5 Questions Gov. Walker Should Answer At Tonight’s Debate

MADISON, Wis. — Questions continue to mount about Gov. Walker’s candor on serious issues, including his involvement in the secret John Doe investigation of corruption and illegal campaigning by close aides and associates and video showing him telling campaign contributors a very different story than the public. One Wisconsin Now Deputy Director Mike Browne called on Gov. Walker to address the questions about the integrity of his administration in tonight’s debate.

Browne said, “There are serious questions about the candor of Gov. Walker and his administration. Instead of stonewalling and delivering the same old, non-responsive talking points, Gov. Walker could take the opportunity at tonight’s debate to speak directly, and truthfully, to the people of Wisconsin.”

Straight answers to these 5 questions would help allay concerns:

• If you are not personally under investigation as part of the “John Doe” criminal probe, how, under Wisconsin law, have you been able to create a legal defense fund?
• How are we to believe your public statements, like those you made in a televised address in February 2011, regarding your plan to eliminate workplace rights for Wisconsin workers in light of the video of you telling Beloit billionaire Diane Hendricks that this was the “first step” to “divide and conquer” Wisconsin workers?
• Why did you sign legislation eliminating the ability of women, veterans’, people with disabilities and others to use the state courts to seek redress in cases of wage discrimination — especially in light of Wisconsin’s improved ranking on gender pay equity and concerns about the impact of the legislation raised by a state veterans’ group?
• Why is your campaign and administration refusing to answer questions about how you recalculated Wisconsin job numbers, and how is it that these state developed numbers came to be in your campaign television ads running the same morning they were released?
• You recently said your Deputy Chief of Staff in Milwaukee County, Kelly Rindfleisch, was “… doing what she was supposed to do”. If you were that aware of her daily activity, how is it you were unaware of the massive amount of campaign activity she was alleged to be doing in your county executive’s office suite based on the thousands of emails retrieved by investigators?