By: Brian Sikma

Residents of Union Grove get to vote in yet another election in this year of elections for Wisconsin citizens. The local high school has scheduled a referendum for Tuesday, May 15th, to determine whether or not the school should proceed with a $1.9 million plan to renovate the school’s track and field facilities. Citizens voted down a similar referendum back in 2010.

Proponents of the referendum make a convincing argument that the renovations are needed for the sake of students and the long-term fiscal strength of the district. District Administrator Alan Mollerskov wrote in a recent school newsletter that the tools given to the district by Act 10 (the collective bargaining reform measure) allowed the school’s budget to stay in the black despite several factors that led to a decrease in revenue for the district.

Necessary or not, the timing of the referendum is perhaps a bit suspect sandwiched as it is between two other elections. The recall election primary is on May 8 and the recall general election will be held on June 5. School board members said that the referendum could not wait until the fall general election without jeopardizing the project’s planned timetable. But holding a referendum just a week after a high profile statewide primary, and just weeks before yet another high profile statewide election means local taxpayers will need to foot the bill for yet another election.

The Racine Journal-Times reports that the stand-alone referendum election will cost district taxpayers up to $11,000, but placing the measure on the same ballot as another election would cost only $4,000.

With the June 5 general election for the recall only weeks away, the only benefit the district could likely achieve by holding a referendum vote on an obscure date would be a much lower voter turnout than would otherwise be the case if the measure was placed on the ballot in an already-scheduled election. Depending on taxpayer sentiment in the Union Grove School District, if a similar referendum was defeated in 2010 and voter opinion remains unchanged, depressing the turnout by holding the referendum as a stand-alone election could tilt the results in favor of those wanting to spend more money.

Raising the extra funds may be necessary for the district, but holding a referendum on an obscure date lost between two other elections does not speak well of the kind of transparency and openness that most taxpayers want to see in local government.

Your weekly Message Memo.

Failed two-time gubernatorial candidate and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett leads Kathleen Falk in the race for the Democrat nomination and the chance to take on Scott Walker. Walker and Barrett are essentially tied according to one poll, and Falk – the candidate of choice for Labor leaders – appears to be headed once again to the flaming wreckage of political defeat either way. She likely can’t win the primary, and if she did she’d be hopelessly behind in the polls to Walker. Good afternoon and welcome to the Media Trackers Message Memo where liberals must confront facts, not dream of fiction.

Recall

Big Labor has poured in just over $7 million into efforts to defeat Governor Walker in the recall election. State and national unions like AFSCME, AFL-CIO, SEIU, WEAC and the International Association of Firefighters are among the biggest spenders. The National Education Association became the first union to triple the amount of money it spent on Wisconsin recall elections in 2012 compared to what it spent in 2011.

The Democrat Governors Association (DGA) used the dirty front group Greater Wisconsin Political Fund to launder a half a million dollar television ad buy that focuses on distorting Gov. Walker’s record on job creation. The fund itself has been repeatedly blasted by liberal good government groups and the media for its frequent use of distorted facts and outright lies in political advertisements aimed at conservative candidates. That the DGA, a supposedly mainstream Democrat Party affiliate, would launder money through the fund to make it look like the negative attacks came from Wisconsin instead of Washington, signals that the DGA is comfortable working with groups that engage in the dirtiest of dirty political tactics.

For some reason there is no chant of “Shame, Shame, Shame” arising from the ranks of recall proponents about this ethically suspect activity.

Candidates

Tom Barrett has a wages war on women going on in his mayoral office. Two weeks after jumping on the “war on women” bandwagon, Media Trackers discovered that inside Barrett’s own mayoral office women can expect to make roughly $17,000 less per year than the men who work in the office. The standard used to measure a so-called war on women in the workplace is suspect, but it is one eagerly embraced by Democrats. Holding Tom Barrett accountable to his own standard, as defined by himself, seems to be an appropriate thing to do. No word yet on what Barrett plans to do to remedy the massive gender pay gap in his office.

Speaking of the war on women you shouldn’t miss this report by the John K. MacIver Institute. Fact-filled it rebuts the idea that in Wisconsin women suffer from widespread workplace discrimination. The presence of facts however, does not seem to discourage the daydreaming of the Left.

