Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Dirty Politics In District Four

Supervisor Marina
Dimitrijevic
In Milwaukee County's Supervisory District 4, there is a race between incumbent Supervisor Marina Dimitrijevic and her challenger, Bill Buresh.

Dimitrijevic is a tireless, progressive dynamo that, by all appearances, has a big future ahead of her.  She has been repeatedly voted the "best supervisor" in the county and made the cover of Wisconsin Woman.  She has, for the most part, served Milwaukee County well, and has introduced such things as a sustainability program known as Green Print, which not only helped the environment, but saved the taxpayers a bundle.  She also introduced a new level of transparency to Milwaukee County government by making both the legislative process and campaign financing more accessible to the public. On top of all this, and most importantly, she is very open and accessible to her constituents, having held more than 125 town hall meetings at which she tells her constituents about what's going on as well as listens to their concerns.

That is not to say that Dimitrijevic hasn't made a few mistakes.  She made the ill-advised decision to endorse Penny Sikora, who has, to be kind, a checkered past.  She also pushed for an intrusive and punitive version of a wellness program known as Step Up (which is something which still burns me up when I think of it).

The refreshing thing is, and much to her credit, Dimitrijevic readily admits that she has made mistakes.  She has told me that she tries to learn from her mistakes and moves on.

Her opponent, Bill Buresh, has run a questionable campaign.  He has made some silly mistakes, such as misspelling Dimitrijevic's name, to more "What is he thinking?" types of mistakes, such as campaigning that the county shouldn't be paying down it's debts.  He also has a website that appears good at first glance, but if you go to move beyond the homepage, you may have problems because of a lot of insecure javascript.

Another unfathomable issue is who he associates with.  One of his campaign planks is that he feels Dimitrijevic doesn't work with enough with Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele.  While Abele has done some commendable things, such as passing domestic benefits, he has also made some unfortunate choices, such as pushing for an emergency fiscal manager comptroller, which is neither needed or affordable.

Another questionable associate is one of his main supporters, Aaron Rodriguez.  Rodriguez has written some gushing pieces about Buresh, which should raise red flags.  Rodriguez is a stalwart conservative and a big fan of Scott Walker's and has some knowledge of what was happening in Walker's office which led to Walkergate, while Buresh is supposedly a Democrat (like Abele and David Clarke are supposedly Democrats).

But Buresh's campaign may have started to implode on Tuesday.

A person named Jason Auerbach issued a press release alleging some serious ethical, and possibly criminal, misdeeds that Dimitrijevic had done regarding campaign financing and a PAC.  But as I was reading through it, I started to wonder about its veracity.  in the release, Auerbach included this accusation:
Citizens for Marina Dimitrijevic, did knowingly accept $989.46 in campaign contributions from a registered lobbyist and agent representing "Milwaukee County Behavioral Healthcare Consortium Inc, and affiliates". While in the process of creating, and seeking the passage of a wellness plan called "Step UP" or as 2012 Milwaukee County Budget item 1C006. This budget item 1C006 was later vetoed for adding $434,663.00 to the tax levy. Marina Dimitrijevic then filed false and misleading information about these contributions on her January 31, 2012 filed campaign finance report. The companies belonging to Karl Rajani and Milwaukee County Behavioral Healthcare Consortium Inc and affiliates would have directly benefited from this wellness program. 
That doesn't make any sense. The consortium mentioned wouldn't benefit from the wellness program, had it passed.  Nor does Auerbach provide any proof that it would have outside of his accusation.

I emailed Buresh and asked him if he or his campaign had anything to do with this press release and if he had any comments regarding it.

He promptly replied thus:

These allegations are not of my concern and have nothing to do with my campaign's message. I want to stick with the issues.  
With that said I have no comment.
In a public Bay View-oriented chat room, thanks to a faithful friend of Cog Dis, we know that he said much the same thing:

Dear Bay View Community, 
I wanted to make it clear that me and my campaign for County Supervisor of district four had nothing to do with the earlier press release, or messages.  
My message is clear. Milwaukee County can improve and restore county services by having less money go towards debt servicing. We can once again have the best park system, and an affordable safe transit system. 
Apparently, Rodriguez never advised Buresh that it's not nice - or smart - to lie to a blogger.

Auerbach is quite affiliated and tied in with Buresh's campaign.

As seen in this nomination petition, Auerbach was collecting signatures for Buresh:


And that is only one of them.  There are at least five more pages showing he collected more than 25% of Buresh's nomination signatures by himself.

Furthermore, Auerbach can be seen carrying water for Buresh in the comment he left on this Third Coast Digest article covering the race:

Jason Auerbach says:
February 2, 2012 at 11:01 am
Its funny that when you get a democrat that wants to be financially and socially responsible he must be fake! I guess we all forget in the recent bitter partisan politics that Clinton left the country in a better financial shape then when he got in office. But I guess both Clinton and I must also be fake democrats! Btw where in this article is the mention of the fact it is non-partisan race? Milwaukee county needs some change!
Witnesses have also put Auerbach at a recent winter festival held in Bay View, wearing a placard for Buresh.

One would certainly hope that Buresh owns up to this and apologizes for lying to the people he wishes to represent.

But with all the corruption, deceit, and skulduggery we have seen in Milwaukee County government during Walker's regime, one supervisor convicted of campaign finance violations, another supervisor facing charges for bribery and third supervisor that needs to be investigated, we don't need another problematic politician in office.

Because of Dimitrijevic's overall record of making Milwaukee County a better place for all of us, overcoming the obstacles of irresponsible decisions by both Walker and Abele, she would have already gotten my nod for reelection.  The choice is made all the easier by Buresh showing himself that he is not qualified for office, both through his behaviors and his lack of understanding of the issues.


8 comments:

  1. Here is some more opinion pieces on what a great place that Fitzwalkerstan is that are attributable to Aaron Rodriguez:
    http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/122473348.html
    http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/more-freedom-for-school-choice-132356468.html
    http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/redrawn-maps-benefit-latinos-j54a2a6-140066283.html

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thank you capper for your efforts to shed light on this Buresh character, as well as the proponents of his candidacy!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wasn't the Thomas bribery incident done after Walker was elected Governor by the citizens of Wisconsin?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yup, and the Toni Clarke issue happened well before. Your point is?

      Delete
  4. Chris, there is something big missing from your report - campaign finance problems from your liberal dynamo.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nope, I address those scurrilous charges. Nice try, though.

      Delete
  5. You should probably read Buresh's press release on how Dimitrijevic's PAC finally filed their campaign finance reports from last year. They were over a year late according to the Hispanic Conservative site.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. And according to A-rod, there was no corruption in Walker's office. The Hispanic Conservative could tell me the sky was blue and I'd have to look out a window to check.

      Delete