As a result of a legal settlement, the Associated Press obtained more than 26,000 e-mails sent to Governor Scott Walker's office during the insanity of the budget repair bill protests.
From the Associated Press, under the headline, "Email to Wis. gov. initially favored union rights":
Seeking a way to counter a growing protest movement, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker cited his email, confidently declaring that most people writing his office had urged him to eliminate nearly all union rights for state workers.
But an Associated Press analysis of the emails shows that, for close to a week, messages in Walker's inbox were running roughly 2-to-1 against his plans. The tide did not turn in his favor until shortly after desperate Democrats fled the state to stop a vote they knew they would lose.
The AP analyzed more than 26,000 emails sent to Walker from the time he formally announced his plans until he first mentioned the emails in public.
During that time, the overall tally ran 55 percent in support, 44 percent against. In the weeks since, Walker has continued to receive tens of thousands of emails on the issue.
The AP obtained the emails through a legal settlement with Walker's office, the result of a lawsuit filed by the news cooperative and the Isthmus, a weekly newspaper in Madison. The news organizations sued after the governor's office did not respond to requests for the emails filed under the state's open records law.
In spite of the slant of that lame headline, AP is forced to conclude that the overwhelming majority of e-mail sent to Governor Walker during that very contentious time did, in fact, support him.
Since the unions were obviously conducting e-mail writing campaigns from the beginning of the protests, before the general public really became aware of the story, and before the 14 Democrat senators fled the state, I'm not surprised that initially the Governor was getting more negative than positive messages.
But as soon as the people, the millions of heavily burdened taxpayers of Wisconsin, witnessed what was happening at the Capitol and understood the Dems were attempting to overturn the results of the November 2010 elections and disenfranchise us, the tide turned dramatically in Governor Walker's favor.
The AP article takes issue with exactly when the count shifted to being favorable for the Republicans and exactly when Governor Walker made his remarks about the majority of the messages being in support of his budget repair bill.
The aim is to suggest that Governor Walker wasn't being honest and misled the people.
...By the end of Feb. 16—the eve of a vote in the state Senate and a day in which Madison's schools were forced to close due to high number of teacher and staff absences, presumably to protest at the Capitol—Walker had received more than 12,000 emails in all, and they ran roughly 2-to-1 against the bill.
Things changed dramatically the next day as the tide of emails shifted in Walker's favor. By the time his press conference began, the gap had closed significantly as emails of support arrived by the hundreds every hour.
At 5 p.m., 15 minutes after he took the podium, the governor's office had received nearly 5,900 emails of support that day to roughly 1,400 against. Still, at that point, the overall tally was split roughly down the middle.
In an interview Tuesday, Walker said he was only talking about emails his office had received the day of the news conference.
The timeline thing is sort of pathetic, "15 minutes after he took the podium."
Whatever. The bottom line is that the taxpayers supported Governor Walker, as he said.
AND, the taxpayers were apparently truly disgusted with the 14 AWOL Democrat senators that were held up as folk heroes by union thugs, the likes of Michael Moore, Susan Sarandon, and Jesse Jackson, and MSNBC.
What bothers me about this "analysis" is AP's access to communication between private citizens and government officials.
I had no idea that my e-mail to Governor Walker would be "analyzed" by some AP personnel.
...The AP's analysis was based on an individual review of each email, which was categorized as either pro, con, ambiguous or unrelated. Some authors noted clearly they were from out of state, while others said they were teachers and other Wisconsin public employees who would be directly affected by Walker's plans.
"Thanks for the 10% pay cut," wrote a Department of Corrections employee. "I can't believe that I voted for you. Get bent."
Many emails encouraged Walker to fire the teachers who called in sick to attend protests at the Capitol, specifically citing President Ronald Reagan's action against the nation's air traffic controllers during a labor dispute in 1981. Walker later compared the stand he was taking to Reagan's during a prank phone call he thought was from billionaire GOP donor David Koch.
"That was the first crack in the Berlin Wall and led to the fall of the Soviets," Walker said on the call taped by a New York-based blogger.
The emails did not represent a scientific measure of public opinion. Some on both sides were profane. Others were deeply personal.
Jean Eichman, a special education teacher in Walworth County, said in her note to Walker that his father, a minister, had performed her wedding ceremony in 1978 and Walker himself had once babysat for one of her children more than 20 years ago.
"It's hard to criticize people you know," Eichman said, but the importance of the issue compelled her to email Walker.
An email typical of the supporters came from Gail Whittier, an accountant in Racine who said she and her husband have struggled during the recession. She wrote to Walker that public employees should make sacrifices as well, and said in an interview that he needed to know—as the protesters got so much attention—there were people who supported him.
I assumed my messages to Governor Walker were private and that they would be read by his staff, not the Associated Press.
I consider the "analysis" an invasion of my privacy.
I didn't give permission for a third party to read what I wrote. Who has access to my personal information?
I'm not comfortable with this.
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