This article was published by WisPolitics. VERY interesting to say the least. All their money is from OUTSIDE our district. Not exactly what JoAnne Taube and Mike Falkofske have been saying. AND they plan on having a rally today protesting outside influence on the race. Hope I spell HYPOCRITICAL correctly. (M) Two groups backing liberal candidates have spent thousands on independent expenditures in the weeks leading up to the spring election -- largely on races for local school boards -- according to reports filed with the GAB. The Greater Wisconsin Political Independent Expenditure Fund, the political funding arm of the Greater Wisconsin Committee, reported spending more than $10,000 combined on candidates for the Kenosha Unified School Board in recent weeks. The Wisconsin Education Association Council, meanwhile, spent more than $8,500 during that span. Greater Wisconsin reported spending $6,000 on robocalls in its pre-election filing; those reports, which cover expenditures between Feb. 4 and March 17, were due to the GAB on Monday. The expenses were reported as paid within a week of the Feb. 18 spring primary, and were split evenly between supporting three Kenosha school board candidates -- Jo Ann Taube, Michael Kehoe and Mike Falkofske -- while opposing Dan Wade, Robert Nuzzo and Gary Kunich. Taube -- an incumbent member -- advanced through the primary along with Falkofske, Kunich and Wade. Those four candidates are vying for two school board seats on Tuesday. The liberal group also reported $4,801 in independent expenditures following the close of the pre-election period last week; those expenditures are required to be filed with the GAB within 24 hours in the days leading up to an election. The expenditures went toward mailers that opposed Kunich and Wade. Although Greater Wisconsin is the lone group to disclose independent expenditures for the Kenosha races, it is far from the only outside group involved in the contest. Reports indicate the conservative Americans for Prosperity has been canvassing and making phone calls in the district, while another group dubbed the Kenosha Concerned Parents Coalition is circulating mailers. Those groups have not filed with the GAB and are not required to unless they specifically advocate voting for or against a specific candidate. The activity ahead of Tuesdays election is just the latest in the ongoing saga of Kenoshas schools, which have become a flashpoint of controversy in the aftermath of Act 10. The districts teachers union -- the Kenosha Education Association -- was decertified by the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission last year under new rules requiring annual recertification elections by public employee unions. But a Dane County judge then prohibited WERC commissioners from processing union elections after an earlier ruling striking down parts of Act 10 -- restoring the KEA as the districts bargaining unit. The school board then approved a new contract with the union in November, only to draw a lawsuit from a conservative legal group over provisions relating to collecting union dues.
Posted on: Sat, 29 Mar 2014 13:25:28 +0000
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