Thursday was a very bad day for the anti-Scott Walker crowd.
First, the John Doe investigation, at least so far, showed Scott Walker acted appropriately.
Then, Waukesha County Circuit Judge J. Mac Davis ruled in favor of the Walker campaign in its dispute with the Government Accountability Board.
Ouch!
From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, via Twitter:
A judge ruled Thursday that the state Government Accountability Board needs to take more aggressive action to vet recall signatures that are expected to be submitted in two weeks against Gov. Scott Walker and other Republican office holders.
The ruling by Waukesha County Circuit Judge J. Mac Davis came in a case filed Dec. 15 by Walker's campaign committee and Stephan Thompson, executive director of the state Republican Party, asking Davis to order the accountability board to seek out and eliminate duplicate and fictitious signatures and illegible addresses in recall petitions.
Davis, who refused to enter injunctions in the case, based his decision on his interpretation of state law, more than on equal protection arguments brought up by the Republicans. He also said that the board must take "reasonable" efforts to eliminate such signatures.
Kevin Kennedy, director and general counsel of the board, said after the hearing that his organization would have to discuss the decision to see what it needed to change in procedures already in place.
In court, Kennedy testified that entering signatures into a database to look for duplicates could take eight extra weeks for his staff, and could cost $94,000 for software and outside help.
Steven M. Biskupic, attorney for the Republicans, argued that not catching invalid signatures violated the constitutional rights to equal protection of people who chose not to sign recall petitions.
He also cited a media report that one man claimed he'd signed recall petitions 80 times, and submitted a petition from last summer's attempt to recall Sen. Jim Holperin (D-Conover), in which the accountability board allowed a "Bugs Bunny" signature to be counted. Kennedy said the signature was counted because Holperin didn't follow the proper procedures for challenging it.
In issuing his ruling, Davis said, "Counting the signature of Bugs Bunny is something only a lawyer could make seem OK."
Common sense prevails.
The GAB is actually going to have to do its job.
4 comments:
"Scott Walker acted appropriately."
You keep telling yourself that. While county executive, Mr. Walker kept on and even promoted Mr. Russell AFTER he had already been shown to misappropriate funds via improper use of a credit card. You consider this "appropriate?" I doubt you would say as much if your financial planner hired top staff that way.
Walker asked for the investigation.
That's appropriate.
The investigation took a LONG time. Must have been very complicated.
If anything is inappropriate, it's that Chisholm took so long to charge Russell's partner.
Mary, yes or no question. Do you feel it was appropriate to employ Russell after he was fired from WHEDA for using a state credit card for personal use, and in a position with money responsibility?
I didn't know Russell was fired from WHEDA for misuse of a credit card.
I honestly didn't know what you were talking about. After some googling, I found things about Russell and WHEDA mentioned on Left-wing sites.
I don't know the circumstances of the case, so I'm not going to answer yes or no.
Was it a personnel matter? A criminal matter? I don't know what Walker knew, etc.
However, I make no excuses for crooks.
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