Gov. Scott Walker Still Refuses to Answer the Simple Question: Is He Still Doing It?

Perhaps His Campaign Chair Michael Grebe Knows the Answer

MADISON, Wis. — While Gov. Walker refuses to answer if he continues to direct a scheme to avoid Wisconsin campaign laws described as “criminal” by a Republican prosecutor, perhaps others know the answer. One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross suggested Walker’s campaign co-chair, the right-wing mega-funder Bradley Foundation’s chief Michael Grebe, might have the answer.

Ross said, “It’s a simple question for the Governor — you’re accused of engaging in conduct to win an election that has been described as criminal, are you still doing it? If Scott Walker won’t step up and answer it, perhaps his campaign co-chair would take the question for him.”

According to a report by the news service WisPolitics.com, Grebe has involved himself in Gov. Walker’s spin operation in his role as a campaign chair. Over the weekend, Grebe sent an e-mail to Walker supporters urging them to help “get the truth out.”

In the hundreds of pages of documents released last week under order of a federal judge, state prosecutors describe an operation run by Gov. Walker to evade state campaign finance laws. In it, Walker and members of his campaign staff reportedly solicited unlimited, undisclosed donations for a web of right wing groups. These same groups, again in coordination with Walker’s campaign, spent millions of dollars advertising on behalf of Gov. Walker’s policies and positions on issues both during the legislative session and his elections. In response to media questions about the scheme, Walker has been less than forthcoming.

“If Mr. Grebe wants to help get the truth out, he ought to encourage Gov. Walker to step up and answer the question. And if the Governor continues to refuse to shoot straight with the people of Wisconsin about his scheme that prosecutors have called ‘criminal,’ then maybe Mr. Grebe would like to answer. We all deserve to know, is Gov. Walker still doing it?” concluded Ross.

Grebe’s Bradley Foundation regularly doles out tens of millions of dollars to right wing organizations inside and outside of Wisconsin, including the Americans for Prosperity Foundation and the MacIver Institute, which ran the “It’s Working” television campaign with tax deductible funds during the 2011-12 recall of Gov. Walker, as well as American Majority/Media Trackers, the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute and the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty.

A report by One Wisconsin Now showed Grebe’s Bradley has financed $31 million to support public school privatization. More information about Bradley is available at www.BradleyWatch.org.

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