Gov. Walker Jets to Seattle, Washington For Speech… Meanwhile in Wisconsin Over 6,100 Citizens Demand He Follow Campaign Fundraising Disclosure Rules

MADISON, Wis. — According to reports, Gov. Walker has reversed course and will allow media to attend a speech he’s delivering to a right-wing think tank in Seattle, Washington today. While he’s not hiding from the press on the West Coast, back home in Wisconsin, over 6,100 citizens have signed a petition to the Government Accountability Board calling on them to sanction Gov. Walker for failing to disclose, as required by law, information about his campaign donors.

One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross commented, “It seems Gov. Walker was concerned about the optics of shutting out the Seattle, Washington press from his campaign speech and has decided to let them listen in. It would be nice if he was as concerned about following the campaign finance laws of the state of Wisconsin and provide all the information he’s required to by law about who’s footing the bill for his campaign.”

Wisconsin State Statute section 11.06(1)(b) requires candidates and officeholders disclose, “The occupation and name and address of the principal place of employment, if any, of each individual contributor whose cumulative contributions for the calendar year are in excess of $100,” on their campaign finance reports.

A One Wisconsin Now analysis of Gov. Walker’s campaign finance reports going back to 2009, when he began his run for Governor in earnest, found that he has failed to disclose legally required employer information for 7,512 big money donors giving over $100 totaling $2,330,197.98 in contributions.

To date the Government Accountability Board has not sanctioned Walker for his serial violations of the law despite filed multiple complaints being filed regarding this behavior by One Wisconsin Now, including in August 2013.

Ross also noted that Walker has refused to release both the records he turned over in the two-year John Doe criminal investigation of his close aides and associates and the identity of donors who provided him with over $440,000 in funds to pay for his team of criminal defense lawyers in the affair.

He concluded, “It’s insulting to the people of Wisconsin that Gov. Walker is showing more deference to the out-of-state press than to them and troubling that our campaign finance law enforcement agency is thus far letting him off the hook for failing to abide by the law.”