Joe Zepecki. As of October 29, 2012, Zepecki was the Obama Campaign Wisconsin Communications Director. Not sure if he's still working in that capacity. Apparently he's working for the Wisconsin gubernatorial campaign of Mary Burke (D) who is running against incumbent Governor Scott Walker (R). Numerous quotes from Zepecki have him attributed as "Burke spokesperson", so he's working for Burke's campaign in some capacity.
I've been a supporter of Scott Walker going back to his years serving in the Wisconsin State Assembly. But forget that for a moment. Make believe I have no idea who Scott Walker is.
In a recent Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article ("Poll shows little shift in race for governor", 3/27/2014), Zapecki stated,
"Not only are Walker and his allies' unprecedented amount of early, false, negative attacks on Mary Burke not working, voters know, by an overwhelming margin, that Walker's economic plans aren't working either."
Let's say, for argument's sake, that Zapecki's statement is 100% truthful - that some of Walker's attacks (and political advertising) have been false. Assume that's true. Now look at Mary Burke's first television advertising campaign, unveiled on March 5, 2014. The narrator in the commercial states,
"under Walker, unemployment’s up," while the graphic on the screen changes
from 4.8% to 6.2%. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the federal government’s official jobs counter, is footnoted as the source.
With me so far? So I went to the BLS and checked the stats myself. Walker
assumed the governorship in January 2011 when the unemployment rate was 7.7% and it now stands at 6.1% (January 2014). So one would look at these numbers and deduce that
"under Walker, unemployment rates have gone down from 7.7% to 6.1%." Correct? (The 6.2% was the last recorded stat before the January 2014 numbers were released.)
So where did Burke get the 4.8% number from? This is a gut-buster (to me anway) - that figure was an unemployment rate when Burke worked for then-Governor Jim Doyle (D) from 2005-07).
So pray tell, Joe Zepecki - how is Scott Walker responsible for fluctuations in the Wisconsin unemployment rate during the Doyle administration?
Back to what I mentioned earlier - let's say Zepecki's statement about the Walker administration above is true.
If Mary Burke feels Walker isn't doing his job and that she can more effectively manage Wisconsin's affairs, don't you think her first priority would be to NOT do what her campaign is saying Walker's campaign is doing? Do the opposite? Wouldn't she want to set a good example and not skew, embellish or blatantly lie about statistics as important as unemployment rates? You would think her spokesperson, Joe Zepecki, would know this. I mean....he did accuse Walker's administration of spreading false attacks.
Fucking hypocrisy at its zenith. The stats don't lie.
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