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    <title>Blog</title>
    <link>http://www.wisdems.org/news/blog</link>
    <description>Blog</description>
    <atom:link type="application/rss+xml" rel="self" href="http://www.wisdems.org/RSS_Blog"/>
    <item>
      <title>Four Questions Scott Walker Won't Answer</title>
      <link>http://www.wisdems.org/news/blog/view/2012-02-four-questions-scott-walker-wont-answer</link>
      <guid>http://www.wisdems.org/news/blog/view/2012-02-four-questions-scott-walker-wont-answer</guid>
      <dc:creator>Melissa Baldauff</dc:creator>
      <category>Democratic Party of Wisconsin</category>
      <category>Scott Walker</category>
      <pubDate>Fri, 03 Feb 2012 11:39:41 -0500</pubDate>
      <description>&lt;div&gt;By: Mike Tate&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;A week after the latest charges in the John Doe criminal corruption probe revealed a secret computer network erected to evade the laws of the State of Wisconsin, Scott Walker has still not answered four key questions that would reveal the true nature of his role in the crimes alleged.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;div&gt;1. Who hired Kelly Rindfleisch and what knowledge did he have of the campaign work she was doing 25 feet from his office?&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;2. Did Scott Walker ever communicate using the clandestine computer network erected by Republican operative Tim Russell and has this criminal culture come with Walker to Madison?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;3. Since Scott Walker has acknowledged that a top aide committed the same types of acts in 2004, how can he credibly claim he took any steps to ensure that these crimes, which all benefited his political career, did not take place again?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;4.Since there is no way that Scott Walker can say he's not a target or subject of the John Doe probe, why is he nevertheless asserting his innocence, without any detail?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;There is nothing that would hinder the John Doe corruption probe in what Scott Walker would say by answering these basic questions honestly. The existence of a secret computer network set up to evade the law would send chills down the spine of those public servants who value good and honest government and who hate corruption. It looks very much like Scott Walker's reaction is just to shrug.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
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    <item>
      <title>FAQs on the Recall Petition Verification Process</title>
      <link>http://www.wisdems.org/news/blog/view/2012-02-faqs-on-the-recall-petition-verification-process</link>
      <guid>http://www.wisdems.org/news/blog/view/2012-02-faqs-on-the-recall-petition-verification-process</guid>
      <dc:creator>By Jennifer Lohr  </dc:creator>
      <category>Scott Walker</category>
      <pubDate>Thu, 02 Feb 2012 20:02:45 -0500</pubDate>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;By Jennifer Lohr&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Since we turned in more than 1.9 million signatures to recall Scott Walker, Rebecca Kleefisch and four right-wing State Senators, we've received a number of questions from our grassroots volunteers about the Government Accountability Board's (GAB) decision to post the petitions online, the verification process, and rumors about Republican plans to write-in Scott Walker as a Democratic primary candidate. We've posted answers to your most frequently asked questions and concerns below.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If you have additional questions, please post a comment below and we'll try to answer.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;GAB's decision to put petitions online:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Recall petitions are public documents, and by law have to be available to the public upon request.&amp;nbsp; The Government Accountability Board&amp;rsquo;s decision to post petitions online follows the same protocol as was used during previous recall elections. During the Senate recalls in the summer of 2011, petitions were posted on the GAB website for the public to view.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;I&amp;rsquo;m concerned about my signature/information being made public:&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The Government Accountability Board posted the petitions online as large PDF files. They have not posted any database of signers that can be searched in any way.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Therefore obtaining a particular person's information (or learning that they are a signer) would require someone to sift through thousands (or in the case of Walker and Kleefisch, hundreds of thousands) of pages of PDFs &amp;ndash; it would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;I got a phone call/mailing because I signed a recall petition:&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We have heard that Republicans are calling people to ask of they signed the petition.&amp;nbsp; If this is all that the phone call is about, feel free to answer as you wish and then hang up. We expected that Republicans would make calls like this in the hopes that they would find problems with petitions &amp;ndash; but we are confident that we have enough valid signatures from Wisconsinites who want to recall Walker, Kleefisch, and the Republican senators that these recalls will go forward.&amp;nbsp; (If someone has a mailing that they&amp;rsquo;d like to share with us, we&amp;rsquo;re always interested in looking at them).&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If you are being harassed or threatened by phone calls or mailings, you should contact your local law enforcement.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;I am concerned that Republicans and Tea Party groups are &amp;ldquo;verifying&amp;rdquo; the petitions:&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;By law, the Republican officeholders have the opportunity to review petitions and make challenges to GAB. We expected this and we anticipate that they will try to challenge either individual signatures or the recall efforts as a whole, or both.&amp;nbsp; Our legal team is ready to defend any such challenges, and we are confident that the huge number of signatures that we submitted means a recall is inevitable. For the same reason, we&amp;rsquo;re not worried about tea party groups or other citizens who take it upon themselves to review petitions. It&amp;rsquo;s important to remember that the Government Accountability Board is the only group that can &amp;ldquo;strike&amp;rdquo; signatures, and that will only happen after both sides have an opportunity to present legal arguments. We are confident that our petitions will withstand any challenges and the recall elections will occur.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Can Republicans thwart the recalls by running a write-in campaign for Walker during the Democratic Primary?&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Any attempts to do this would be unsuccessful under Wisconsin's election laws, because a&amp;nbsp;candidate may not appear on the ballot for as a candidate for both parties for the same office. The recall statute provides that an officeholder is automatically a candidate in the recall election unless the official resigns within 10 days after the original filing of the petition. Therefore,&amp;nbsp;Walker is automatically the Republican candidate for Governor in the recall election because he did not resign within 10 days after the original filing of the petition. Even if a campaign to write-in Walker as the Democratic nominee was successful, the law says that if a candidate is already the nominee of one party for an office, and is also nominated by write-in votes at the primary election to the same office as the candidate of a different party, the candidate does not have a choice, but shall be placed on the ballot for the election under the office and party for which the individual was already a candidate.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
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    <item>
      <title>Weekly Democratic Address: Support our Workers by Investing in Education and Job Training</title>
      <link>http://www.wisdems.org/news/blog/view/2012-02-weekly-democratic-address-support-our-workers-by-inv</link>
      <guid>http://www.wisdems.org/news/blog/view/2012-02-weekly-democratic-address-support-our-workers-by-inv</guid>
      <dc:creator>Rep. Fred Clark</dc:creator>
      <category>Recall HQ</category>
      <category>Scott Walker</category>
      <pubDate>Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:28:57 -0500</pubDate>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Cross-posted from &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href='http://wispolitics.com/index.iml?Article=259985' target='_blank'&gt;Wispolitics.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;By Rep. Fred Clark&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;As students return for the start of second semester college classes in Wisconsin, they are already experiencing the effects of Gov. Walker&amp;rsquo;s damaging cuts to our universities and technical colleges. College students and their families are right to question why it makes sense to slash education budgets while spending lavishly on special interests and wealthy corporations.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Governor Walker&amp;rsquo;s talk about job training rings very hollow after he made more than $70 million in cuts to job training programs through our technical colleges. Any economist will tell you that in a time of economic turmoil and high unemployment, investing in job training is more important than ever. The governor&amp;rsquo;s decision could not have been worse timing for thousands of displaced Wisconsin workers.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;With the recently announced lapses in state funding for our UW System, Wisconsin now also ranks third in the nation in cuts to our universities &amp;ndash; that&amp;rsquo;s not an honor to be proud of.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;And under Gov. Walker, Wisconsin is already first in the nation in job losses, and the only state to lose jobs every month for the past six months. We&amp;rsquo;re second in the nation in cuts to K-12 education. These rankings are the opposite of the leadership Wisconsin needs for our future.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We know that a strong educational system is the engine that drives our state&amp;rsquo;s economy. Wisconsin has a long tradition of supporting our workers and a commitment to doing everything we can to help them find good, family-supporting jobs.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The governor&amp;rsquo;s cuts to job training and our universities break that commitment and cause us to fall farther behind on the road to full economic recovery. Let&amp;rsquo;s work together to invest in education and do what history has shown us works to put Wisconsin back to work.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
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    <item>
      <title>Reveal Walker's Secret Email Network</title>
      <link>http://www.wisdems.org/news/blog/view/2012-01-reveal-walkers-secret-email-network</link>
      <guid>http://www.wisdems.org/news/blog/view/2012-01-reveal-walkers-secret-email-network</guid>
      <dc:creator>Maggie Brickerman</dc:creator>
      <category>Recall HQ</category>
      <category>Scott Walker</category>
      <pubDate>Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:36:58 -0500</pubDate>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;By Maggie Brickerman&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It's time for Scott Walker to come clean with Wisconsinites about his criminal path to power.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;On Thursday, prosecutors brought more charges against top Scott Walker aides as part of an ongoing criminal corruption probe into his administration that has now led to several arrests and fifteen felony charges.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;The new criminal complaints reveal a &quot;secret email network&quot; set up just twenty-five feet from Scott Walker's office to&amp;nbsp;systematically avoid open records requests and illegally campaign and raise cash on taxpayer time.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Click below to learn more about the evidence against Scott Walker's administration and sign our petition demanding that Scott Walker release the names and emails of all of his staff members who used his illegal email network.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href='http://grassroots.wisdems.org/petition/Scott-Walkers-Criminal-Path-To-Power' target=&quot;_blank&quot; target='_blank'&gt;http://grassroots.wisdems.org/petition/Scott-Walkers-Criminal-Path-To-Power&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;center&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href='http://grassroots.wisdems.org/petition/Scott-Walkers-Criminal-Path-To-Power' target=&quot;_blank&quot; target='_blank'&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;Scott Walker's Criminal Path to Power&quot; height=&quot;236&quot;  src='http://grassroots.wisdems.org/page/-/Email/criminal_path_email_final.jpg' width=&quot;500&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/center&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Prosecutors have brought charges totaling fifteen felonies and three misdemeanors against six of Scott Walker's closest aides and associates:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Kelly Rindfleisch, Scott Walker's personal fundraiser for his campaign, and his former Deputy Chief of Staff, has been charged with four felonies for sending more than 1,000 campaign emails while supposedly working on the clock for taxpayers.