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One-And-Done: How a Judge’s Ruling Could End Scott Walker’s Governorship

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As Republicans are currently grasping at straws in their never-ending attempt to somehow impeach President Barack Obama, a real scandal is brewing at the state level for one of the Republican’s, and more specifically Tea Party’s, golden boys.

For Koch-backed Wisconsin governor Scott Walker, his re-election campaign just got a whole lot tougher.

News broke late Thursday that thousands of pages of public records, acquired over a 33-month secret John Doe investigation involving Walker’s campaign aides, must be turned over by prosecutors to Milwaukee County. The ruling was made by retired Appeals Court Judge Neil Nettesheim, the man who had originally ordered the investigation closed in March of 2013. Should those records be turned over, copies of the them may be requested by the public thanks to Wisconsin’s open records law. Already, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has penned an editorial to Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele, asking him to release the records for the public to see. Should Abele release the records, they more than likely will end the political career of Scott Walker.

Ever since his political ascension in 2010, Scott Walker has been treading on thin ice. With backing from the Koch brothers, Walker rose to national stardom after he successfully gutted collective bargaining rights for union workers in Wisconsin despite massive and ongoing protests. In addition to his assault on unions, Walker also cut a billion dollars from Wisconsin’s special education budget as well as $500 million from the state’s Medicaid fund. Due to his blatant attacks against the working class, the people of Wisconsin attempted to oust Walker from the governorship in 2012 via a special recall election. However, thanks to big money backing from the Koch brothers and other right-wing allies, Walker survived the recall election and continued to serve out his term.

Unfortunately for Walker, you can only be a Koch stooge for so long before karma catches up with you.

Shortly before Walker was elected governor, Milwaukee County prosecutors launched an investigation into Walker’s campaign staff, which came to be known as the “John Doe investigation.” This investigation would go on for 33 months but would be shut down by Judge Nettesheim in March of 2013. However, some of the findings of the investigation became public early on in 2010 when Walker’s county chief of staff Kelly Rindfleisch pleaded guilty to doing campaign work for Walker’s gubernatorial run while being employed at the county courthouse. Specifically, the investigation mentions two ugly incidents that involved both Scott Walker as well as his staff.

The first portion of the findings showed how Walker and his staff intentionally withheld information from the public regarding the death of fifteen-year-old Jared Kellner, after a slab of concrete fell on him in a county parking structure. This was a building that Walker had diverted funds from and then used those funds for his own personal pet projects. This incident occurred just four months prior to the gubernatorial election and showed that Walker and his staff made a concerted effort to limit press coverage to the “accident” and not the diverted funds. The second portion of the findings showed Walker and his staff using a private email system to avoid the legal archival of documents. This portion was the one that landed Walker in hot water as Walker unconvincingly tried to deny his involvement in using the system to communicate with his staff.

After the investigation was shut down in March of 2013, it appeared as though Scott Walker had dodged a major bullet. With no further opportunity to reveal the investigation’s findings, it seemed all Scott Walker’s opponents would be able to use against him would be his unethical campaigning as well as his private email setup. Unfortunately, although both of these acts were shady, neither of them would do significant damage to Scott Walker politically. However, with what little the public saw of the findings of the John Doe investigation, it became apparent that these findings were already having an impact on Scott Walker’s re-election campaign. As of Thursday afternoon, Walker was running even with Democratic candidate Mary Burke. Based on what we have already seen, if the rest of the investigation is released it will most certainly shed additional light on Walker’s other highly questionable activities. With Burke already having the momentum, it could be the death blow to Scott Walker’s 2014 gubernatorial campaign.

What initially seemed like a dead end politically has now given Wisconsin Democrats a prime opportunity to remove Walker and his Koch-fueled agenda from office. Thanks to consistent pressure put on by the Milwaukee Sentinel Journal and the recent change of heart by Judge Nettesheim to send the records back to the county, there is a strong chance that the rest of these records might soon see the light of day, assuming that public pressure stays loud and consistent on Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele to release them to the public. If they are released, the public will get to see the real Scott Walker and if the initial part of the investigation is any indication, Wisconsin voters will have a whole new plethora of reasons to make Scott Walker a one-term governor.

For Charles and David Koch, they might need to be spending their money in other states not named Wisconsin come November.