26 (more) ways Scott Walker Failed Wisconsin (part 2)
Scott Walker has been busy since being voted out of office last year. He became finance chairman for a GOP gerrymandering lobbying group, president of the Young American Foundation, and was appointed by Trump to chair (ironically) an esteemed think tank. To stay relevant, he regularly attacks AOC on Twitter, and deceived some fifth graders in the process.
In January, I wrote a list of 26 ways Scott Walker Ruined (Or Embarrassed) Wisconsin, largely from memory. I wondered if I could whip up another list of 26, and sadly, it was as easy as expected. So here we go with numbers 27 through 52 in how Scott Walker failed Wisconsin. I promise, it is equally egregious, upsetting, and appalling as the first 26:
1. Boldly demonstrated he does not know how a Venn diagram works.
Walker attempts to justify stripping power from Walker’s Democratic successor.
2. Granted professional licenses to four ex-priests that were defrocked for sexually abusing children.
3. Repealed Wisconsin’s equal pay law.
All the law did was allow workers to take wage discrimination cases to less cumbersome state circuit courts, not just federal court.
4. Advocated to give a $4.3 million state loan to a Republican donor, William Minahan, with a teetering business. The state only granted a $500,000 loan, which Minahan defaulted on anyway.
At the time that the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) granted the award, Minahan’s company had shaky credit, and was behind on paying wages to up to 90 percent of its employees.
5. Speaking of the WEDC, Walker dissolved the Commerce Department and lost millions of taxpayer dollars through his newly created WEDC.
The WEDC had to write off a $1.2 million loan after granting the award to a Republican campaign donor, who in 2018 was convicted of bank fraud. In another case, the WEDC awarded $462,000 in tax credits to a company that actually lost 17 jobs. It gave $61,000 to a company that created 261 jobs, but in other states. For eight months, the WEDC spent $10 million without legal authority. I could go on.
Okay one more. Just a year into its horrid existence, the WEDC lost track of over $8 million in overdue loan payments to businesses.
6. Forced to pay $570,000 in back-wages to his own freaking security staff, for unpaid overtime.
7. Removed state funding for state parks, forcing them to raise admittance fees.
Funding for Wisconsin’s 46 state parks, 14 nature trails, four recreation areas, and two national scenic trails made up just 0.006% of the state budget. Leave it to Walker to make even the earth’s natural beauty less accessible. His successor, Tony Evers, proposed increasing funding for state parks.
8. Loosened campaign finance laws and eliminated Wisconsin’s independent election oversight agency, the Government Accountability Board.
9. Strongly advocated for voter suppression. It took a federal court to strike down measures that limited voting times and days, tightened residency requirements, and restricted the use of student IDs.
Trump beat Clinton in Wisconsin by just 0.77 points, or 23,000 votes.
10. Tightened the criteria triggering recounts in gubernatorial elections, but played himself when the new threshold prevented him from calling a recount in his lost 2018 election.
11. Approved a viciously gerrymandered district map of Wisconsin, which even drew a longtime Democratic representative’s home out of his own district.
Democrats won 54% of the popular vote in 2018, yet somehow Republicans maintained a 63% seat hold in the Assembly.
12. Allowed son to use a state-owned vehicle for personal use.
Only discovered because he was pulled over by the police, Alex Walker reimbursed the state for the equivalent U-Haul cost. Though, I bet he didn’t include Wisconsin’s 5% rental tax.
13. A fiscal conservative, he ran campaigns into debt and mismanaged the budget.
Walker’s presidential campaign ended with $1.2 million in debt, and his 2018 campaign left the state’s Republican party with a maxed-out credit card and at least $350,000 in debt. He also delayed transportation projects and simultaneously deferred debt payments (among other terrible budget decisions).
14. Trump said he sent Walker home “packing like a little boy” in the 2016 primary, but Walker still agreed to chair Trump’s re-election campaign anyway.
Don’t forget, of course, when Walker dropped out, it was as an anti-Trumper.
15. Promised to serve the full term as governor, then announced a presidential campaign just seven months into his four year term.
After running the shortest Republican presidential campaign since 1980, he did wind up completing his term. Naturally, he promised to serve another full term in 2018, but Wisconsin’s voters had other ideas.
16. Launched a pro-Republican online publication that posed as a news outlet.
17. Wished a Jewish constituent a happy “Molotov” instead of Mazeltov.
18. Raised mandatory pension contributions for public workers, promising to personally abide by the same standard, then didn’t.
19. Ignored years of physical abuse and sexual assault at a juvenile detention center. One judge wrote to Walker that “the indifference in this sordid tale is absolutely inexcusable”.
Evidence that Walker knew of the abuses goes back to at least 2012. In 2018, Walker signed a bipartisan bill to close the Lincoln Hills School for Boys, but did so to shift media headlines away from his effort to block special elections in the state. Oh, yeah, that’s another thing, a court had to force Walker to hold special elections for two empty seats in the Legislature.
20. Repealed a law requiring comprehensive sex-ed in public schools, replacing it with an abstinence-only curriculum.
21. Was publicly criticized by four former members of his Cabinet, including one secretary saying he almost committed suicide after dealing with Walker and Attorney General Brad Schimel.
23. Funneled over $400,000 of anonymous donations through a legal defense fund for an investigation into his office’s campaign finance violations (which resulted in embezzlement and fraud convictions of six staffers).
24. Ignoring inflation, Walker claimed Wisconsin’s median income increased by 7.4%, when it actually decreased by 1.1%.
Nothing complicated, Walker just omitted basic inflation.
24. Claimed to have a campaign endorsement that he did not have.
25. Showed his knowledge at the grill is as good as his understanding of a Venn diagram.
26. Claimed his experience battling public union protestors prepared him to fight ISIS.
“I want a commander-in-chief who will do everything in their power to make sure the threat from Islamic terrorists will not show up on our soil,” Walker said. “If I can take on 100,000 protesters, I can do the same across the world.”
And there you have it. I should probably diversify my writing portfolio, so don’t expect a part 3, but rest easy knowing that it would be as nauseating as parts 1 or 2. Though if you are clamoring for more, here you go:
Walker stated he will not run for governor or senate in 2022 or 2024. But, for a man who ran five campaigns in eight years, it might be tough to let go. After two consecutive losses, hopefully he’ll learn it is time to hang ’em up. If that doesn’t get through to Walker, maybe his neighbors will — whether it be the jogging woman flipping off his house on Google Maps, or the message written to him in the snow near his new Milwaukee condo (I promise it wasn’t me).
Omer Arain (@omersarain) is a DC-based labor researcher.
