Walker's DNR- More pure naked corruption

Guess this is what happens when Wisconsin becomes "Open for Business." Finally, some real in-depth reporting from Madison's morning newspaper.

A top political appointee at the state Department of Natural Resources chose not to send a complaint against an Oconomowoc waste hauler to the Department of Justice for prosecution despite findings by agency staff that the company was treating fields with so much human waste from septic tanks it risked poisoning nearby wells, DNR records show.

Scott Gunderson, executive assistant to DNR Secretary Cathy Stepp, “made an extra effort” to deal with the complaint internally last year even though the agency’s enforcement staff urged that the case be referred to DOJ, which could have imposed fines of tens of thousands of dollars.

Instead, Gunderson decided to ask district attorneys in Waukesha and Jefferson counties to issue five citations against Herr Environmental and fine the company $4,338 — the minimum forfeiture for the permit violations, which the lead DNR investigator called “among the worst” he’d seen.

Gunderson, a former Republican state representative, received $750 in campaign contributions from the owner of the company, Richard Herr, and Herr’s wife in 2006 and 2008. Last week, Gunderson said he forgot when he agreed to oversee the case that he accepted political contributions from the Herrs, major supporters of Republican campaigns as well as some Democratic candidates. Gunderson said even if he had been aware of the contributions, it would not have influenced his decision.

The case normally would have been assigned to DNR deputy secretary Matt Moroney, who said he handed it to Gunderson because he was acquainted with another officer of Herr Environmental.

But agency records show Moroney, also a political appointee and the former executive director of the Metropolitan Builders of Greater Milwaukee, intervened at least once on behalf of the company prior to his recusal, urging the DNR staff to listen to his friend at Herr Environmental because “he has always been a very straight shooter” and “we all make innocent mistakes.”

Hmm, a backbench GOP legislator from the 262 leaves to go to a cushy, higher-paying DNR gig, and then he's instrumental in burying a massive DNR violation against a campaign contributor. I am....Jake's complete lack of surprise.

But when our college dropout governor appoints another college dropout from the construction industry to head up the agency in charge of our most important natural resources, how can you be surprised by corrupt garbage like this? Or that our governor is so desperate for jobs that he and the Legislature relax legslation allowing acres of wetlands get sold near Lambeau Field to put up a Cabela's- a development that Bass Pro Shops previously turned down because the company felt it would mess up too much of the natural habitat that hunters and fishers find vital.

After reading this story, I don't ever want to hear sqwuak radio shed crocodile tears if the MMSD ever again has to dump some untreated sewage into Lake Michigan during massive rainstorms. Not only because the DNR turned a blind eye to Herr Industries dumping THREE TIMES the allowed amount of human waste into Jefferson County near drinking water wells, but also because Scott Walker was Milwaukee County Exec for 8 years, and didn't take any kind of role in trying to help reconstruct the ancient Milwaukee-area sewer system. Instead, in typical Walker fashion, he sat on his ass, allowed others such as Tom Barrett to try to handle the problem, and then was the first to step up and complain once bad things happened. Sound like a familiar refrain? Walker sitting back and blaming for political gain, but never trying to actually do something that might solve the problems?

Between Walker's willing negligence on the environment, the huge amounts of developer money that has been pumped into the Walker campaign, and the huge increase in appointed positions that this governor has been allowed, corruption and bad outcomes like the DNR letting Herr Industruies skate on polluting Jefferson County are the predictable results. And it only ends if we blow these guys out of power.

Is Tom Barrett really up 6 points on Walker? Could be

A big headline this week was the monthly Marquette Law School poll which showed that Tom Barrett had caught Scott Walker, with the race between those two being a 1-point race either way. The same poll indicated that Walker couldn't get over 50 percent against any of the 4 real Dems in Tuesday's primary, and that Barrett led Walker by 1.5% among registered voters,(47.2-45.7). This was quite a reversal from 2 months prior, when Charles Franklin's poll for the law school showed that Walker with a lead of 6-11 points over all opponents.

So I was curious to see if Franklin had taken the advice of people like me and others with a clue and actually modified his poll to more closely resemble who will actually vote in the election on June 5. Let's go inside the numbers and see.

