Over $400,000 dollars of Wisconsin taxpayer money wasted
By Peter Fenn - Yesterday there was an “election” in Wisconsin. It was necessary because a host of fake Republican candidates filed to run as Democrats. Silliness, pure and simple.
This was all part of the recall effort that both Republicans and Democrats have engaged in as a result of Gov. Scott Walker (R) and the Republicans’ decision to go after teachers and public employees.
Instead of just running the candidates in one election, the Republicans put up their “protest” candidates, all of whom lost. A ploy to run Republicans masquerading as Democrats and create a totally unnecessary election.
Now, mind you, this is ostensibly the party that does very little except talk about cutting the budget and saving the taxpayers money. All in the name of fiscal responsibility, standing up to government, right?
Well, this little charade cost Wisconsin taxpayers over $400,000, according to Talking Points Memo. Money that could have been spent on schools, medical care, public safety. But, no, the Republicans in Wisconsin staged a silly farce of an election that was a total and complete waste of money and time.
Maybe the Republicans will pay for this duplicitous, hypocritical scheme. Let’s hope so.
This is a portion of an article by Greg Sargent at the Washington Post. For those of you not familiar with Greg’s work, he is great blogger and journalist – highly recommend you check him out. For the remainder of the article, click the Read More tab below.
Earlier today I noted that the plan being hatched by Wisconsin Republicans to meddle in Dem primaries in order to delay the recall elections is being widely seen as a sign of mounting GOP desperation as the recalls loom.
Now, in a striking revelation from the Journal Sentinal, it looks like these tactics could actually end up costing the Wisconsin taxpayer thousands of dollars — and that all the Wisconsin GOP senators being targeted in recalls were aware of this plan:
A Republican effort to stall recall elections by forcing Democratic primaries to be held will cost taxpayers at least tens of thousands of dollars, a check of local election clerks shows.
Meanwhile, the top Senate Republican said Tuesday that all GOP recall targets were familiar with the plan to delay the recall elections by fielding fake Democrats in primaries. Earlier, some of those recall targets claimed they didn’t know about the plan.
Click through the link for the details, but this is just amazing. Keep in mind that the number one justification Wisconsin Republicans offered for taking away the collective bargaining rights of public employees — the proposal that got this whole fight started — has been that it’s necessary to protect Wisconsin taxpayers! In his February address at the height of the crisis, Walker claimed he was pursuing the rollback of bargaining rights in order to protect the “millions of taxpayers from all across this state who know we’re doing the right thing.”
