Free Republic

A little more than two months ago, Mary Burke was hoping to trade in her modest Madison house for the governor's mansion. That didn't work out so well for the Democratic gubernatorial candidate. But Burke is still on the move. Records show she is selling her three-bedroom bungalow after she recently moved into an upscale apartment in downtown Madison. Burke's 1,465-square-foot house in Madison's middle-class Atwood neighborhood is being listed for $259,900, according to the website for First Weber Group Realtors. Built in 1925, the house has a detached, one-car garage and a total of 10 rooms. Burke, who was...

Dear Dan: Go ahead, man. Lean over the toilet and let it out. It must have been hard to include Wisconsin Reporter – even backhanded – among the winners in your post-election “Winners and Losers” column. Don’t fight it, Dan. I’ll hold your hair. In crediting Michael Grebe with Gov. Scott Walker’s Election Day win over Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke, you note that Grebe – Walker’s campaign chairman and head of (what you call) “the conservative Bradley Foundation” – “has poured money into online outlets that dig up dirt on Democrats and liberals.” One of those groups, you say,...

According to her resume, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke spent 1994 and some of 1995 working as the “Administrator” of the non-profit trade group Bicycle Industry Organization (BIO). However, an IRS document shows an address for the trade group that also happens to be a home formerly owned by Burke – a home that was purchased at least seven months after Burke claims she left BIO. According to Burke’s resume, Burke left BIO in 1995 and that same year returned to Trek Bicycle – her family’s business – as Director of Forecasting and Strategic Planning. According to a Dan Bice...

MADISON, Wis. – Another high-ranking Trek Bicycle Corp. executive on Thursday bolstered claims that Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke was fired by the global bicycle firm launched by her father nearly 40 years ago. Until this week, Burke claimed her success at Trek was evidence she ought to unseat Republican incumbent Gov. Scott Walker in next week’s election. Wisconsin Reporter revealed Tuesday that Burke’s family terminated her in 1993, following her disastrous performance in the company’s European business unit, according to multiple former Trek executives and employees. Burke responded Wednesday to the allegations by clarifying that her position was “eliminated”...

On hearing Friday’s news that Mary Burke’s job-creation plan was plagiarized from other Democrats running for governor, in Delaware, Tennessee, and elsewhere we thought, well…there are think tanks whose business is to share such ideas. But Burke reacted less calmly, firing the consultant responsible for the cut-and-paste job. Why? For duping her into thinking she had a jobs plan? More intriguing than Burke snatching ideas that may be interchangeable among Democrats is her apparently scant familiarity with what she is proposing. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel quoted her saying “This is my plan on how to drive Wisconsin’s economy forward,” later adding...

Mary Burke twice debated whether having a job was the thing for her Democratic candidate for Wisconsin governor Mary Burke took a two-year break from her career for a “snowboarding sabbatical” and a decade later expressed doubts that she ever wanted to have a full-time job again. Burke’s career has come under scrutiny after it was revealed that her résumé includes a two-year gap between positions at Trek Bicycle Corporation, which was founded by her father. After working in Europe for Trek overseeing operations in multiple countries, Burke decided she “needed some time off,” according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinal....