do it if they came back to the capital with all 14 of them. And my sense is, hell, I’ll talk to them. If they want to yell at me for an hour, you know, I’m used to that, I can deal with that. But I’m not negotiating.”
Walker: says his budget-repair bill would leave collective bargaining “fully intact”
The truth: Walker revealed his own lie in the same radio interview when he said it was necessary to use his bill to strip collective bargaining rights, and in his own Feb. 11, 2011 letter to employees about his plan cited “various changes to limit collective bargaining” to the rate of base pay.
Walker: claims that states without collective bargaining having fared better in the current bad economy.
The truth: According to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, three of the 13 non-collective bargaining states are among the 11 states facing budget shortfalls at or above 20% (Texas, Louisiana, North Carolina). Another, South Carolina, comes in at a sizable 17.4%. Nevada, where state employees have no collective bargaining rights (but local employees do) has the largest percentage shortfall in the country, at 45.2%. All in all, eight non-collective-bargaining states face larger budget shortfalls than Wisconsin.
Walker: Public employees are more richly compensated than their public sector counterparts.
The truth: According to the Economic Policy Institute, wages and salaries of state and local employees are lower than those for private sector employees with comparable earnings determinants such as education and work experience. State workers typically are under-compensated by 8.2% in Wisconsin.
Walker: said we needed a “repair” bill to address a payment owed to Minnesota of nearly $60 million and money owed to the Patient’s Compensation Fund in the tune of $200-plus million.
The truth: Walker’s budget repair bill addresses neither issue.
Walker: Said that our budget problems are largely due to employee wages.
The truth: Total salaries and compensation in the last budget were 8.5% of the entire state budget.
Walker: “The alternative” to higher state worker pension and health care payments “is to look at 1,500 layoffs of state employees or close to 200,000 children who would be bumped off Medicaid-related programs.”
The truth: Federal law prevents Walker from taking away the health care coverage of 200,000 low-income and disabled children. Later, Walker told a Madison radio station that the layoff was merely a ploy to gain some political leverage: “I needed to get their attention to show how serious we were about having a balanced budget,” Walker said on the “Sly in the Morning” show on WTDY radio.
Walker: “We’ve seen local union after local union rush to their school boards, their city councils, their technical school boards and rush through contracts in the past two weeks that had no contributions to the pension and no contribution to health care. And, in fact, in one case in Janesville, they actually were pushing through a pay increase. Actions do speak louder than words.”
The truth: Of the 11 such contracts provided as examples by Walker’s staff, all 11 include some employee contributions to health insurance. PolitiFact Wisconsin, which too frequently gets the facts wrong and arrives at strained conclusions, did, at least, contact the 11 communities:
Madison: Unions in the state’s second biggest city have been negotiating contracts for more than a year. Their pacts expired at the beginning of 2010. Contracts with two of Madison’s biggest public unions settled before Walker was inaugurated Jan. 3, 2011, said Brad Wirtz, Madison human resources director. He said who said those deals set the template for the remaining unions, who reached agreement on wages and other key financial issues after Walker took office but before Feb. 11, when Walker announced his plan.
Sheboygan County: Adam Payne, the county’s administrator, said the county’s agreement with the unions was reached between negotiators before Feb. 11 and it mirrors pacts reached with other unions late last year. “There was no special treatment,” Payne said noting the County Board approved the contract at a regularly scheduled meeting.
Janesville: The tentative agreement for school custodians was reached Jan. 25, 2011 — before Walker’s proposals were made public. Eric Levitt, city manager, said that in January he had set a mid-February target to settle contracts with city workers, so the talks continued on the previously set timetable. The two sides were close to reaching tentative agreements prior to Walker’s Feb. 11 announcement, Levitt said. He said the city felt that because of its obligation to negotiate in good faith, it was necessary to continue the talks after the governor made his call for increased payments by employees.
LaCrosse County Administrator Steve O’Malley said the county didn’t rush things since negotiations started last year and the first tentative agreement with a local was reached in December.
Racine City Administrator Thomas Friedel that Racine had been negotiating with bargaining units representing Department of Public Works and clerical workers since summer of 2010 and reached tentative agreements well before Walker made his move.
Milwaukee Area Technical College: Like all of the other governments, the technical college and the union representing teachers and other workers had been talking for months, well before Walker was elected. The board and the American Federation of Teachers Local 212 reached tentative agreement on Feb. 10 — the day before Walker’s announcement. The agreement froze wages for two years.
Walker: “I don’t have anything to negotiate. We are broke in this state. We have been broke for years.” and “We’re broke. We don’t have any more money.”
The truth: The NY Times says “It’s all obfuscating nonsense, of course, a scare tactic employed for political ends.” Even the hyper-conservative Wall Street Journal calls out Walker on this lie. The notion that the state needs to refinance the debt because it’s broke and can’t make its debt payments is “completely wrong,” said Frank Hoadley, the state finance director. Joshua Zeitz, municipal finance analyst for MF Global, said, the shortfall — about 0.5% of the state’s overall budget — is a fairly inconsequential amount. “It’s becoming increasingly clear that this is a question more of politics than it is of a budget crisis,” Zeitz added. ”There’s a good amount of political theater in what you’re seeing,” said Tom Kozlik, municipal credit analyst at Janney Montgomery Scott.