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Darlene Wink, Scott Walker's former Director of Constituent Services, is entering a plea and has been charged with two misdemeanors. She allegedly was planning Walker fundraisers, including one with Sarah Palin, on the taxpayers' dime.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;William Gardner, Scott Walker's close friend and campaign donor, was convicted of the largest campaign finance violation in Wisconsin history for illegally funneling more than $43,000 to the Friends of Scott Walker.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Tim Russell, Scott Walker's former Deputy Chief of Staff and close political ally, has been arrested and charged with two felonies and a misdemeanor for stealing thousands of dollars intended for wounded veterans and families of military servicemembers who died in Iraq and Afghanistan.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Kevin Kavanaugh, Scott Walker's appointee to a Veteran Service Commission, has been arrested and charged with five felonies related to the theft of funds from the Military Order of the Purple Heart and Operation Freedom, an event apparently set up to benefit Walker.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Brian Pierick, Scott Walker's campaign aide and former operator of ScottWalker.org, has been arrested and charged with felony enticement of a child.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;6 Walker Associates. 15 Felonies. 3 Misdemeanors.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;And a secret email network designed by Scott Walker's inner circle to prevent the public from knowing about their illegal efforts to put Scott Walker in the Governor's Mansion.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;It's time for Scott Walker to stop the political spin. It's time for him to come clean about the secret and illegal activities of his staff. It's time for him to be honest with the people of Wisconsin about his criminal path to power.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href='http://grassroots.wisdems.org/petition/Scott-Walkers-Criminal-Path-To-Power' target=&quot;_blank&quot; target='_blank'&gt;Sign our petition&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;and ask five of your friends join us in demanding that Scott Walker release the names and emails of those who used his inner circle's secret and illegal email network.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Thank you for your support in the fight to replace Scott Walker and bring open and clean government back to Wisconsin.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
    </item>
    <item>
      <title>New Research: Scott Walker's Criminal Path to Power</title>
      <link>http://www.wisdems.org/news/blog/view/2012-01-new-research-scott-walkers-criminal-path-to-power</link>
      <guid>http://www.wisdems.org/news/blog/view/2012-01-new-research-scott-walkers-criminal-path-to-power</guid>
      <dc:creator>Melissa Baldauff</dc:creator>
      <category>Recall HQ</category>
      <category>Scott Walker</category>
      <pubDate>Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:10:47 -0500</pubDate>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;img width=&quot;550&quot;  src='http://d21971ua898zk6.cloudfront.net/39/2b/9/1107/Scott_Walkers_Criminal_Path.jpg' mce_src=&quot;http://d21971ua898zk6.cloudfront.net/39/2b/9/1107/Scott_Walkers_Criminal_Path.jpg&quot; style=&quot;border-image: initial; margin-top: 4px; margin-bottom: 4px; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;By Melissa Baldauff&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;New research by the Democratic Party of Wisconsin answers the questions -&amp;nbsp;1. What Did Scott Walker Know and When Did He know It? and&amp;nbsp;2. What Do We Know and How Do We Know It?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;text-decoration: underline;&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Questions Still to be Answered&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We know that senior level staffers of both his gubernatorial campaign and his County Executive&amp;rsquo;s office were illegally coordinating and campaigning for months on county time. Are we to believe that the very same staffers who committed these crimes on Scott Walker&amp;rsquo;s behalf and now hold positions in Walker&amp;rsquo;s administration have not been conducting the same type of illegal activity on state time?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If Tom Nardelli didn't hire Kelly Rindfleisch, who did? Are her personnel records still on file in Milwaukee County?&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;Will Scott Walker call for the resignation of Joe Fadness and Cullen Werwie, who he now knows to have been involved in illegal campaign activity?&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;Will Scott Walker call for a full investigation into his office in the Capitol to ensure that no such secret-network is being used to conduct the state&amp;rsquo;s business or political activity?&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;Who authorized the installation of this top-secret network, and which Walker administration staffers used it? Did Walker himself use it?&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;How much County business was conducted on the top-secret network, and will Walker call for a full accounting of any such business?&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;text-decoration: underline;&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Background&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;We now know that the John Doe investigation commenced in early 2010 as an inquiry into the potential misappropriation of $11,000 in Operation Freedom funds.&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;The initial scope of the investigation resulted in the arrest of Scott Walker&amp;rsquo;s longtime campaign adviser and former Deputy Chief of Staff, Tim Russell, for embezzling charitable contributions and using the money, in part, to finance illegal corporate contributions to Scott Walker&amp;rsquo;s campaign, as well as embezzlement charges against Kevin Kavanaugh, a Walker appointee, and charges of child enticement against Tim Russell&amp;rsquo;s domestic partner, Brian Pierick.&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;But the felonious activity involving members of Scott Walker&amp;rsquo;s political machine doesn&amp;rsquo;t end there.&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;Criminal charges filed yesterday against Milwaukee County employees, and apparent Walker campaign staffers, Kelly Rindfleisch and Darlene Wink reveal that multiple members of Walker&amp;rsquo;s inner circle of trusted County employees were engaging in criminal political activity on Walker&amp;rsquo;s behalf, a clear indication of the presence of an office culture where this was an accepted, if not encouraged, practice.