Pro-Mining Campaign Against Sen. Carpenter Makes Unsubstantiated Claim

The Club for Growth Wisconsin claims State Sen. Tim Carpenter, (D-Milwaukee) was the pivotal "no" vote on the mining bill despite a pledge of $100 million in mining-related purchases from local businesses.

I've seen no confirmation of that figure - - and blaming Carpenter overlooks a true fact: that the bill lost 17-16 in the Republican-controlled State Senate because a GOP Senator, Dale Schultz of Richland Center, voted "no" because the bill threatened water quality and weakened the permit review process.

And the ad claim is at odds with published reports that said any purchases from local mining companies were the bill to pass were purely speculative - - and would be far, far down the road because of the multiple permitting and legal hurdles cited by DNR Secretary Cathy Stepp and others that an open-pit iron ore mine up North would have to overcome.

But the ad (there is a Spanish-language version, too, as Carpenter's blue-collar south side district is heavily Hispanic) is evidence of the GOP-led partisan PR campaign being waged by Gov. Walker, his DNR Secretary, and talk radio in support of the mining bill and against the opponents.