If Walker were truly serious about balancing the budget, he would not be proposing a $36 million cut in the state’s capital gains tax or a $46 million corporate tax cut, on top of the millions of dollars in tax cuts he and the Republican legislature have already approved. Walker could balance his current budget by ending a variety of special interest tax dodging that is occurring in his state.
Walker: state employees pay next to nothing for their pensions and that it is all a big taxpayer give-away
The truth: Forbes — yes, the conservative Forbes! — says Walker is lying:
If the Wisconsin governor and state legislature were to be honest, they would correctly frame this issue. They are not, in fact, asking state employees to make a larger contribution to their pension and benefits programs as that would not be possible — the employees are already paying 100% of the contributions.
What they are actually asking is that the employees take a pay cut.
Pulitzer Prize winning tax reporter, David Cay Johnston, said so, too, at tax.com
Walker: said his budget repair bill, which guts the right of most public employees across the state to engage in collective bargaining, will deliver “the tools” local governments and school districts need to balance their budgets. “We cannot put this burden on local governments.”
The truth: Walker is going to both slash state aids and block local governments and school boards from raising taxes. And, of course, Walker’s numbers don’t match anything like reality.
Walker: claims he’s supported by silent majority.
The truth: Majority of Wisconsin residents (nearly 6 in 10) — and a majority of Americans — oppose his attack on collective bargaining and support the Dem 14 blocking it. Gallup found it. The CBS/NY Times poll found it. NBC/Wall Street Journal poll found it, too. The polls are so strong, even the reliably Republican Rasmussen couldn’t spin away from it. The public also overwhelmingly rejects the whole “public employees vs taxpayers” canard.
Walker: He wants to avoid layoffs.
The truth: Layoffs are implicit in his budget. Walker’s budget eliminates 21,325 state jobs
Walker: “To protect our schools, to protect our local governments, we need to give them the tools they’ve been asking for, not just for years but for decades.”
The truth: All four major state associations representing schools and local governments (not their employees) say this isn’t true.
Walker:The Dem 14 who are in Illinois to deny a Senate quorum needed to pass Walker’s budget repair bill are to blame for the layoffs he says he’s about to make to state workers.
The truth:Walker spoke of using layoff threats as political leverage: “We might ratchet that up a little bit, you know.” in his phony phone call with the faux Koch brother. Also, as noted above, Walker’s budget eliminates 21,325 state jobs.
Walker: “I have great respect for those who have chosen a career in government. I really do.”
The truth: Comedian Jon Stewart noted: ”‘I really do’ is a dead giveaway for ‘I really don’t,’ That’s what’s known in the business as the convincing clause. ‘I love you. I really do. That’s why breaking up with you right now is so difficult.’” The contempt he has displayed — in his bill, in his refusal to negotiate with the unions, in his refusal to negotiate with the Democrats and in his phony phone call — reveals why he felt the need for a convincing clause.
Walker admin: The protesters did $7.5 million of damage to the Capitol building by putting signs on marble walls with tape.
The truth: No professional estimate for clean-up has been performed. The Walker-appointed state facilities administrator would not support that estimate and said he’s not seen any damage by the protesters.
Topics: State | No Comments »
The Wisconsin political map amid the recall wars
The Journal Sentinel’s Craig Gilbert explores political trends in a purple state and beyond.
If the Walker-Barrett showdown June 5 is a “turnout war,” then where will that turnout come from?
Tuesday’s results offer a clue, since primaries tend to draw the most motivated voters in both parties.
And both parties’ bases spoke loud and clear in the recall primaries.
The suburban southeastern counties of Waukesha, Ozaukee and Washington turned out at significantly higher rates than anywhere else for Gov. Walker. In Washington County, for example, Walker got 27,719 votes, an amount equal to 28% of the county’s 2011 voting-age population These are the other top ten counties ranked by turnout for Walker Tuesday:
And Dane County turned out at a much higher rate than anywhere else to cast votes for one of the four main Democratic candidates:
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These four counties – Dane on the Democratic side, and Waukesha, Ozaukee and Washington on the GOP side — are arguably the most engaged, intensely motivated and deeply partisan places on the Wisconsin map. And they can be expected to lead the turnout charge on each side June 5.
What about the rest of the state?
The map below shows turnout across Wisconsin for Gov. Walker, who had only token opposition Tuesday and got 97% of the GOP vote. The darkest red areas are the ones that voted at the highest rates for the GOP incumbent (based on votes cast for Walker as a percentage of the voting-age population in each county):
Waukesha, Ozaukee and Washington are the darkly-shaded counties in the southeast.
And this is a Democratic version of the turnout map, based on the combined votes for the four main Democratic candidates (Barrett, Falk, LaFollette, Vinehout) as a percentage of each county’s voting-age population:
Dane is the darkly shaded county in south central Wisconsin.
