MILWAUKEE – Media Trackers, a conservative investigative watchdog, today released copies of e-mails obtained from Milwaukee Public Schools showing that Kris Barrett, wife of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tom Barrett, used her taxpayer funded e-mail account for political purposes. Two separate MPS policies prohibit teachers and other staff members from using their e-mail accounts to promote political matters.

Mrs. Barrett violated those two policies when she lobbied legislators to vote against proposed collective bargaining reforms and then when she asked fellow public school teachers to help her campaign against Milwaukee County Executive candidate Jeff Stone, a Republican. Mrs. Barrett’s violations mirror those of Shelly Moore, a public school teacher and union official who ran as a Democrat in last summer’s recall elections. Moore’s political work from her taxpayer funded e-mail account landed her in a controversy that saw legal complaints filed against her.

Mrs. Barrett has been a surrogate spokesperson for the Barrett campaign, assisting in outreach to women voters and voters upset with the collective bargaining reforms enacted last year.

“It is unfortunate that Kris Barrett has flagrantly violated two separate policies that prohibit government employees from using taxpayer resources to promote a political agenda. The subject of using government e-mails for political work has come up repeatedly in Wisconsin recall elections, and even Tom Barrett himself has railed against those who further a political agenda via taxpayer resources,” said Brian Sikma, communications director for Media Trackers.

Full report and copies of the e-mails me be found here.

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MILWAUKEE – Both sides of the heated recall election are throwing out numbers regarding the state of the jobs market in Wisconsin. Media Trackers, a conservative investigative watchdog group, surveyed a series of studies and today released information showing that during Tom Barrett’s leadership as mayor of Milwaukee, the African American unemployment rate skyrocketed 150%.

“The state’s African American unemployment rate dramatically rose from 2005 to 2010 and with a majority of the state’s African Americans living in Milwaukee, those numbers reflect a serious problem in the city,” said Brian Sikma, communications director for Media Trackers. “According to UW Milwaukee, the jobless rate for African American men in the City of Milwaukee currently rests at 55.3%, a number that is disastrously high.”

The full Media Trackers report on this survey of studies may be found here.

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-For Immediate Release-

MILWAUKEE – Women who work for Mayor Tom Barrett’s office get paid on average $17,000 less than the average male working in the mayor’s office. Data provided by Mayor Barrett’s office to Media Trackers shows that the three male employees of the mayor’s office can expect to share average salaries that keep their female colleagues locked in a gender pay gap more than 75% worse than the statewide average for gender pay gaps in the workplace.

“Mayor Tom Barrett has repeatedly denounced a so-called war on women but his actions are increasingly at odds with his rhetoric,” said Brian Sikma, communications director for Media Trackers. “The disparity between his talk and his walk adds credibility to the charge of some union leaders that Barrett is not a true believer when it comes to the progressive values embraced by those responsible for the current round of recalls,” Sikma remarked. “Under Mayor Barrett’s benchmark of a war on women, Mayor Barrett himself is waging an all out war on the women who work for him.”

The Media Trackers report on Mayor Barrett’s wages war on women may be viewed here.

-For Immediate Release-

MILWAUKEE – Media Trackers last week discovered that four incumbent white Democrat state lawmakers appear to be leaving their current Assembly districts and moving into newly drawn or redrawn majority-minority districts. The four lawmakers are Representatives Sandy Pasch, Josh Zepnick, Corey Mason, and Fred Kessler. Representative Kessler would not confirm or deny his impending move but sources indicated he was poised to move into a seat designed to give African-Americans another legislative district.

Democrats and liberal groups had championed a legal challenge to the newly redrawn legislative district map arguing that minority representation would suffer. However, minority community leaders told Media Trackers that they are frustrated that white Democrat incumbents would leave their current districts and work to retain their power in Madison by running in districts specifically designed to boost ethnic and racial minority representation. If any of the Democrats win their races it could lead to a decrease in the number of racial or ethnic minorities serving in the Assembly.

Mike Holt, a Milwaukee African-American community leader and columnist for the Milwaukee Community Journal suggested the developments were about a power grab that would lead to African-Americans losing some control over their own future. ” “There is a point beyond liberalism and it is a form of new racism,” he observed.

“The public deserves to know why exactly these liberal lawmakers are leaving their current districts and moving into majority-minority districts to retain their jobs,” Brian Sikma, communications director for Media Trackers, said. “Their silence about the impact of their actions on the minority communities of Wisconsin, and in particular Milwaukee, is hypocritical after their party waged an outspoken legal fight couched as a defense of minority representation. If this really is about power, then the public needs to know that,” Sikma concluded.

The original report is available here, and the reaction of community leaders may be found here.

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MILWAUKEE – Today, Media Trackers is confirming in an exclusive report that 43 employees of the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s office signed the Walker recall petition. No less than 70 names from the District Attorney’s March 26th staff roster match up with names found on Walker recall petitions, but as of Monday morning Media Trackers was only able to confirm with certainty that 43 individuals had indeed signed the petitions.

