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No Recourse for Known Recall Petition Irregularities?

Phil Scarr — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 14:24:18 +0000

While it pains me to say it, the Walkerbots might have a point on the verification process. There is a shortcoming in the language of the recall law that should at least be discussed.

The law, as written, affords no third-party groups or individuals a seat at the recall verification table. The law is quite clear.

(9.10(3)(b)): Within 10 days after the petition is offered for filing, the officer against whom the petition is filed may file a written challenge with the official, specifying any alleged insufficiency.

Only the “officer against whom the petition is filed” may challenge the insufficiency of the recall signatures. This means that only Scott Walker or his direct agents may challenge signatures. To be fair, this is a limit that is imposed on all officials, we’re not singling out Scott Walker or the other targets of recall this time around for special treatment. Nor am I advocating changing the law in the middle of the process. But I do believe that the legislature needs to take up the issue of who should be allowed to challenge signatures.

Where does this leave the individual voter who knows their signature appeared on the recall but knows she did not sign it? It seems to me that this is a serious shortcoming in the way the law is written.

So let me as you all, what do you think?

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Verify the “Verify the Recall”

Jeff Simpson — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 12:38:22 +0000

There has been much written about the recall verification process, from me pointing out that the fraud people are complaining about is NOT fraud, then Phil points out that statistically there will be very little fraud, then Steve points out that maybe the Fraud they did find is not exactly what it seems.

Today, as Jay has pointed out before, GAB is finally abiding by their statutes. That upset the "~~tea party~~ " i mean the verify people tremendously.

Ross Brown, president of the tea party group We the People of the Republic, said the elections board wasn’t doing enough to weed out fraud, and that “clean and honest elections” are at stake.

“We are finding abnormalities, we are finding duplicates,” said Larry Gamble, spokesman for the Wisconsin GrandSons of Liberty, the other tea party group. The two groups had enlisted more than 13,000 volunteers, including at least one person from all 50 states, to help build a database to review the signatures, he said.

We have already pointed out the dangers and reasons behind the "tea party" placing these addresses online. Let us now focus on one of the key players – Larry Gamble. While they claim that they have 13000 “volunteers’ from all 50 states, they are all anonymous, except for Mr. Gamble.

“What we’re providing is a way for citizens to be involved,” said Larry Gamble, a member of the Tea Party Group, The GrandSons of Liberty.

Mr. Gamble has been involved before so let’s take a look. Larry gamble is a Milwaukee Blogger, who challenged jeff stone in the republican primary. During the protests at the capitol last year, Mr., Gamble placed open records requests to many of the school districts in the state to get a list of names of teachers who took time off to protest. Apparently Mr. Gamble has an obsession with putting lists of people’s names in the public realm.

Unfortunately that is not all that Mr. Gamble has an obsession with. He, and his organization Grandsons of Liberty, have a problem with minorities and students actually voting. Mr. Gamble is also against government spending, unless of course taxpayer money and facilities are used for one of his extremist rallies.

So if that is the record and background of the “non-partisan just wanting fair elections” verify the recall” “fraud” watch team it makes one shudder to think who all the people they are hiding anonymously are.

In the end what do the verify people want anyway? $$$$ Money of course!

That all being said, I believe that the signatures should be verified, but let’s do it right. Let us make sure that we have above board people with ethics and morals, without a hidden agenda, who we can trust to actually verify these signatures. Unfortunately, “verify the recall” is not it!

PS: If you check out the facebook page of the “non-partisan” verify the recall, you will notice that any liberal or progressive who has joined and commented has had their comments censored and subsequently been banned from the group.

Statistics and the Recall

Phil Scarr — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 01:48:57 +0000

Before he passed away in 1995, my dad was the Deputy Director of the US Census. So I spent a lot of time hearing about statistics growing up. I was pleased to see that someone, in this case the Journal-Sentinel, decided to test a statistically significant sample of the Recall petitions and reached the conclusion that only 15% of the signatures could not be verified.

After randomly selecting petitions and names from the accountability board web site, the newspaper checked available public records including the Wisconsin courts database, a state voter database, LexisNexis.com, the White Pages and other online search engines.

For most of the 73 signatures that couldn’t be verified, there was a record that the person existed and was of voting age, but no address could be found to match the one listed on the petition.

