Uppity Wisconsin

Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke, a Republican in Democratic clothing, is facing a primary challenge from Chris Moews (pronounced Mays), a Milwaukee police lieutenant who's actually a Democrat.

And since there's a big GOP primary, which means Democrats might actually decide who gets the nomination, Clarke, although still the favorite, is a little worried.

His campaign's strategy is an interesting one;  Trying to make Moews seem like he's not really a Democrat, or not Democratic enough, at least.   Talk about the pot calling ...

A Journal Sentinel editorial:

Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker should fire John Chianelli immediately as part of the effort to eradicate problems at the county's Mental Health Complex.

But Walker should not stop there. He should insist that any Mental Health Complex employees who knowingly falsified documents or otherwise failed to do their jobs be shown the door. Their failures allowed a known predator, Omowale Atkins, to viciously sexually assault patients and impregnate one of them.

Even though the Journal Sentinel Watchdog team has shown a pattern of neglect and mismanagement at the complex, it appears very little discipline has been meted out. Heads need to roll, and that should begin with Chianelli, administrator of the Milwaukee County Behavioral Health Division. He is in charge of the Mental Health Complex.

But it should not stop there, either. Walker, who points fingers in every direction but his own whenever there is a problem in county government, owns this one.

He needs to take some responsiblity himself for allowing this to happen. It did not happen overnight, but after an extended period of neglect on Walker's watch.  And he has defended the decision-makers.

The idea that he is running for governor on his record as county executive should make people laugh -- or perhaps cry.

His record on how he treats some of society's most vulnerable speaks volumes about his priorities and his character.

Shame on Scott Walker.

Figuratively, unfortunately. Bruce Murphy of Milwaukee Magazine takes Charlie Sykes (and, by extension, Scott Walker) to task for demagoging on the Milwaukee sewage issue after a recent downpour of Biblical proportions.

I've always found it rather amusing to hear Sykes use the word 'poop' repeatedly on his program.  He's such a potty mouth.

Read Murphy here.

Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke tries to explain away the report of a two-hour meeting where he repeatedly cursed and verbally abused a deputy for his union activity:

"Keep in mind that the person making the accusation is a political opponent who wants me out," Clarke said. "He is working against me while fighting the positive changes I have made along the way, and he has endorsed my opponent in the upcoming election."

Clarke would be much more believable if he and a toadie who was in the room during the meeting had not refused to comment when Dan Bice asked them before he wrote the column.

Here's Clarke's lame damage control.

Do you think one reason the deputies union opposes Clarke is that he treats them like dirt, as in this case? Or are they just "politically motivated?"

Clarke still refused to discuss any specifics about what he said in the meeting, by the way.

If you believe that truth will out, sooner or later, Dan Bice's column on Sunday should reaffirm your faith.

Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke is exposed as the egomaniacal, profanity-spewing tyrant he has been been behind closed doors all along, while posing for holy pictures in public.

The revelation, of Clarke's abusive, two-hour tirade against a deputy who happens to be a union officer, gives the public a rare glimpse of the real David Clarke. It is not a pretty picture.

Let's diclose that I have a personal interest, having run Clarke's first campaign for sheriff in 2002. Of all the campaigns I worked on in 20 years as a consultant, that is the one I regret the most. Clarke completely misrepresented himself to me -- lied about who he was and what he was all about, in other words -- and I swallowed it.

I recall introducing Clarke to a number of union leaders, and the presentations he'd make to them, displaying the management books he'd been reading and talking about how he wanted to "change the culture" in the sheriff's department, from a quasi-military operation with a strict chain of command to one that empowered the front-line workers to make decisions.

The Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC) has added a new service for its corporate members -- a laundry for political contributions.

MMAC, a fancier name for the Milwaukee Chamber of Commerce, has contributed heavily to the Republican Governors Assn.(RGA), which has been running vicious ads attacking Tom Barrett as a monster, a guy who's raised taxes even more than Jim Doyle.  Horrors!

The RGA's latest report showed $115,000 in contributions from MMAC, and some hefty donations from MMAC board members as well -- $25,000 each from Ted Kellner of Fiduciary Management and Paul Jones of A.O. Smith, $20,000 from Jack McKeithan of Tamarack Patroleum and his wife Patty.  Those individual donations are in addition to the $115,000 reported as being from MMAC -- except that the $115,000 really is from some MMAC members.

The Washington Times:

The Republican National Committee failed to report more than $7 million in debt to the Federal Election Commission in recent months -- a move that made its bottom line appear healthier than it is heading into the midterm elections.

In Milwaukee County, the Public Policy Forum says the county is walking into an estimated $20 million to $45 million budget hole—and that doesn’t include deferred maintenance (estimated to be $200 million in the parks alone), the still-unresolved employee concessions written into the 2010 budget, and challenges at the Mental Health Complex and at the Milwaukee County Transit System (estimated transit shortfall next year: about $10 million, the Shepherd Express reports.

And then there's the $400-million Walker borrowed to shore up the shortfall in the pension fund, which still needs to be repaid.

But Walker has merrily announced a budget surplus of $8.9-million for 2009.

See any similarities?

