Top 1% Shower Walker With Cash, but Recall and `Walkergate' Loom

In These Times:

MILWAUKEE—If one more dime gets added to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s already-overflowing campaign war chest, it may cause the Governor's Mansion in Madison to collapse under its weight.

Walker has been running around the nation to gather cash from corporate and right-wing sources, raising an astonishing $12.2 million in his effort to fend off a statewide recall election demanded by 1.1 million residents.

But Walker not only faces voters furious over his role in revoking public employee union rights. Later this week, the governor will be meeting with Milwaukee County District Attorney to answer questions about his role as Milwaukee county executive from 2002 to 2010. It's part of a John Doe probe that has already produced the arrest of four former Walker staffers, including longtime close associate Tim Russell. Walker has hired two lawyers in preparation.

Progressives are piecing together evidence about Walker's operation as Milwaukee county executive and wondering if the current investigation will explode into a major "Walkergate" scandal. 

The charges against former Walker staffers range from performing illegal work on county time to the embezzlement of $25,000 by Russell, whom Walker chose to administer a fund for wounded Iraq veterans that had been run successfully by the American Legion. Russell was chosen despite his 1993 firing by the state for gross misuse of public funds.

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