A name was considered invalid in the newspaper review if no record could be found for the signee at the address listed, if they weren’t old enough to vote or if they were a felon under state supervision.

What’s interesting that the errors discovered were not for the breathless GOP fears of Mickey Mouse and Adolf Hitler, but instead it was real people who, for some reason, got some piece of their information incorrect. Lassitude and not fraud seem to be the source of these errors.

But even with a 15% error rate, there will be no problem ~~bringing Scott Walker to justice~~ recalling Scott Walker.

Recall Petition Fraud, Tea Party Style

Steve Carlson — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 22:14:41 +0000

The Racine County Sheriff’s Department is investigating a case of signature fraud in the drive to recall GOP Senator Van Wangaard. The fraudulent signatures were submitted by a man, Mark Demet, who may have ties to the Racine County Tea Party and the Racine County chapter of Citizens for Responsible Government

For several weeks now Tea Squawkers around the state have been hollering at the top of their lungs about signature fraud within the various recall efforts statewide. What a prescient bunch, indeed! How did they know in advance that fraud would be discovered? Hmmmmm.

Here’s hoping Demet is charged and that any other suspicious signatures discovered throughout the process are investigated as well.

Erpenbach Strikes Back

Jeff Simpson — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:54:17 +0000

The story came out yesterday that The republicans were unanimous in swearing their secrecy, to Michael, Best & Freidrich while they spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money to make sure they had as many republican friendly districts as possible.

The problem with that(ok there are numerous problems, but one of the problems was the republicans denied the democrats legal representation. The republicans pointed out that thanks to MB & F, everyone was represented. They just forgot to ever let the democrats get involved. That did not sit well with Jon Erpenbach and he let them know with this letter:

Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Eric McLeod

Michael, Best and Friedrich

One South Pinckney St.

Suite 700

Madison, WI 53707

Dear Mr. McLeod,

Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) has insisted from the start of the redistricting process that the process has not been political in nature. He even went so far as to deny Senate Democrats legal representation in this process, saying that the Senate already had a law firm: yours. That fact was restated by his staff, when ask by myself, as a member of the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Utilities and Government Operations during a recent hearing. During that hearing, I asked Sen. Fitzgerald’s staff on more than one occasion, and more than one way, if politics were involved with redistricting. His answer was always the same, “no.”

Therefore, it is my understanding, as the elected State Senator of the 27th Senate District, I am your client. As your client I would like to review the file regarding your firm’s work on redistricting.

Attorney client privilege should not be an issue here because I am one of the 33 clients you represent.

If it’s not your understanding that your firm represents all 33 Wisconsin State Senators, then perhaps we need further clarification from Sen. Fitzgerald. Otherwise, please provide me with a copy of the entire redistricting file.

To be very clear, I really have a disdain for reading about a case that involves me and the entire Wisconsin State Senate in the newspaper.

Sincerely,

Jon Erpenbach

State Senator

27th Senate District

I will anxiously await the response to this letter! This is starting to get interesting!

The Once and Future Shill

Phil Scarr — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:19:17 +0000

Shill: A shill, plant or stooge is a person who helps a person or organization without disclosing that he or she has a close relationship with that person or organization. Shill typically refers to someone who purposely gives onlookers the impression that he or she is an enthusiastic independent customer of a seller (or marketer of ideas) that he or she is secretly working for. The person or group that hires the shill is using crowd psychology, to encourage other onlookers or audience members to purchase the goods or services (or accept the ideas being marketed). Shills are often employed by confidence artists.

Rick Esenberg is, and always will be, a partisan hack. A mouthpiece trotted out before the press by the state GOP to render his “opinions” on a variety of topics that affect the lives of the people of Wisconsin. The trouble is, Professor Rick is a lawyer, and his opinions are different from yours or mine. I don’t mean that he holds different opinions, I mean that his opinions are part of his job as an attorney. When he is asked to “render an opinion,” he is bound by the canons of ethics for lawyers in Wisconsin. Lawyers are paid and expected to render opinions based on the facts and not on the party line. In his zeal to play the slavish lapdog to his Republican masters, he sometimes forgets this. He and Michael Gableman share this trait. But Professor Rick has never been bothered by ethical conflicts in the past, so why should he start now?

He can be guaranteed to toe the party line each and every time. The GOPs pet law professor.

