Gov. Walker sometimes only spent 30 hours a week on state business
Wisconsin News-- As Governor Scott Walker’s national fame grew, the amount of time he spent on his job of leading Wisconsin shrunk by as much as half.
As Governor Scott Walker’s national fame grew, the amount of time he spent on his job of leading Wisconsin shrunk by as much as half. The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism looked at 44-hundred entries in Walker’s calendars in the first 13 months of his term, starting in January of 2011. The review found that the Republican Walker spent as much as 60 hours a week on state business from January-through-August of last year – when his party approved a number of job bills, the new state budget, and the law that virtually ended public union bargaining. But by January of this year, the Investigative Journalism project found that Walker spent as little as 30 hours a week on state business – or half of what he was doing six months earlier. And on some weekdays, up to 12 hours at a time were marked as “personal” – which included his political fund-raising throughout the country. Walker spokesman Cullen Werwie echoed what his boss has said in the past, quote – “If it wasn’t for big outside special interests and union bosses trying to recall him, he wouldn’t need to spend any time campaigning.” During the 13-month review period, the journalism center said Walker visited 50 of Wisconsin’s 72 counties – and he spent up to half his time each month away from Madison. The center has set up a Web site where you can see of all of the activity it reviewed. It’s at WisconsinWatch-Dot-Org-Slash-WalkerCalendars.
_________________________________________________________________________
Wisconsin Republicans went home from their state convention yesterday with a resolve to get as many of their voters as possible to the recall elections on June fifth. House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan told the Green Bay convention on Saturday night quote, “apathy will lose” those contests against Governor Scott Walker and five other officials. The Janesville House leader said the elections will hinge solely on turnout and quote, “If we can get out the vote, we can take our state back on June fifth and build momentum for November.” Ryan also said a Walker victory would set an important tone for the presidential contest this fall. He said it would send a message to the rest of the country that quote, “fiscal responsibility is the right decision.” Earlier on Saturday, delegates failed to round up the 60-percent needed to endorse one of the four Republican U-S Senate candidates for this fall. Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald came the closest. The G-O-P convention ended yesterday with a Mother’s Day prayer breakfast.
Tags: news, wisconsin, government, politics
More from around the web
RSS Feeds