Wisconsin update: Second and final Total Recall/Walkergate debate tonight

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Gov. Scott Walker and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett will face off tonight in the second — and final — Total Recall/Walkergate debate in the Wisconsin gubernatorial recall election campaign.

Barrett wanted more debates. Walker did not.

The Capitol Times editorializes today, Editorial: Seven debate questions for Scott Walker:

In fact, in the first debate last week, Walker was barely present — declining to ask a question of Barrett, failing to respond to challenges from his opponent or questions from journalists on the panel.

Why is Walker so disinclined to debate? Apparently, the Republican governor, who has raised $31 million, compared to Barrett's $3.9 million, prefers to let his attack ads do the talking.

But Walker will face one more round of questions tonight. And it will be harder to avoid them, as one of the state's ablest broadcast journalists, Mike Gousha, will be asking them.

In case Gousha runs out of questions, here are a few he could toss Walker's way:

1. In October 2010, you told the Oshkosh Northwestern newspaper's editorial board that you would work with public employee unions and respect the bargaining process. Now you have said that you and your aides began developing legislation to strip away collective bargaining rights immediately after your election. Did you lie to the Northwestern's editorial board?

2. In February 2011, you told the people of Wisconsin in a televised address that you were forced by a fiscal crisis to introduce a budget-repair bill that created dozens of new political positions for your cronies, proposed the sell-off of state assets and attacked the rights of public employees and teachers. Now, we learn that the drafting of elements of the legislation began months before the "crisis" developed. Did you lie to the people of Wisconsin?

3. In April 2011, you told the U.S. Congress that you began developing your anti-labor legislation in response to actions by the unions. Now, you acknowledge that the legislation was being drafted before you had any interactions with the unions. Did you lie to the Congress?

4. In April 2011, in the same sworn testimony to Congress, you said that you had not spoken to anyone about using anti-labor legislation to punish or undermine political foes. Now we have a videotape showing you speaking months earlier to your largest political donor about using a "divide and conquer" strategy to undermine your political foes and to make Wisconsin "a completely red (Republican) state." Did you lie to the Congress about this as well?

5. In last week's debate, when asked about health care programs (such as BadgerCare), you suggested that you are expanding them and providing them with unprecedented support. Yet, under your administration, more than 60,000 Wisconsinites have either been stripped of coverage or denied access to coverage for which they qualify. Did you lie in response to that question in last week's debate?

6. Throughout the current campaign, you have been asked to answer basic questions about who is funding the criminal defense fund that has been established to help you respond to the John Doe inquiry into illegal actions by your aides and campaign donors. You have suggested that you cannot answer these and other questions related to the probe because of constraints placed on you by prosecutors and by state law. But veteran prosecutors and the state Government Accountability Board have suggested that you have a good deal of flexibility when it comes to answering these questions. Did you lie when you said you could not answer even basic questions relating to the John Doe probe?

7. Throughout the current campaign you have been harshly critical of the use of the recall process to hold you to account. Yet in 2010, your campaign produced a video in which you hailed the recall campaign that cleared the way for you to become Milwaukee County executive as a hopeful expression of direct democracy. Did you lie in that video about your attitude toward recall elections? Or are you lying now that it is you who is being held to account by the people?

"Walkergate," the John Doe investigation takes higher profile in recall election's final days:

An ongoing criminal investigation continues to grab the spotlight in the final days leading up to Tuesday’s gubernatorial recall election.

* * *

One of the more notable bits of news came from Tuesday’s release of campaign finance reports, which indicated that Walker had transferred $100,000 from his campaign account to a criminal defense fund.

The transfer brings the total amount transferred by Walker from his campaign to his criminal defense fund to $160,000 in the past six weeks.

By law, money can be transferred from one account to another if the donor approves the transfer. Despite what have become nearly daily calls by Barrett for Walker to release the names of the donors who are paying for his John Doe-related legal bills, Walker has not done so.

* * *

Three of Walker's former aides from his time as Milwaukee County executive have been charged, as has one of his appointees and a major donor.

The admission by Walker not only came a day after the campaign finance reports were made public, but two days after the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel broke news that emails sent by Walker himself, rather than just members of his staff, were part of the investigation.

John Nichols, editor of The Nation magazine also writes for the Capitol Times. Here is his latest opinion. John Nichols: Scott Walker tries to buy an election — and a state:

If the embattled governor does prevail, he will provide essential evidence not of his own appeal but of the power of money to define our politics.

On the other hand, if Walker is defeated, a template will have been developed for a people-power, message-power politics that might be able to challenge big money.

And there is no question that what is in play is very big money.

Walker's finance disclosure forms reveal that, as of May 21, Walker has raised more than $30 million for the June 5 fight he was forced into when more than 900,000 Wisconsinites petitioned for a new election.

An additional document (required for fundraising in amounts greater than $500 since May 21) reveals that Walker has collected at least $800,000 more since the formal filing.

So the governor confirms taking in more than $31 million. That's the most money ever raised by a candidate for public office in Wisconsin.

This is an obscene amount of money in our political system that is corrupting the entire political process. It is even worse on the national level where in excess of 2 billion dollars will be spent just in the presidential race alone. This is madness.