CREW’s second report on the nation’s worst governors includes 18 — six of whom are the worst of the lot, six others whose conduct raises serious questions about their leadership, and six others who engaged in some action suspect enough to suggest their decisions merit close scrutiny. Some governors on the list essentially turned their authority and regulatory agendas over to special interests. Others abused their office in return for gifts and campaign contributions. Many appointed donors to key positions and gutted transparency measures. All failed to live up to the public trust.

...

While conducting the research for this report, we noticed some disturbing trends. For example, governors around the country have pushed to create economic development agencies or funds that rely on public money but are exempt from public audit or transparency requirements. These situations make it harder for the public to ensure accountability, and create conditions ideal for corruption and abuse. This practice has already led to problems in, for instance, Arizona, Texas, and Wisconsin.

We know that about 10 million more people have insurance coverage this year as a result of the Affordable Care Act. But until now it has been difficult to say much about who was getting that coverage — where they live, their age, their income and other such details.

Now a large set of data — from Enroll America, the group trying to sign up people for the program, and from the data firm Civis Analytics — is allowing a much clearer picture. The data shows that the law has done something rather unusual in the American economy this century: It has pushed back against inequality, essentially redistributing income — in the form of health insurance or insurance subsidies — to many of the groups that have fared poorly over the last few decades.

The biggest winners from the law include people between the ages of 18 and 34; blacks; Hispanics; and people who live in rural areas. The areas with the largest increases in the health insurance rate, for example, include rural Arkansas and Nevada; southern Texas; large swaths of New Mexico, Kentucky and West Virginia; and much of inland California and Oregon.

...

That state boundaries are so prominent in the map attests to the power of state policy in shaping health insurance conditions. The most important factor in predicting whether an American who had no insurance in 2013 signed up this year was whether the state that person lives in expanded its Medicaid program in 2014. (Just consider the contrast between Kentucky, which expanded Medicaid, and Tennessee, which did not.)

Solar and wind power are booming industries around most of the country. Nationwide, there was a 27% increase in solar power produced last year, with 4,300 megawatts of energy being generated. But what was Wisconsin’s share of that growth? A measly 2 megawatts. Yes, you read that right. Two megawatts. Walker’s Wisconsin simply isn’t open to solar and wind business.

It’s been clear from the beginning that Governor Walker is in the dark when it comes to clean energy and the jobs associated with it. In his very first budget, the governor eliminated Wisconsin’s Green-to-Gold program which gave money to manufacturers to offset the costs of retrofitting plants to reduce energy costs. This move undermined Wisconsin’s job creators who used the money saved in energy costs to grow their businesses.

Governor Walker gave Wisconsin workers another blow when he eliminated the Renewable Energy Grants and Loans Program, which gave money to in-state companies developing the next generation of technologies to grow our domestic renewable energy industry – and put Wisconsinites to work.

And that was just the beginning. Governor Walker and his administration are creating hurdles left and right to choke Wisconsin’s wind and solar energy industries. In 2011, Governor Walker waged an attack on wind energy that was so extreme, even his own party couldn’t get behind it. Denise Bode, executive of the American Wind Energy Association, said that the proposal was, “adding a new regulatory barrier and putting a ‘closed for business’ sign on Wisconsin for wind development.” The proposal imperiled up to $1.2 billion in renewable energy investments and more than 1,100 jobs by imposing the greatest restrictions to wind turbines in the country. Although the proposal died, the impacts have been lasting. Job creators in the wind industry understood that Walker’s Wisconsin is anti-wind, so companies left the state and took 1,000+ jobs with them.

In 2005, Scott Walker supported creating a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman. [1]

After the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down Wisconsin's ban on same-sex marriage, Scott Walker, along with J.B. Van Hollen, appealed the decision to give gay and lesbian couples equal protection under the law. [2]

Just one week after the appeal, Walker disingenuously claimed he and the Republican party weren't fighting marriage equality. [3]

When seeking the endorsement of the conservative group Wisconsin Family Action this year, Scott Walker touted his defense of the state's ban on same-sex marriage. [5]
In the same letter he wrote that he supports marriage between one man and one woman. [6]

Scott Walker repealed Wisconsin’s 2009 Equal Pay Enforcement Act, a law meant to deter workplace discrimination by giving workers more avenues via which to press charges. [1]

Walker’s legislation which mandates medically-unnecessary transvaginal ultrasounds and the reading of a state-authored shaming script was opposed by medical professionals in organizations. Walker’s bill restricted a woman’s decision to have a safe and legal abortion in order to appeal to the most radical, far-right element of the Republican Party.[2]

Speaking at an editorial board in 2010, Walker confirmed that he opposes all abortions, even in cases of rape or incest.[3]

As a result of losing massive amounts of funding for key health centers and family planning services across the state, nine family planning and healthcare centers faced cutbacks and disrupted services - eight of those health centers were in counties without alternative family planning providers. In addition, five Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin health centers were forced to close in Fond du Lac, Shawano, Chippewa Falls, Beaver Dam, and Johnson Creek.