So it’s always satisfying when he gets his ass handed to him in public by Peter Earle. Watch from a hearing on redistricting from July, 2011.

What makes this video so disturbing (and it is disturbing) is that, at the time, Peter Earle wondered publicly what information Professor Rick might have had access to that the rest of the hearing participants did not. How was Professor Rick able to render a legal opinion on data in such a short period of time?

Well silly me for thinking the GOP would ever play by the rules of governance. As it turns out, Voices de la Frontera, Earle’s client at the time, have now filed a complaint with the state that the GOP violated the open records law in their redistricting process.

Documents released yesterday showed that virtually all G-O-P lawmakers signed confidentiality agreements which promised not to discuss the maps while they were being written. And they were told that those who speak out could be called as witnesses in court. The documents also said that 33-of-the-58 Republican Assembly members would pick up additional voters under the new districts. The documents were released after three federal judges in the redistricting suit said G-O-P legislators filed frivolous legal requests, so they could hide their actions in creating the new maps. Those maps will be used for the first time in this fall’s elections unless the courts overturn them.

The complaint states, in part:

On June 20, 2011, Adam Foltz drafted a document captioned “General Talking Points” which he described during his sworn testimony on February 1, 2012, as talking points to guide the discussion at each of the individual meetings he had with each member of the Assembly who had previously signed a secrecy agreement. The talking points memo stated that the redistricting bill was a “placeholder map” and that “if the Senate comes back in the majority, we may come back and adjust.” Mr. Foltz testified at his deposition that the preceding sentence was referring to the then pending recall elections that were scheduled for August 9, 2011. The talking points memo also stated that “Public comments on this map may be different than what you hear in this room. Ignore the public comments.” The talking points memo then explicitly stated that the previously signed secrecy agreement applied to the individual meeting between Mr. Foltz and each individual Republican representative…. (emphasis in original)

The complaint asserts that this entire process is a violation of the Open Meetings law, a law these clowns have tripped over in the past.

So the real question I have is what did Professor Rick know and when did he know it? He certainly seemed to have some special knowledge back in July to which no one else was privy. He rendered an opinion of the fairness of the redistricting. We’re left with only two conclusions:

1. Professor Rick is incompetent and rendered a legal opinion on a limited understanding of the facts in evidence
2. Professor Rick is corrupt and rendered a legal opinion on preferential access to facts not in evidence

Which is it, Professor Rick? Take your pick…

Karen Handel Bent on Further Destruction of the Komen Brand

Steven Reynolds — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 17:28:39 +0000

I wrote last Thursday that the worst result of the underhanded intrigues at the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation was the harm that occured to the Komen Brand. Once one of the most respected and popular nonprofits in the nation, the powers that be at Komen decided through intrigue and deception to defund their partnership with Planned Parenthood, a partnership that provided tens of thousands of poor women the screenings and breast exams necessary for the saving of countless lives. That’s the crux of the issue, that donors can no longer trust Komen to either race for a cure or to race for prevention without the ugly politics of abortion getting in the way.

The story really hasn’t changed much over the last five days. Sure, Komen has given over a nonapology apology, failing to admit to their underhanded political manueverings. And they say that Planned Parenthood will still be eligible for grants in the future, though I’m interested to see if they follow through on that pledge. They have squandered their trust, after all. As I noted on Thursday, Elizabeth Thompson, and perhaps especially Vice President Karen Handel, were responsible for an unprecedented destruction of the Komen brand. Today’s news? It appears that Karen Handel has decided she has not done enough as yet to destroy the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation.

Karen Handel is resigning. That is necessary for Komen to cure itself, and surely Komen must also come clean about its deceptions in order to regain the trust of donors. Handel’s resignation letter, available from several sources online, such as at The New Civil Rights Movement, gives much insight into the backroom manueverings at Komen, but clearly with her own PR spin. All that’s going to do is further alienate those already offended by Komen’s actions. Handel’s press conference later today will only exacerbate the matter. And Komen sits on its hands all the while.

What’s the real takeaway here? Karen Handel will further damage the Komen brand, and seemingly willfully. As indicated at this column in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, and in Handel’s resignation letter, Karen Handel has refused severance pay from Komen, which almost certainly would have required that she not spill her guts in public.

