Burke Campaign Accused of Copying from Other Campaign Literature Again
Monday, September 22nd, 2014 -- 9:41 AM
(Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) -For the second time in four days, Democrat Mary Burke's campaign has been hit by charges that it lifted passages from other sources and used them in its campaign literature. The new batch of disputed material was turned up by Republican Gov. Scott Walker's campaign.According to the Milwaukee Journal, the material includes two Burke plans, one on rural communities and the other veterans issues, that include passages from several websites as well as Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett's "Plan to Create Wisconsin Jobs," which he used during his 2010 campaign for governor.
There are seven instances of disputed material. All in all, the seven passages are not as substantial or egregious as the unattributed use of language by Burke's jobs plan. But a top Walker aide was still ready to pounce. "Mary Burke's plagiarism is clearly not an isolated incident as she claimed last week but a disturbing pattern of intellectual dishonesty," said Walker spokesman Tom Evenson.
Burke?s campaign spokesman, Joe Zepecki, rejected the Republican criticism after reviewing the disputed material. "These baseless allegations reek of desperation," he said by email. "Given more bad jobs numbers... that were released last week, it's no surprise they're desperate; what's surprising is how transparent they're being about it."
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