These maps aren’t meant to show where the most votes came from for each party on May 8, but where the most votes per capita came from – the places that combine high interest and activism (turnout) with a tilt toward one party or the other. They also point to places where the parties can and must improve turnout June 5 — such as Milwaukee County on the Democratic side.
Finally, one more map (on the right below), showing which counties cast more votes in the GOP primary for governor Tuesday (shaded red) and which counties cast more votes in the Democratic primary (shaded blue). This is not meant to predict which counties will vote for Walker and which for Barrett. These were separate primary elections for each party. The Democratic Primary was contested and the GOP primary wasn’t, so clearly Democrats had more to vote for. But because a similar number of votes were cast in each partisan primary statewide (670,278 on the Democratic side and 646,458 on the GOP side) the map does roughly reflect the underlying red-blue patterns of the Wisconsin landscape, as you can see from the map on the left of the Bush-Kerry vote in 2004, which was decided by less than half a point:
My guess is that whoever wins the June 5 race, the red-blue map will look a fair amount like these two maps. The recall fight has changed the Wisconsin political landscape in some ways, but not others.
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John Nichols: What Walker did not tell Wisconsin
About John Nichols
John Nichols, associate editor of The Capital Times, is the author of seven books on politics and the media. He writes about electoral politics and public policy for The Nation magazine, and is a contributing writer for The Progressive and In These Times.
More from this section
- John Nichols: June 5 recall should send message that austerity isn’t working
- John Nichols: Richard Lugar anticipated the extremism that cost him his Senate seat
- John Nichols: Walker borrows Europe’s failed austerity agenda
- John Nichols: The template takes shape for people-power vs. money-power politics
- John Nichols: Wisconsin turns against Scott Walker
When Gov. Scott Walker delivered a “fireside chat” to the people of Wisconsin late in February of 2011, as tens of thousands of citizens were protesting at the Capitol, he assured everyone that he was not out to bust unions.
Speaking about his proposal to strip away essential collective bargaining rights from public employees and teachers, Walker told Wisconsinites: “Despite a lot of the rhetoric we’ve heard over the past 11 days, the bill I put forward isn’t aimed at state workers, and it certainly isn’t a battle with unions.”
The governor, who just weeks before had approved sweeping tax breaks for out-of-state corporations, explained that fiscal necessity had required him to attack collective bargaining — not animus toward organized labor or political considerations.
Was the governor telling the truth?
Apparently not.
A video has surfaced of a conversation between the governor and Beloit billionaire Diane Hendricks. Filmed by a documentary filmmaker who happened to be present when the two met on Jan. 18, 2011, it offers a rare behind-the-scenes view of the governor interacting with a woman who would become his largest campaign donor, writing checks for more than $510,000 to keep him in office.
In the conversation that took place one month before Walker promised Wisconsinites he was not taking rights away from Wisconsin workers for political purposes, Hendricks asked the new governor whether there was “any chance we’ll ever get to be a completely red (Republican) state and work on these unions?”
“Oh yeah!” the governor told Hendricks, owner of ABC Supply, the largest wholesale distributor of roofing, window and siding materials in the U.S. She is tied for No. 188 on the Forbes list of the 400 richest Americans.
Then, referencing legislation that would limit the ability of private-sector unions to function in workplaces and in the politics of the state, Hendricks asked: “And become a right-to-work (state)?”
Walker replied: “Well, we’re going to start in a couple weeks with our budget adjustment bill. The first step is we’re going to deal with collective bargaining for all public employee unions, because you use divide and conquer. … That opens the door once we do that.”
The governor did not reply to a billionaire’s question about busting unions in order to strengthen the hand of the Republican Party by saying he was not interested in attacking workers or their unions.
The governor responded to the proposal to bust unions for political purposes with an enthusiastic “Oh yeah!” Then he outlined a plan to attack public-sector unions as part of a “divide-and-conquer” strategy.
He went on to describe the planned attack on the public-sector unions as a “first step” that “opens the door” to next-step initiatives — such as the adoption of the sort of laws that have been used to suppress unions in Southern states.
Wisconsinites face a choice when they vote on June 5.
They can believe what Scott Walker says to them about his actions and his intentions.
Or they can believe what he says to a billionaire who gave him $510,000.
John Nichols is associate editor of The Capital Times. jnichols@madison.com
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Unofficial Recall Primiary Results
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Wisconsin Recall Primary Results: Barrett To Face Walker
It will be Barrett vs Walker in the recall election on June 5. Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett had a wide margin of victory in the democratic primary to become the party’s nominee. Barrett lost in his bid for Governor back in 2010, but will be given another chance next month. Barrett garnered 58 percent of the vote, easily defeating Kathleen Falk with 34 percent and Kathleen Vinehout with just four percent.
On the Republican side, Gov. Scott Walker was a big winner with 96 percent of the vote, there’s really no surprise there.
LT. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, who is also being recalled, will go up against Madison firefighter Mahlon Mitchell who won by a wide margin over his nearest competitor.
