You know, there are political races that are almost civilized affairs, and then there are grudge matches, and then there are knife fights in an alley.
And then there’s Wisconsin-GOV. It’s not every day where a political ad goes there… and it’s not even the worst thing said in this race in this cycle. Not even close to worst, really.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mS8c-KMqxA4
:shrugging: Then again, they started it. All this fuss, over a simple You shouldn’t force people to pay union dues.
Via
Come, I will conceal nothing from you: when I heard that Mary Burke had been essentially accused of being a nepotism-loving nincompoop who had to be fired from her father’s company (Trek Bicycle Corp) because she couldn’t hack the family business, I… shrugged. The original story had one named source – former Trek HR director Gary Ellerman, who is now the chairman of the Jefferson County Republican Party – and a couple of anonymous ones; and while the story certainly rang true you could make a legitimate case that the whole thing was just a partisan attack. Well, OK, it is a partisan attack; which doesn’t make it false, but does make the whole thing arguable.
But then stuff happened. First off, this: Continue reading Independent, NAMED sources: Mary Burke fired from family business for incompetence.
It’s apparently quite the pattern for her.
Sections of Wisconsin Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke’s veterans and rural communities plans appear to copy text directly from a variety of sources.
The sources include, but are not limited to, academic journals and reports, and a local newspaper column.
In other instances, the sources are linked in plan’s footnotes, though Burke’s plan makes little effort to indicate that not just the source, but the words themselves were taken from the sources.
…It astounds me that the Democrats thought that nobody would check.
I am using the word ”literal’ literally, by the way.
I don’t know what’s sadder here: that Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke can’t even write her own meaningless economic drivel…
Large portions of Wisconsin Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke’s jobs plan for Wisconsin appear to be plagiarized from the plans of three Democratic candidates who ran for governor in previous election cycles.
Burke’s economic plan “Invest for Success” copies nearly-verbatim sections from the jobs plans of Ward Cammack, who ran for Tennessee governor in 2009 before withdrawing from the race, a 2008 plan from Delaware Gov. Jack Markell, and John Gregg who ran for governor of Indiana in 2012 and lost to Mike Pence.
…or that she stole material from two guys that lost. John Gregg couldn’t beat a Republican in a year where Barack Obama was on the ticket; and Ward Cammack never even made it to the primary election. I’ll grant you that Jack Markell did win: but, hey, it’s Delaware. The jobs plan for that state is ‘see how much we can siphon off of I-95.’
Buzzfeed(!) has much more, including a list of all the substandard material that the Burke campaign ripped off and their admittedly more original excuse (Erm, yeah, it was a… staffer! From outside*!). And, actually, I kind of hope that the excuse holds up: it’d mean that the Burke campaign knowingly hired an ‘expert’ whose ‘expertise’ was apparently two-thirds in ‘watch your candidate crash and burn while you get paid for it.’ It’s nice to think that the Other Side has those kinds of people, too.
Note: the plagiarism charge will still stick, in that case. Still, you’d think that Mary Burke would have stolen from people who won.
Via
Wisconsin Democratic Gubernatorial Candidate Plagiarized Large Portions Of Jobs Plan http://t.co/RJ0SySM3zt
— Katherine Miller (@katherinemiller) September 19, 2014
Moe Lane (crosspost)
*Well, more original by comparison.
This is a pretty good summary of what happened, which is a relief, because it’s also an official document:
On August 21, 2014, this court issued an order providing that the motion for a stay would be considered by the panel assigned to decide the case on the merits. This order further provided that the state was free, in the interim, to implement the changes to the procedures for obtaining (or excusing reliance on) birth certificates, and similar documents, that the Supreme Court of Wisconsin adopted in Milwaukee Branch of NAACP v. Walker, 2014 WI 98 (July 31, 2014).
Having read the briefs and heard oral argument, this court now stays the injunction issued by the district court. The State of Wisconsin may, if it wishes (and if it is appropriate under rules of state law), enforce the photo ID requirement in this November’s elections.
