Keith Gilkes resigns…and how do you spin it?

I will let the other pundits on Blogging Blue discuss the ramifications of the resignation of Keith Gilkes as Governor Walker’s Chief of Staff. But it is interesting how different people decide on how to report it or spin it.

WISN Channel 12 for instance, offered this headline: Walker’s Chief Of Staff Resigns. And here’s a few excerpts:

Gov. Scott Walker’s chief of staff who helped guide the administration during the tumult over public-employee unions and passage of his first state budget is stepping down

Gilkes said his resignation is unrelated to an ongoing secret investigation that stemmed from questions of whether current and former Walker aides took part in political activity on taxpayer time. He said he just felt the time was right to return to the private sector.

An earlier version of the WISN story stated that Gilkes said he’d be willing to work on a recall election if necessary. The current version

Gilkes, 34, hinted the timing was linked to promised efforts to recall Walker…

This edit may have been in response to the article at the venerable Milwaukee Journal Sentinel which with: Gilkes to leave Walker’s staff to head campaign for expected recall attempt.

Just a little bit different spin from one of the governor’s more ardent media supporters. The first lines of the article:

In the latest sign Gov. Scott Walker is preparing for a recall effort, his chief of staff is leaving the governor’s office to work on his campaign.

Keith Gilkes ran Walker’s campaign last year, helped lead his transition and has served as chief of staff since Walker’s January swearing in. Gilkes will return to his political consulting firm on Oct. 8.

Gilkes disclosed his plans to top Walker aides during a cabinet meeting Friday at a Madison hotel. In an interview, he said he would serve as lead adviser to Walker’s campaign, but also take on other clients for campaign work.

And posted at WisPolitics.com is what appears to be the official press release from the governor’s office via Cullen Werwie. The governor leads with the promotion of Eric Schutt to the chief of staff position and mentions Mr. Gilkes as almost an afterthought! And he stays as far away from a campaign of any kind in his ‘praise of Mr. Gilkes:

“Keith did an outstanding job helping to craft and implement our ambitious pro-jobs agenda,” said Walker. “I would like to thank him for his dedication to public service, and acknowledge the tremendous amount of time and energy he spent working to help improve state government. “I believe we have a team in place that will help our state create and execute policies aimed at allowing the private sector to create 250,000 new jobs by 2015.”

And then the release goes on to further discuss the rearrangement of the deck chairs on the titanic that is the governor’s office. And I don’t see it here but one of the things I read today stated that one of the appointments announced today was to a new position…so chalk up one more new job that Gov. Walker has created!