In the senate recalls the race for the democratic nomination in the 23rd district was won by Kristen Dexter with 64 percent of the vote. She will take on State Senator Terry Moulton of Chippewa Falls.
Donna Seidel won the democratic nomination in Dist. 29, Lori Compas won the democratic nomination in District 13, and in the 21st district John Lehman was the winner.
The next month promises to be an action packed one as on Tuesday, June 5 these democratic winners will take on the republicans who have been recalled. Many pundits believe that outside of the Presidential election this fall, this Wisconsin recall will be the most watched election this year. Many other states with large budget deficits are waiting to see the outcome as they try to decide weather or not to take on the unions in their respective state governments
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Freight Train Late in Charlotte? Blame Chicago
The New York Times
May 7, 2012
By JOHN SCHWARTZ
CHICAGO — When it comes to rail traffic, Chicago is America’s speed bump.
Shippers complain that a load of freight can make its way from Los Angeles to
Chicago in 48 hours, then take 30 hours to travel across the city. A recent
trainload of sulfur took some 27 hours to pass through Chicago — an average
speed of 1.13 miles per hour, or about a quarter the pace of many electric
wheelchairs.
With freight volume in the United States expected to grow by more than 80
percent in the next 20 years, delays are projected to only get worse.
The underlying reasons for this sprawling traffic jam are complex, involving
history, economics and a nation’s disinclination to improve its roads, bridges
and rails.
Six of the nation’s seven biggest railroads pass through the city, a testament
to Chicago’s economic might when the rail lines were laid from the 1800s on.
Today, a quarter of all rail traffic in the nation touches Chicago. Nearly half
of what is known as intermodal rail traffic, the big steel boxes that can be
carried aboard ships, trains or trucks, roll by or through this city.
The slowdown involves more than freight. The other day, William C. Thompson, a
project manager for the Association of American Railroads, stood next to a
crossroads of steel in the Englewood neighborhood pointing to a web of tracks
used by freight trains and Amtrak passenger trains that intersected tracks for
Metra, Chicago’s commuter rail. The commuter trains get to go first, he said,
and so ”Amtrak tells me they have more delays here than anywhere else in the
system.”
More delays than anywhere else in the Chicago area? No, he said. ”In the entire
United States.”
Now, federal, state, local and industry officials are completing the early
stages of a $3.2 billion project to untangle Chicago’s rail system — not just
for its residents, who suffer commuter train delays and long waits in their cars
at grade crossings, but for the rest of the nation as well.
The program, called Create (an acronym for Chicago Region Environmental and
Transportation Efficiency Program), is intended to replace 25 rail intersections
with overpasses and underpasses that will smooth the flow of traffic for the
1,300 freight and passenger trains that muscle through the city each day, and to
separate tracks now shared by freight and passenger trains at critical spots.
Fifty miles of new track will link yards and create a second east-west route
across the city, building redundancy into the overburdened system.
Fourteen of the 70 projects have been completed so far, and 12 more are under
way, including the $140 million ”Englewood flyover,” or overpass.
While much of the country’s attention in transportation issues is focused on
high-speed rail projects trumpeted by the Obama administration, Create is
largely about bringing old-fashioned low-speed rail up to modern standards.
Innovative financing combines federal, state and private money from various
programs, including the federal stimulus packages. Create even uses some funds
tied to high-speed rail, since many of the projects are being designed to
accommodate those lines in the future.
One of the biggest holdups for freight traffic is that Chicago’s crowded rails
must also get hundreds of thousands of commuters to work and home mornings and
evenings, and so by an agreement known as the Chicago Protocol, the shared
tracks and intersections belong to passenger rail during rush hours.
The progress of a few recent trains as measured by the railroads shows how the
delays occur. Among them was a coal train traveling 1,100 miles east from the
Powder River Basin in Wyoming.
The train reached Chicago in 60 hours; its average speed, with delays for
traffic control and a delivery schedule on the first leg, was 18 miles per hour.
Within the ”corral” of the greater Chicago area, the average speed dropped to
3.9 miles per hour, the pace of a rapid walk. It took more than 10 hours to move
the 40 miles across the city. It had to stop completely on the outskirts of town
during commuter rush hours and wait its turn at ”interlockings” — go-slow
rail intersections like the one at Englewood. Once outside Chicago, the train’s
average leapt to 36 miles per hour.
Some of the causes of delay might have seemed outdated in the 20th century, much
less the 21st, like manual switches that engineers have to throw after their
trains have passed. Create is replacing them with electronic switches and online
traffic control networks, but until then engineers at some points have to get
out of their cabins, walk the length of the train back to the switch — a mile
or more — operate the switch, and then trudge back to their place at the head
of the train before setting out again.
Chicago had lived with its rail anachronisms and idiosyncrasies for decades, but
everything fell apart in a 1999 blizzard that paralyzed the city’s rails and
backed up train traffic across the United States for months.
”The traffic just kept coming and coming and coming,” said David Grewe, a
supervisor for Union Pacific Railroad. ”We basically waited for the spring
thaw.”
