Scott Walker's 'Personal Time' at Stratospheric Levels

Scott Walker's personal time

As Scott Walker jets around the country raising out-of-state money, deals with his friends' criminal charges in the John Doe investigation, and politicizes whatever part of the Wisconsin people's government he can get his hands on, a revealing window has just been opened.

Scott Walker's personal time.

As in Scott Walker is using the governor's office to amass fantastically high hours of personal time instead of doing the people's business, as he likes to BS.

Unlike the Obama White House which posts our president's daily public schedule, Scott Walker is a black box of secrecy.

But One Wisconsin Now made a state open records request, and discovered Scott Walker is on a schedule akin to permanent vacation on the tax payers' dime—make that permanent personal time. Nice gig if you can get it.

From One Wisconsin Now

Gov. Walker Touts Leadership, But Official Schedule Tells a Different Story

Madison -- A One Wisconsin Now analysis of Gov. Walker's schedules from August 2011 through January 2012 reveals that little time was scheduled by the state's chief executive for communicating with legislators or working on a legislative agenda but that huge amounts of time were blocked off as "personal"

One Wisconsin Now Spokesperson Mike Browne commented, "The taxpayers of Wisconsin pay Gov. Walker over $144,000 dollars a year, provide him with a mansion to live in, a security detail to drive him about and a staff to cook and clean for him. You'd hope in return he'd be working with legislators to fix problems like Wisconsin's nation-leading job losses."

Based on the calendars maintained by Gov. Walker's office, released under the state open records law, between August 2011 and January 2012 Gov. Walker was scheduled to spend a grand total of just over 44 hours meeting with legislators or his policy staff or working on an a specific policy issue. Meanwhile, over the same time period, a whopping 614-plus hours were blocked off as "personal" time.

Browne said, "Gov. Walker's schedule shows a stunning lack of interest in governing, while massive chunks of time were blocked off for 'personal' time. The old adage that actions speak louder than words certainly applies here. The Governor claims he's working to create jobs, but his actions, or lack thereof, tell a much different story."

Browne noted that although there is no detail on how Gov. Walker spends his personal time, a significant uptick occurred when he was allowed to start raising unlimited amounts in campaign contributions because of the recall effort against him. It was also at this time that details of the serious nature of the criminal investigation of close Walker aides and associates began to come to light.

In August, just under 64 hours were classified as personal time, but that climbed to over 120 hours in November when the opportunity to raise unlimited campaign cash began and topped out at nearly 153 hours in January.

"It looks an awful lot like Gov. Walker may have spent the last several months ducking out of the office to take care of political business like meeting with his criminal defense attorneys or hitting up out-of-state billionaires for campaign cash instead of doing the job as Governor," concluded Browne.