WEDC, WMC show once and for all they aren't about helping our economy

We knew that the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) was a Scott Walker/ALEC creation that really serves as a taxpayer-paid slush fund for GOP donors. We also knew that Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) is nothing more than a right-wing front group for mediocre corporate businessMEN that doesn't have the state's best interests in mind.

But we didn't know until yesterday that these two worked together, with their selfishness and negligence resulting in the loss of one of Madison's largest employers and corporate headquarters. That bombshell exploded yesterday with this article from the Wisconsin State Journal's Matt DeFour, which showed that any efforts to save the Oscar Mayer plant in Madison ended after WEDC officials talked to the oligarchs at WMC.

Emails WEDC released to the Wisconsin State Journal under the state's open record law show that WMC, the state's largest business lobby, alerted WEDC in June that other states were looking to lure Kraft Heinz facilities out of Wisconsin. The email related specifically to concerns about Kraft Heinz's cheese processing facility in Beaver Dam and does not make any mention of Oscar Mayer closing.

But the emails also show that WEDC decided not to contact Kraft Heinz after a discussion with a WMC official.

WEDC officials discussed meeting with Kraft Heinz officials face-to-face "asap," he records show, but instead decided to get more information from WMC senior Vice President Jim Morgan.

"I met with Jim Morgan yesterday for more (perspective)," Wayne Goodsell, a WEDC business attraction account manager, wrote to then-WEDC CEO Reed Hall on June 30. "He provided good background information, but he doesn't see a need for us to engage with Kraft Heinz at this time, it was more of an FYI."

In addition to it being alarming that WMC has that kind of pull over WEDC (whose "independence and flexibility" was supposed to be its most helpful attribute, according to Walker and company), but there's a more important question that lingers throughout this story.

What extra information did Jim Morgan give, and what were the real reasons why WEDC, WMC, and the Walker Admonistration didn't even give an offer to keep the jobs in Madison? Is there a WMC-associated company that has its eyes on the Oscar Mayer plant, and knows it would be much easier to get that land if the plant closed? Or did they find out that Kraft Heinz wasn't willing to play ball with the GOP money-laundering machines that WEDC and WMC really are?

In this case, I'm trusting the blink test, and going with one or both of these options, which tells you how "economic development" is REALLY strategized in the Age of Fitzwalkerstan. Which is why you should boycott and run away from any business that backs WMC, and not trust anything that comes out of the offices of WEDC. These groups don't care at all about improving Wisconsin's economic competitiveness or creating more and better jobs. They only care about lining their own pockets, and the pockets of the politicians they pay off, often at the expense of everyone else outside of that inner circle.

UPDATE- Apparently I wasnt the only one thinking this. Madison Mayor Paul Soglin ripped WMC in a press conference today, and openly questioned the motives.behind WEDC's and WMC's decision-making

I think [WEDC] knew how important WMC was to the governor and the core mission of the Republican Party," Soglin said. "If WMC says don't go down this path, they weren't going to go down that path. That's a horrible thing, because it compromised the people of the state of Wisconsin. (WEDC) failed to do their mission on our behalf."