Walker Sets Example for Republican Governors Tackling Medicaid

By: briansikma (Diary)  |  April 5th at 11:15 AM  | 

Governor Scott Walker (R-Wisconsin) has possibly secured for himself a unique front-runner spot among his fellow Republican governors and rumored 2016 presidential contenders on the issue of healthcare. The expansion of Medicaid, once mandatory under ObamaCare, has now become nothing more than a mere suggestion that states can choose to either accept or reject thanks to the Supreme Court ruling on ObamaCare. It is quite | Read More »

Top Dem Spokesman in WI Compares Gov. Walker to Murderer

By: briansikma (Diary)  |  March 1st at 05:24 PM  | 

It was the great scandal that wasn’t. An investigation called for by Governor Scott Walker while he was Milwaukee County Executive morphed into a politically-charged, partisan witch hunt led by a Democrat district attorney whose office was bent extracting political blood from the newly elected Republican governor. Walker had asked prosecutors to look into allegations of financial misconduct on the part of some county employees, | Read More »

Court Rebukes WI Unions In Fight over Walker’s Reforms

By: briansikma (Diary)  |  January 15th at 03:39 PM  | 

The legal battle over Governor Scott Walker’s collective bargaining reforms isn’t over yet, and in a challenge that has now reached the Wisconsin Court of Appeals a local teachers union is arguing that the law is unconstitutional when applied at the local level. But the unions and their legal team may have suffered a quiet but important setback in late December when, with no fanfare, the Appeals Court requested both sides to file further briefs on the case. In the request, the court specifically noted that cases cited by the unions to prove their point in fact, did not back up the unions’ position.

Read More »

Wisconsin Judge Guts Walker’s Reforms (Again), Defends Left’s Assured Outcomes Ideology

By: briansikma (Diary)  |  September 14th at 11:11 PM  | 

Late Friday afternoon a liberal Dane County judge struck down key parts of Wisconsin’s collective bargaining reforms. The measure dealing with public sector unions has been at the heart of a protected political battle that started with large street demonstrations at the state capitol when the measure was introduced, and culminated early this summer with the overwhelming re-election of Governor Scott Walker in an historic | Read More »

Wisconsin: Barrett Fails to Play Big in First Debate

By: briansikma (Diary)  |  May 26th at 10:02 PM  | 

MILWAUKEE – Sitting in the pressroom before Friday night’s televised debate between Governor Scott Walker (R) and Mayor Tom Barrett (D) the question was: will Tom Barrett do anything to change the momentum of the race? Since emerging from a divisive primary fight on May 8 that saw him trounce Big Labor’s candidate of choice, Kathleen Falk, Barrett has been working to shift the momentum | Read More »

Anti-Walker Bias Surfaces in Much Politicized Legal Probe

By: briansikma (Diary)  |  May 22nd at 03:36 PM  | 

Desperate to find a message that will stick in the final weeks of the recall campaign, Wisconsin Democrats have resorted to politicizing a legal probe into the actions of former Milwaukee County government employees who worked for then-county executive Scott Walker. The probe, known as a John Doe investigation, started two years ago at the request of Walker’s county administration. Its original purpose was to | Read More »

Spouse of WI Gubernatorial Recall Candidate Breaks Rules

By: briansikma (Diary)  |  May 14th at 04:09 PM  | 

Promoted from the diaries By: Brian Sikma Kris Barrett, the politically active spouse of Tom Barrett, current mayor of Milwaukee and the Democratic nominee running against Gov. Scott Walker, has been caught using her taxpayer funded e-mail account to lobby and campaign for Democratic candidates and causes. Mrs. Barrett is a public school teacher and last year she was employed by Milwaukee Public Schools, Wisconsin’s | Read More »

Big Labor Pours $7 Mil. Into Recall, Likely to Exceed 2011 Spending

By: briansikma (Diary)  |  May 2nd at 03:10 PM  | 

Just released campaign finance documents show Big Labor both inside and outside of Wisconsin pouring just over $7 million into the effort to recall Governor Scott Walker and four GOP state senators. In the 2011 recall campaign combined total spending by unions and progressive groups reached $14.7 million, or just over twice what labor unions alone have managed to raise or spend in what is | Read More »

FRACTURED: Labor, Dem Split in WI Could Hurt Electoral Prospects

By: briansikma (Diary)  |  March 9th at 01:13 PM  | 

By: Brian Sikma This week Wisconsin Democrats may have done more than anyone else to defeat their recall effort aimed at removing Governor Scott Walker, Lt. Governor Rebecca Kleefisch, and three state senators from office. Driving the debate in Wisconsin for the past several weeks was legislation to overhaul the state’s outdated mining regulations. At stake was a proposed iron ore mine in the northern | Read More »