The self-congratulatory spin Karen Handel gives in her resignation letter throws both Komen President Elizabeth Thompson and Komen CEO Nancy Brinker under the bus, showing that the excuses they have given for the Susan G, Komen for the Cure Foundation’s actions have been all lies and spin. That’s Handel’s first action in further damaging the Komen brand. Today Handel will hold a press conference where she will surely show more clearly how all the PR spin laid out by Komen over the last week has been a tapestry of lies. More damage to the Komen brand and to the organization to which Handel claims reverence. And I GUARANTEE Karen Handel will be appearing on FoxNews, that most political of outlets, tonight, where she will likely claim that none of this was political at all.

Nancy Brinker needs a new strategy here, and that is to own up to everything, and to commit to a program of doubling its outreach to the underserved women served by the Planned Parenthood grant. Brinker claims she is working to learn from mistakes, but she needs to be proactive with more than words on a website. That’s the only way out of this mess. Komen won’t take this route if they continue to rely on Ari Fleischer for advice, that’s for sure.

Scott Walker should hold himself to the standard he demanded for Jim Doyle

Zach W — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:12:54 +0000

Over at Uppity Wisconsin, xoff has done a great job of pointing out the hypocrisy of Scott Walker (as if there was any doubt he’s a hypocrite).

In this case, Scott Walker’s hypocrisy stems from statements he made in 2006 after Georgia Thompson, a mid-level state employee appointed by then-Republican Gov. Scott McCallum, was indicted on trumped-up federal charges. Thompson was later convicted of the charges, though in April 2007 a federal court of appeals overturned Thompson’s conviction, calling the evidence against her “beyond thin” and ordering her release from custody that same day.

The timing of Thompson’s indictment and conviction were certainly convenient, given that then-Gov. Doyle was facing a tough reelection fight, and predictably Republicans followed Thompson’s indictment with a barrage of press releases and ads attacking Gov. Doyle and his administration for corruption. Despite the best efforts of Republicans to smear him, Gov. Doyle won reelection.

So here’s where Scott Walker fits into this story. At the time, Walker was still Milwaukee County Executive, and he was also seeking the Republican gubernatorial nomination, and when news of Thompson’s indictment broke, Walker was quick to attack Gov. Doyle as corrupt, stating he “condones unethical and illegal behavior.”

From WisPolitics.com:

Statement from Milwaukee County Executive and Candidate for Governor Scott Walker on the Indictment of one of Jim Doyle’s Top Aides in the Department of Administration:

“The indictment handed down today shows how corruption can infiltrate all areas of government.

Unfortunately we have a Governor and administration that condones unethical and illegal behavior. The people of Wisconsin deserve better.”

“Today’s indictment provides further confirmation that the Doyle administration is damaged and must be removed from the Capitol. Jim Doyle’s political connections to this aide are, without question, mentioned as a defining piece of the evidence used to bring forth this indictment.” …

“Governor Doyle needs to purge his administration of individuals who place politics and special
interests ahead of the people of Wisconsin….

“Little can be said to underscore the seriousness of this charge. I am hopeful that the people of Wisconsin will allow me the opportunity to clean up Madison with the same fervor that guided my reform movement in Milwaukee County.”

Clearly Scott Walker didn’t pull any punches in his attack on Gov. Jim Doyle, but I can’t help but wonder if Scott Walker circa 2012 will hold himself to the standard Scott Walker circa 2006 demanded of then-Gov. Doyle.

Will Scott Walker demand the resignation of those members of his administration that were complicit in the commission of crimes? After all, it’s a stretch to think that Cullen Werwie and Brett Davis, both of whom currently work in Walker’s administration, had no knowledge of the criminal activities committed by Kelly Rindfleisch on behalf of Davis’ Lt. Governor campaign during the time she was serving as Walker’s Deputy Chief of Staff in the Milwaukee County Executive’s office.

If Scott Walker were to actually hold himself to the standard he expected of a Democratic governor, he’d ask for – no, demand – the resignations of Brett Davis and Cullen Werwie, and he’d resign the governorship.

“Ignore the Public Comments”

Jeff Simpson — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 05:33:38 +0000

If you take away anything from this next story, as egregious as it is, remember that line. That should be the mantel that the democrats use to prop up their republican counterparts in the upcoming election.

Now on to the story: JSonline delved into more detail regarding the republicans redistricting process. and the one word to describe this process: WOW!

