Gov. Scott Walker's campaign paid more than $100,000 to have recall signatures reviewed by a Chicago consultant that holds private investigator licenses and specializes in anti-corruption operations, among a broad array of other services.Mike Tate of the Democratic Party came up with a zinger in his comment on Walker's expenditure:
Walker's campaign finance records show he paid a total of $109,255 to Navigant Consulting in November and December.
Walker spokeswoman Ciara Matthews said the firm "provided consulting services to the campaign on the petition collection and verification process," but declined to elaborate.
"When I first heard Scott Walker's campaign was spending money on "anti-corruption" private investigators, I figured he was looking to weed out more criminals from his inner circle," Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate said Friday. "But that Scott Walker, whose top aides and advisers are involved in a criminal corruption probe and who is the first governor in Wisconsin history to require a criminal defense fund, is hiring private investigators isn't even the most ironic part of this story. That the man who is the steward of our tax dollars would spend almost $30,000 per fake signature and whose failed economic policies have Wisconsin leading the nation in job loss continues to hire people from Illinois to work for his campaign and on his criminal defense is even more unbelievable."I would add a couple of things to this though.
One, it is logical that Walker would do this. After all, he has a long history of sending Wisconsin's money and Wisconsin's jobs to Illinois.
Secondly, it also proves what I've been saying through the whole recall process - he had the money and should be using it instead of taxpayers' money to verify and challenge any of the signatures, as the law reads. But to be fair, I suppose he is trying to save as much as his campaign war chest as he can so that he can get it transferred to his legal cooperation fund. With the case that they're building up against him and his underlings, he's gonna need every penny he can get.
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The signatures were turned in mid-January. What were PIs doing in November and December? Infiltrating?
ReplyDeleteThe GAB found four fraudulent names. Four. That must be what his consulting firm found, since he let the recall go forward -- so that cost than $27,000 per name.
ReplyDeleteI bet it cost less than that per name for the GAB. Well, that's typical of the outrageous costs of state workers vs. outsourcing, Walker. Still not very good at budgeting, is he?
Who did all the scanning of the incomplete/ invalid signatures that has been getting posted online?
DeleteAlso, could NAVIGANT have simply been used to weed out political opponents on the recall petitions?
Perhaps make data readily available to the weapon-carrying angry people who may live next door to someone who signed a recall petition.
If he considers planting trouble makers in the crowd, the man will find just about any malcontent to cause trouble for anyone across the state in my view.
So weeding out corruption from ones inner circle is a bad thing?
ReplyDeleteBizzaro...
You have to be a Walker person. Foolish response with bad spelling. Tell tale signs.
DeleteIt will be interesting to see what Navigant billed for the 1st quarter of 2012 when there really were signatures to verify, if that is indeed what they were up to.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion you would not need to hire a firm like Navigant to verify signatures or do other jobs for the campaign unless it was something that a known Wisconsin Republican must not be seen doing. Thus the use of anonymous people from Chicago with the bonus of plausible deniability or, as they say in the espionage trade, a cut-out.
On the other hand, I might be overly suspicious and the Walker campaign may be operating as ethically as an Eagle Scout.