The resulting plan to fix its rail problems started with efforts to reduce
delays by improving coordination among the six freight rail companies, an effort
that includes Mr. Grewe, as well as Metra and Amtrak. ”You would have thought
that coordination would have taken place in the past,” Mr. Grewe said.
”Unfortunately, it didn’t.”
Mr. Thompson, the rail association’s program manager for Create, said that
building during a recession had produced a bonus, as construction companies
eager to get the work have come in under budget on every project. ”It’s a very
good time to be building infrastructure,” he said.
With more than a dozen of the smaller projects in place, rail officials say they
have already seen some reduction in delays, said Joe Shachter, director of
public and intermodal transportation for the Illinois Department of
Transportation, with bigger improvements to come. ”The next two or three years
in particular we think are going to show great advances,” he said.
But the full benefits will be felt only if all of the projects can be completed,
Mr. Thompson said: a knot of interrelated problems requires a network of
solutions.
And there lies a potentially larger problem than anything in the steel rails
that snake across the city. While some of the financing for Create has come from
private industry and state bonds, further progress depends almost entirely on
the ability of Congress to pass transportation legislation. That legislation has
historically been passed in a bipartisan manner. But Congress, eager to squeeze
the budget and in continual disagreement about the nation’s priorities, has
found itself repeatedly at an impasse over the current transportation bill.
To Brian Imus, staff director of Illinois PIRG, a consumer group, ”it seems
like as much gridlock as we’ve got with our trains, it’s even worse in
Washington, D.C.”
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FROM ALEC EXPOSED
During most conflicts, operatives work behind the scenes sabotaging the enemy’s plans and their success depends entirely on secrecy and obscurity. If these undercover operatives are exposed, they have a choice of ceasing operations or sending a distress signal to their confederates to begin an offensive to thwart their opponent’s advancement before they are overwhelmed and destroyed. Over the past few weeks, the American Legislative Exchange Council’s (ALEC) operations to destroy democracy have been exposed to a wide audience and this week they sent out a plea for reinforcements to combat the sudden assault from activists who are overwhelming social media with revelations that in every state, ALEC’s operatives are subverting democracy with template legislation that has led to an exodus of corporate members terrified they will be associated with ALEC’s corporatist assault on democracy.
Last Tuesday, ALEC’s Director of External Relations, Caitlyn Korb, spoke at a Heritage Foundation “Bloggers Briefing” and begged conservative bloggers for assistance in promoting a “very aggressive campaign to really spread the word about what we actually do,” and although they may think their counter offensive will thwart exposure of ALEC’s assault on democracy, they are making a grave error that plays into the hands of their enemy; the American people. The Bloggers Briefing is a Heritage Foundation apparatus associated with the Koch Foundation and Cato Institute, and all three of the conservative think tanks are supporters and members of ALEC and profit from their template legislation to subvert environmental protections, voting rights, and pursue Draconian immigration laws and “kill at will” laws.
The call to arms by ALEC is a response to social media and activist campaigns to convince corporations that fund ALEC to distance themselves from the organization due to its “extreme agenda” that was exposed when the Center for Media and Democracy published over 800 “cookie cutter” model bills last summer. As giant corporations abandoned their membership in ALEC, it became evident that panic set in and they recently released a series of press releases including one particularly fallacious assertion that ALEC “supports transparent, accountable government.” For the record, ALEC’s involvement in writing “template legislation” for predominately Republican legislators is hardly ever disclosed. During Korb’s plea for help, she handed out new “Frequently Asked Questions” about ALEC that is filled with errors, and told the audience they may not have heard of ALEC because “we haven’t been the subject of many headlines in the last 35
years,” but she did not share that ALEC meets in private without members of the press or the public allowed to attend their meetings. The biggest lie in the new FAQ document is that constituents decide what is best for them and their state, but voters have no way of knowing that corporations write the laws and Republicans introduce them as their own until groups like Alec Exposed, Color of Change, Center for Media and Democracy and many other activist groups exposed ALEC’s secrets.
Now that Pandora’s Box is open and the dirty truth about ALEC is exposed, they are launching a public relations counter-offensive with a website called “I Stand with ALEC” and Korb begged conservative bloggers for “any and all institutional support.” Korb admitted that much of the political opposition emanates from social media and she noted such Twitter hastags as #ALECexposed and #dumpALEC that have “multiplied exponentially” in recent weeks. Korb told her conservative blogger audience that ”We’re getting absolutely killed in social media venues — Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, so any and all new media support you guys can provide would be so helpful, not just to us but to average people who don’t know much about this fight but are seeing us get really heavily attacked with very little opposition.” However, the attacks on ALEC cannot be opposed or defended with any legitimacy and as more Americans learn about the corporate
hijacking of democracy, their anger will increase and this is the point that ALEC misses and it will be their undoing.
The main stream media has been remiss to do their job and inform the public about who is writing and pushing legislation to disenfranchise voters, lengthen prison sentences, expand the war on drugs, privatize prisons, criminalize immigrants, and “thwart pre-trial release programs in favor of for-profit bail bonding” that all serve to enrich corporations. In lieu of responsible journalism, activists have turned to social media to enlighten the public on the anti-democratic agenda of the corporation-funded ALEC and the activists have “encouraged” eleven (at last count) large corporation to dump ALEC out of fear of consumer boycotts and public relation disasters that affect their profits.