Among the more intriguing names found on recall petitions were those of Lovell Johnson Jr. and Janet Oelstrom. Johnson is one of five Deputy District Attorneys who report directly to John Chisholm, the District Attorney. Oelstrom is a secretary in the Public Integrity Unit, which oversees all John Doe investigations into alleged public corruption.

“In the interest of transparency we believe the public should know about the political leanings of those who work in the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s office,” said Brian Sikma, communications director for Media Trackers.  Media Trackers has previously released reports on the Dane County District Attorneys office and WISC-TV in Madison.

The following is a list of the individuals employed in the DA’s office who signed the Walker recall petition.

Attorneys:

Lovell Johnson Jr., Cynthia Brown, Paul Hauer, Deann Heard, Jon Neulieb, Claire Starling, Francesco Mineo, Patricia Daugherty, Miriam Falk, Nicholas J. Heitman, Jennifer Hanson, Ronald Dague, Megan Williamson, Kristin Schrank, Dax Odom, Gale Shelton, Randy Sitzberger, Irene Parthum, John Stoiber, Holly Bunch

Support Staff:

Angela Bertz, Marilyn Booker, Patricia Brennan, Ivette Cruz, Darlene Fuller, Rogerick Griffin, Laurie Jernberg, Mona Laura, Patricia Lenz, Catherine McCoy, Jane Muson, Janet Oelstrom, Clarissa Charleston, Kevin Harrington, Marti Hensiak, Michelle Hughes, Sanetran Johnson, Lisa Maggiore, Kay Malone, Sherry Narloch, Mary Ann Onorato, Sonjie Stokes-Brown, Ann Weber

 -30-

MILWAUKEE – Last week Andrew Breitbart, a respected and controversial conservative journalist, suddenly passed away near his home in California. The death of a pioneer in conservative new media led to an outpouring of sympathy to his family and friends. In Wisconsin, Breitbart’s death was met with jubilation from the state’s leading progressive radio show host, John “Sly” Sylvester.

Following the breaking news last Thursday of the conservative journalist’s death, Sylvester engaged in a 20 minute rant punctuated only by calls from callers joining him in his tirade of hateful, repulsive rhetoric cheering the death. “I’m glad he is dead,” Sylvester enthused. He went on to say that he would pour weed killer on Breitbart’s grave to prevent a resurrection, “I can kill him like the weed that he was.”

Sly also compared Breitbart to Anwar al-Awlaki, a Yemeni terrorist, and Kim Jung Il. “Andrew Breitbart is working on the forces of evil pushing for starvation camps,” he said.

“It is deeply disturbing that Sly Sylvester would use his position as a prominent progressive talk show host to engage in such hateful rhetoric,” Brian Sikma, communications director of Media Trackers, said. Media Trackers is Wisconsin’s leading conservative watchdog organization focusing on government and the media. “It is never appropriate to compare individuals who disagree with us politically to terrorists and murderous dictators.”

Sikma also noted that Sylvester has fallen into controversy in the past for making sexual comments about Wisconsin’s Lt. Governor, Rebecca Kleefisch. “This is not an isolated incident,” he said, “and just as Rush Limbaugh rightfully apologized for his comments made last week, it would be more than appropriate for Mr. Sylvester to apologize to the family of Andrew Breitbart.” At one point during his show Sylvester allowed a caller to shockingly wish, “I hope his [Breitbart's] descendants be infested by boils and physical deformity and left only to copulate with beasts….”

Selections from the transcript of Sly’s rant may be found here.

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For Immediate Release
-February 22, 2012-

Contact: brian@mediatrackers.org

MILWAUKEE – WISC-TV/News3 in Madison is reporting that on Thursday Secretary of State Doug La Follette (D) will be announcing his candidacy to run against Governor Scott Walker in the looming recall election. Media Trackers, a conservative investigative watchdog organization, conducted a quick survey of Secretary La Follette’s record to determine what the public can likely expect to see in a La Follette campaign for governor.

In a speech in early February where he mentioned the possibility of running for governor, Secretary La Follette said that if he ran he would limit all contributions to his campaign to a $20 maximum.  Brian Sikma, communications director for Media Trackers, said “Wisconsin voters will no doubt watch very closely to see if the secretary does indeed keep that promise. Failing to keep that promise would be a serious breach of the trust that Mr. La Follette is seeking to earn from Wisconsin voters.”

That La Follette would even run in a recall election is somewhat perplexing according to Sikma after statements the Secretary of State made last year while speaking at an event at the Capitol. There, La Follette declared that the state needed to “make elections mean something.” Sikma argued that, “if elections are to mean something, then forcing a re-run of the 2010 gubernatorial election would seem to imply that somebody, somewhere doesn’t like the outcome of that election and doesn’t want that election to mean something.”

