Koschnick actually raises $4,000.
The media tell us Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson has a huge financial advantage over challenger Judge Randy Koschnick, who, we're told, has raised only $14,715 compared to the Chief's $822,600, a 56-1 advantage.
That's what you get if you take the campaign's release at face value and don't look at the actual finance report Koschnick filed.
What it shows is that $9,995 of the total was "raised" from Koschnick himself. The other $4,720 he actually raised include $200 from his father-in-law and $1,000 from his wife's employer (or more likely her co-worker, it appears.)
Koschnick said he spent only $555, most to staffer Todd Albaugh, who got $353.08 for mileage and $146.92 in consulting fees.
He lists debts of $225.41 to Persuasion Partners, Darrin Schmitz's consulting firm, and $344.98 to a Jonathan Klein.
"With wages like that," one observer emailed me, "it's no wonder Schmitz and Allbaugh left."
It does raise the question of how Schmitz was compensated for the time his firm worked for Koschnick. If the firm did the work for free it should be listed as an in-kind contribution, which it isn't.
Schmitz and Albaugh now say they were volunteers.
Seamus Flaherty, the new manager, says fundraising is "on track." If that's on track, he might want to get paid in advance.
Walker gets quick results
Milwaukee County Exec Scott Walker certainly seems to have Gov. Jim Doyle's ear.
The ink was barely dry on Walker's phony request that the state take over Milwaukee County's public assistance programs when the state announced it was taking them over. Walker, of course, knew that announcement was imminent.
In typical fashion, Walker, who never takes responsibility for anything, tried to blame the state for his failure to manage the program.
The state pointed out a few embarrassing facts, like these:
• The county's poor performance in the programs includes answering only 5% of the hundreds of thousands of phone calls to the county's public assistance call center every month.
• The county fails to process 30% of its benefit applications within the required seven days, which some families have waited weeks or months for food or health care.
• In 2007, 60% of county decisions to deny food or health care benefits were overturned within two months. That resulted in benefit delays and forced families to go through time-consuming appeals or a second round of applications.
• The county's high food stamp error rate means nearly one in five deserving applicants were cut off from the program in the 2008 state fiscal year.
How does Walker, planning another run for governor, manage to keep a straight face when he says things like this, reported by WisPolitics.com recently:
People are tired of the mess in Madison. Now that I'm out of state government, I see some of the folly that goes on -- people are tired of it.
What people are really tired of is the mess Scott Walker has made of Milwaukee County government.
Michael Mathias asks: "Who's going to be forced to take over these programs if Walker becomes governor? Minnesota?"
Postscript: Exit Daschle.
I confess to being surprised that Tom Daschle had to step away from his Cabinet appointment. I thought the Senate club would take care of its own.
But he reportedly said that when he read this story he knew it was over.
It's as much a reflection of the times and the public revulsion to Wall Street excesses as anything.
And there was no excuse. They say no one goes back to Pocatello when they leave office, and even a South Dakotan like Daschle got so accustomed to the good life that he lost his bearings.
Tom Foley had the right idea:
Obama, be a manager
Appoint somebody else as the HHS secretary and then put Tom Daschle on staff.*
* At a $1-per-year salary (with no car and no driver)
That was before Daschle withdrew. It's probably too late now.