CLUB FOR GROWTH NEWSLETTERS

Cut the GAB

Last week we told you that David Buerger, a staffer for the “non-partisan” Government Accountability Board (GAB), said explicitly that if the names Adolf Hitler or Mickey Mouse appear on a petition to recall Governor Walker, it will be up to the Governor's campaign, not the GAB, to challenge them. 
 
That admission, along with the GAB’s refusal to find and eliminate duplicate petition signatures, has resulted in the first recall-related lawsuit against the agency.
 
Now the MacIver Institute reports that some of Buerger’s recent twitter posts demonstrate an obvious hostility toward Republicans and Governor Walker:

The same employee who admitted the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board would deem all recall signatures valid, even if they were signed Mickey Mouse or Adolf Hitler, has engaged in online activity that could lead some to question his impartiality.
 
David Buerger, an elections specialist with the GAB used his Twitter account to praise a blog posting wherein Republican State Senator Mary Lazich was called “Crazy Mary.”
 
“OMG! Headline winner…” Buerger tweeted last month, and then included a link to the blog post.
Just this week Buerger linked to a story about the two-year long investigation by the Democratic District Attorney in Milwaukee that may or may not involve the activities of Scott Walker’s Milwaukee County Executive staff.
 
“Ruh-roh… John Doe investigation on the move: ”
 
From a staff riddled with Dane County Liberals and a board dominated 5-1 by Doyle appointees, willful blindness to evil on the Left is expected.  But the GAB’s indifference toward defending Wisconsin voters against brazen fraud is the stuff of a Monty Python sketch.  The Legislature should abolish it and—maybe—start over.
 
Too radical? Then ask yourself: If the Government Accountability Board ceased to exist, in what way would there be less accountability?

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Back to the Future

To be successful, a political campaign must persuade a majority of voters that life will be worse if the other side wins. It’s up to the voters (the media won’t help,) to determine which side is being more honest.
 
If Democrats are successful in forcing recall elections against Governor Walker and Republican senators next year,  Wisconsin voters will have the opportunity to witness side-by-side case studies of the Walker approach and the anti-Walker approach to governing.
 
No historical inferences here, no transnational comparisons; instead, voters can watch in real time what’s happening in Wisconsin and Ohio, and make their own decision about what’s working.
 
In Ohio last month, unions poured tens of millions into a statewide referendum and bamboozled voters into undoing reforms like those enacted in Wisconsin. Now Wisconsin voters can peer into the future and see what will happen here if the recall attempt succeeds in removing Walker from office.
 
As in Wisconsin, government employee benefits have been eating Ohio school budgets alive. The (now repealed) Ohio reforms included reasonable insurance and pension contributions from public employees, including police and firefighters.  Unions convinced voters this would wreak havoc with public safety, so voters ditched the reforms.  Now there’s no alternative to teacher layoffs. Ohio schools have to take money away from the classroom to pay for teacher benefits, and taxpayers face what could have been an unnecessary choice: higher taxes or less education.
 

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OMG J.B.!