Here They Go Again. Despite Past Assurances, Gov. Walker and Republican Legislature Target State Civil Service System
Seek to Gut Last Line of Defense From Rampant Cronyism in State Government
MADISON, Wis. — Upon his return to the state after the spectacular implosion of his presidential campaign, Gov. Scott Walker is endorsing a new attack on Wisconsin workers revealed today by state legislative Republicans.
While proposing desperate and radical attacks on federal workers, Walker’s national polling numbers cratered to next to zero after one time leading the race and his Wisconsin approval ratings slipped to their lowest levels.
Today, despite past assurances to the contrary, Wisconsin’s civil service system, born of the rampant patronage system and corruption of the past, is being undermined by new legislation being proposed by legislative Republicans.
Among the nefarious provisions of the bill are measures that would make it easier to replace non-partisan workers with political cronies by allowing the jobs of certain employees to be eliminated and making them re-apply to work in state government in a different agency, headed by a Walker political appointee.
The following are the statements of One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross:
“Cronyism, corruption and incompetence have been the hallmarks of Gov. Walker’s administration, aided and abetted by a lapdog Republican controlled legislature.
“Nothing this gang has done earns them the benefit of the doubt. What they are proposing is a flat out gutting of civil service, the last line of defense preventing political patronage from running amok in state government.
“Gov. Walker and his lapdog legislature have littered state government with their political cronies at every opportunity, and the rest of us are paying the price as tax dollars flow to campaign donors, policy is sold to the highest bidder and state assets get sold off in sweetheart deals.
“Making it even easier for them to payback political donors with state jobs takes us in the exact opposite direction of the clean and honest government that the people of Wisconsin deserve to be served by.”