Yet Another Broken Promise By Walker

by capper

We have seen that Walker has a problem with keeping promises. First, he lied about not running in 2008. Then we saw him lie about privatization. The most recent lie he has been caught up in is about cronyism.

In 2002, when he rode CRG's wave into the County Executive's office, he signed off on CRG's platform of campaign promises. One of these promises was this:

Implement a program to eliminate cronyism and nepotism in county government, including a review of all management and supervisory functions under the executive. Within 60 days.

Funny, I thought to eliminate meant to remove, not to participate in.

We have three examples to highlight this. The first one, and to be honest, the weakest example was the special election last summer, when he tried to get his friend and campaign contributor, Chris Kujawa, elected to the County Board in a special election. Kujawa lost, fortunately.

The next example is Thomas Nardelli. In 2002, Walker's main opponent, Jim Ryan, accused Walker and Nardelli of scheming and backroom dealing in the sense that if Nardelli would quit the race and support Walker, Walker would in turn give Nardelli a job. Walker and Nardelli both denied it. Now, Nardelli is Walker's chief of staff. Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not.

Ryan had good reason to suspect a deal was in the works. A lot of people had similar thoughts. From the archives of WisPolitics.com:

Walker, who claims to be a reform candidate, appears to have promised high-ranking county government jobs to unqualified individuals. While pretending to oppose nepotism and favoritism, Walker instead plans to hand out taxpayer-supported jobs to political buddies.

In recent days, numerous Walker campaign workers have openly told reporters that they anticipate getting government jobs in a Walker administration. A number of these individuals have no experience in county government, and their biggest "qualification" is political support of Scott Walker.

One of these campaign workers is Jim Villa. Jim Villa has worked on both of Walker's previous campaigns for County Executive, and had been Walker's Chief of Staff (to be replaced by Nardelli-see the pattern yet?). Now we see Walker is trying to give Villa further rewards by nominating him to the Milwaukee Public Museum Board.

Fortunately, once again, the county board shows more sense and integrity than Walker by tabling the nomination. From All Politics at JSOnline:

Supervisor Richard Nyklewicz Jr. asked for Villa's appointment to be tabled, citing "significant concerns, given his political background." He declined further comment.

Supervisor Lynne De Bruin, the parks committee chairwoman, said she voted for tabling Villa's appointment to avoid a divisive public debate that might cause the public to question the management at the museum.

"I didn't want any worries on the public’s mind of who is on the museum board and who is not," she said. The museum working through a financial recovery plan begun last year.

With a track record like his, it is clearly evident why Walker would have a fear of commitment to Milwaukee County.

Please help support Lena Taylor, so that we can take our county back from corrupt liars like Tom Ament and Scott Walker.