This seems like strange message in an election year when incumbents are supposedly in trouble, but it comes from a spokesman for Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke's campaign:

"This election is going to come down to two things. It's going to come down to experience and proven leadership. The sheriff runs the largest sheriff's office in the state of Wisconsin, with a budget of $150 million. He supervises 1,400 employees," Chris Haworth said.

That statement was in response to Milwaukee Police Dept. Chris Moews announcing he would run against Clarke in the Democratic primary.

Moews has 16 years in law enforcement and is a homicide lieutenant in the Milwaukee Police Department.

At the time Clarke was plucked from obscurity and appointed sheriff by Republican Gov. Scott McCallum in 2002, he was a captain in the Milwaukee Police Dept. and had been in charge of the downtown MPD district.

He had not run anything like the largest sheriff's department in the state, been responsible for a budget of $150-million or supervised 1,400 employees.

But Clarke had no doubt he was qualified for the job.

Why do we have to read the Milwaukee Biz Blog to find this out?

  County Supervisor John Weishan explains how Scott Walker has diverted money from maintenance of capital projects, and what that has meant:

Milwaukee County currently has a 0.5-percent sales tax that, at its inception in 1991, was to be used to pay for debt service on capital projects or to pay cash for those capital projects.

In 2002, shortly after being elected County Executive, Scott Walker was successful in changing that county ordinance, enabling him to divert millions in sales tax revenue from the capital budget to the operating budget.

Over the last eight years, more than $112 million in sales tax revenue has been diverted from capital fund to the operating budget.

It's unusual for a county Democratic Party unit to endorse in a primary, but Milwaukee County Democrats unanimously endorsed Chris Moews for sheriff at their last meeting.

And no wonder.  The incumbent, David Clarke, runs as a Democrat because that's how to get elected in Milwaukee County in a fall election, but in fact is a far-right conservative who hangs out with the Republicans and the Tea Partiers.

So no surprise the Democrats would prefer an actual Democrat.

Moews is a 14-year veteran of police departments in Milwaukee County, and currently serves as the supervising Lieutenant in the Homicide Division of the Milwaukee Police Department on the overnight shift. He previously served as a detective and patrol officer in the MPD, and as a patrol officer in the North Shore.

"The current Sheriff has been a comedy of errors," said Party Chair Sachin Chheda.

Illusory Tenant took the words out of my mouth about Sheriff David Clarke's plan for a Milwaukee County boot camp for prisoners. The quote in the story that really jumped out:

 

The sheriff dropped hints earlier about his boot camp idea, but has not yet consulted with judges, prosecutors and others in the criminal justice system. He plans to formally roll out the plan soon and said he hopes to get other officials to buy in. If not, he'll impose it anyway, Clarke said.

"With my constitutional authority, if I have to, I'll do it unilaterally," he said.

Clarke, the right-winger who gets elected by posing as a Democrat, has long had a theory that as a state constitutional officer he is free to do whatever he pleases. (Register of deeds, treasurer, clerk, DA and other county officials also were created by the state constituion, but no one else makes that claim.)

That hasn't always worked out so well.

Walker wants speedy review of buildings after garage collapse says the Daily Reporter headline.

That certainly paints the picture the way Scott Walker would like it. But if you read it carefully, you'll find what Walker really wants to do is to avoid or at least counter any negative findings from an audit:

“I’m not against an audit,” Walker said Tuesday. “If they want another check and balance, that’s fine. I just want to figure out the best way to make the case that our facilities are safe.

Got that? Walker accidentally told the truth. He's not looking for the best way to find our whether county facilities are safe; he's looking for "the best way to make the case that our facilities are safe."

The audit reportedly could take several months to complete.

Eric Von, a classy radio host who's been missed by many in the community since he left the airwaves more than a year ago, will be back on WMCS-AM (1290) in mid-July, Erik Gunn of Milwaukee Magazine reports.

More later, but this is excellent news.

First, Sheriff David Clarke acted at a news conference like he was somehow in charge of investigating the fatal accident at O' Donnell Park.

But in today's story, County Exec Scott Walker, a champion finger-pointer who never accepts responsibility for any bad news, appears to be running the investigation.

Is that an improvement? Is that appropriate?

Doesn't this seem like the time for an independent investigation of what caused a county-owned structure to fail? Scott Walker is the county executive, hardly a neutral observer.

Can't we do this right? 

Is it just me, or do you wonder how Sheriff David Clarke came to be in charge of investigating the collapse of a Milwaukee County parking structure that claimed the life of a 15-year-old boy?  Or is he?

Did Clarke just grab the mic at the news conference to announce, ala Alexander Haig, that he was in charge?

Clarke is very good at getting in front of a camera, but what exactly is his standing in this case?

"Like many of you, I want to know why this happened," Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. said during a news conference near the garage. "The answer to that, however, is going to take some time."

Is this a criminal investigation? Is it a possible homicide? Even if it were, although this is county property it happened in the City of Milwaukee, which has its own police force and homicide unit that might actually be a little more independent, since they don't work for the county.

Or maybe it's a job for the medical examiner or coroner or district attorney. Or maybe a structural engineer.

David Clarke is none of those things.