Republican gubernatorial candidate Scott Walker’s fond of talking about how he packs a brown bag lunch to take to work with him during those long, hard days laboring over a desk as Milwaukee County Executive; in fact, he’s even set up a website to encourage supporters to join his “Brown Bag Movement.” While it’s certainly a great campaign narrative, Scott Walker’s brown bagging ways don’t seem to extend to his campaign, which has run up $24,500 in bills for Walker’s meals, campaign meetings that included meals for Walker, his staff and others, and food and drinks for fundraising events since mid-2008. In contrast, the campaigns of Walker’s Republican primary rival Mark Neumann and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Barrett spent some money on food and drinks for fundraisers for their campaigns but virtually nothing on meals for themselves and their campaign meetings. For instance, Barrett’s gubernatorial campaign reported spending roughly $10,000 on food and beverages for fundraisers in the last six months of 2009, but little was spent for meals for the candidate and his staff.
While Walker’s campaign has been touting their “Brown Bag Movement,” they’ve been spending thousands upon thousands of dollars at places like Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse in Middleton ($2,182), Timmer’s in West Bend ($805), the Capital Grille in Washington, D.C. ($230), in addition to at least seven bills of more than $30 apiece at the Ambassador Hotel in Milwaukee. Walker’s a regular at the Envoy Restaurant at the Ambassador Hotel in Milwaukee, so the fact that his campaign paid at least seven bills at Envoy isn’t surprising; to be honest, I’m surprised there weren’t more charges at Envoy.
The “Brown Bag Movement?” More like Bag Scott Walker, a Grade-A hypocrite.
What gubernatorial campaign purpose could be met at The Capitol Grille in DC?
The whole brown bag movement is a farce. It was inspired by a direct mail campaign launched by SCM and Associates, based in Dublin, NH. They are listed as a vendor in Scott Walker’s campaign finance report. Earlier last year, they mailed a “brown bag” fundraising package across Wisconsin. This is direct mail package that SCM and Associates has used before for other clients, including U.S. Senator George Voinovich. See the package here: http://www.scmassoc.com/hall-of-fame.html#v
Additionally, you can see a copy of the fundraising letter for Voinovich here: http://www.scmassoc.com/Pollie-Awards/Voinovich%20Pollie.pdf
In both the Walker and Voinovich packages, the spouses of the candidates attest to how their man is frugal.
Scott Walker’s campaign finance report clearly demonstrates that he is really not much of a brown bagger. The high priced meals and frequent trips to Subway indicate that Walker’s brown bag “movement” is nothing more than a gimmick manufactured by a high priced New Hampshire Republican p.r. firm that works for dozens of Republican candidates across America.
I don’t understand the criticism. The brown bag movement refers to Walker’s fiscal policy as a County Executive, which of course is spot on. Then some hack from the AP incorrectly applies it to his gubernatorial campaign, which is primarily run by volunteers that denote their labor for a few free meals. It makes no sense.
And I’ve seen very, very few major candidates who do things appreciably different than their opponents. They all get a lot of money from rich individuals and corporate or organized labor – the percentages vary, but not nearly as much as partisans from both sides would have us believe.
It’s shocking that somebody running for governor would have a meeting & dinner in DC? Really? Has Barrett really not done something similar with his national party leaders?
And of course we have Obama who was a “new kind of candidate.” Early on, when Hillary was out-raising him in private funds, he supported public financing. But after he won the nomination and out-raised McCain by a wide margin, the public financing was off the table.
Nothing new under the sun. These, “our side is different” “our side is better” when it comes to campaigning & fund raising is just stupid – and to be honest, really boring. Packers rule. No Bears are the best. Everybody knows that sort of fandom is purely opinion in that area. But for some reason, seemingly intelligent people can’t see that they’re doing the same thing in politics. Our guys are all good guys who can do no wrong, their guys are cheaters. Blah
Yeah, I can see how you’d try to rationalize this, given the water you’ve been carrying for Walker, but I’m not buying the whole, “I take a brown bag lunch to work every day” spiel, given the fact that Walker’s a regular at the Envoy Restaurant at the Ambassador.
However, it sure makes for a good story.
Hey just curious, if Tommy Thompson decides to run against Feingold, will the “Terrence Wall Tax Loophole Tracker” magically disappear from your website?
My guess is when it disappears it will be when Wall is out of the race, either from dropping out or losing in the primary or general election. And the disappearance will not be magic, but from the removal of code.
The tracker will be taken down when Terrence Wall is no longer a candidate for the United States Senate, and there’s no magic involved in taking it down.
Whether “brown bag” refers to his policy or actual lunch habits, the story of racking up such lunch bills will hardly do wonders for fundraising efforts.
P.S. Zach, work your magic.
What magic am I working, exactly?
So… the AP story highlights figures that the Walker Campaign outspent each the Neumann and Barrett Campaigns respectively in food spending…
… Look at the figures:
“at least $24,500 since mid-2008” – Walker Campaign.
“The campaign of Barrett, the mayor of Milwaukee, reported spending roughly $10,000 on food and beverages for fundraisers in the last six months of 2009.”
“Neumann, a former GOP congressman, reported $2,400 on food and drink for campaign events and fundraisers in the last six months of 2009.”
THE STORY DOESN’T COMPARE THE SAME LENGTH OF TIME PERIODS… 1.5 YEARS FOR WALKER, BUT .5 YEARS FOR BARRETT???
1.5 YEARS x $10,000 (BARRETT) = BARRETT ACTUALLY OUTSPENT THE WALKER CAMPAIGN!!!
Yeah, I think I saw that talking point on Aaron’s blog, but you’re missing an important point, which is the fact that Walker’s campaign spent thousands of dollars on meals for the candidate and staff, while Barrett and Neumann spent negligible amounts on meals for the candidate and staff.
Sure, they all spent money for food related to campaign events, but Walker’s campaign spent far more on food for the candidate and staff, and that’s the issue.
Nice try though…
The more spent on lunch now means the less there is to spend on annoying TV ads later, right?
Zach,
The BadgerBlogger already refuted that claim by posting the daily average of campaign spending per candidate. Barrett actually spent more per day than Walker.
But all of this misses the point. Campaign donors WANT you to spend all of their money trying to win. Taxpayers DON’T WANT you to spend all of their money running the government. Walker’s brown bag guide to government is meant for the government spending, not campaigning. To apply it to campaigning means that it would be impossible for a frugal politician to run for office, which is plainly absurd.
No I think the point is it’s funny Walker has a whole campaign gimmick with brown bags like he supposedly packs his lunch in saying things like; “I’d be eating out if government wasn’t gobbling up all my money” and “My brown bag’s alter ego pays fewer taxes and gets to eat out,” then spends so much on eating out. That is the point.
Thank god you blew the lid off of this travashamockrity! I can’t believe that someone would actually spend their own money buy food for themselves and their staffers. That’s outrageous. Clearly any politician who buys food should be forced to resign if not jailed. You should be able to spend money on food and drinks but not meals by golly! You’re the new Deepthroat. I hope you get a Pulitzer for this award winning piece.
Brownbag Gate in action.
Aaron and Reason bring up a good point. You guys go nuts over how politicians (scratch that, REPUBLICANS) spend campaign funds, which are raised voluntarily through donors. Yet you won’t blink an eye over politicians (i.e. DEMOCRATS) spend taxpayer money, which are forcibly taken from citizens.
So I really don’t care if Scott Walker wants to take a hot air balloon around the state dropping leaflets while eating caviar on his and his donors dime, but I care very much about having to pay for a choo choo train no one will use.
Not the point at all. I explained the goings-on over Walker earlier (short answer: It is the title of this post) so I won’t repeat it. However I very much take issue with how taxpayer money is spent. I’m sick of my money being thrown away in Iraq and Afghanistan, for one. I’m sick of subsidies going to corporate farms. And I’m not singling out Republicans, Democrats are also responsible.
Got to this site while looking for something else but find it interesting. You say a political candidate has found legal methods of paying less money in taxes?? Sounds like someone I’d like in office. More money stays in the pocket, less to government. Now if what you’re saying is that his tax methods are ILLEGAL, you should report him to the IRS and get your share of what they recover.
Well failure to pay taxes you’re actually supposed to pay would seem to make you a candidate for a position in the Obama Administration. In charge of the IRS, even. 🙂
Read a little more. Let’s see, the potential governor (i.e. the Chief Executive of one of the fifty states) of a state shouldn’t have dinner in D.C. but Democratic state level representatives can travel with their families overseas “to develop business for Wisconsin”? We have a high speed rail company in Wisconsin and the Dems want to buy trains from China??? Here’s a concept, if rail is effective and efficient and desirable between Madison and Milwaukee, why haven’t individual and corporate investors made it happen? What’s in it for the Dems who are visiting China?
Justa, the trains we’ll be using for the high speed rail line here in Wisconsin will be built here in Wisconsin by Talgo, who is going to be building a facility in Milwaukee. Coincidentally, Talgo is also supplying trains to Oregon, if memory serves me.
I received a brown bag in the mail on Friday.+
The front of the bag says, “I use a brown bag so I can pay for Wisconsin’s taxes.” This seems to invoke the idea that Wisconsin citizens cannot afford anything but a boring, cheap brown bag lunch.
So, I flip over the bag and find a list of key “brown bag government” ideals.
1.Don’t spend more than you have
2.People create jobs, not government.
3.Smaller government is better than bigger government.
All three of these are key Republican talking points, all three are considered ‘admirable’, by most Republican voters.
Now, to me, it seems that these two contradict eachother. The front implies brown bag = bad, the back implies the opposite…..?
Not to mention Walker’s second ideal is blatently false. The largest employer in the U.S. in the federal government. Look it up.
Walker will be ineffective as Governor. He has allready alienated labor. What will ever get done on his watch now.
When will America wake up? Just because it says sale, doesen’t mean it’s on sale, just for sale. Just like current goverment. FOR SALE BY ELECTYEE. Everyone seems to forget and go on without asking questions of what was prosmised to help US THE PEOPLE WHO PUT THEM THERE. I guess as long as knowon cares, or reacts, there free and clear! AMERICA THE STUPIFULL!
Lol blue fisters before they knew what was going to come. And before they knew what they would become. Two year olds having a gigantic temper tantrum.
Walker still gov, adults always win.