First big check to make is the liberal/ moderate/ conservative breakdown, because we know that Franklin and PPP have skewed these numbers this to the right before. Remember that the accurate 2010 CBS exit poll breakdown was 21% liberal, 43% moderate, and 36% conservative. Well, the trend of oversampling righties continues with this poll, albeit with a few more liberals thrown in as well. Instead of 21-43-36, those polled who gave a preference came out as 23-33-43. So let's adjust all the numbers for the Walker-Barrett race to match that 2010 CBS exit poll, and see what the heads-up results become, and you'll see Barrett jumps quite a bit ahead.

Walker vs. Barrett- Barrett 49.79- 44.04 (Barrett +5.75!)

This is in no small part to Barrett's 55-38 advantage over Walker with moderates, and if moderates come out like they did in 2010, Walker ends up in big trouble. 5.75% is a helluva lot different than the 1.5% that Barrett led by in Franklin's overly-conservative poll. Walker's lead also drops by about 4 points over the other candidates when you use the 2010 exit poll filter.

Walker vs. Falk- Walker 47.27-43.88 (Walker +3.39, MU poll - Walker +7.5%)
Walker vs. Vinehout Walker 47.79-41.98 (Walker +5.81, MU poll - Walker +9.8%)
Walker vs. La Follette Walker 46.62-41.77 (Walker +4.85, MU poll - Walker +8.5%)

Hmmm, the "Walker is even with Barrett" result sent right-wing radio into a scared frenzy on Friday (Sly had a good topic on this, it should be up on his site in the next 2 days or so). Can you imagine if Frankin had done a legitimate ideology breakdown and had those numbers be even worse for Scotty?

There's another reason to believe Walker's real-life numbers are even worse than the MU Law poll. Check out the poll weighting of this question:

Who did you vote for in the 2010 election?
Scott Walker 50
Tom Barrett 39
Someone else 4
Don't know 1 (???)
Refused 6

But we know the final result in 2010 was Walker-52.25, Barrett-46.48, other-1.27. So that's clearly biased in favor of 2010 Walker voters. What I'm going to do is to use the actual 2010 vote to replace the MU sample, and then use the MU poll's results from the 17% responding that didn't vote in the 2010 election but are registered now. Once we do that, we see Walker slip here as well.
Walker vs. Barrett- Barrett 49.03- 46.03 (Walker loses 1.50%)
Walker vs. Falk- Walker 48.88-43.84 (Walker loses 2.46%)
Walker vs. Vinehout- Walker 49.22-40.84 (Walker loses 1.42%)
Walker vs. La Follette- Walker 48.91-42.26 (Walker loses 1.85%)

Scotty's still under 50% in all cases, and trails Barrett by 3. Walker also loses to all 4 Dems among people who didn't vote in 2010, with the biggest gap being with Barrett, who wins among 2010 non-voters 62-38. Guess we know why GOPs wanted to supress the vote, eh?

Lastly, I'll leave with a positive on the MU poll. I'm glad to see that Marquette actually asked if someone had signed a recall petition, because this has been a pet peeve of mine in all Wisconsin polls. The poll shows that 38% of respondents signed a recall petition in 2011 or 2012. If anything, this number is a bit low, as 38% of 2010 voters would be a little over 821,000 people. The actual number should probably be closer to 42%, as 41.79% would be the 903,000 GAB-confirmed signers against Walker, and you also should pick up a few people who signed Senate recalls that may not have signed for Walker's recall. I couldn't find a crosstab on how petition signers would vote, but given that they are disproportionately liberal (not surpringly), they'd be more like to vote against Walker, so I feel safe in saying that increasing the recall petition signers in the poll would also have hurt Walker's numbers.

So while it is true that April's Marquette Law poll showed movement away from Scott Walker and toward Dems (especially Tom Barrett), it also still continue to overstate Walker's voter share in the real Wisconsin. For those of us who want to end the age of Fitzwalkerstan, this poll is good news indeed, and no wonder the Walker folks are shaking in their boots. Because it is becoming quite likely that if a normal Wisconsin voting populace shows up on June 5, Scott Walker will be removed from office.

U.S. job revisions make Walker look worse

I shook my head at the general media response to yesterday's monthly U.S. jobs report. Sure, the headline number of 115,000 jobs gained overall and 130,000 private sector jobs is lower than previous months, but the media made it sound like we lost jobs instead of gaining them in the private sector for the 26th straight month. This Bloomberg news report lead is a good example.

American employers added fewer workers than forecast in April and the jobless rate unexpectedly fell as people left the labor force, adding to concern the economic expansion is cooling.

Payrolls climbed 115,000, the smallest increase in six months, after a revised 154,000 gain in March that was larger than initially estimated, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The median estimate of 85 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News called for a 160,000 advance. The jobless rate fell to a three-year low of 8.1 percent, and earnings stagnated.

Stocks and bond yields fell on bets that a slowdown in hiring will restrain the wage growth needed to fuel the consumer spending that accounts for 70 percent of the world’s largest economy. The data pose a challenge for President Barack Obama, who was attacked by Republican challenger Mitt Romney’s campaign today for his “failed economic record.”

But here's the funny part. February and March jobs numbers were revised upwards, February by 19,000 jobs and March by 34,000 jobs. So when you put together those 2 revisions with the 115,000 jobs added in April, that means we have 168,000 more jobs than the last numbers that were reported a month ago. So explain to me how you get 168,000 more jobs when 160,000 are expected, and that's considered "adding fewer workers than forecast." Doesn't anyone know math in business journalism?

Or are they just trying to make the presidential race more competitive by protraying the Obama recovery as "stalling out". Seems like the latter, because let's face it, if the recovery continues smoothly and R-money keeps being the clueless joker that he is, this presidential race feels like a Clinton in 1996-style cruise for Barack. So in order to keep you reading and watching, the media's going to trump anything up that might make Obama look shaky in order to make the 2012 elections a lot more "interesting."

But another item should be pointed out by these upward revisions. It allows us to refigure the Walker jobs deficit for here in Wisconsin, and it's not good news for Gov. Dropout. The overall jobs deficit is now past 65,000.

Total jobs- Wisconsin vs. U.S.

And the private sector Walker jobs deficit is now near 57,000.

Private sector jobs- Wisconsin vs. U.S.

I'd better be seeing these charts constantly over the next 31 days, and not just from me.

"Underperformance", Falk '06 vs. Barrett '10

I've been tempted to ignore blogger Jeff Simpson's increasingly screeching screeds in favor of Kathleen Falk over the last few weeks. While I'm voting for and supporting Tom Barrett on Tuesday (yes, this is the official Jake endorsement, I ENDORSE BARRETT. I'm sure this shocks you), I believe the overall goal of ending the age of Fitzwalkerstan and knocking out Scott Walker is the one to concentrate, and I will strongly back whoever wins on Tuesday. Plus, I think Falk has the competence to be up to the job and could step in and do reasonably well (which would be a world of improvement over what we have now). She's not my choice in the primary, but I'd certainly welcome her as my governor.

However, Jeff posted a pile of crap yesterday that could not be ignored. He was trying to insist that because Falk's loss to J.B. Van Hollen in the 2006 Attorney General's race was closer than Barrett's loss to Scott Walker in the 2010 Gubernatorial race, that this means that Falk is the more electable statewide candidate. This simply isn't true, and I will show you why.

First, each election year is different, and each election in each year does not happen in a vacuum. 2006 was a major Dem year, both in Wisconsin and nationwide. Dems won back both houses of Congress after years of Bush malfeasance in Iraq and at home were too big to ignore. In Wisconsin, the GOP Legislature had pushed through a large amount of divisive issues in a cynical attempt to drive up their turnout at the polls, including a horrible anti-gay marriage amendment. This backfired greatly, and drove up Dem turnout in a number of places as a result in Wisconsin, especially around college towns, and Dems won back the State Senate and took 8 seats in the Assembly.

However, Kathleen Falk still ended up losing the A-G race to Van Hollen, despite these huge tailwinds. In the process, she massively underperformed the Dem in the top statewide race, which was Jim Doyle vs. Mark Green for Governor, and she also was way behind Secretary of State (and 2012 primary opponent) Doug La Follette.

2006 Governor, Wisconsin
Jim Doyle 52.70%
Mark Green 45.31% (Doyle +7.39%)

2006 Secretary of State, Wisconsin
Doug La Follette 57.06%
Sandy Sullivan 38.39% (La Follette +18.67%)

2006 Attorney General, Wisconsin
J.B. Van Hollen 50.15%
Kathleen Falk 49.73% (Falk -0.42%)

So Falk underperformed Jim Doyle by 7.81%, and Doug La Follette by a whopping 19.09% in 2006. In fact, if Falk did as well as Doyle in the City of Milwaukee, she would have beaten Van Hollen , as she underperformed Doyle by nearly 10,000 votes there.

Now let's compare this to Barrett's allegedly weak performance in the GOP year of 2010. After a year of right-wing Tea Party propaganda being built up by media looking for some kind of "both sides" narrative after the Dems' sweeping victories in both the U.S. and in Wisconsin (where Dems took over both houses of the Legislature), the set-up was there for a GOP bounce-back. Combined with a low voter turnout that favored the people that vote GOP (more on this in a second), and the GOP took advantage of the opportunity in both the U.S. and in Wisconsin. The GOP took over the House of Representatives, won several Senate seats back, took both houses of the Wisconsin Legislature, Scott Walker was elected governor and Ron Johnson took Russ Feingold's Senate seat.

So let's take a look at how Barrett did in comparison to Russ in 2010, and also compare him with the only Dem to win a big statewide race- Doug La Follette.

2010 U.S. Senate, Wisconsin
Ron Johnson 51.86%
Russ Feingold 47.02% (Feingold -4.84%)

2010 Secretary of State, Wisconsin
Doug La Follette 51.61%
David King 48.30% (La Follette +3.31%)

2010 Governor, Wisconsin
Scott Walker 52.25%
Tom Barrett 46.48% (Barrett -5.67%)

So Barrett underperformed Feingold by 0.83%, and La Follette by 8.98% in 2010. Let's compare that underperformance with Falk in 2006.

vs. top statewide race- Barrett -0.83%, Falk -7.81
vs. La Follette in SOS- Barrett -8.98%, Falk -19.09%

So that's a 7% extra level of underperformance for Falk at the top-line, and a more than 10% extra level when compared to La Follette. I think it's pretty clear who is less likely to resonate as an individual on a statewide level, and that's Kathleen Falk.

Lastly, Jeff brings up a point by mentioning who will be more likely to vote in 2012 vs. 2006 and 2010, and uses the 2011 Supreme Court race of JoAnne Kloppenburg and David Prosser as an example.

But of course, he gets the point behind those numbers DEAD WRONG. Check out who voted in those elections. You'll see this slanted heavily against Barrett in 2010, and a 2006 type of turnout may have made the race vs. Walker very close indeed. Tom is more likely to keep the base that he had in 2010, run up vote totals in counties he won, and flip some counties that he might have lost in 2010. Given that the total vote in 2006 and 2010 were within 1,000 of each other, the total numbers will correspond.

% of overall state vote, Governor 2006
Dane County 9.90%
Waukesha County 8.15%
City of Milwaukee 7.99%
Rest of Milwaukee Co. 7.00%
Brown County 4.33%
Racine County 3.30%
Outagamie Co. 3.23%
Winnebago Co. 3.00%
Rock County 2.55%
Washington Co. 2.47%

% of overall state vote, Governor 2010
Dane County 10.19% (+0.29%)
Waukesha County 8.71% (+0.56%)
City of Milwaukee 8.69% (+0.70%)
Rest of Milwaukee Co. 7.09% (+0.09%)
Brown County 4.09% (-0.24%)
Racine County 3.37% (+0.07%)
Outagamie Co. 3.02% (-0.21%)
Winnebago Co. 2.83% (-0.17%)
Washington Co. 2.73% (+0.26%)
Rock County 2.42% (-0.13%)

The two most pro-GOP counties in the state in Waukesha and Washington Counties made a significantly higher percentage of the vote in 2010 than 2006, which certainly hurt Dems in 2010 vs. 2006. But in a 2010 bright spot, the City of Milwaukee also grew in significance, showing that Barrett could get voters out in his hometown to vote for him. (the City of Milwaukee went 74-25 for Barrett in 2010 vs. 71-27 for Doyle and 69-31 for Falk). With Dane County being the recall hotbed that it is, you don't think they won't get even more turnout than they got in the 2010 elections when many Dane County residents had little idea just how bad Scott Walker was? You bet we'll be there.

Bottom line- all Dems did significantly worse in 2010 than they did in 2006 due to issues floating about and the increased number of GOP voters that showed up to the polls. The fluky nature of that 2010 election goes a long way toward explaining why Walker and WisGOP have acted as drastically as they did, because they know deep down that 2010 was a one-time deal that they lucked out on.

And the 2010 vs. 2006 data show that the candidate who was unfortunate enough to be caught up in that wave is the candidate who is most likely to win those votes back when Wisconsinites go to the polls on June 5. His name is Tom Barrett.

Do the Heartland Propaganda! Part Deux

Since Scott Walker and WisGOP are failing in convincing Wisconsinites of their dishonest and incorrect agenda, as evidenced by the right-leaning Marquette University Law School poll showing Walker and Tom Barrett dead even, and Walker below 50% against any opponent, does this give right-wing propagandists pause? HELL NO! They're going to try to double-down by spreading their hateful lies to other parts of the state!

As shown by this Heartland Institute story, Scott Walker front group CRG and other rightie business owners are trying to get radio stations in western and northern Wisconsin to carry the same propaganda that Milwaukee and Green Bay-area listeners get subjected to. This group recently convinced Eau Claire's WMEQ to carry talentless banshee Vicki McKenna (it doesn't say how, which sure makes you wonder what deals were struck). Remarkably, McKenna's own program director and a MacIver hack admit in the article that these shows are nothing more than WisGOP propaganda without any hint of acknowledging why this might be a problem in publically-owned airwaves.

Jerry Bott, director of programming and operations at WISN radio in Milwaukee, said it is no coincidence that in the 2010 gubernatorial election, Walker won by huge margins in southeast Wisconsin, and that, generally, the most conservative members of the state legislature come from the that part of the state

“Hosts on conservative talk radio affect public opinion by making a convincing case that conservative principles are powerful, proper, and effective said Bott. (Ed. note: It's "convincing" if you're a gullible moron. In the fact-based world, we call it a bunch of deceptions and lies) “This has an effect on public opinion in areas where conservative talk radio can be heard which, in turn, provides a fertile environment for conservatives seeking public office to be elected.”

In addition to Walker and Johnson, southeast Wisconsin is home to other notable conservative politicians, including Congressmen Paul Ryan (R) and Jim Sensenbrenner (R) and Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus.

“Talk radio has had a very specific impact on who represents the people of southeast Wisconsin,” said John K. MacIver Institute for Public Policy President Brett Healy, a close observer of Wisconsin politics for more than 20 years. “If you can get some of these personalities on the local radio for the long term, this will be a great case study to see if it has a discernible effect on local elections and politics” in western and northern Wisconsin.

In other words, WisGOP isn't even trying to adjust it's plans and ideas to fit the realities on the ground. They're trying to convince talk radio listeners that their reality is different than....reality. It reminds you of another time we heard about the Heartland Institute, and that was when they were exposed for Operation Angry Badger, a right-wing funded attempt to make Act 10's salary cuts seem like a good thing for education and a general denigratation of Wisconsin public schools and their teachers to try to lead to more voucher school scams. Talk radio is a central part of strategies for campaigns like Operation Angry Badger, because they have one-sided hosts spread one-sided think tank propaganda that's disguised as "fact" and "studies", then give free air time to politicians to continue to spread the Big Lie. ("Hi, this is Scott Walker!")

And if you listen to enough of this garbage, you might become convinced that objective facts are not "reality." A great example comes from the cross-tabs in the Marquette Law poll. As we know, Wisconsin has lost the most jobs of any state in the nation over the last 12 months, nearly 24,000 in all. But check out the responses to this question from the Marquette poll, and ask yourself "Which one of these is not like the other?"

For the state as a whole, are there more jobs, fewer jobs, or are they about the same?
Very liberal- 9.6% More, 66.1% Fewer, 24.3% About the Same
Somewhat liberal- 9.7% More, 57.1% Fewer, 31.4% About the Same
Moderate- 20.7% More, 41.2% Fewer, 35.6% About the Same
Somewhat cons.- 21.8% More, 27.1% Fewer, 45.7% About the Same
Very conservative- 46.6% More, 15.6% Fewer, 33.1% About the Same

Hmm, think the very conservative folks who get that answer wrong BY A FACTOR OF 3 TO 1 might get their "facts" from people like Sykes, Belling, and McKenna. You bet they do. It goes right with the study which showed Fox News watchers knew less about current events than people who didn't watch news at all. And now you know why this organization made up of a Scott Walker front group and mediocre, selfish business owners want hate radio to be spread to other parts of the state, because their only chance of survival is to have a bunch of misinformed zombies take over the voting booths, and talk radio is the medium that works best to reach these weak-minded dopes.

And it's why we in the fact-based world must stay loud and aggressive, and counter every one of the lies propaganda outlets with a strong defense of reality. Walker's falling poll ratings in the face of his campaign blowing $21 million in expenses shows that people who have a clue see through Gov. Dropout and his failed policies. Now we have to stop innocent others from being sucked in, and make sure our voice is part of this state's conversation.

Milwaukee's OK, it's rural Wisconsin really feeling the job losses

It seems that the Walker Administration (and their mouthpieces at places like WMC) is trying out a theme of "Milwaukee is screwed up under Tom Barrett and therefore you shouldn't vote for Barrett." This is a silly argument for 2 reasons.

The first is shown in today's BLS report on local area unemployment rates and jobs. Wisconsin's info for metro areas is on Page 21, and when you look at it, it shows that the Milwaukee area (ID'd as Milwaukee, Waukesha, Ozaukee and Washington Counties) may have lost jobs in the last 12 months, but at a slower rate than the rest of the state did.

Job change, Milwaukee vs. Wisconsin March 2011- March 2012(seasonally unadjusted)
Milwaukee area- -4,300, -0.54%
Rest of Wisc.-25,700, -1.35%

So Milwaukee actually is beating the sad trend that exists in the rest of Fitzwalkerstan, and I could easily argue that those Milwaukee job losses are more the result of Walker over Barrett or the suburbs. Blaming Barrett for the Milwaukee area's losses in the last year would be like blaming Jim Doyle for losing jobs during Bush's Great Recession (oh wait, that is what the WisGOPs try to do...and they're equally full of crap for the Doyle complaints).

And the second reason is because Scott Walker hasn't given a damn about this state's largest city for at least a decade, as Capper runs down in this excellent post. "Transform Wisconsin" is a gimmick is the mark of a desperate man who's now falling behind in the polls because of his failed policies, and is a typical GOP move of screwing up something, and then claiming that you're the only one that can fix the mess you caused. Sorry, I'd rather have people in charge who don't screw it up in the first place.

Those BLS figures also show another trend when it comes to Wisconsin jobs- that rural Wisconsin has been devastated by Walker and the WisGOPs. Rural areas the ones often facing some of the worst public school cutbacks, as they are often the only provider of education around and have much fewer resources to spread the cuts over, and they are the ones who are especially devastated when local plants shut down (like the Schield plant and its 556 jobs in Mosinee or the recently-closed Wausau paper plant in Brokaw) , as that could be the main employer in the town with nothing else to replace it. When you break down the job numbers in Wisconsin, you can see the devastation outside of Wisconsin's urban areas, as well as Walker's targeted attack on state employees in Madison.

Job change, March 2011-March 2012
Milwaukee area -4,300, -0.54%
Madison area -4,600, -1.34%
Other state urban +3,600, +0.44%
Rural areas -24,700 -3.35%

That's right, rural Wisconsin is over 80% of the state's 30,000 unadjusted job loss over the last 12 months, and 1 out of every 30 jobs that existed a year ago are now gone from these areas. So while lots of places in Wisconsin are hurting, none are hurting more than the small towns and villages that help make this state the special place we know it to be.

