Did Pridemore coordinate his questionable press release?

I blogged earlier today about State DPI Superintendent candidate Tony Evers’ use of state resources to engage in campaign-related activities. However, as some bloggers and the Democratic Party of Wisconsin have noted, Republican State Representative Don Pridemore may have violated state election laws for an email he sent off using his state email account, and now there’s grumbling that Pridemore coordinated his questionable press release with the campaign of DPI Superintendent candidate Rose Fernandez before he released it:

“The Democratic Party already has evidence that Fernandez and Pridemore were in contact on DPI issues,” said Jason Stephany, Executive Director of the DPW. “Now Fernandez needs to come clean and admit that her campaign helped orchestrate this illegal campaign attack the GAB is poised to investigate.”

The DPW is asking Pridemore’s office to immediately release all e-mails, memos, letters, phone logs, and daily calendars related to the DPI race, Rose Fernandez or Tony Evers. Pridemore’s office must also release all records of meetings with Fernandez or any member of her staff.

Last week Pridemore violated state ethics rules by using his taxpayer-funded office to launch a blatant campaign attack against DPI candidate Tony Evers.

This was a calculated political attack, done on the taxpayer dime, designed to assist Fernandez.

If Rep. Pridemore did coordinate his Fernandez-friendly attack on Tony Evers with the Fernandez campaign before he issued his press release, then hopefully he’ll be punished, just as Tony Evers is likely to be punished for his apparent transgression of election law.