“At Best Inappropriate, At Worst Against the Law”
With Walker facing an “imminent recall,” the website consists of “propaganda” and “cherry-picked facts” designed to help Walker's reelection, said Wisconsin Democratic Party Chair Mike Tate on a Tuesday conference call. Tate says the law is clear “that state resources are not to be used for political gain.”
He alleged the site bears a strong resemblance to Walker's campaign website, and seems to echo a call by Wisconsin Republican Party Chair Brad Courtney to spin the “successes” of Walker's budget repairs.
Tate also criticized Walker for apparently hiring a new employee to build the website and promote Walker's policies. “Walker has cut 1,032 jobs, but added a new position in his office,” he said, “hiring a former newscaster tasked with documenting the successes of Walker's policies.” On October 1, Walker announced the hiring of veteran television newscaster Julie Lund as Deputy Communications Director. Visitors to the “Reforms and Results” website are asked to contact Lund if they “have a story to share about how the Governor's reforms are getting results.”
Walker's spokesperson Cullen Werwie said the governor's office consulted with the state ethics board before launching the website, and the information online had already been included in news releases.
Tate said Governor Walker has “a well-documented history of using taxpayer dollars to further campaign activities,” noting a “self-serving” statewide tour Walker made as Milwaukee County Executive while running for governor. Tate also referenced what he called the “ever-widening corruption probe” related to an ongoing John Doe ethics investigation connected to the governor's aides and allies. As CMD has reported, in September, FBI agents raided the home of Walker's chief lieutenant Cindy Archer. She was the third Walker aide to have her computer seized as part of a suspected investigation into Walker staffers doing campaign-related work on the taxpayer dime.
Reforms and Results Website
“Since our reforms passed, a lot of people have wondered what kind of results we're getting and why the reforms were necessary,” said Walker in a statement. “Reforms.wi.gov shows the results from our reforms and how they're working.” Walker said local and county governments have saved more than $450 million because of the reforms, based on media reports and the Legislative Fiscal Bureau's estimates. That number includes increased contributions from public employees to their pensions and health insurance.
The pension and health care contribution requirements were agreed to by union leaders and were not the spark that ignited massive protests (and next month's campaign to recall Walker); public unrest was prompted by the governor's effort to impose extreme limits on collective bargaining, which Walker admitted saved the state no money. During the protests over Governor Walker's budget, Republicans tried to spin the controversy as being about pension and health care contributions—even though unions voluntarily agreed to contribute more to their pensions and healthcare costs—rather than about the attack on worker's collective bargaining rights. The “Reforms and Results” website appears to repeat those same claims.
The Democrats' complaint to the Government Acountability Board can be viewed here.
The “Reforms and Results” website can be viewed here.
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
After the election, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy