Did Scott Walker Win Votes In Favor of Budget Repair Bill Through Coercion Tactics?

This morning The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel published a story that raised a very interesting question: Was State Senator Robert Cowles threatened into voting for the Budget Repair Bill?

The article quoted a leading Wisconsin Business leader who went on record saying that State Senator Robert Cowles was coerced by threat from Governor Walker into voting for the Budget Repair Bill. The story reports that Governor Walker threatened the Senator with having to face a tea party candidate in his next election, thus backing the State Senator into a corner and forcing a vote in favor of the Governor’s destructive budget.

The people of Wisconsin do not deserve to be subjected to such absurdity. Elected officials are not voted into office just to have their arms twisted and forced to say “Uncle” by the Governor. They are supposed to be a voice for constituents and stand up to these very attempts of intimidation, but somewhere along the line our state has lost its way.

Given this news how are we to believe that the State Senators who passed the Budget Repair Bill weren’t all bullied into their votes? Every Senator that sided with the Governor and voted in favor of his budget must bring some transparency back to our great legislature by announcing that they were not threatened into their votes. There is no room for silence on this issue; each and every Senator must speak up. Forcing our state legislature to vote under duress is simply outrageous and has no place in Wisconsin’s politics. Not now, not ever.