Kathleen Falk made a splash early in the campaign when she utterly sold-out to Big Labor promising to hold Wisconsin state government hostage to their will and wishes if elected governor. In exchange for selling her soul and prostituting the future of the state, Falk gained the support of a newly formed super-PAC, Wisconsin for Falk. Now Big Labor is going all out, see here, attempting to boost Falk’s candidacy across the finish line.

Radicals

The Education Action Group is out with a new short-form documentary film timed for release on May 1st (May Day is an historic day for Big Labor). It is a must-watch as EAG goes through the Wisconsin protest and recall effort and points out how anarchists and far-Left groups consistently stayed one or two steps ahead of the movement guiding its every step.

All of the Democrat gubernatorial candidates attended a candidate forum organized by a radical arm of the SEIU. In fact, the group was tainted in a scandal that involved trading BBQ chicken dinners for votes in last summer’s recall election. So apparently on the Left and with Big Labor a group known for it’s crooked shenanigans in one cycle can become a respected mainstream organization the next.

Speaking of radicals, Van Jones the so-called “Green Jobs Czar” who was forced out of the White House will be coming to Wisconsin. Jones left the Obama Administration after he signed a petition, no not a recall petition, but a petition of sorts claiming George Bush was responsible for the 9/11 attacks.

New Racism?

Finally, if you missed it two weeks ago here it is again: 4 white Democrat incumbent lawmakers are moving into districts originally drawn to increase African American and ethnic and racial minority representation in the state legislature. According to one Milwaukee African American community leader, this is a “new racism” promulgated by an unseen coalition of labor and Democrat Party groups intent on telling the “black community” what is and is not good for them.

By: Brian Sikma

A new study is out decrying Wisconsin’s response to global warming. Wisconsin is one of less than ten states that have taken steps to plan to reduce man-made and man-assisted contributors to global warming. Lately, the state has left those plans gathering dust on a shelf – which may not be bad thing.

As reported in the Oshkosh Northwestern, the new national study critical of Wisconsin’s failure as of late to move from the planning stage to the acting stage on global warming identified several potential trouble spots for the state.  Among them are these three successive points that when take together are quite a gem:

- Reductions in snowfall, along with increased snowmelt from rising temperatures, are likely to reduce snow depth by mid-century, the study concluded.

- All of that is likely to lead to greater evaporation from Wisconsin water bodies and could mean the increased likelihood of more seasonal droughts.

- Increases in the intensity and frequency of heavy rain events could mean more flooding, and warmer water in lakes, rivers and streams could encourage the growth of nonnative species.

Catch that? The second point alarmingly notes that “more seasonal drought” could be on its way and the third point speaks of the “frequency of heavy rain events.” Sure, you can have both at different times of the year, but just how bad either one would be is hard to gauge when the study makes two somewhat unspecific opposite claims.

By: Brian Sikma

The four main contenders for the Democrat gubernatorial nomination in the recall election are working overtime to explain – or not explain – their plans to the public. The spark that ignited recall fervor among Democrats and their progressive allies came when Governor Scott Walker trimmed the state budget and passed collective bargaining reforms that saved taxpayers money.

When Walker took office the state faced a $3 billion deficit, an all time high unemployment rate, and a regulatory structure that bound innovators, entrepreneurs and average citizens in a complex maze of red tape. Even as much work remains undone, Walker did manage to tackle the pressing deficit problem by slowing the growth of government and cutting spending in some areas.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk, state Senator Kathleen Vinehout and Secretary of State Doug LaFollete are Democrats running to replace Walker and they all agree that the state should spend more – not less – money. Walker’s cuts and collective bargaining reforms may have eliminated an historic and threatening budget deficit, but according to these four, there are better ways to solve a deficit than cutting spending.

In their view Walker’s reforms and budget cuts should be rolled back. Government spending must immediately return to its pre-Walker levels.

That would mean these four candidates are in favor of raising taxes because with Wisconsin’s economy still working to recover from the downturn of several years ago, state government revenues are not going to go up.

Aided by the soft tone of the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, the Democratic candidates have not offered a single, direct plan that explains just how Wisconsin would be able to return to a Governor Jim Doyle-era budget without the bloated, menacing $3 billion deficit that was the fiscal legacy inherited by Walker. All of the candidates have agreed with the concept of restoring state spending levels and all of them have agreed with repealing collective bargaining reform. However, none of them have boldly and clearly stated they will raise taxes.

