Representative Sandy Pasch and Citizen Action of Wisconsin

UPDATE 2: Via Blogging Blue. The campaign treasurer for Sandy Pasch campaign is also treasurer for Citizen Action of Wisconsin.

UPDATE: GOP files complaint into Pasch-Citizen Action tie

Via a couple of tweets from Charlie Sykes:

Sandy Pasch is on brd of directors of group spending big $ backing her campaign. Coordination between candidate and indy groups illegal

And

Dem Sandy Pasch is listed as a member of the Board of Directors of Citizen Action: the group that organized this protest http://t.co/UdStJ9H

That Sandy Pasch is on the board can be seen here. All the way near the bottom of the page is:

Sandy Pasch
State Representative

Sandy Pasch is a concerned citizen, right? Great.

Well, except for Wisconsin statute 11.06 (7)(a):

Every committee, other than a personal campaign committee, which and every individual, other than a candidate who desires to make disbursements during any calendar year, which are to be used to advocate the election or defeat of any clearly identified candidate or candidates in any election shall before making any disbursement, except within the amount authorized under s. 11.05 (1) or(2), file with the registration statement under s. 11.05 a statement under oath affirming that the committee or individual does not act in cooperation or consultation with any candidate or agent or authorized committee of a candidate who is supported, that the committee or individual does not act in concert with, or at the request or suggestion of, any candidate or any agent or authorized committee of a candidate who is supported, that the committee or individual does not act in cooperation or consultation with any candidate or agent or authorized committee of a candidate who benefits from a disbursement made in opposition to a candidate, and that the committee or individual does not act in concert with, or at the request or suggestion of, any candidate or agent or authorized committee of a candidate who benefits from a disbursement made in opposition to a candidate. A committee which or individual who acts independently of one or more candidates or agents or authorized committees of candidates and also in cooperation or upon consultation with, in concert with, or at the request or suggestion of one or more candidates or agents or authorized committees of candidates shall indicate in the oath the names of the candidate or candidates to which it applies.

A lot of legalese to say that an organization who makes an oath of independent disbursements is not acting in cooperation or consultation with the candidate or committees connected with the candidate.

See, Citizen Action of Wisconsin has made such an oath. For Sandy Pasch. And Sandy Pasch is on the board. And they stage demonstrations like this.

Independent? Hmmmm…

I’ll let the legal eagles take over from here, cuz I’m not a lawyer, or anything…

Recall elections begin.

Well, the next six weeks will be exciting. Or maybe not.

The first round of recall election process begin Tuesday. Here’s the schedule from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel:

Tuesday [July 12] is election day for Democratic primaries in six Republican-held Senate districts.

July 19 is the general election in the district of Sen. Dave Hansen D-Green Bay, and Republican primary day in two other Democrat-held districts.

Aug. 9 is the general election in the Republican districts.

Aug. 16 is the general election in the two Democratic districts.

In this round, the fake Democrats (Everyone knows they’re fake now right? We don’t have to hide any longer? And we do know the Democrats have done something very similar in the past, don’t we?) will be in a primary with the real Democrats (just to keep it simple for everyone, especially me).

Oh, speak of keeping it simple here’s a nice little graphic (PDF file):

Now if it was my preference, the fake Democrats (far right column in above graphic) would win the primary and then the general election. But my preferences rarely come to pass.

Now one more thing, which everyone knows, is that there is going to be a boatload of money spent by both sides, a lot of coming from outside the state.

I actually think this is good because I believe people should be able to spend their money the way they want to. Democrats will spend just as much as Republicans even though they pretend to not want to do it. They just have to protect us from evil Republicans.

I used to agree with what the Editorial Board said about recall elections:

But that doesn’t mean these elections are a good idea. In fact, they are a very bad idea – an extreme overreaction born from a long season of overreaction.

[snip]

Recalls should be used to punish gross malfeasance or corruption – something that cannot wait for the normal election cycle – not to overturn the results of an election or to dispute policy differences.

But this money helps the economy maybe even creating some jobs, which is good for the state. Maybe other states will put recall elections in place in other states to boost their employment rates. #sarcasm

Because Wisconsin’s job market, though not as robust as we would like, and slipping a bit last month (PDF file), is still the envy of many states and certainly the federal government.

Republicans in Legislature may try to make recalls harder

Republican leaders in the Legislature said Monday they would consider introducing legislation this fall to make it harder to recall state officials.

Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald (R-Horicon) said the upcoming recall elections had launched the state Senate into “full campaign mode” and was slowing down the legislative process.

via Republicans in Legislature may try to make recalls harder – JSOnline.

Of course the more cynical think the GOP are trying to protect themselves with this bill. I doubt the bill would take effect soon.

But this is not new with me. I complained about the ease of recalls long ago, but I can’t find the link .But it might be too hard to correct. One man’s malfeasance is another’s governing style. But it shouldn’t be recallable unless there’s criminal misconduct. Like Anthony Weiner, David Vitter or similar.

Not just because we disagree with their policy.

This is the price of apathy?

I usually don’t take on Community Columnists at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. I was one once. But the one in Thursday’s paper is useful for a point, because it reflects what I see in liberal thought toward conservatives.

The 2010 election saw a full 50% of the electorate sit on their hands and do nothing. Among those who did vote, one has to wonder just how much effort was put into understanding the issues, the proposed solutions and the historical performance of the candidates.

via This is the price of apathy – JSOnline.