ALEC is advising their right-wing bloggers and activists to pursue Democratic strategists, journalists, and activists in comment sections of their articles and on social media outlets Twitter and Facebook, and eventually liberal blogs and the organizations guilty of exposing ALEC’s legislative malfeasance. But it is too late and too little because although every American is not connected through social media, every American knows someone who uses Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest and if there is one thing Americans are sick and tired of, it is big money and big corporations hijacking the government whether it is at the federal or the state level. There is little conservative bloggers can do in the way of comments and PR to convince the American people that giving corporations greater control of government is going to benefit the average American, and publicizing ALEC’s agenda will only incur more wrath from the people.
ALEC’s assault on democracy, though successful up until now, is over and it is entirely due to activist organizations and social media. As Americans gather more information from outlets like Twitter, Facebook, and internet news sources, their dependence on corporate-controlled main stream media to keep them informed about how laws are written and passed in states and the federal government is a thing of the past. The latest movement is exposing Democrats in state legislatures who are aligned with ALEC, and the PCCC counted 26 states with Democratic legislators in ALEC that are being targeted as “bad Democrats” to encourage them to break with the group. As the list becomes available to the public, social media will play a pivotal role in exposing recalcitrant Democrats and it will be impossible for them to remain in ALEC without facing the wrath of the blogosphere and the public.
It has been 35 years since ALEC began their assault on democracy, and now that their dirty little secret is out, social media will spread the word and be their undoing. The fact that ALEC is panicked and appealing to conservative bloggers in person and on Breitbart TV for help combating the truth is a testament to the power of social media and activists who use it to inform Americans about their vanishing democracy. The Center for Media and Democracy’s PR Watch said that ALEC sent out an SOS to garner help with their counter offensive PR campaign, but ALEC is not going to weather this disaster with conservatives making negative comments on websites or social media outlets like Twitter and Facebook. Their options are limited, and choosing to fight for their anti-democratic agenda on social media will hasten their demise because for every lie supporting ALEC, there will be thousands of rebuttals based in truth that will spread across the Internet like a
highly contagious virus and like a virus, truth in the right hands is deadly.
Topics: National | No Comments »
From the Government Accountability Board:
Posted Monday, April 23, 2012 — 12:20 p.m.
From the Government Accountability Board:
MADISON, WI – With Wisconsin’s first-ever statewide recall primary two weeks away, there are several important things voters should know.
On Tuesday, May 8 there will be Republican and Democratic primaries for Governor, and Democratic primaries for Lt. Governor and four State Senators in Districts 13, 21, 23 and 29.
“Wisconsin has gone through great political turmoil since 2011, and the recall primaries and elections are the voters’ opportunity to have their say on these issues,” said Kevin Kennedy, the state’s chief election officer. “We encourage the people to get out and vote.”
“A recall primary is like most other primary elections, with a few exceptions,” Kennedy continued. “If voters take a little time to prepare before going to the polls, they can avoid confusion and delays.”
“Early Voting” – In-person absentee voting (also known as early voting) begins today in municipal clerks’ offices during normal business hours. The period for in-person absentee voting ends Friday, May 4 at 5 p.m. or the close of business, whichever is later.
Absentee Voting by Mail – Voters may request an absentee ballot from their local municipal clerk’s office. The deadline for most voters is 5 p.m. Thursday, May 3. The deadline for military and those who are indefinitely confined due to age, infirmity, health or disability is 5 p.m. Friday, May 4. Absentee ballots must be postmarked by Election Day, and received by 4 p.m. Friday, May 11 to be counted.
Voter Photo ID – The law is currently on hold as two lower court decisions stopping voter photo ID are being appealed. Given the normal amount of time appeals take, it is highly unlikely both injunctions would be overturned before the primary or the recall election on June 5. If that somehow happens, the G.A.B. and Wisconsin’s local election officials will be ready to implement the law.
Crossing Party Lines – Because each recall primary is a separate election event, voters may cross parties in the recall primary, but they may still only vote once per office. For example, in the Governor’s primary, you may only vote for one person, either a Republican or a Democratic candidate. There are only Democratic primaries for Lt. Governor and State Senate.
Write-in Votes – There have been rumors that the Governor could avoid a final recall election on June 5 if he won the Democratic primary by write-in votes. This is untrue. A person cannot be a candidate in two primaries for the same office. The G.A.B. has instructed clerks not to count write-in votes for anyone who is already a candidate in another primary for the same office and since the Governor is a primary candidate for the Republican Party, any write-in votes for the Governor in the Democratic Party are invalid.
2002 Senate Districts for 2012 Recalls – Under state law, State Senate recalls are held in the districts used for the past decade, not the new districts that take effect in November 2012.