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel in covering the spending plans offered by the leading candidates acknowledges that the Democrats are cagey about where the money to pay for the spending will come from. But instead of admitting the obvious answer that at least a good part of the revenue will have come from tax increases, the paper resorts to the convoluted phrase “roll back tax decreases” and “rolling back tax cuts.”

It would be appropriate for the paper to use that phrase if it was a direct quote from someone, but to insert it at will when describing how Democrats and other big-spending proponents plan to pay for their ideas is striking for the phrase is far more cumbersome than the simple phrase “tax increases.”

Any gubernatorial candidate who campaigns on a plan to once again return to big spending government as a means of jumpstarting Wisconsin’s economy (which is already showing signs of growth) is touting a bankrupt idea. If the candidates are not serious about raising taxes to pay for their spending it will lead to a bankrupt state government. If the candidates plan on raising taxes despite their secretive rhetoric to hide that fact, they will bankrupt Wisconsin’s economic recovery. Either way, taxpayers are not going to benefit and when a newspaper dedicated to transparency among the powerful uses confusing language to describe what is at stake the entire public suffers.

By: Drew Ryun

Facts are an important part of the public debate, and a significant reason why I founded Media Trackers.  Allegations or rumors that are not true do not become so just because they are incessantly repeated.  There are some who believe that never mind what the facts at hand are, if they don’t agree with the party line, exchange them for some dreamed-up fabrications and then repeat the innuendo long enough for it to (hopefully) become fact by rote repetition. This pattern has been used a few times throughout history.

Recently, Graeme Zielinski, the spokesman for the Democrat Party of Wisconsin, has thrown around somewhat scandalous – if not libelous – accusations against Brian Sikma, Communications Director for Media Trackers in Wisconsin.  It is unfortunate that Mr. Zielinski keeps repeating false accusations associating Mr. Sikma with a white supremacist group.

The truth is that some years ago, anonymous racists who run a white supremacist website, without Brian’s permission, reposted an article he had written.  On this anonymous blog, the post clearly indicated that no permission had been obtained to reprint Brian Sikma’s article.  They have also reposted, again, without permission, the works of some of the best known media figures of our age including Michael Barone.

I am concerned that Mr. Zielinski is throwing knowingly false and slanderous mud towards Brian because Mr. Zielinski and his employer are unhappy with the truths unearthed and reported by Media Trackers.  As a lot of folks in Wisconsin know, Media Trackers recently revealed that 43 staff members of the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s office signed petitions to recall Scott Walker. I believe the cause for this reaction from Mr. Zielinski and his employer is due to the fact that the Media Tracker’s story throws a monkey wrench into the Democrat Party’s recall election plans, highlighted by the liberal news site Mother Jones when it posted the entire recall strategy memo by the chairman of the Wisconsin Democrat Party, Mark Tate.

Media Trackers is proud of the work that it does. When a discredited spokesman for the Democrat Party joins forces with a few bloggers to make up a charge of racism, we refuse to be distracted from our work of holding liberals everywhere, irrespective of party, accountable to the facts.

Mr. Sikma, the stage is now yours again.

By: Brian Sikma

With Republican voters headed to the polls to cast their ballot in the first really contested Wisconsin presidential primary in decades, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin is apparently feeling a little frustrated that they aren’t in the limelight. After being the center of attention for months on end with their antics, the Democratic Party must have decided that filing a frivolous election bribe complaint was the best way to become relevant again.

At a campaign stop in Waukesha around noon on Tuesday, GOP Presidential candidate Mitt Romney and Congressman Paul Ryan took a few minutes to shake hands with voters and pass out some sub sandwiches. Cousin’s Subs is a Wisconsin-based business so choosing the venue as a quick lunch-time stop made sense on election day.

Releasing video of the event, the Democrat Party of Wisconsin alleged that the handing out of apparently free food amounts to bribing votes from the gathered supporters. Citing a state law that prohibits anyone from offering something of value in exchange for someone voting or not voting, the complaint declares that since the advertised menu price of the subs exceeded $1, the law was violated and Mr. Romney and Mr. Ryan are guilty of bribing voters.

A review of the law and a review of the campaign stop show that the Democratic Party’s complaint is nothing short of frivolous.