&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;text-decoration: underline;&quot;&gt;Campaign and Political Activity at Taxpayer Expense&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;As far back as 2004, Scott Walker was using taxpayer resources to fund his annual Harley ride across the state, an event touted by Walker as an opportunity to promote Milwaukee tourism, but was in fact an excuse for Walker to promote himself throughout the state. County staffers, including Jim Villa, who has since served as a key advisor to Walker&amp;rsquo;s campaign, were involved in the promotion and planning of the event.&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;In his 2005 tour, just as Walker was beginning his first gubernatorial campaign, it was revealed that Walker gave away more than $19,000 worth of free tickets to various Milwaukee-area attractions to members of the media, many of whom ultimately returned the freebies as ethical questions were raised about the giveaways.&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;And in 2009, objections were raised over a new wrinkle in Walker&amp;rsquo;s plan &amp;ndash; corporate sponsorship by AirTran airlines. This lead to Milwaukee County Supervisors John Weishan, Marina Dimitrijevic, and Chris Larson filing a complaint with the Milwaukee County Elections Commission alleging that the event was actually about publicity for Scott Walker&amp;rsquo;s campaign, not for promoting Milwaukee County tourism.&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;text-decoration: underline;&quot;&gt;Also included in the complaint was the fact that personal emails were used &amp;ldquo;to provide cover from open records requests.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;In 2010, during his ultimately successful bid for governor, Walker moved the timing of the trip to coincide exactly - not only with the date of the Republican Party&amp;rsquo;s state convention, but also to coincide with the site of the Republican convention, the Harley-Davidson Museum, where on May 21, 2010, the Republicans kicked off their annual&amp;nbsp;convention.&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;Inexplicably accompanying Walker was Tim Russell, the County&amp;rsquo;s Housing Director. Any reasonable person would conclude that Housing has nothing to do with tourism &amp;ndash; Russell&amp;rsquo;s presence indicates that the ride was in fact illegal campaign activity.&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;This event took place just one week after Darlene Wink resigned her position from Milwaukee County over allegations, now confirmed, that she was posting on blogs and websites in support of Scott Walker on taxpayer time. We now also know that Wink&amp;rsquo;s campaign activity went much further &amp;ndash; she was planning fundraising events for Scott Walker on taxpayer time, including a birthday celebration for Scott Walker.&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;Wink even went so far as to send an email regarding a campaign event to Reince Priebus&amp;rsquo; personal work email account, receiving a near-immediate reply. It is simply not believable that a low-level staffer would have such access to the Chair of the Republican Party of Wisconsin without the consent of someone higher up.&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;Wink&amp;rsquo;s resignation lead Scott Walker to send the following email to Tim Russell,&amp;ldquo;I talked to her at home last night. I feel bad. She feels worse. We cannot afford another story like this one. No one can give them any reason to do another story. That means no laptops, no websites, no time away during the work day, etc.&quot;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;text-decoration: underline;&quot;&gt;What is significant about this exchange is&amp;nbsp;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;text-decoration: underline;&quot;&gt;that the email from Walker to Russell came from Walker&amp;rsquo;s campaign email account &amp;ndash; proof that Walker was using his campaign email to conduct County business.&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;This is a clear admission that Walker knew what was going on &amp;ndash; he knew that people in his office were using private laptops to conduct campaign activity.&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;If we are to believe Scott Walker, who claims he knew nothing of her illegal campaign activity on his behalf, Darlene Wink&amp;rsquo;s resignation was a County personnel matter. A matter which Walker had no business discussing with an employee, Tim Russell, who was not involved. Russell worked in the Housing department &amp;ndash; it was inappropriate to involve him in a personnel matter in the County Executive&amp;rsquo;s office.&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;Concurrent to these activities, Kelly Rindfleisch was hired to the County Executive&amp;rsquo;s office as a policy advisor despiteTom Nardelli, Walker&amp;rsquo;s Chief of Staff, claiming he was unaware of her hiring.&amp;nbsp; However, information detailed in the criminal complaint reveals that Rindfleisch was tasked with doing policy work for Walker&amp;rsquo;s campaign and took her orders and received her assignments from Tim Russell, then-Deputy Chief of Staff.&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;In the course of her employment with the County, Rindfleisch engaged in political activity on taxpayer time, running the fundraising operation for Brett Davis, Scott Walker and the GOP&amp;rsquo;s preferred Lt. Governor candidate. Rindfleisch was in near-constant contact with Cullen Werwie, who at the time was Davis&amp;rsquo; campaign manager, and who currently serves as Scott Walker&amp;rsquo;s spokesman, with prosecutorial immunity for testifying against Rindfleisch.&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;Rindfleisch&amp;rsquo;s illegal activity went undetected for months, owing to a secret network installed by, or at the request of, Tim Russell, which was used by several top staffers in the County Executive&amp;rsquo;s office to conduct campaign activity, as well as County business, in an apparent attempt to conceal records from the public.&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;text-decoration: underline;&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Open Records Obstruction&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For as long as we have evidence of Walker and his advisers using taxpayer resources for political activity, we have evidence of obstruction on open records from the same players.&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;In 2004, the Walker administration was the subject of a formal open records complaint for overcharging for records, and obstruction behind-the-scenes. The Wisconsin Department of Justice didn&amp;rsquo;t reach a conclusion as to whether Walker actually broke the law, but did state in a highly critical letter to the Walker administration that, &amp;ldquo;[I]n sum, this episode evinces a case of how government officials ought not to do business&amp;hellip;&amp;rdquo; and that &amp;ldquo;nobody honored to serve in public office ought to manipulate public records in this fashion&lt;em&gt;.&amp;rdquo;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;And in 2010, following Darlene Wink&amp;rsquo;s resignation, Supervisor John Weishan, Jr.,&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;span style=&quot;text-decoration: underline;&quot;&gt;suspecting the existence of the very same type of concealed network that we now know existed just 25 feet from Scott Walker&amp;rsquo;s desk&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, requested records of County employees visiting political or campaign websites. At the time, the request was characterized as a &amp;ldquo;fishing expedition.&amp;rdquo;&lt;br /&gt;&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;Walker&amp;rsquo;s office provided documents responsive to the request &amp;ndash; four pages, at a cost of $2,800, that indicated that Walker, Wink, spokeswoman&amp;nbsp;Fran McLaughlin&amp;nbsp;and chief of staff&amp;nbsp;Tom Nardelli&amp;nbsp;had each visited Wispolitics.com a handful of times in April or May. It is unrealistic and unbelievable to think that, at the very least, Walker and his spokeswoman were not viewing press releases daily. In this case, the lack of activity on the County network suggests that Walker and his staff were accessing these sites on a different network.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
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    <item>
      <title>Democratic Response to Walker's State of the State Address</title>
      <link>http://www.wisdems.org/news/blog/view/2012-01-democratic-response-to-walkers-state-of-the-state-ad</link>
      <guid>http://www.wisdems.org/news/blog/view/2012-01-democratic-response-to-walkers-state-of-the-state-ad</guid>
      <dc:creator>Peter Barca</dc:creator>
      <pubDate>Wed, 25 Jan 2012 20:57:54 -0500</pubDate>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Cross-posted from &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href='http://wispolitics.com/index.iml?Article=259152' target='_blank'&gt;Wispolitics.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;em&gt;By Rep. Peter Barca, Assembly Democratic Minority Leader&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/div&gt;
&lt;p&gt;
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&lt;p&gt;Hello, I&amp;rsquo;m Assembly Minority Leader Peter Barca with the Democratic response to Gov. Walker&amp;rsquo;s State of the State Address.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This past year, the state of our state under Gov. Walker and Republican leaders has declined dramatically. Our state, previously recognized nationally as a leader in public education, healthcare and good government, is now polarized and broken.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We are now among the top in the nation for damaging cuts to public education and our university system. And we are the only state in the entire country that has lost jobs every month for the past six months. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Let me repeat that. Wisconsin has lost jobs every month since Gov. Walker's economic plan took effect &amp;ndash; while every one of those months the nation as a whole has seen job growth.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Governor Walker says he has turned things around: Cuts to public education. Crowded classrooms. Job losses. Rising tuition. Families losing their health care. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;He certainly has turned Wisconsin around and clearly he has us heading in the wrong direction.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Gov. Walker and the Republicans have undermined long-standing Wisconsin economic assets, such as public education and technical colleges, to serve a highly partisan national agenda and privileged special interests. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately, our state's working families are paying the price. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Gov. Walker &amp;ndash; it is NOT working!&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;It is not working for unemployed workers who are growing in number each month &amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;It is not working for children in increasingly crowded classrooms&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;It is not working for senior citizens who want to remain in their homes and saw their&amp;nbsp;Homestead tax relief cut.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;It is not working for low-wage working families whose taxes you have raised&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;It is not working for local communities that have to cut services like public safety&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;It is not working for students struggling to pay tuition.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;It is not working for families who are losing their health care.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;It comes down to this choice:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;It is not working for the middle class who are being asked to shoulder all the pain of cuts while $2.36 billion is given away to special interests over the next 10 years. And there is little hope this coming year will be any better, in fact it almost certainly will be worse.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Rather than facing this disaster head on, our governor turns to the people of our state and says, &quot;It's Working.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I believe any governor seeing this picture of continued job loss, struggling schools and mounting legal and ethical challenges would be distressed and double their efforts to address these problems. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;It is not working, Gov. Walker. You are taking this state in the wrong direction. On top of the out-of-touch priorities that are not working for the middle class in Wisconsin, this has been a year of blatant power grabs. Ethical problems plague the state. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Taxpayers are paying a fortune in legal bills because Republicans are ramming through the most extreme versions of legislation &amp;hellip; sometimes ignoring the law, always in a rush to grab and maintain power.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But the governor seems unconcerned with preserving Wisconsin&amp;rsquo;s reputation for clean and open government and is ignoring these problems &amp;hellip; just as he ignored hundreds of thousands of people who came to&amp;nbsp;the Capitol asking to be heard. Just as he continues to ignore one million people who signed recall petitions to remove him from office. &amp;nbsp;And just as he repeatedly ignores our middle-class values and the Wisconsin Way of working together.