La Follette proudly notes that he helped found the group that is known today as Clean Wisconsin, a leading member of the state’s environmental special interest lobby. “While repeatedly engaging in class warfare rhetoric, it is no small irony that Secretary La Follette’s organization has received tremendous sums of money from billionaire businessman George Soros.” Lately, Clean Wisconsin and allied groups have lashed out at a proposal to create hundreds – and potentially thousands – of new jobs in a revived Wisconsin mining industry. “Squaring his support for the middle class with a special interest group funded by a billionaire and presently dedicated to killing jobs made in Wisconsin for Wisconsin workers is something that voters can look forward to seeing,” Sikma said.

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February 21, 2012

-For Immediate Release-

Contact: Brian Sikma, Communications Director, brian@mediatrackers.org

MILWAUKEE – As the latest recall effort aimed at proponents of collective bargaining reform starts to move into the campaign phase, various unions in Wisconsin are announcing candidate endorsements and reminding their members that is the unions, not some elected officials, who are standing up for them. A new video released today by the conservative watchdog organization Media Trackers challenges that assumption, however. The short video notes that although labor leaders and progressive organizers in Wisconsin repeatedly use the rhetoric of envy and class warfare to stoke political tensions, many of those leaders have salaries of up to 250% more than what the average working class worker in Wisconsin makes in a year.

“We commend anyone who is a success in their profession, and it is liberals – not conservatives – who argue against the rich,” Brian Sikma, communications director of Media Trackers, noted. “However, hypocrisy in the political process is always of interest and the research we present in this new video indicates that some labor leaders are getting rich while supposedly standing up and representing the working class. Some of these labor leaders make up to 250% more than what the average working class worker in Wisconsin makes, and a few are just one tax bracket below the top tax bracket that is occupied by someone like Mitt Romney.”

“Lately, some union members have alternatively expressed frustration and disgust with how their union is involved in the state political process. That frustration and apparent divergence of interests might be explained by the huge income disparity between union bosses who view themselves is key political players, and the hardworking men and women in Wisconsin who may belong to one of the unions that pay a pretty hefty salary to some of these leaders,” Sikma concluded.

The video may be found here.

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February 20, 2012
-For Immediate Release-

Contact: Brian Sikma, Communications Director, brian@mediatrackers.org

MILWAUKEE – Kathleen Falk, a candidate for governor, has come under fire for signing a pledge to veto the state budget in exchange for union support during her current campaign. The pledge was put forward by several labor unions that met with Falk and other potential candidates in secret closed-door sessions. After Falk signed the pledge the Wisconsin Education Association Council endorsed her without a vote of its members. Today, AFSCME, another union present at the meeting, announced its endorsement of Falk.

A new photo that Media Trackers obtained shows Falk holding a copy of the controversial pledge. Brian Sikma, communications director for Media Trackers, commented on the development saying, “Kathleen Falk is positioning herself as the leader of a supposedly grassroots movement, but it is clear that union bosses are the ones leading this movement and telling everyone – even the candidates – what to do and what to think.” Sikma noted that Falk has so far not expressed any concern that her pledge was the wrong thing to do. “Instead of recognizing a pre-emptive sell-out of the state budget as something that could throw Wisconsin’s finances into deep turmoil, Ms. Falk believes that it is a badge of honor to be unduly influenced by unions.”

“Public employee unions have a deep interest in recovering the revenue they lost when mandatory union dues taken out of workers’ paychecks were ended,” Sikma said. “This alliance between Kathleen Falk and public sector labor unions is nothing short of a desperate gamble by both sides to salvage labor’s death grip on the paychecks of Wisconsin’s public workers.”

The photo may be found here.

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February 15, 2012
-For Immediate Release-

MILWAUKEE – In an exclusive, Media Trackers has confirmed that WEAC President Mary Bell lied to the press and the public in saying that her union had not extracted a veto-pledge from Democratic gubernatorial candidate Kathleen Falk. Falk, ostensibly to gain the endorsement of several major unions, including WEAC, promised in a secret meeting to veto any state budget that did not repeal collective bargaining reforms from 2011. After a storm of protests, WEAC President Mary Bell told the LaCrosse Tribune that neither she nor her union asked Falk for a veto-pledge.

Faced with this discrepancy, Media Trackers contacted James Palmer of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association. Palmer was present with Bell at the union meetings and had related news of the veto pledge to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Palmer blasted his counterpart union leader Bell saying, “Mary Bell’s subsequent denial is completely false and amounts to nothing more than damage control.”

Brian Sikma, communications director for Media Trackers, commented, “Mary Bell should be held accountable by both the press and the public for her lying. Holding a secret meeting to strike a deal with a liberal political candidate, and then lying about that meeting to the press and public discredits WEAC, its members, and is a slap in the face to the public.”

“Already, WEAC members around the state are frustrated that an endorsement in the recall race was made without their consultation,” Sikma continued. “Perhaps after being steamrolled and lied to, they should consider getting someone with more integrity to run their union.”

Full Media Trackers report here.

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