(Justin Sullivan / Getty Images / April 2, 2012)

Candidates for public office hand out food all the time. That is not something unusual in Wisconsin or anywhere else for that matter. Anyone who has ever attended a political convention in Wisconsin knows that at both the Republican and Democrat conventions campaigns sponsor tables and suites well stocked with food, drink and trinkets to help attract supporters and earn favor with future voters. Receipt of the food is not conditioned on the immediate casting of a ballot. The food is a goodwill gesture designed to boost the candidate’s profile and make supporting the candidate a socially enjoyable thing to do

Presumably, the next time a Democrat in Wisconsin is caught handing out food or something that costs more than $1 to supporters or potential supporters, the Democratic Party will decry the event as outright bribery and call for an investigation. Or maybe not.

Last summer during the height of the state senate recall campaign, Media Trackers brought to light the disturbing fact that an SEIU-affiliated group was offering free BBQ chicken dinners to voters in exchange for their early vote in the local senate race. Unlike the so-called “subgate” fabricated by Democrats now, that event involved a rather explicit quid-pro-quo. Event attendees were told that if they boarded a van for a ride to city hall to cast an early ballot they would get a ticket redeemable for a free chicken meal when they returned. Both at the event and once at city hall, it was very, very clear which candidate the event attendees were expected to vote for.

That the Democrat candidate in the race had ties to the group buying the meals, paying for the transportation, and directly soliciting the vote made the situation that much more murky and questionable.

Calling what Mr. Romney and Mr. Ryan did today “bribing” is laughable on its face and hypocritical upon further examination. Its the sign of a desperate political party intent on pulling any stunt, and making any allegation necessary, to get a brief flash of media attention. To all around the nation watching this today: We’re sorry you have to put up with this, but welcome to our world.

By: Brian Sikma

It’s becoming an ongoing story because the local newspaper refuses to reassign coverage of the recall elections away from a reporter known to support the Democrat-led recall effort. Ryan Whisner, of the Jefferson County Daily Union, was caught by Media Trackers promoting the recall of state Sen. Scott Fitzgerald after he extensively wrote about the senator’s work in Madison. Whisner and his managing editor were then found to have signed Fitzgerald recall petitions.

Weeks after the newspaper promised to make adjustments to the way it covers the recall election and political topics, Whisner is still writing about the recall election. His latest piece talks about a fake Democrat who is going to run against Lori Compas, a friend of Whisner’s and the Democrat favored to take Republican Scott Fitzgerald.

By Collin Roth

On Thursday, the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board released a final accurate count of the number of signatures submitted to recall Governor Walker. And despite the big headlines afforded to Democrats who claimed “1 million signatures,” the final count of signatures submitted came to 931,053, with 900,938 being counted as valid.

Many, including Media Trackers, were skeptical of the “1 million signatures” number from the beginning. But the Democratic Party was not interested in accuracy. They were interested in big headlines (which they got) and a big number for fundraising purposes, knowing all along that at some point in the future their lie would be exposed.

And that day finally came this week.

Nevertheless, Democratic Party of Wisconsin spokesman Graeme Zielinski just couldn’t help himself. Zielinski took to Twitter on Thursday afternoon to perpetuate the “1 million signatures” myth despite the GAB final tally. He wrote:

 Zielinski’s statement speaks for itself. The only thing unclear is whether he is lying or delusional (my money is on delusional).

Zielinski is known for his erratic and unhinged behavior, particularly online. Just this week, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel‘s PolitiFact gave Zielinski a ‘Pants On Fire‘ rating for faking tweets from the Republican Party of Wisconsin. And of course who could forget Zielinski’s unhinged rant last August when he alleged without evidence that Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nicholas was engaged in vote tampering and “sitting on votes.” Zielinski’s boss Mike Tate was forced to walk back those statements hours later.

So is this just another example of Graeme being Graeme? Seems to be.

Don’t forget to vote in the local general election and presidential primary next Tuesday, April 3.

On Friday, the Government Accountability Board is expected to formally certify that recall elections are going to take place for governor and lieutenant governor. If either of those races have a primary the primary date would be May 8 and the general election will be held on June 5. Ahead of the meeting the Board confirmed that Democrats and liberal aligned groups failed to turn in the 1 million signatures they said they had to recall Governor Walker. After GAB review, the actual number of accepted signatures hovers at just over 900,000. Still, all of those are not necessarily registered voters and Democrats will need to build a turnout machine capable of energizing the base for their candidate and turning recall supporters into registered voters and then active voters.

Dem Candidates

Speaking of Democratic candidates, the Capital Times – not a publication known for a conservative slant – has a fairly comprehensive piece this week on how Democrats and liberals are unenthused about their choice of who to run against Gov. Walker. Walker’s actions have incited their frustration and anger, and mobilized the hard-core members of the base to participate in the recall effort, but that may not translate into actual support for a particular Democrat candidate. Watch this weekend to see if Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett releases any information about his speculated entrance into the Dem gubernatorial primary.

Barrett held a fundraiser this week with Chicago Mayor and Obama ally Rahm Emanuel. The event was much protested and shows signs of a developing schism between Occupy and hardcore progressives and union allies on one hand, and other segments of the Democrat Party on the other.

Recall Petitions

Whaddaya know, recall petitions are a matter of public record and that means anyone can view who signed them. Following on the heels of Gannett Wisconsin Media‘s embarrassing self-imposed (props to them for doing that without waiting for Media Trackers to call them out) disclosure that 25 of their staff at newspapers across the state signed recall petitions, Media Trackers released a report showing that WISC-TV morning news anchor Rob Starbuck and a lesser known fellow station employee signed Walker recall petitions. Gannett isn’t releasing the names or even specific positions of their employees who signed. WISC, a CBS affiliate in Madison, has sanctioned Mr. Starbuck and says that he violated station policy when he signed. Media Trackers’ own Brian Sikma talked about media bias and recall petitions on the Fox News Channel Thursday afternoon.

WEAC, Unions, Etc.

Unions don’t go away over night, but 20% of the municipal unions in Wisconsin failed their recertification votes, which ran for 20 days in March. The fate of a handful of those unions is still up in the air. Matt Batzel of American Majority talks about WEA Trust, the insurance entity that parallels WEAC the state teacher’s union, in a recent post on RedState. Batzel argues that thanks to Act 10, taxpayers benefited from the opening of the insurance market for public schools with the end of WEA Trust’s long-standing position as market bully.

US Senate

Lost in the shadow of the recalls and the suddenly spotlighted GOP presidential primary is the Wisconsin Senate race. Democrat Tammy Baldwin, who currently represents Madison in Congress, is now running ads against Scott Walker. That’s right, she’s running against whoever the GOP Senate nominee is going to be, but for now she’s training her fire on Walker. Could be a bid to give her own race some momentum if Democrats take control of the Executive Office in the June recall election.

Leftwing Groups

Weeks after filing a frivolous complaint against several conservative Wisconsin groups, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign earned a favorable review for their actions in a Wisconsin newspaper. What was missed is the fact that WDC has close ties to far-left foundations like George Soros’ Open Society Institute, the Brico Fund, and The Joyce Foundation, which formally retained Barack Obama as a board member. Mike McCabe, the head of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, has also shilled his opinion frequently about why Gov. Walker should be recalled.

Voter ID

The State Supreme Court now gets to consider whether or not it wants to hear challenges to Wisconsin’s voter ID law. It’s a safe bet nothing happens with it prior to the April 3rd election.

Education

The MacIver Institute has an astute look at the real meaning behind recently released test scores that some argue make the new Racine school choice program look bad. As well, George Mitchell, a stalwart champion of school reform in the state, has a piece that looks at media coverage of the school choice issue in Wisconsin. It’s a must read.

By: Brian Sikma

This morning the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison reported that the state Medical Examining Board is launching a second round of investigations into doctors who handed out fake sick notes to individuals participating in the Madison protests last spring. Employees, including public school teachers and others who work for taxpayers, were able to receive free fake sick notes from some doctors so they could claim to their employers that they took the day off for health – and not political – reasons.

Media Trackers and the MacIver Institute covered the fake sick note episode as it was happening at the protests. Last year, the Medical Examining Board sanctioned 7 doctors according to Statehouse News Online for their participation in the scam. The new list of doctors to be examined by the board contains the names of 11 professionals.

Interestingly, one of the doctors Media Trackers caught red-handed distributing fake sick notes isn’t on either last year’s list of sanctioned doctors or this year’s list of doctors under investigation. Dr. Elizabeth Kvach was caught on camera by Media Trackers as she went around the capitol square assisting in the distribution of falsified sick notes.

Media Trackers video of Dr. Kvach may be found here and MacIver Institute video of Dr. Kvach may be found here.