Wisconsin Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) came under fire this week for a campaign email he sent on behalf of Republican Governor Scott Walker when he was confronted by a supporter of the Walker recall effort.
Lori Compas addressed Fitzgerald on Monday during the senator's open office hours in Horicon, according to Wisconsin-based Blogging Blue. She questioned the senator on an email that asked his constituents to "help me fight the fraud that is happening right now on recall petitions in my district."
The email, titled "Mickey Mouse is helping..." -- a reference to the news that recall signatures from Mickey Mouse and Adolf Hitler would be considered valid if they were properly dated with a valid Wisconsin address -- blasted Wisconsin Democrats and claimed those who were working to recall Walker were committing fraud:
Last week, a recall signer admitted -- to a TV reporter -- that he has signed a recall petition "about 80 times." His excuse? "They cheated for Bush, so hey, I'm going to cheat to get Scott Walker out."
Then yesterday, in the state Capitol, the Government Accountability Board (who is supposed to be policing the recall process) announced that it would COUNT recall signatures from "Mickey Mouse" as long as a date and address are included.
And here's the icing on the cake: the Government "Accountability" Board said that it's not their responsibility to check for duplicates and fake names: it's the responsibility of the Senators who are being recalled.
A thousand needles have been thrown into the haystack, and the senators fighting recalls are the ones who have to find them. And it's a heck of a lot easier to sign fake and duplicate signatures than it is to find them.
Compas asked for an apology, claiming the statement in Fitzgerald's email led to "offensive language" and "rude gestures" directed toward her and other recall volunteers.
Fitzgerald isn't the only one to question the authenticity of the recall efforts. Walker's campaign and Wisconsin Republican Party director Stephan Thompson sued the state's elections and ethics agency in Waukesha over its handling of signatures in the recall drive, according to the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel.