For Immediate Release
September 10, 2018
Contact: Alex Japko, alexj@wisdems.org
We hope you enjoyed your weekend, but we doubt Scott Walker did after an impressively bad few days of press. From his former Transportation Secretary slamming his roads policy, to Foxconn helping drive a downgrade of Mount Pleasant’s bond rating, to new revelations around the Lincoln Hills crisis, Walker’s failed leadership is getting exposed on all sides.
Oh, it also turns out he met with that Russian spy more than once.
We have you covered on all the bad headlines that Walker hopes you missed.
Journal Sentinel: Scott Walker’s ex-DOT secretary says governor isn’t telling the truth about roads
Gov. Scott Walker’s former transportation secretary says the GOP governor isn’t telling the truth about road projects and is taking a high-risk gamble that could see the state invest billions of dollars in obsolete highways.
Walker has been “increasingly inaccurate” when describing the state’s highway system, said Mark Gottlieb, a Republican who was in the Assembly for eight years and served as Walker’s transportation secretary from 2011 to 2017.
WBAY: Where’s the money? Target 2 Investigates $46m taken from local road budgets
Millions of dollars in federal funds are being withheld from local municipalities by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, Target 2 Investigates has learned.
Both Appleton and Green Bay are losing out on more than $3 million in funds. These municipalities don’t know where that money has been diverted.
“Where is the money going? We have no idea,” says Steve Grenier, Green Bay Public Works Director
Mount Pleasant: Mount Pleasant’s bond rating downgraded amid millions in Foxconn-related borrowing
Mount Pleasant’s millions in borrowing to support the construction of Foxconn Technology Group’s $10 billion factory there have led to a one-notch downgrade in the village’s credit rating over fears that the massive factory may not produce the economic benefits officials had promised.
Journal Sentinel: Legal woes at teen prison have cost Wisconsin $20.6 million and counting
Lawsuits over the problems at Wisconsin’s juvenile prison complex have cost the state $20.6 million so far and those costs will continue to rise — possibly by large sums if some cases aren’t resolved in the state’s favor.
The facility for more than three years has been under criminal investigation for prisoner abuse and child neglect. If charges are issued, that could open the state to more legal exposure from lawsuits.
Journal Sentinel: Scott Walker administration waited 2 years to alert nursing regulators of teen inmate who almost died
Gov. Scott Walker’s administration waited more than two years to tell the state Board of Nursing about a 14-year-old inmate who nearly died when nurses didn’t get him to a doctor for three days, according to state agencies.
Once the complaint was filed in July, the Board of Nursing — which itself is overseen by the Walker administration — waited seven weeks to process it, according to the board. Officials entered the complaint into the board’s electronic system on Tuesday, the first business day after the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published an article about the February 2016 incident.
Journal Sentinel: Scott Walker had second brief encounter with accused Russian spy, court filing says
Gov. Scott Walker had a second brief interaction with a woman now accused of being a Russian spy on the day he launched his unsuccessful presidential bid in 2015, according to a new court filing.
The GOP governor acknowledged in July that he briefly spoke with accused foreign agent Maria Butina and had his photo taken with her and a Russian official at a National Rifle Association convention in April 2015
Politico: ‘Scott Walker fatigue’ haunts Republicans
There’s every reason to believe this is the beginning of the end for Scott Walker.
His presidential bid crashed and burned. He’s running for a third term as governor in what figures to be a hostile midterm for the Republican Party. Polling shows that the independent voters who were so critical to Walker’s wins in the 2012 recall and 2014 reelection are breaking away from him.
After years of futility, Democrats here are convinced they finally have him cornered.
Wisconsin State Journal: Scott Walker took 127 more flights last year than scrutinized New York governor
Republican Gov. Scott Walker took 65 percent more taxpayer-funded flights last year than the Democratic governor of New York, whose flying was noted in a recent news report for being more frequent than any governor among the 10 most populous states.
Wisconsin is not among those states (it ranks 20th) and was not included in the report, but liberal advocacy group One Wisconsin Now recently reported on Walker’s taxpayer-funded airplane travel since September 2015 when he dropped out of the presidential race.
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