Scott Walker has taken his blurred lines show on the road.
No, not the Robin Thicke version of blurred lines, thank god.
Rather, Walker is famous—or infamous—for blurring the lines between official duties and his never-ending political campaign.
He’s taken it from the county executive’s suite in the courthouse, to his statewideHarley tour to the state Capitol, where he took a phone call from “David Koch”about how he’d thought about planting agents provocateurs among the legitimateprotesters outside.
Then he blurred the lines between his official campaign and the allegedlyindependent special interest groups that were coordinating with his campaign.
Now he’s gone overseas with a quickly announced trade mission to England, where he’sallegedly too focused on Wisconsin’s cheese making to answer questions aboutevolution.
This isn’t a trade mission, folks, even though he’s trying to sell it as one.
State taxpayers are footing the bill for this junket, which isn’t doing a damn thingfor Wisconsin’s economic prospects but merely making Walker the laughingstockof England.
Is it an official trip or a campaign stop?
That’s a good question and one that the Democratic Party of Wisconsin is raising in this complaint filed with the state Government Accountability Board today:
Walker derives a significant personal, private interest and benefit by repeatedly using public resources and public employees to engage in activity that promotes his political career. As well, [Our American Revival] derives a financialinterest and benefit in using Wisconsin’s taxpayer resources to fund travel that raises Walker’s national profile in advance of his expected presidential run.
And that would be against the law.
DPW’s complaint comes on the heels of one filed by the progressive American Democracy Legal Fund, which alleges that Walker’s 527, Our American Revival, is breaking the law by taking in campaign donations over the legal limits. Those limits are $2,700 per election cycle and $5,000 per year from a multicandidate political action committee. Our American Revival has already accepted a $25,000 contribution as well as a $100,000 one, which ADLF says is a violation of the law.
By admitting he is “very interested” in running, appearing at multiple events showcasing potential presidential candidates, and making repeated visits to early primary states, Gov. Walker has made it clear he is testing the waters for a presidential race. [Our American Revival]’s activities to date indicate it is operating as Gov. Walker’s exploratory committee. Gov. Walker has made plain he is using OAR to decide whether [to] run for president, and he is raising funds for OAR that are being used to pay for his travel and his staff of political advisors. As a result, any contributions he or OAR uses testing the waters may not exceed the [Federal Election Campaign] Act’s limits or come from a corporation.
For Wisconsinites, Walker’s never-ending campaign is nothing new, nor his iswillingness to ignore campaign finance laws. But now he’s operating on thenational—even international—stage, and he’s going to be scrutinized. Not onlywill the national media and progressive groups be taking a look, but you canbet that he’s being watched like a hawk by his Republican rivals. That’ssomething Walker hasn’t had to deal with for a while, since his folks took overthe state party, tossed out the moderates and Thompson faction and threatened legislators with primaries if they didn't toe the line. I wouldn't be surprised if the next batch of complaints—and you know there will be more than a few—come from his fellow Republicans.
