Free Republic

MADISON, Wis. — On the eve of the one-year anniversary of sweeping raids in Wisconsin’s politically charged John Doe investigation into conservative activists, Eric O’Keefe, one of the targets of that probe, is going public in a big way. Speaking at length for the first time O’Keefe, a director of the conservative Wisconsin Club for Growth, tells Wisconsin Reporter he was shocked by the prosecutors’ tactics: predawn, paramilitary-style raids on the homes of conservatives, and the confiscation of their papers and electronic equipment. “We ran a meticulous political operation; not only did we comply with Wisconsin’s laws — we were...

On Monday, first lady Michelle Obama swooped in to Milwaukee to help reinvigorate a struggling Mary Burke for governor campaign. Weighed down by accusations that her staff plagiarized large portions of her jobs plan, Burke called upon Obama to do a little cheerleading for the Democratic base. "We need to be just as passionate and as hungry as we were back in 2008 and 2012," Obama told the crowd. "They're assuming we won't be organized and energized. And only we can prove them wrong." Well, not quite. Perhaps the first lady can be forgiven for not following Wisconsin politics that...

Wisconsin’s tense race for governor got some political star power Monday, with New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie urging Republicans to step up their support for a potential presidential rival, Scott Walker. First lady Michelle Obama, meanwhile, campaigned for former state commerce secretary Mary Burke. Christie and Walker sidestepped any talk of a 2016 nomination fight against each other. “He would do good at any executive position he wanted to pursue,” Christie said of Walker. “I know this much — because I’ve spoken to him about it — he’s not interested in anything beyond November 4th and neither am I. Whatever...

Meg Kissinger is a seasoned reporter at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Wisconsin’s well-known newspaper. She’s seen a lot in her days. But what she said happened at a speech by Michelle Obama in the state on Monday left her utterly “creeped out.” Kissinger took to her Facebook and Twitter page to describe what happened. In short, she said, aides for both the first lady and Wisconsin Democratic candidate for governor, Mary Burke, told her she was banned from talking to members of the crowd. Kissinger was in Hudson, Wisconsin, covering the first lady’s speech in which she was stumping for...

First Lady Michelle Obama will rally with Democratic candidate for governor Mary Burke in Milwaukee on Monday, September 29th. Last-minute preparations were underway Sunday at the Wisconsin Center in downtown Milwaukee. That’s where Michelle Obama will join Mary Burke Monday for a Milwaukee rally in the very close race for governor. “We want to give the first lady a big Wisconsin welcome,” Burke for Wisconsin Communications Director Joe Zepecki said. Volunteers were busy Sunday at the Wisconsin Center — setting up for the first lady’s visit. “There`s always a lot of set up — little details big details. They`re handling...

Three Republicans rumored to be considering presidential runs for 2016 headed to an Iowa religious banquet to push conservatives to vote in this year’s midterm electionsAs they courted voters in the first state to hold a formal presidential electoral event every four years, Sen. Ted Cruz (Texas), Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and Rep. Paul Ryan (Wis.) made slightly different cases for voting, The Associated Press reported.The three spoke at a Saturday fundraiser for the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition.Cruz railed against ObamaCare and Democratic proposals to allow some undocumented immigrants to stay in the country legally, promising that a Republican-controlled...

When Wisconsin governor Scott Walker signed a law curbing the power of public sector unions in his state in 2011, Democrats warned that public schools would suffer terribly. But one year after the law had taken effect--and in the midst of a recall campaign that was driven entirely by the backlash to the law--Democratic candidate Tom Barrett could not name a single school hurt by Walker's reforms. When Mary Burke, the Democrat challenging Walker in 2014, was asked last month by THE WEEKLY STANDARD if she could name any schools hurt by Walker's reforms, she replied with an anecdote about...

Democrat Mary Burke told education officials Friday she would fight as governor to stop the expansion of voucher schools but would leave alone the long-standing program in Milwaukee. "This is something that may sound like a good political sound bite, but it is bad public policy," she said of expanding the voucher program. "I think it is the thing that most threatens a vision of a public school system and an education for students in Wisconsin to be the leaders in our country." Her comments drew applause from her audience at a Wisconsin Association of School District Administrators conference at...

Wisconsin avoided yet another challenge to its voter photo-ID law as a U.S. appeals court panel split evenly on a request to reconsider an order allowing the measure to be in force for elections on Nov. 4. The 5-5 vote Friday by judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals in Chicago let stand a Sept. 12 three-judge order allowing the state to keep the 2011 provision in place.

