Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Sometimes Walker Likes Online Disclosure, Sometimes Not

Interesting that Walker's folks are pushing for disclosure online of recall signatories' full information - but the Walker campaign is still out of compliance with state law mandating full disclosure of donor employment information in hundreds of instances covering hundreds of thousands of dollars dating to 2009, records show.

That's how you muddy the impact of campaign donations and public records.

I have a request in to the Milwaukee County Election Commission asking about Walker's county executive campaign committee filings, too. I don't see them online, and they may have been filed on paper forms rather than electronic spreadsheets.

That's how you muddy the importance of disclosure: minimal compliance.

Reminds me of the way that Tommy's gubernatorial committee used to complicate matters for people pouring through their paper filings at the former Wisconsin Elections Board (now part of the Governmental Accountability Board, GAB): deliberately not filing contributor names alphabetically.

And for Walker: when your office and operatives are running a communications system designed to defeat Open Records requirements, and your donation statements are incomplete, for years, the demand for the recall petitions disclosure on some principled basis rings hypocritically.

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