Delaying The Recall Election Does Not Help Walker
Wherein we begin with the news of the day and end with French poetry:
Litigation by the Republicans forces the Government Accountability Board to expand its recall signature verification procedures, the Journal Sentinel is reporting, and that will further extend the eventual election scheduling.
At first glance, that looks to play into Walker's hand, but be careful what you wish for and achieve.
Delay will enable Walker to continue to raise unlimited funds from one-percenters who will make it a priority to save his bacon.
And delay gives Walker's legislative allies more time to rush through an agenda that rewards developers and lets donors grab for the state's wetlands, woodlands and watersheds for everything from bigger piers to subdivisions to open-pit mines.
But here is the downside for Walker: Two of his former Milwaukee County aides - - and one, Tim Russell, is a long-term friend and adviser - - have been charged with corruption, and to make matters worse for Walker, Russell's roommate, a Walker campaign hanger-on, has been charged with sexual misconduct.
None of this is the kind of business for Wisconsin that Walker would tout in a campaign.
Plus: Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm said at the charging news conference last week that his investigation was still open, and if you will remember, the first charges months ago were related to illegal campaign donations to the Walker campaign by a railroad executive, William Gardner.
It sure feels like more shoes will drop, and if you are running in a campaign, those are not the footfalls you want to hear behind you.
It may be that the charges against Tim Russel, et al, were something of a tangent - - with that strand of an investigation drawn out by Attorney General J. B. Van Hollen's refusal to provide Chisholm technical assistance, as he'd requested.
But now that matter is more or less wrapped up from an investigatory perspective, so the focus of the John Doe could get back back to other issues and money trails.
Additional charges - - and I admit this is speculative - - would snowball and create a pattern of failed judgement and leadership by Walker just as he is trying to make the case that he deserves to remain in office.
If that scenario unfolds, Walker will be campaigning for traction in quicksand.
I ran across some lines from the poet Jean Racine the other day, and they seem to fit Walker's predicament:
"Now see the sad fruits your faults produced,/ Feel the blows you have yourselves induced.”
8 comments:
Perhaps most importantly is that by delaying, it also allows those undecided state residents more time to see that his plans are working.
I would like to see the Walker election on the same day the presidential election in November of 2012.
There couldn't be a sweeter day in politics... Walker wins and Obama loses. America and WI will be back on track. Can't wait!
It's going to be Morning in America all over again!
I don't deny that Walker's plans are working. I'm just amazed that you like this, RD.
Walker's plan is to turn Wisconsin into another Illinois, with his cronies extracting what wealth remains here and leaving the rest of us with the mess to clean up.
They are working. But why are you so happy about this?
"I would just like to say, thank you Scott Walker for keeping this low paying school custodian in poverty. Now that I take home even less money, I qualified for FOOD STAMPS….Thanks to your cuts, I don’t have any money to buy Christmas gifts this year….Thanks for keeping me in poverty for the rest of my life…. Wisconsin, It’s not working for ME!"
"Therefore, Scott Walker gave the white rich people the tools they need to provide everyone the equal opportunity to escape the grips of poverty with a good education to become productive members of society slash school budgets, hack at teachers’ family budgets, and further imperil our childrens’ futures."
"Onalaska Mayor Mike Giese was not impressed with the effectiveness of the “tools” Gov. Scott Walker’s budget repair bill gave the city to deal with cuts in state payments to the city, nor with the general approach Walker took in balancing the state budget.
“Not only is the method wrong, the objective is wrong,” Giese said. “Our position is our employees weren’t overpaid to begin with.”
For 2012, Onalaska will have a net loss of $139,783 in state payments to the city, about a 10 percent cut.
The city got no savings from the health care cost shift because employees already were paying 20 percent of their insurance premiums. The city saved $44,103 from the increased pension contribution requirement, but that was only from nonunion employees. The union employees were still covered by a contract.
So that cuts the financial loss to $95,680 for Onalaska. And much of the money the city did save from Walker’s tools were negated when the council approved a wage readjustment package in August based on a study done several years ago that showed the city’s wages lagged well behind workers at comparable cities. The average raise for nonunion employees from the wage adjustment package was
5.9 percent.
Giese said, “Time will tell” whether doing away with most aspects of collective bargaining for union employees will save the city any money in the future. But Giese said the approach Walker has taken to dealing with public employees may end up costing taxpayers in unforeseen ways because experienced employees will leave for greener pastures.“I feel very strongly that the cost associated with turnover in an organization is surprisingly high. Tenure in the job really does provide increased efficiency,” Giese said. “The pennies we gain aren’t going to offset the dollars we lose in lack of stability and tranquility within our workforce,”
"Scott Walker is a tool. Republicans live in their own mythical fairytale where they don't need trains because they all ride fire-breathing dragons to work in their self-owned businesses that make millions of dollars selling Chinese crap that ruins our GDP and leads to downsizing."
@ Anon 1
If you are a custodian that now qualifies for food stamps because a a small pension contribution is now required, please do not blame Governor Walker.
Have you looked for other employment? Have you done anything to improve your professional skill set like attending night classes or job related seminars?
In fact, you should really thank Walker because the alternative could have easily been losing your job permanently.
Reagan's Disciple, every school needs a custodian. Why should custodians be paid so little that they qualify for food stamps?
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