Gov. Scott Walker's campaign fund has paid nearly $60,000 to the firm it hired late last year to respond to questions raised by a John Doe criminal investigation.
Multiple sources say Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm's office also has spent more than a year conducting a secret investigation into whether Walker's former county staffers were campaigning on county time. John Doe cases are secret proceedings in which witnesses can be subpoenaed and compelled to testify under oath about potential criminal matters...
"I have not been contacted personally," the governor said. "In terms of anything with the campaign, I mean there were questions asked about stuff that was brought up earlier in the year with (former county staffer) Darlene Wink, like six months - actually, it was, like, nine or 10 months ago. But nothing that has been brought up recently, nothing that involves me directly."
The probe was launched at about the same time Wink quit her county job as Walker's constituent services coordinator in May 2010 after admitting that she was frequently posting online comments on Journal Sentinel stories and blogs while on the county clock. Nearly all of her posts praised Walker or criticized his opponents.
Walker staffer quits after admitting she posted Web comments while at work
Ever wonder who has the time and motivation to go online and post all those highly partisan comments about Journal Sentinel stories?
Here's one:
Darlene Wink, constituent services coordinator for County Executive Scott Walker.
Using a pseudonym, Wink has posted about 70 comments on Journal Sentinel blogs and stories since October - most of them praising her boss, touting his gubernatorial bid or ripping his two opponents, Democratic Mayor Tom Barrett and ex-U.S. Rep. Mark Neumann, a Republican. And she was becoming increasingly prolific, offering nearly 25 comments in April, according to a routine check of online search engines.
But here's the kicker:
The vast majority of these were done while she was on the clock for the taxpayers and the county.