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;In the face of overwhelming evidence, the governor maintains his agenda is working. &amp;nbsp;Working for whom? &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Maybe it is working for the special interests that Gov. Walker surrounds himself with as he travels the country raising money and doing right-wing national news shows and tightly controlled events. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If he were out talking to real people in Wisconsin communities, Gov. Walker would know that what he is doing is NOT working for the vast majority of Wisconsinites. &amp;nbsp;It is time to change our direction. Gov. Walker, you are ignoring Wisconsin values. The middle class has seen the things we value most &amp;ndash; education, healthcare, job training, public safety and local services &amp;ndash; attacked. That is what the working people of Wisconsin are speaking out against. The state of our state is divided and broken. And it is time we reverse course, work together to develop real solutions and heal Wisconsin. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Thank you. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
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    <item>
      <title>Scott Walker&#8217;s Corporate Cash Bonanza: $4.5 million raised in 5 weeks.</title>
      <link>http://www.wisdems.org/news/blog/view/2012-01-scott-walkers-corporate-cash-bonanza-45-million-rais</link>
      <guid>http://www.wisdems.org/news/blog/view/2012-01-scott-walkers-corporate-cash-bonanza-45-million-rais</guid>
      <dc:creator>Mike Tate</dc:creator>
      <category>Recall HQ</category>
      <category>Scott Walker</category>
      <pubDate>Tue, 24 Jan 2012 19:24:24 -0500</pubDate>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;By Mike Tate&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;While grassroots volunteers from counties all across Wisconsin were standing out the in cold collecting more than 1.9 million signatures to save Wisconsin from Scott Walker, Rebecca Kleefisch and his cronies in the state Legislature, Scott Walker was secretly flying all over the country on a corporate cash bonanza to put Wisconsin up for sale to the highest bidder.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The total haul for Scott Walker? More than $4.5 million in just five weeks, with 61% of that total coming from out of state.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Our &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href='http://us1.campaign-archive2.com/?u=5fdce0a26f89c28febc13998d&amp;amp;id=e4a3aaa2b8&amp;amp;e=f689442fda' target='_blank'&gt;research&lt;/a&gt; shows that citizens of Wisconsin can have no confidence that Scott Walker is working for them and their interests and every suspicion that he is advancing an extremist agenda run by corporate puppetmasters from places like New York, Texas and Missouri.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Since Scott Walker launched his assault on Wisconsin workers to give massive handouts to out-of-state corporations, he has raised an astounding $5,749,926.26 from out-of-state donors.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;His out-of-state special interest cash bonanza includes $490,000 in donations from right-wing Texas billionaire Bob Perry, which we believe is his largest donation to a single candidate, eclipsing his previous record-setting donations of $350,000 to Susana Martinez for New Mexico Governor in 2010 and $400,000 to Rick Perry for Texas Governor in 2006.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Bob Perry is a good ol' boy of George W. Bush and Karl Rove who ponied up more than $4.45 million to launch false attacks trashing Senator John Kerry's heroic Vietnam War record in 2004. In total, Bob Perry has donated at least $19 million since 2004 to prop up extreme Republican candidates and launch nasty, and in some cases, illegal smear campaigns against Democrats.&lt;br /&gt;But Scott Walker's extreme super-rich donors don't stop there.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;His campaign finance reports also includes the following:&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;C. Boyden Grey, co-chair of Freedomworks, a D.C. powerbroker who is tied at the hip to Dick Armey and the corporate Tea Party extremist movement.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Bruce Kovner, the billionaire manager of the world's largest hedge fund, who finances and chairs the American Enterprise Institute. That's the right-wing think tank that produced the likes of Dick Cheney and which hosted Walker just weeks ago.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;A troika of super-rich donors from Missouri whose donations total $750,000:&amp;nbsp;  
&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;David Humphreys, founder of Black America PAC (whose former spokesman was Herman Cain), which advocates for school choice, 'enterprise zones', and race baiting on abortion.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Sarah Humphreys Atkins, David's wife and co-founder of the right-wing &quot;Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation&quot; with David Koch. She is also on the board of the Future of Freedom Foundation, which advocates for ending Social Security, Medicare, public schools, and income tax, calling them &quot;waged immoral and destructive wars on our freedom, our property, and our well-being.&quot;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Stanley Herzog, chairman and CEO of Missouri-based Herzog who gave more than $100,000 to a single state Senate candidate in the past.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;Rex Sinquefield, A rabid school choice advocate, who has started over 100 PACs in Missouri to avoid contribution limits and push his personal agenda. In Missouri, he has been a proponent of an 'Everything Tax', a regressive sales tax to replace the state income tax and place more of the tax burden on working, middle-class families.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;li&gt;John Bryan, a supporter of right-wing extremist Sharron Angle and head of Club for Growth in Oregon who gave a speech at the Koch brothers' annual retreat according to the Center for American Progress. But Bryan is no stranger to Wisconsin politics - he was a $10,000 donor to ethically-challenged Supreme Court Justice Gableman's 2008 campaign.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Scott Walker enjoys a huge financial advantage not because of any record of success-in fact, we've just learned that Wisconsin is &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href='http://politiscoop.com/us-politics/wisconsin-politics/689-wisconsins-six-consecutive-months-with-job-loss-.html' target='_blank'&gt;alone in the nation&lt;/a&gt; in losing jobs six months in a row.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Scott Walker is raking in the cash from Swift boat cowards and Texas oil billionaires and New York hedge fund managers because he is willing to use Wisconsin as a petri dish for his right-wing extremist experiments.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Scott Walker's finance report is a document unlike any seen in Wisconsin history and it shows how he is willing to use the power of a wealthy, elite few in a desperate attempt to hold onto power by trying to silence the collective voice of the more than a million Wisconsinites who want their state back.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;But money does not vote at the end of the day. A million strong, we were able to prove that and we will prove it again when, in the face of Scott Walker's filthy millions, we replace him as governor.&lt;/p&gt;</description>