More via Hot Air. Basically, this is a definite step back for Voter ID opponents – who have, by the way, a decidedly minority opinion on this position; and I don’t mean ‘a position taken by racial minorities‘ – as they’re stuck now with a Voter ID program in Wisconsin that’s essentially identical with one that’s already passed Constitutional scrutiny. It’s going to be very interesting to see how they plan to pursue an appeal under those circumstances, although goodness knows the Democrats will certainly try.
Moe Lane
As you no doubt know, Debbie Wasserman Schultz trivialized and degraded victims of domestic abuse Wednesday via the use of inappropriate, and frankly rather graphic, language:
Getting a little over excited at a women’s issues event in Milwaukee, Wasserman Schultz accused Wisconsin’s Republican Gov. Scott Walker of engaging in domestic violence against women. She said that Walker has “given women the back of his hand” and is “grabbing us by the hair and pulling us back.”
The fallout was immediate, and led to the following two responses to CNN. Continue reading The difference between Debbie Wasserman Schultz and Mary Burke.
Watch national and Wisconsin Democrats backpedal, backpedal, backpedal…
In addition to a Milwaukee visit on Monday, President Barack Obama will return to Wisconsin before Nov. 4 to campaign for Democratic candidate for governor Mary Burke, a party spokesman said Thursday.
The announcement made to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel came swiftly after Republicans criticized Burke for saying she couldn’t appear with Obama during his Labor Day visit to Milwaukee because it was an official stop, not a campaign event.
Burke’s campaign had strenuously objected to the GOP claims she was ducking the president because of his lackluster approval rating…
…because while it’s certainly true that the President has a lackluster approval rating, and that Mary Burke kind of hates the idea of being in the same photo frame as Barack Obama these days, well, Obama still does have supporters. And if Mary Burke insults their hero too much but being too honest about him, then Mary Burke is going to have even more electoral problems than she has right now. The dance is, as they say, delicate. Continue reading Barack Obama, Mary Burke (D-CAND, Wisconsin-GOV) indignantly object to news report that latter is hiding from former.
Ultimately via AoSHQ Decision Desk, this is very interesting:
@moelane @AOSHQDD Walker appears to be outperforming 2012 recall primary in almost every county
— Joel (@CommodoreBTC) August 13, 2014
And, frankly, unexpected. Oh, don’t get me wrong: I don’t think Scott Walker is going to lose his election. But if this holds up it’s news.
Can we be done with this, now?
The Wisconsin Supreme Court has upheld the 2011 law that effectively ended collective bargaining for most public workers, sparked massive protests and led to Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s recall election and rise to national prominence.
Thursday’s 5-2 ruling is a victory for Walker, who is considering a 2016 run for president and is seeking re-election this year. It also marks the end of the three-year legal fight over the union rights law, which prohibits public worker unions for collectively bargaining for anything beyond base wage increases based on inflation. A federal appeals court twice upheld the law as constitutional.
I mean, this tantrum has been going on for going on four years. It has wasted the money, effort, and time of thousands, if not tens of thousands, of Wisconsinites – both the ones on the Right (who have my sympathies) and the Left (who, admittedly, do not). The people who hated the idea of ending mandatory dues for union workers have tried every possible trick to overturn it known to man, and none of it ever worked. But let it be over, OK? The US Supreme Court isn’t going to overturn this case*. They may not even hear it. Continue reading Wisconsin Supreme Court finds Act 10 labor union reforms constitutional.
While this is a very interesting article written about Democratic Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke (who will likely to face Scott Walker in November), this is the most important sentence in the whole thing:
So far, neither the Democratic Governors Association nor EMILY’s List (which spent $3.5 million to help elect Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin in 2012) has launched ads on Burke’s behalf, and both groups declined to say when they planned to do so.
Continue reading Mary Burke’s poor (in many senses*) gubernatorial campaign against Scott Walker.