Here’s four questions the Democratic Party of Wisconsin has for Milwaukee County Executive (and Republican gubernatorial candidate) Scott Walker answer, questions I believe deserve to be answered:
1.) Last spring the Democratic Party of Wisconsin filed open records requests with your County office to uncover documents related to the planning of your taxpayer-funded campaign tour. To date, these requests have not been filled. What are you hiding?
2.) In each of the past three years, you have launched your taxpayer-funded campaign tour in June. This year, however, you said you changed the date of your taxpayer-funded campaign tour to May 15-20 because, remarkably, “it got too hot during last year’s ride.” (MJS, 2/12/10). Seeing that this year your taxpayer-funded campaign tour just so happens to coincide perfectly with the Republican State Convention in Milwaukee on May 21-23, do you really expect people to believe weather and not politics is the reason for the scheduling change of your taxpayer-funded campaign tour?
3.) Last year on your tour you stopped in many media markets outside Wisconsin, you even used nearly 4,000 taxpayer dollars for you and your entourage to stay overnight in Duluth, despite cheaper, Wisconsin hotels only five minutes away. It has already been confirmed that you will be making stops outside the state on this years tour, will you once again favor businesses outside Wisconsin?
4.) After years of traveling on the taxpayers dime, your staff approached AirTran to chip in $2,800 for your thinly-veiled campaign tour, while AirTran was requesting space from the County Board at General Mitchell International Airport. Can you explain how soliciting a company which has major business pending before the County Board doesn’t raise serious doubts that you created a conflict of interest?
Question number one seems especially relevant to me, given the fact that the request made by the Democratic Party of Wisconsin last spring isn’t the only open records request I know of that Walker’s administration dragged their feet (to put it mildly) on responding to. Considering Wisconsin’s open records laws mandate requests must be responded to, “as soon as practicable and without delay,” it’s more than a little discouraging that Scott Walker and his administration feel open records requests don’t deserve to be responded to in a timely manner.
I would nto answer any of these question as they are dishonest.
Walker takes this tour to promote Milwaukee County. Why would you cooperate with someone who is so easily willing to lie about you?
“Why would you cooperate with someone who is so easily willing to lie about you?”
I dunno Fred, because it’s the law? Walker and his administration don’t get to pick and choose which requests they respond to; by law they’re required to at least respond to each and every request they get. It’s called open government.
Does anyone know the average temp. during his “ride” last year? I’d say number one and two are important. Also…where are the people who investigate these kind of things?
Well, the folks at the Journal Sentinel seem to be uninterested in running anything negative against Walker, so it falls to us bloggers to report on what Walker’s doing.
Scott Walker, a politician in the worst sense of the word. See number 2 especially.
#2 is pretty heinous, but I’m still galled by #1. Walker’s refusal to even respond to open records requests made by those who don’t support him is particularly egregious.
Curious where you outrage of Doyle’s office ignoring requests is?
Absent.
Fred, I’m sure you have enough outrage to go around.