I’ve written about apathy before, even as a member of the Community Columnists. However, Mr. Bell is not really writing about apathy.

The Republicans got elected promising jobs and have pulled a fast one on all of us. Behind the foible of “budget,” they used the issue to drive home every bit of longed for right-wing goodies – and now, some who voted for them feel duped.

Yes, this is another screed about those no good Republicans.

What was that whole brown bag lunch that the liberals liked to ridicule so much, all about anyway?

That’s right. The budget.

How soon they forget.

But that seems to be the liberal tactic, that somehow the Republicans pulled a bait and switch on the people of Wisconsin.

“Jobs was what the Republicans promised.”

Well, yeah and the brown bag lunch. Living within your means.

Hmmm, I wonder if Mr. Bell was truly “duped?” Because the article sure didn’t give the feel of one who had been duped.

So who’s doing the duping?

As usual, what it comes down to is that the GOP lied and stupid people voted for them.

Same ol’ same ol’.

Wait, GOP has a gay presidential candidate?

Openly gay candidate Fred Karger will not be on the stage next Monday night when CNN broadcasts the first major debate of the 2012 presidential campaign.

via Gay presidential candidate left out, again | Keen News Service.

Those Republicans. So narrow minded.

…ironically, GOProud, a gay conservative group, has being speaking out in support of allowing Johnson into the debate while saying nothing about Karger, who served as an adviser to President Reagan.

Hold it! A gay conservative group is not speaking out about this? It’s getting more confusing.

A CNN poll conducted last month did include Karger, but zero percent of 473 Republicans or Republican-leaning voters surveyed chose him. Fox News included Karger in April, but only one percent of 322 Republican registered voters supported him.

I suppose you need some kind of criteria or else the stage might get a little crowded. As it was, they barely had time to answer all the questions. Limit of 1 minute per question and 30 seconds for followups? Puhleeze.

Anyway back to the item at hand. I thought those Republicans were homophobes. Have the Democrats ever had a gay candidate?

Tim Sullivan sure sounds like he’s running for something.

In an address to civic leaders last Wednesday, Sullivan revealed that he had more success finding trained workers in Texas than Wisconsin.

A delegation of senior Texas government authorities met Sullivan at the airport, including the mayor of the town of Kilgore. In a one-hour lunch, they matched Bucyrus with a ready-to-occupy factory with every possible amenity.

More important, they asked Sullivan exactly what sort of workers he needed. Sullivan said 80 with specific skill. The state gave Sullivan a guarantee that the workers would be waiting when the doors opened at the expansion site in Kilgore. State officials customized a recruitment, training and certification program. One year later, when the expansion site in Kilgore opened its doors, the 80 welders were waiting. [Emphasis mine]

Impressive. He then contrasted that to what he found in Milwaukee:

What pained Sullivan most, the CEO said, was that the Milwaukee Area Technical College also said it would customize a welder training program for Bucyrus. But MATC never gave a guarantee as Texas did, Sullivan said. Nor did MATC deliver. Some didn’t finish training. Others were certified but failed a drug test.

But he didn’t blame MATC alone:

About 50,000 working-age residents in the city of Milwaukee cannot read beyond the third grade, Sullivan told M-7. In Wisconsin, meanwhile, some 710,000 working-age people did not finish high school.

Milwaukee is not alone in this:

According to federal data cited by the M-7, 32% of manufacturers nationally report unfilled jobs because they cannot find qualified workers. The nation has nearly 300,000 open positions in manufacturing.

So is he running?

On the subject of politics, Sullivan continues to hold open the option that he will run for the U.S. Senate seat that long-serving Democrat Herb Kohl now occupies, following Kohl’s announcement that he won’t seek re-election. Asked for his political affiliation, Sullivan replied: “I have none.”

We’ll just have to wait and see, I guess. But Sullivan is clearly eager to work on education reform:

Sullivan disclosed his investment in Texas, he said, to build his case for wholesale reform of Wisconsin’s job training and education system. Radical action is needed, he warned the M-7.

As chairman of the Governor’s Council on Workforce Investment, a state advisory panel, Sullivan wants Gov. Scott Walker to change how the state spends hundreds of millions of dollars each year in federal job training funds – and in the process, link the funds to reforms of local education programs. The proposals would change how workforce investment boards – regional training entities – apply for funds. They would need to justify each allocation with commitments to reform the curricula of each region’s kindergarten-through-12th public schools as well as each region’s technical colleges.

It’s a conversation that needs to take place.

I’m not one of those, “Blame it all on the teachers,” guys. Administrators, government leaders and “professionals,” must share in the blame, but those who are to blame the most are parents who are uninvolved in their children’s education and are neither demanding nor making sure that their kids get the education they need to compete in today’s society.

The reason we have breakfasts, lunches, sex-education programs, etc., is that schools are finding that parents are not doing it. And they are trying to fill a gap, however poorly we think they are doing.

Until parent involvement changes, especially in the inner city, any other reform will fall short.

 

More on Tim Sullivan:

Bucyrus CEO Discusses Possible Senate Run

“…we have got to change the way we’re doing things. This is not the way to run a country.”

Other reading I’ve done on education this week:

Montgomery’s $18 million schools ‘miracle’

5 reasons to believe progress is being made to address reading crisis

Milwaukee’s schools need creative thinking