Here's the question. Many rural areas of Wisconsin switched strongly to Walker and the GOP in the 2010 elections after going for Obama in 2008. Now that they've seen the effects of Walker's policies hit them as hard as any part of the state over the last 16 months, are they going to stick with Walker on June 5? I wouldn't bet on it.

Donate to WisGOP, get the Gov to show up to your expansion

I saw a timid jobs expansion story crawl across the ticker today, but it piqued my interest. It related to a Waukesha-based business called Spancrete, and they were announcing the planned (i.e., hasn't happened yet) addition of 30 jobs and the callback of employees they had previously laid off. Particularly when Spancrete's CEO made comments about the job market improving, it made my BS detector fire, and I decided to do some digging.

So I dialed up the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign's campaign finance database, and put in Spancrete's name. What followed was 260 donations over the last 20 years, with the numbers increasing in recent times, with plenty of mentions of the Nagy family of Hartland, and CEO Alan Antoniewicz, who is quoted in the job expansion article.

In all, Spancrete has given over $93,000 over the years, all to Republicans, including over $35,000 in 2010 and 2011. Nearly $10,000 of those dollars went to Walker in that time period, and $22,000 on Sept. 7, 2010 to Brett Davis, who was running for Lieutenant Governor at the time and currently has a spot in Walker's DHS.

The Davis connection is notable, because the complaint against accused Walkergate criminal Kelly Rindfleisch indicates that Rindfleisch's main job was to help run the campaign of....Brett Davis. And a huge bundling of campaign dollars on the same day doesn't happen without coincidence. So no wonder Walker came sprinting to Spancrete to try to spin some sort of "jobs are coming back" meme- there's been a lot of kickbacks...ERRR...relationships between the 2 sides.

But Scotty's not a monogamous man on this subject. There's plenty of other Friends of Walker that Scotty has graced with his presence in the last year.

1. Walker showed up at an event last November when generator-maker Generac announced a potential expansion of 400 jobs. It was also nice of him to say hello to Generac founder Robert Kern and his wife Patricia, who gave Walker a cool $200,000 on April 23, and have given $124,000 to Republicans since 1997.

2. Walker appeared in Hudson last June to announce that ULine manufacturing was moving its distribution center and 150 jobs from Minnesota across the St. Croix River. The move came a few years after ULine received millions in TIF tax breaks to move a location across the Illinois line in Pleasant Prairie, and CEO Richard Uihlein showered Walker with his appreciation in the form of $132,000 in the last 2 years, including $100,000 the weekend that recall petitions were filed against Scotty, and $25,000 more in March 2012.

Uihlein has also spread around his wealth to plenty of other Wisconsin Republicans through the years, including thousand to legislative candidates and $10,000 to the dishonest Supreme Court campaign of Michael Gableman. Interestingly, despite his huge interest in WisGOP causes, Uihlein won't be able to vote for Walker on June 5, because he has listed his residence as being in Lake Forest, Illinois the last 5+ years.

3. Also in Western Wisconsin, Polaris announced last month that it was receiving $595,000 in state tax credits in return for promising to add 89 jobs in the next three years at a plant in Osceola. The move was especially interesting as Polaris shut down the Osceola plant and took 500 jobs with it in 2010. 6 weeks prior to those tax credits being handed out, Polaris CEO Scott Wine gave Walker $5,000, and Polaris Production Director and President Davis Payne also chipped in to Walker's campaign in the last few months. Sure seems to be interesting timing, and much like Walker's buddy Richard Uihlein, neither Wine nor Payne can vote for Walker either, as Wine is from Minnesota and Payne is from Texas.

And I'm just scratching the surface here. Three months ago, I was noting WEDC's desperation in giving away tax credits just so they can say Walker's policies added something to our economy. If anything, this trend has gotten more blatant as the recall election nears and Wisconsin stays dead last when it comes to jobs since Walker took over. So just for fun, I recommend taking a look at where Walker shows up for the next jobs announcement or tax credit giveaway, then cross-check it with the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign's database. I bet you'll be able to find a whole lot of "coincidences" pop up.