The American College of Physicians Wisconsin Chapter, the medical society that represents internists, is encouraging its members to actively support non-binding referendums that endorse the state's accepting additional federal dollars available through the Affordable Care Act to expand its Medicaid program.

"It's supporting a policy that we think is important for the health of the state," said Ian Gilson, co-chair of the health and policy committee of the Wisconsin chapter and a staff physician at the Medical College of Wisconsin. "This is a big priority for those of us who take care of patients."

The referendum will appear on the ballot Tuesday in 19 counties, including Milwaukee.

The Legislative Fiscal Bureau estimated in August that the state would have saved $206 million in the current budget and would save an addition $261 million to $315 million through June 2017 by accepting the federal dollars available through the Affordable Care Act.

Citations issued by state conservation wardens have fallen sharply at the Department of Natural Resources under the administration of Gov. Scott Walker, an analysis by a wildlife group released on Wednesday shows. Enforcement of all types of conservation-related violations fell 28% between 2011 and 2013 compared with 2003 to 2010, when Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle was in office. Citations ranged from a high of 19,474 in 2007 to a low last year of 12,393, records show.

During Walker's term, environmental groups have expressed worries that the DNR is not as aggressive in enforcing environmental and conservation laws as past administrations. DNR records bear this out, but agency officials say they remain as vigilant as ever. Conservation citations are often related to hunting, fishing, boating and the use of snowmobiles and all-terrain vehicles. The agency says there are 2.1 million hunters and anglers and 1.6 million boaters in the state.

...

But a former chairman of the Congress, Ed Harvey Jr. of Waldo, finds the drop a concern. He served on the executive committee or as chairman from 1995 to 2010. Harvey and Bohmann agreed that overzealous wardens have not been seen as a big concern. Said Harvey: "I have not seen a great deal of concern by this administration for sportsmen's and conservation issues, unless they were brought forward by a lobby group."

Enforcement activity by the DNR in environmental cases has dropped, agency figures show. The number of cases the DNR referred to the state Department of Justice increased from 24 in 2011 to 34 in 2012, and leveled off at 35 last year, according to DNR records. By comparison, in 2000, when Thompson was governor, there were 61 cases sent to the attorney general.

LePage met in 2013 with the Constitutional Coalition, a conspiratorial group from the northern part of the state whose members identify with the “sovereign citizen movement,” as Portlander Mike Tipping revealed in a shocking new book, As Maine Went. The sovereign citizen movement warns darkly of a U.N. takeover of Maine’s north woods, believes the state and federal governments are illegitimate, and considers all lawyers to be communists. The FBI has deemed it a terrorist threat.

LePage met with them not once but eight times from February into September, even while refusing to meet with Democratic leaders in the statehouse. During those meetings, these rightwing activists charged these same Democratic leaders, House Speaker Mark Eves and Senate President Alfond, with treason, suggesting they should receive the ultimate punishment, death. Instead of reporting the threat, LePage brokered a meeting between these far rightwingers and the county sheriff overseeing the state capitol, whose help they wanted in going after the two legislators.

...

He gave a secret, no-bid $925,000 contract to an out-of-state conservative to evaluate Medicaid expansion and anti-poverty programs. It turned out the contractor plagiarized part of the draft report and relied for his conclusions on key research errors. When the Bangor Daily News exposed this scandal and public pressure mounted, LePage was finally forced to cancel the contract after paying out nearly half a million dollars.

Even liberal Republicans were outraged when LePage hired ALEC’s Maine co-chair—an industry lobbyist named Patricia Aho—to head the state Department of Environmental Protection. He gave her marching orders to roll back regulations and trash the new state law curbing toys and other products made of toxic plastic. Aho had represented some of their manufacturers. Similarly, LePage’s education commissioner until last August was Stephen Bowen, who served on ALEC’s education committee while working for the rightwing Maine Heritage Policy Center. While on the committee, he helped push model legislation giving public money to “virtual” online schools. Once working for LePage, he used his position to promote two for-profits from out of state, including one, K12 Inc. of Virginia, that was exposed for fraudulently using uncertified teachers. Another virtual charter, linked to the for-profit education giant Pearson, got the go-ahead in March from the state charter commission to accept students starting in the fall.