Gov. Chris Christie plans to visit Wisconsin next week to campaign with Gov. Scott Walker — one of his likely rivals for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination. Mr. Walker is locked in a tough re-election battle with Democrat Mary Burke. On Monday, Mr. Christie, chairman of the Republican Governors Association, plans to tour a manufacturing firm and GOP field office in Hudson with Mr. Walker before traveling to Ohio to attend an early vote rally with Gov. John Kasich, another possible White House contender, in Independence. He also plans to appear at local GOP dinner in Akron. The latest Real...

Democratic candidate for governor Mary Burke stumbled Thursday when asked to define plagiarism and said she had not violated her principles with a jobs plan that includes nearly word-for-word sections that also appear in other candidates' plans. Burke, who is running against GOP Gov. Scott Walker in the Nov. 4 election, also stressed the importance of providing citations in her plan, but an aide said later no changes to the plan would be made. Asked by reporters to define plagiarism, Burke said: "This, this probably, using words, exact words, from a source that doesn't, that isn't cited and isn't attributable."...

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...

Law360, Los Angeles (September 24, 2014, 8:44 PM ET) -- The Seventh Circuit ruled Wednesday that it is up to Wisconsin state courts to decide whether an investigation into potential campaign finance violations involving Gov. Scott Walker and a host of conservative groups should proceed, overturning a lower court injunction that halted the probe on First Amendment grounds. A three-judge panel called the injunction issued in May by U.S. District Judge Rudolph T. Randa an "abuse of discretion," saying that "this case does not present a situation in which state proceedings may be displaced." The panel directed the lower court...

A federal appeals court on Wednesday removed one barrier to restarting an investigation into possible illegal coordination between Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's campaign and more than two dozen conservative groups, a legal setback for the Republican who is locked in a tough re-election campaign. The three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Court of Appeals overturned a lower court ruling that halted the probe, but the judges found state courts are the proper venue to resolve legal issues with the case. Despite the ruling, the investigation won't resume immediately because the state judge overseeing it also effectively stopped it in January...

A Waukesha County judge tossed out a lawsuit Wednesday attempting to force changes to the Nov. 4 ballot. Waukesha County Circuit Judge James Kieffer dismissed the case after 25 minutes of arguments because those who brought the suit had not followed a procedure requiring them to first file a complaint with state election officials. The case was brought last week by the campaign committees of Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) and Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau). In another blow to the lawsuit, Kieffer also ruled that only electors could bring such a challenge, not the political committees of candidates....

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, a Republican, faces a difficult re-election in six weeks. Under normal circumstances, he would probably be coasting to victory. He just beat a recall attempt in 2012, Wisconsin's economy is improving, and he put in place reforms that have already saved the state $3 billion. But of course, this is the issue. His now-famous union bargaining reforms of 2011 have incurred the wrath of America's big labor unions, which are now eager to defeat him. But anyone who doubts the wisdom of Walker's reforms — and the self-interested short-sightedness of the public union bosses — need...

America has always been awash in bad ideas. The Founding Fathers spoke a good game about liberty but allowed America to become a slave republic, because they didn't want to alienate the Southern farmers and merchants who helped bankroll and fight the war for independence against the British. The Southern states wanted access to American liberty based on skin color. They got their wish for disproportionate representation in the early republic with the three-fifths clause enshrined in the U.S. Constitution. Tolerance of slavery was not only a bad idea, it has had disastrous consequences for America ever since. Right up...

STEVENS POINT — OK, the concern over militarization of cops is legitimate. But as someone who has been accused of being a flaming liberal, allow me to add this question: In a country that is buried in guns, do we want the enforcers of our laws to walk around with billy clubs while criminals tote semi-automatic weapons? If the bad guys have semi-automatics, then don’t we want cops to have at least that amount of firepower? Surely, we all know there are tens of thousands of semi-automatic weapons out there. Does anyone want to see a single cop killed because...

Wisconsin offices that issue driver's licenses aren't open enough hours to issue photo IDs to all the voters who need them before the Nov. 4 election, a liberal group told federal judges in a brief filed Monday. Wisconsin's 2011 law requires voters to show a government-issued ID with a photo to vote. Because of legal challenges, the requirement had not been enforced since the February 2012 primary. But a three-judge panel of the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago said Sept. 12 that the law could be used for the Nov. 4 election and other elections while it considers...

Madison -- First lady Michelle Obama will come to Milwaukee next week to campaign on behalf of Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke. Burke's campaign released the news Monday and said it would provide more details in the coming days on the event scheduled for next Monday. A spokeswoman for Burke didn't immediately say whether Obama would raise campaign funds for Burke while in Wisconsin. Burke has taken criticism from conservatives and some liberals for not appearing with Barack Obama during his recent visits to Wisconsin.