Posted on 06/04/2015 7:03:18 AM PDT by conservativejoy
Link to Wisconsin State Journal
Due to copyright issues, I am providing a link to this article .
I was criticized yesterday for providing older articles on this subject, so I am linking one that was written yesterday. In the left margin of this article, there are links to three more current articles on the subject of the ongoing investigation into Walker's WEDC.
The issues raised here need to be factored in to the vetting process. One reason I respect and admire 2ndDivisionvet is because he posts articles about Cruz that present both sides. Sometimes he takes some heat from those who don't like the anti-Cruz articles, but as he pointed out, we need to know both sides of what's out there.
This is a serious issue. Walker created and chaired this agency until he was removed by the state legislature earlier this week. Audits have raised a lot of questions about millions of dollars that have been paid to businesses that were Walker campaign contributors. A lot of the 19 million dollars at issue was given in the form of loans that have not been paid back for the creation of jobs that have not materialized. Many of these businesses, instead of creating jobs, have outsourced thousands of jobs overseas.
There has been no follow up accountability for how the money was spent and many of the loans have already been written off at the taxpayer's expense.
Another reason to be concerned is the extreme likelihood that this will become a federal investigation. I think we can all see that the timing of this would be politically motivated to inflict the most damage, especially if Walker is on the Republican ticket.
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That would be classic DNC. Lie in wait until it is too late, then rip him to shreds. We all know Hillary will never be held accountable. It will be even harder for Walker to defend himself since the secret router only feet from him in his office has been linked to Walker directly through emails. It is not fair for there to be a double standard, but it is the reality.
But mainly what I would like see is the explanation that John Doe was witch hunt, that it is on hold, that it may be killed, that the GOP special prosecutor has reaffirmed that Walker was not a target.
Second, that the WEDC investigation (the article above) is a newspaper investigation so far. The Dems are calling for a legal inquiry. It is worth tracking but not if it conflated with John Doe and not if it suggested that Walker is corrupt just because some journalist says so with their set of facts. So we will wait and see in July when the report on this loan is presented and see if there are others.
I have googled for "Francis Schmitz" WEDC and clicked on all the links. I did not find any statement by Mr. Schmitz about the WEDC. I didn't find any articles with that connection. Please link to an article where Schmitz comments about WEDC.
The current prosecutor is Ishmael Ozanne. One of his deputy prosecutors said the WEDC mess was a disgrace. I had it in an article yesterday and don’t remember his name, but it struck me because he was GOP and made a point of it that he had voted for Walker. As you may know those serving in those types of positions are precluded by law from campaigning on behalf of candidates, so his vote was the highest expression of support he could legally offer.
You have confused issues yet again. Ismael Ozanne is not the John Doe special prosecutor. Ismael Ozanne is a partisan democrat DA (not a special prosecutor) who has taken it upon himself (and his party) to “review” the WEDC audit of the loan transaction. I.e. if the audit followed standard accounting procedures, etc. It is yet another partisan witch hunt, just like the John Doe cases. The main difference is this one has very limited scope.
No where in the article you linked is there a word about the WEDC investigation. Schmitz is investigating yet another Walker scandal about campaign finance violations. Schmitz is the John Doe special prosecutor, a totally different issue.
That is correct and I said that above. But Schmitz is the GOP special prosecutor. Anytime you claim that a "prosecutor" is "GOP" you need to back that up with a name. You gave me a name "Ismael Ozanne" but he is a Dem hack. You said it was one of his deputies, I can't pull up a list. So I have no name, and you have provided none, nor a link to where he made a statement about WEDC.
You owe me at least a name, I will try to look up the rest.
I’m not your secretary. If an angel from the Throne came down and handed you an indictment on Walker, you would not acknowledge it. Just let the investigation proceed. Mr. Ozanne has only just begun to review the Audit that was conducted because he wanted the complete file before he started. That was just handed over at the end of last month.
The only GOP prosecutor I know of is the special prosecutor for the John Doe case. That case is on hold. It is different from the WEDC case. Francis Schmitz did not say anything about WEDC. No other GOP prosecutor that I have found said anything about WEDC but I could have missed something.
The WEDC case may be serious based on facts that have yet to become public, but so far it is just another attack by the liberal media and a partisan DA.
Your statement implied there was a bipartisan condemnation of Walker. There's a pretty good chance you misread some of the crap you read on the liberal sites like prwatch.org which you used as a source for a thread. That site is created by the ultra-liberal Center for Media and Democracy. I am not going to stand by and let you repeat liberal smears against Walker from sites like that especially when they are a year old.
OTOH, there is no question that you and others need to expose the dirt so it can be explained. But you do not need to attack Walker, such as your unsupported statements like in post 3. If you continue to do that, I will continue to challenge your claims like post 3.
-—But Schmitz is the GOP special prosecutor.
Correction, Schmitz is a self-proclaimed member of the GOP who was hired for the John Doe. He is still the target of a lawsuit for invasion of conservative’s civil liberties in the John Doe.