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    <item>
      <title>Black and blue? </title>
      <link>http://www.wisdems.org/news/blog/view/2012-01-black-and-blue</link>
      <guid>http://www.wisdems.org/news/blog/view/2012-01-black-and-blue</guid>
      <dc:creator>Maggie Brickerman</dc:creator>
      <category>Tommy Thompson</category>
      <pubDate>Mon, 23 Jan 2012 15:07:45 -0500</pubDate>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;By Maggie Brickerman&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&quot;When this is over, they are going to be black and blue. Black and blue!&quot;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;That's what Tommy Thompson said to a cheering crowd of Tea Party&amp;nbsp;activists at a pro-Scott Walker rally this past weekend.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;While our grassroots volunteers were out in the cold publicly&amp;nbsp;collecting more than a million signatures to recall Scott Walker, they&amp;nbsp;faced name-calling, harassment, and even threats of violence.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Enough is enough. Watch the shocking video of Tommy Thompson&amp;nbsp;screaming, &quot;Black and Blue!&quot; below and sign our petition demanding an immediate apology:&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href='http://grassroots.wisdems.org/Black-and-blue' target=&quot;_blank&quot; target='_blank'&gt;http://grassroots.wisdems.org/Black-and-blue&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Rather than even attempt to defend Scott Walker's extreme Tea Party&amp;nbsp;agenda that has led to six straight months of pink slips for Wisconsin&amp;nbsp;workers, Tommy Thompson decided to advocate making you &quot;black and&amp;nbsp;blue&quot; for exercising your constitutional right to petition your&amp;nbsp;government.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And back when you first made your voice heard by peacefully protesting&amp;nbsp;at the capitol last year, Scott Walker admitted to the possibility of&amp;nbsp;inserting &quot;troublemakers&quot; into the crowd.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If there is one thing left that all Wisconsinites can agree on it's&amp;nbsp;that violence, threats, profanity and extreme language are completely&amp;nbsp;out of step with our shared values.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Sign our petition demanding that Tommy Thompson apologize and that&amp;nbsp;Scott Walker denounce all threatening and uncivil behavior by his&amp;nbsp;supporters.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href='http://grassroots.wisdems.org/Black-and-blue' target=&quot;_blank&quot; target='_blank'&gt;http://grassroots.wisdems.org/Black-and-blue&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Together, we will replace Scott Walker and restore civility, honesty&amp;nbsp;and common courtesy to Wisconsin.&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</description>
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    <item>
      <title>I recalled Walker bumper stickers</title>
      <link>http://www.wisdems.org/news/blog/view/2012-01-i-recalled-walker-bumper-stickers</link>
      <guid>http://www.wisdems.org/news/blog/view/2012-01-i-recalled-walker-bumper-stickers</guid>
      <dc:creator>Mike Tate</dc:creator>
      <category>Recall HQ</category>
      <category>Scott Walker</category>
      <pubDate>Mon, 23 Jan 2012 12:19:19 -0500</pubDate>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;By Mike Tate&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Last week, your efforts over the past two months culminated in a historic victory for working, middle-class families all across America.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;You recalled Scott Walker.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Show Scott Walker and Tea Party extremists that you stand with our people-powered movement, One Million Strong and growing, by claiming your&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;limited edition &quot;I recalled Walker&quot; bumper sticker&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;right now.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href='http://grassroots.wisdems.org/Bumper-Stickers/I-Recalled-Walker' target='_blank'&gt;https://secure.wisdems.org/Bumper-Stickers/I-Recalled-Walker&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;center&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href='https://secure.wisdems.org/Bumper-Stickers/I-Recalled-Walker' target=&quot;_blank&quot; target='_blank'&gt;&lt;img alt=&quot;I recalled walker bumper sticker&quot; height=&quot;186&quot;  src='http://grassroots.wisdems.org/page/-/Email/I_recalled_walker_bumper_sticker_email1.jpg' width=&quot;500&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/center&gt;
&lt;p&gt;You fought for sixty days in the Wisconsin winter and you stood up to threats and intimidation from Scott Walker's cronies who said you would fail.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;But you persevered. You won the first battle to save Wisconsin. You recalled Scott Walker.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Help show the strength of our grassroots campaign to elect a new governor Wisconsin families can trust by clicking below to claim your&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;free, limited edition &quot;I recalled Walker&quot; bumper sticker&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;right now.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p class=&quot;p1&quot;&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href='http://grassroots.wisdems.org/Bumper-Stickers/I-Recalled-Walker' target='_blank'&gt;https://secure.wisdems.org/Bumper-Stickers/I-Recalled-Walker&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;With the special election to elect a new governor getting underway, it's more important than ever that we show our grassroots strength.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Scott Walker will be traveling around in his luxurious campaign bus fueled with barrels of Koch-backed corporate cash, but by&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href='https://secure.wisdems.org/Bumper-Stickers/I-Recalled-Walker' target=&quot;_blank&quot; target='_blank'&gt;clicking here&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;, everywhere he goes he'll see thousands of cars with bumper stickers that say, &quot;I recalled Walker.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a href='https://secure.wisdems.org/Bumper-Stickers/I-Recalled-Walker' target=&quot;_blank&quot; target='_blank'&gt;Get yours today&lt;/a&gt;&amp;nbsp;before they run out and help us pay for more free &quot;I recalled Walker&quot; bumper stickers by making a donation of $5 or more.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;div&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</description>