First off, republicans had to SIGN Secrecy agreements:

Other newly released documents also show almost all Republican lawmakers signed legal agreements promising not to discuss the new maps while they were being developed…The agreement tells each lawmaker “you agree not to disclose the fact and/or contents of such discussions or any draft documents within your possession.”

All the agreements were also signed by Eric McLeod of Michael Best & Friedrich, one of several attorneys who advised lawmakers on the maps. Legislative leaders have committed $400,000 in taxpayer money to pay Michael Best and the Troupis Law Office for their work on the maps.

Quick aside: If the name Eric McLeod sounds familiar, he is the lawyer who bought Michael Gableman.

The republicans (specifically Adam Foltz, a legislative aide to Jeff Fitzgerald who helped draft the maps), where this gem was written.

“Public comments on this map may be different than what you hear in this room. Ignore the public comments,” the talking points also say.

Why whatever does that mean? Adam Foltz is no help, he had no idea he wrote them. Luckily we have people like attorney Peter Earle who tells us

it was clear from the case’s record that GOP lawmakers were being told to ignore what their leaders were saying publicly and to focus on what they said in private.

translation: the republicans will be lying in public but working on it behind the scenes. Do not believe anything they say.

This case was started in court in December when Mr. Foltz testified that the new maps were not meant to increase the GOP majority.

Foltz said those who developed the maps used election data from 2000 to 2010 in helping decide where to draw the lines. Yet the goal of the maps was not to increase the GOP’s advantage in elections, he testified.

Not sure Adam rally wants to perjure himself at such a young age to protect the Fitzgerald family. You are too young to start your career like this, Ask Tim Russell what trying to cover up for your boss gets you. Hopefully there is still time for Mr. Foltz to correct his story. Since we now know he is not telling the truth:

The new batch of records also includes memos from Foltz to Republican lawmakers telling them how GOP candidates performed in their districts under the new and old maps. In a deposition in December, Foltz testified the new maps were not meant to increase the GOP majority in the Legislature.

Of the 58 Republicans in the state Assembly at the time, 33 would pick up additional Republican voters. For instance, the district for freshman Rep. Mike Endsley (R-Sheboygan) would go from marginally to solidly Republican.

Those Republican representatives experiencing a drop in the number of Republican voters in their district under the redistricting plan would still have a strong Republican majority of voters. For instance, the district represented by Rep. Joel Kleefisch (R-Oconomowoc) would still be about 60% Republican despite losing a share of its GOP bases under the redistricting plan.

Legal secrecy agreements, eric mcleod, Michael Best & Freidrich, only republicans allowed, new maps where it was broken down by republicans in the district, none of that was done politically? Yes if you believe that you will believe that Scott walker is voluntarily meeting with DA Chisholm.

As for Attorney Earle, here he is testifying at the joint public hearing on redistricting.

Peter, Paul & Debbie

Jeff Simpson — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 04:37:07 +0000

Former Michigan republican congressman and senate hopeful, is running against Senator Debbie Stabenow! Not having ideas to run on, Hoekstra went all in and bought a local ad during the Super Bowl. Instead of coming up with new ideas on how he was going to help turn Michigan’s economy around, he decided to go full fledged racist:

That commercial did not sit very well with most local leaders and clergy, including many republicans.

“It is very disturbing that Mr. Hoekstra’s campaign chose to use harmful negative stereotypes that intrinsically encourage anti-Asian sentiment,”the Asian & Pacific Islander American Vote group said in a statement.

On Twitter, Time magazine columnist and GOP consultant Mike Murphy called the 30-second spot “really, really dumb.”

Several Detroit ministers condemned the ad, too.

“The Asian woman speaking in this video would be no different than him having a black person speaking in slave dialect,” the Rev. Charles Williams II said in a statement Monday. “If Pete Hoekstra does not see any wrong in this commercial, he doesn’t deserve to be in the race.”

Just a quick aside…who lends their endorsement to Hoekstar and his negative, racist campaign? Why none other than Paul Ryan (R – Wall St.) (at least I think that is Paul Ryan not quite sure what he is attempting with his facial hair there). As pink Slip Paulie says

“This election will be a clear choice of what kind of people we want to be…”

I could not agree more and I choose to stand against racism. Where do you stand now paul?