This lawsuit is the fourth state legal case that has come out of the John Doe probe. Club for Growth and O’Keefe also filed a federal lawsuit in February against Schmitz and others contending their free speech rights were violated by the investigation into possible illegal coordination by groups involved in the 2012 recall campaigns.
Schmitz better not be commenting on a new investigation when he was ordered to cease and desist..
****“In the absence of any further information regarding the content and import of ‘discussions’ that may violate the Court’s clear directives, it is impossible for the Court to offer further clarification at this time.”
http://watchdog.org/148870/john-doe-francis-schmitz-lawsuit/
If Schmitz has violated the terms of the judge’s order, he could be held in contempt of court.****
Thanks for the correction. I know that “Schmitz voted for Walker” is a liberal talking point repeated uncritically here. But I am also interested in clearing up any other innuendo splashed about in these threads. The main one was the one I just mentioned about post 3. It seems that anti-Walker enthusiasm is more important than posting facts.
Yep, really surprised to hear zombie lefty talking points being posted here. Use a head shot to be sure.
“Walker’s WEDC”—what’s this thing?
The WEDC is an agency created by Walker as soon as he was elected Gov. to replace the Commerce Dept.in Wisconsin. It stands for Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. This agency was Chaired by Gov. Walker until last week when Audit problems prompted the State Legislature to remove him from that position.
The agency has paid 975 million tax dollars to businesses that were supposed to create jobs, 60% of them owned by Walker donors. The money was issued in the form of loans that have not been repaid and many have been either written off or forgiven.
The result has been that these businesses have actually outsourced jobs overseas, losing two jobs for every one job created. The net loss is that Wisconsin has actually lost over 7000 jobs as a result of WEDC’s mismanagement.
Wisconsin is last in job creation in the Midwest and 38thin the nation. It is 50th in new business startups. Add that to the projected 2 billion dollar budget deficit this fiscal year and you have to wonder why Walker supporters wish to take his fiscal policies nationwide. I think they must be ignorant of the facts.
Currently the WEDC audit has been turned over to a prosecutor late last month and he is investigating the issue. There have been some charges that the payouts and the timing look suspiciously like “Pay to Play”. GOP legislators are concerned and there have been some calls for a federal investigation as well.
I have subscribed to the Wisconsin State Journal, a Conservative newspaper in Madison, to monitor the situation.
20 million in loans, 2 written off, 5 forgiven (terms unknown), etc. Full report here: http://legis.wisconsin.gov/lab/reports/13-7full.pdf Not unusual for that kind of portfolio. The 60% number is a liberal talking point and not verified, not in the audit I just linked nor any reliable source.
Currently the WEDC audit has been turned over to a prosecutor late last month and he is investigating the issue.
Not turned over, picked up by a partisan DA wanting his own tilt at the Walker windmill. That doesn't mean we should ignore that investigation, far from it, post any facts that you find (i.e. they should link to a reliable source).
GOP legislators are concerned and there have been some calls for a federal investigation as well
Mainly accurate although some of those GOP legislators think it can be fixed, others regret voting for it. The calls for federal involvement are strictly partisan.
IOW, the 60% number comes from political enemies of Walker. There is probably a sizable percentage that have some donor connection, no matter how small or tenuous, but we don't know that percentage and we especially don't know if it is unrepresentative (i.e. donors got priority)
I have provided the sources and article after article on this to Palmer. He has his opinion and refuses to believe even factual math. Anyone can calculate from a list of Walker donors and the total amounts contributed equals 60% of the money spent by WEDC.
He is pouncing on the fact that Ozanne is the prosecutor assigned to this. His boss is a Walker appointee. There is simply no way to spin this. The time of donations and payouts do not look good, but if you completely remove any corruption from the equation, you still have epic mismanagement and waste of taxpayer dollars for the embarrassing net loss of -7,000 jobs. When Walker starts spouting that he is on the side of the American Worker, think about those thousands of jobs that were outsourced by his donors companies that he paid millions to create jobs, I’ll bet the people who lost their livelihood don’t think he was on their side.
Walker’s fiscal failure overall should be a serious issue since we are going to need a lot of repair to our economy.
And I have read all of them.
Anyone can calculate from a list of Walker donors and the total amounts contributed equals 60% of the money spent by WEDC.
Anyone except conservativejoy who has not done so, nor linked to a source that has. The only source of that number is a quote from a liberal group that is an enemy of Walker. Obviously the number is more than zero, but the question is whether the number is high enough to indicate favoritism towards Walker donors.
He is pouncing on the fact that Ozanne is the prosecutor assigned to this. His boss is a Walker appointee.
Ozanne was appointed by Gov. Doyle in 2010 and reelected in 2012. He is as partisan as a DA can get and reports to his constituency.
if you completely remove any corruption from the equation, you still have epic mismanagement and waste of taxpayer dollars
Epic mismanagement is a liberal talking point. If you consider the fact that many other states have programs like this, it makes sense that Wisconsin would. It deserves to be reviewed and scrutinized and Walker will have to defend its purpose and benefits.
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