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    <item>
      <title>Thank you card for recall volunteers</title>
      <link>http://www.wisdems.org/news/blog/view/2012-01-thank-you-card-for-recall-volunteers</link>
      <guid>http://www.wisdems.org/news/blog/view/2012-01-thank-you-card-for-recall-volunteers</guid>
      <dc:creator>By Mike Tate, Maggie Brickerman, Mitch Wallace</dc:creator>
      <category>Recall HQ</category>
      <category>Scott Walker</category>
      <pubDate>Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:47:53 -0500</pubDate>
      <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Mike Tate, Maggie Brickerman, Mitch Wallace&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The grassroots effort that successfully gathered a million signatures to recall Scott Walker was a resounding victory for working, middle-class families. More than 25,000 volunteers worked tirelessly over the last two months to collect, verify and prepare 1.9 million signatures &amp;nbsp;&amp;ndash; a historic achievement.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Tammy Baldwin started a thank you card for all of our recall volunteers&lt;/strong&gt;. Maggie, Mitch and I signed our names to the card today. Will you join us by signing your name too and by passing along the thank you card to your friends and family?&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href='http://wi.tammybaldwin.com/page/s/recalltyd' target='_blank'&gt;Click here to add your name to our giant thank you card for the Recall Walker volunteers.&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Whether you contributed your time or chipped in with a donation, your participation made history. You deserve more than thanks, you deserve a new governor who will listen to your concerns and fight for all of us.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Defeating Scott Walker in the recall election will not be easy, but we know we will prevail because of the incredible grassroots support of people like you.&amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Read&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;Tammy Baldwin's&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;thank you message below,&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href='http://wi.tammybaldwin.com/page/s/recalltyd' target='_blank'&gt;sign the card&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/strong&gt;&amp;nbsp;and forward it to your friends and family members so they can also say thanks to our recall volunteers.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;From all of us at the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, THANK YOU!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;padding-left: 30px;&quot;&gt;From:&amp;nbsp;Tammy Baldwin&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;Subject: Yesterday&lt;br /&gt;Date: Wed, Jan 18, 2012 at 4:58 PM CST&lt;br /&gt;To: Mike Tate&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;padding-left: 30px;&quot;&gt;Mike -&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;padding-left: 30px;&quot;&gt;Wow!&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;More than 1 million recall signatures&lt;/strong&gt;. The grassroots of Wisconsin deserve a tremendous round of applause, and I couldn't be prouder of the historic effort that was coordinated across every corner of this state.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;padding-left: 30px;&quot;&gt;We watched as volunteers delivered,&amp;nbsp;&lt;strong&gt;box-by-box&lt;/strong&gt;, over 1 million recall petition signatures. Over a ton and a half!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;padding-left: 30px;&quot;&gt;Send a thank you message to the organizers and volunteers who made this all possible.&amp;nbsp;&lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href='http://wi.tammybaldwin.com/page/s/recalltyd' target='_blank'&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Click here to add your name to our giant thank you card for the Recall Walker volunteers.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;center style=&quot;padding-left: 30px;&quot;&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href='http://wi.tammybaldwin.com/page/s/recalltyd' target='_blank'&gt;&lt;img width=&quot;350&quot;  src='http://grassroots.wisdems.org/page/-/Email/120118email.png' height=&quot;262&quot; alt=&quot;Sign a thank you card for the recall volunteers&quot; /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;/center&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;padding-left: 30px;&quot;&gt;The efforts that culminated in yesterday's delivery were a resounding victory for us -- an incredible sign that Wisconsin will not tolerate the extreme, divisive agenda of Tea Party radicals like Governor Walker.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;padding-left: 30px;&quot;&gt;These volunteers logged countless hours, and endured the cold and snow of Wisconsin winter to hold Gov. Walker accountable. They deserve to be recognized because we wouldn't be here without them.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;padding-left: 30px;&quot;&gt;&lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href='http://wi.tammybaldwin.com/page/s/recalltyd' target='_blank'&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Sign the thank you card now, and add a message of why the recall is important to you.&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;padding-left: 30px;&quot;&gt;I'll be sure to deliver our appreciation to organizers throughout the state in the coming weeks -- we're going to need everyone's continued hard work and dedication in the coming months!&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;padding-left: 30px;&quot;&gt;Thanks again,&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;padding-left: 30px;&quot;&gt;&lt;img width=&quot;80&quot;  src='http://grassroots.wisdems.org/page/-/Email/sig_Tammy.png' height=&quot;79&quot; alt=&quot;Tammy&quot; /&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p style=&quot;padding-left: 30px;&quot;&gt;Tammy&lt;/p&gt;</description>
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