WISCONSIN DUST-UP – AT 6:10 A.M. ET:  One of the races we're really worried about is the gubernatorial contest in Wisconsin, where Republican Scott Walker is running for re-election.  One of the best governors in the country, Walker is under a sustained, vastly financed national assault because he dared take on public-service unions in his state.

But now, a last-minute claim against his opponent may shake up the race.  From the Wisconsin Reporter: 

MADISON, Wis. — In attempting to explain her two-year work hiatus in the early to mid-1990s, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke has said she was just burned out after an intense period of leading European operations for Trek Bicycle Corp., her family’s Waterloo-based global manufacturer.

In fact, Burke apparently was fired by her own family following steep overseas financial losses and plummeting morale among Burke’s European sales staff, multiple former Trek executives and employees told Wisconsin Reporter.

The sales team threatened to quit if Burke was not removed from her position as director of European Operations, according to Gary Ellerman, who served as Trek’s human resources director for 12 years. His account was confirmed by three other former employees.

“She was not performing. She was (in) so far over her head. She didn’t understand the bike business,” said Ellerman, who started with Trek in 1992, at the tail end of Burke’s first stint as a manager at Trek.

COMMENT:  Burke has made a point of touting her managerial skills.  We must disclose that the source of the above story, Gary Ellerman, is also a bigwig in the Wisconsin Republican Party.  However, the Wisconsin Reporter notes that others the paper interviewed told the same story.

We've got to keep Scott Walker.  He turned Wisconsin around.  Mary Burke will turn it back.

October 30,  2014