Walker's campaign planned Harley trip

One of Milwaukee County Exec Scott Walker's defenses in explaining his taxpayer-financed Harley ride to get his face on TV in every media market covering the state has been:

"Gee, I did it last year and nobody complained. I guess this is just politics because I'm running for governor now." (Not his exact words, but a paraphrase conveying the essence of his statements.)

Actually, there were at least two open records requests made at the time for documents about the 2004 trip. Reviewing them, it's clear someone should have been asking questions and complaining a year ago, because Walker's campaign was heavily involved in planning the "non-political" trip.

Let's recap quickly, rather than assume everyone knows all of the facts (if you do know all the facts, advance to the next paragraph): Walker led a cycle ride across the state, organized by his government staff, in his office, on taxpayer time. He advertised it on his county-paid website, and took along a number of county staff people who were paid their county salaries during the ride. Media coverage has focused not on the basic question of whether taxpayers paid for his two campaign trips in the last two years, but on the fact that Walker gave away $19,000 worth of free tickets to businesses along the way this year. (I don't think anyone has determined what and how much he gave away in 2004).

One of the documents Walker's office coughed up last year is a memo (scroll down when it opens) from Jim Villa, a former Walker chief of staff who left Walker's office to run his re-election campaign in 2004. Villa is a the founder of a political consulting firm, the Markesan Group, whose main client is Walker's campaign for governor. John Hiller, Walker's campaign treasurer and attack dog in the 2004 exec race, is a partner. Brian Fraley, a longtime GOP operative, is the third member. Walker announced the hiring of a campaign manager this week, but Villa and Co. are running the race.

Villa's memo explains, in some detail, how he is personally going to ride the route of Walker's Harley trip in advance, to check the route, scout locations, and generally take note of problems that needed to be solved or plans that needed to be made to make sure the trip all goes smoothly. He raises issues like making sure press contacts are set up, getting an intern assigned to do advance on the actual trip, getting rooms, T-shirts, communication devices, and other needs.

Villa acting in his role of campaign consultant, sent the document by e-mail to Walker and Walker staffer Dorothy Moore on their personal e-mail accounts, not to their Milwaukee county addresses. It would not have turned up on an open records request, except that he also sent one to Walker staffer Steve Mokrohisky at his county address. He also copied Hiller, his partner in the political firm.

If this trip was just to promote Milwaukee tourism, as Walker insists, why would the people he is paying to run his campaign for governor be making the arrangements and plans?

Villa wasn't spending his time because he wants more people to visit the Milwaukee zoo. His job is to get Walker elected governor, and that's what this trip was all about.

I have not seen the documents on the 2005 trip yet. There may be no Markesan Group correspondence, most likely because they have gotten better at covering their tracks. But you can bet they were involved up their eyeballs in the now-controversial 2005 ride as well, after creating the model in 2004.