Just about every politician doles out jobs to political supporters. You don't get as far as governor without learning how to repay a favor. But it seems Scott Walker, or those around him, slept through the part of Politics 101 in which the politician learns how to distribute patronage tactfully and ethically. Journal Sentinel:
In picking a new register of deeds for Marinette County, Gov. Scott Walker picked a Republican campaign worker with no experience with land records and vital records.
He passed over three candidates with detailed knowledge of how the office of the register of deeds works, including two deputies who have worked in the office for years.
Renee Miller started as Marinette County register of deeds on Wednesday, after being appointed to it earlier this month. Miller is a friend of Rep. John Nygren (R-Marinette), has worked on his campaigns for five years and is married to Nygren's campaign treasurer, Paul Miller.
The appointment has upset employees in the register of deeds office who applied for the job. One of the three employees in the office transferred to another county job, and another said she was considering doing the same, which would leave Miller without an experienced staff as she gets to know the office.
Here comes the best part:
Nygren wrote to Walker aide Cindy Polzin in December saying he had no problem with [deputy register of deeds] Becky Chasensky getting the job but added that he'd heard Chasensky "has some personal issues, and she has never been involved in the party."
Now, to a certain extent, Walker could say, "don't blame the player, blame the game." It's not Walker's fault that the progressives of yore set up a system of partisan elections for public offices as mundane as the register of deeds and the coroner.
But the fact that Walker couldn't bother to find somebody with even the faintest claim to qualification demonstrates yet again his cynical indifference to functioning government. Rather than put the position in the hands of a professional, he puts it under the control of a partisan, figuring that if somebody is going to waste taxpayer dollars, it might as well be somebody who will funnel a few thousand of them into GOP campaigns.
Incompetence and demoralization in government furthers the GOP's ongoing thesis that government need not exist. To Walker, cutting the pay and eliminating the collective bargaining rights of rank-and-file government workers is only the first step to making public service the least desirable type of employment in the state. Appointing overpaid goons as their bosses is the necessary final step to drive public employees off the public payrolls and into the private sector.
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