Cronyism and Corruption Define Walker’s Reign

[hue]

http://www.progressive.org/cronyism_corruption_define_walker_reign.html

What do Karl Rove, Oshkosh Defense Corporation, the newly installed Wisconsin capitol police chief, and a tax-credit-for-government-contract deal have in common?

The systematic, corporate takeover of public education in the state of Wisconsin.

I sat down earlier in the day to work on a story about Skyward, a company that was offered $11.7 million in state tax credits to build their corporate headquarters in Stevens Point. This offer, made by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation and accepted by the company last March, was contingent upon Skyward winning a $15 million bid to build a statewide K-12 student data system for the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.

Mainstream media outlets have been reporting on this scandal since it broke last month, but they’ve been focused on the bid-rigging aspect and the circle of Scott Walker cronies who coordinated the deal. Through the Department of Administration spokesperson Jocelyn Webster—a former Karl Rove operative in George Bush’s infamous Office of Political Affairs who also did stints with the Rudy Giuliani and Chris Christie campaigns —Walker claimed that he hadn’t heard of the proposed deal until after he was deemed winner of the recall election June 5. Yesterday, the AP reported that they received documents through an open records request that indicated Walker’s office knew about the deal as soon as it was accepted on March 26.

[lastlib]

1. Scott Walker is obviously a fucking liar, and probably a criminal