It seems like the hypocrisy never ends with the Wisconsin Republicans, now that we are living in an alternate reality in which our state has been taken over by a dictator who clearly feels laws and statutes are "suggestions."
Today, the Wisconsin GOP is calling for a probe to investigate whether Democratic candidate Shelly Moore, a high school english and drama teacher who is challenging Republican state Senator Sheila Harsdorf in an upcoming recall election, for using her public school email account for campaigning. As evidence, the GOP is using emails that were obtained though open record requests of Ms. Moore's public school email account from March and April 2011. These emails, which were all sent well before Moore even declared her candidacy in May 2011, include some in which Moore is discussing politics, emergency teachers union meetings, and the distribution of recall signature papers.
What the GOP did not find, however, was evidence of campaigning. In his complaint to the Government Accountability Board, Stephan Thompson, the executive director of the Wisconsin GOP, tries to conjure up evidence of campaigning in Moore's emails from March and April 2011, but just cannot seem to make it materialize. The most damning evidence, in his mind, is an email dated April 2, 2011, in which someone writes to Moore:
"I hear congratulations may be in order. The rumor at the Sommerset rally today, where I spoke, was that you had been chosen as either The Candiddate (sic) or WEAC's candidate of choice."
But unsolicited congratulations about a possible candidacy does not equal campaigning. If that email was the most damning email Thompson could find, then there is not a basis for a complaint. However, Thompson is not letting a lack of actual evidence stand in the way of his rhetoric. In an article in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel about his complaint, he is quoted as stating:
“Thumbing your nose at state law to build a political campaign is unacceptable, and this abuse of taxpayer funded resources deserves a full investigation by the Government Accountability Board. If she feels she is above the laws of this state, she certainly has no business having a hand in creating them.”
It is very ironic to see Stephan Thompson talking about "thumbing your nose at state law" and "abuse of taxpayer funded resources," since Mr. Thompson is actually the man who defended the running of fake Democratic candidates in the upcoming recall elections in order to force primaries. There are several state statutes that make such tactics possibly illegal. In addition, the primaries that the fake candidates will force are going to cost the taxpayers of Wisconsin over $428,000.
Apparently, thumbing your nose at the law and wasting taxpayer money is fine if you are a Republican.