Municipalities Split by Recall Senate Districts – The G.A.B. has identified 17 municipalities that are partially inside and partially outside of one or more Recall Senate Districts. In these municipalities, some voters will be able to vote in the State Senate recall elections, while others will only be eligible for the Governor and Lieutenant Governor elections. The list of municipalities is attached.
Check your registration – Elections Division Administrator Nat Robinson urged voters to use the Voter Public Access website at https://vpa.wi.gov to make sure that they are registered at their current address. Additionally, VPA will identify the races voters are eligible to vote in, and will tell voters whether they are eligible to vote within a Senate District that has a Recall election. Voters who are unsure about whether they are eligible to vote in a State Senate recall primary or election should contact their municipal clerk’s office directly. If you have not registered to vote yet or you have a problem with your registration, contact your local municipal clerk’s office to check your options. You can register at the polling place on Election Day.
Find your polling place — If you are a new voter, the Voter Public Access website can help you identify your polling place location or your municipal clerk’s office can also help you find it. Many newspapers also print the locations of polling places.
Know what proof of residence to bring — If you are already registered to vote, you will only need to state your name and address to receive a ballot, and are not required to provide any additional documentation. After stating your name, you will need to sign the poll list. If you are registering at the polling place, make sure you have proof of residence and your Wisconsin driver’s license number. If you do not have a Wisconsin driver’s license, you can use the number from your Wisconsin ID card, or the last four digits of your Social Security number. Proof of residence can be established with a current lease, recent utility bill, or other official document issued by a unit of government with the voter’s name and current address on it. A current university, college or technical institute photo ID is also acceptable if the institution has provided the polling place with a list of students who live in its housing and if the housing list includes
citizenship information.
Be prepared — Review your ballot before Election Day by checking out a sample ballot on the Voter Public Access website: https://vpa.wi.gov. A sample ballot will also be posted at the polling place. Make sure you know how to use the voting equipment where you live. Reviewing your ballot and voting equipment instructions before you get to the polls will help keep the lines moving on Election Day. Please contact an election official if you have any questions.
Avoid the crowds – Polling places are busier in the early morning and late afternoon hours as people head to and from work. Lunchtime is also a busier period of the day. To cut down on your waiting time at the polling place, consider voting during non-peak hours, such as the mid-morning or mid-afternoon periods. The polls are open from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. across Wisconsin.
Avoid bringing undue attention or risk causing a disturbance – Voters should not wear campaign paraphernalia such as campaign/candidate buttons, shirts, hats, etc. inside the polling place. Those who wear campaign paraphernalia may be asked to cover it up or leave.
Topics: State | No Comments »
Walker takes campaign out of state; still dogged by protesters
Gov. Scott Walker is taking his case to stay in office on the road, with an appearance before the Illinois Chamber of Commerce Tuesday before heading off to a GOP event in Troy, Mich.
And, of course, protesters will be with him every step of the way.
About two thousand union members “with a 20-foot inflatable rat and a taller cutout of Walker with the words ‘Don’t Badger Us’ on it protested outside,” an Associated Press story on the Springfield, Ill., Journal-Register website says. “Inside, the crowd greeted Walker with extended standing ovations.”
It’s the kind of reception Walker has consistently received, both in-state and out, since successfully stripping Wisconsin public employees of most of their collective bargaining rights last year. Last week, hundreds of anti-Walker activists converged outside a fundraiser in Oklahoma City.
Walker spoke Tuesday at the Abraham Lincoln Hotel and Conference Center in Springfield, prompting one pro-labor columnist to pen a “What-would-Lincoln-say?” column.
Undaunted, Walker compared himself to Lincoln, whom he called another politician who had “the courage to move the state forward.”
Walker, who is facing a recall election on June 5, called the appearance a campaign stop, telling reporters that if he got the boot, Wisconsin could face the same multibillion-dollar deficits as the Land of Lincoln.
That didn’t sit well with Democratic Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn, who issued a two-page critique of the Wisconsin governor.
He also caught flak from the Springfield paper’s editorial board.
“It is beyond baffling to us how a group like the Illinois Chamber — whose mission is to promote business in Illinois — believes its members will benefit by high-fiving the guy famous for starting a war against organized labor in his state,” says an editorial in the paper. (Here’s a link to a Journal-Register video of the anti-Walker rally Tuesday.)
From Springfield, Walker heads to a fundraising event in Michigan, where United Auto Workers officials are calling on members to show up in force.
Also last week, Walker appeared at the National Rifle Association national convention in St. Louis, where he asked for help in his recall election.
Topics: State, WSLB 1st Vice | No Comments »
Wisconsin governor greeted as Republican rock star
By SCOTT BAUER and SEAN MURPHY
Associated Press
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — The preacher’s son laughed and joked as he took a seat among the biggest players in Oklahoma politics, some of whom paid $10,000 to break bread with their conservative hero and get a photo snapped.
It was just another day on the road for Scott Walker. A year after his showdown with labor protesters, the Wisconsin governor has become one of the most sought-after figures in the Republican Party, keeping a jet-setting travel schedule more akin to a presidential candidate than a governor trying to survive a recall challenge.
“He’s exactly what this country needs in terms of leadership,” said banker Bob Emery of Enid, Okla., who was seated at a nearby table, clearly in awe. “The courage he has had … is what wells up in me. The man is absolutely doing what he believes in.”
Walker now regularly huddles with the wealthy and the famous. He attended a Christmas party thrown by Grover Norquist, the conservative power broker, and raised money with Hank Greenberg, founder and former CEO of American International Group, at his Manhattan office.
Last week, he mingled with Oklahoma’s corporate elite and top Republicans at a fundraiser co-sponsored by Koch Industries, the oil company led by billionaire brothers who are top backers of conservative causes nationwide. Also in attendance were executives from Devon Energy Corp., which is building a 50-story tower that is changing the Oklahoma City skyline.
As Walker stares down a June 5 recall election, he has used his cachet as a conservative hero to rake in campaign cash never before seen in Wisconsin. And it’s put his Democratic challengers at a disadvantage in their effort to make him only the third governor in the nation’s history to be ousted in a recall.
“He has become something of a rock star nationally for right-wing conservatives,” said Mike McCabe, director of the government watchdog group the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. “There’s appeal there, and I think he’s found it pretty easy to get people to crack their checkbooks.”
Texas financier Bob Perry cut Walker two $250,000 checks and is his single biggest donor. Perry helped pay for the Swift Boat Veterans ads that attacked Sen. John Kerry during the 2004 presidential campaign.
Those weren’t the only huge checks. Three prominent Missouri home builders and contractors each gave Walker $250,000.
And Michael Bidwill, president of the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals and a frequent donor to Republican candidates nationwide, contributed $25,000. But that didn’t even make him one of Walker’s top 30 contributors.
Fourteen of Walker’s top 20 donors are from outside Wisconsin, according to an analysis by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. Nine people gave $100,000 or more, including Wyoming Republican Foster Friess, who heavily backed Rick Santorum’s presidential campaign.
The Oklahoma event, co-sponsored by Koch Industries, Devon Energy and other conservative heavy hitters, was a fundraiser for a think tank aligned with the Heritage Foundation. Participants paid up to $10,000 per table for premium seating and a chance for a photo opportunity with Walker.
Republican Oklahoma state Sen. David Holt, who has sponsored changes to the state’s binding arbitration laws that benefit municipalities, was thrilled to meet Walker.
“I sure hope that he survives the recall in Wisconsin, because that will send a signal to all of us that we can do this and we can survive politically,” Holt said.
Walker is getting similar reactions all across the country. He’s been to California, New York, Texas, Arizona, Kentucky, Tennessee and Florida just to name a few. On Friday, he was in St. Louis to receive the National Rifle Association’s Harlon B. Carter Legislative Achievement Award, the highest honor conferred by the gun-rights group.
Walker got loud cheers and a standing ovation both when he was introduced and when he completed his speech. As he approached the podium, a woman yelled out, “We’re with you, Scott!” He replied, “We’re with you too.”
All of the traveling helped him raise $12.1 million between January 2011 and mid-January of this year. That is the most ever raised by a candidate for state office in Wisconsin, breaking the record Walker himself set by raising $10 million on his way to victory in 2010.
“We’ve never seen this kind of thing before in living memory,” McCabe said. “There’s no precedent for it. We’ve never seen this much outside money in state elections in Wisconsin.”
McCabe predicts the total amount spent on the recall election will be between $60 million and $80 million, shattering the previous record of about $37 million from the 2010 governor’s race Walker won.
While Walker is tapping a national fundraising base, it’s not so easy knowing where he has been, where he is or where he plans to go. His campaign refuses to release his private schedule, saying it is under no obligation to do so.
Deputy Campaign Manager Dan Blum did not respond to a question asking why Walker was spending so much time out of state when he faces a recall. Walker downplayed his out-of-state travels during a stop in Oconomowoc, Wis., on Wednesday.
“It’s just a small factor,” he said. “In the last month I’ve made hundreds of stops. Only a fraction have been in neighboring states. Overwhelmingly it’s in the state of Wisconsin.”
Walker said his travels allow him to spread his message to people who may be interested in investing and creating jobs in Wisconsin.
Part of the problem with publicizing his schedule is that protesters tend to follow wherever he goes.
Union organizers claimed victory after Walker canceled an appearance at a November fundraiser in Wichita, Kan., with Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback and Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus.
Walker would not say why he backed out, but unions said their promise of having thousands of protesters there scared him away. Still, the governor was undeterred by about 200 protesters who lined the streets outside the Oklahoma City event.
During a Tuesday visit to Springfield, Ill., Walker was confronted by an estimated 4,000 demonstrators, many of them union members from Chicago and elsewhere.
One of them held a sign that said, “Go back to Wisconsin. Oh, wait they don’t want you either.”
—
Bauer reported from Madison, Wis. Associated Press writers Carrie Antlfinger in Oconomowoc, Wis., Jim Salter in St. Louis and John O’Connor in Springfield, Ill., also contributed to this report.
Topics: State | No Comments »
