Attention Wisconsin: Perphaps media coverage has insinuated otherwise, but Gov. Jim Doyle was not indicted in a travel contract investigation this week.
The revelation that state employee Georgia Thompson has been indicted for misapplication of state funds and fraud in her role as part of the committee evaluating a travel contract last year has not fallen on deaf ears. Doyle administration officials and Wisconsin Republicans have issued a deluge of press statements since Tuesday making it clear that the political fallout will resound until Election Day.
A hint of the rhetoric to come, in statements this week the executive director of the Republican Party of Wisconsin 'applauded' investigators while the Democratic party chair defended Doyle, saying '[Doyle] has always been a man of the utmost integrity and honesty, who does not tolerate any ethical lapses.' Also, both Scott Walker and Mark Green''?Republican candidates to challenge Doyle in November'??issued condemnations of the situation.
What is so potentially damning about the indictment is that officials from Adelman Travel Group'the company awarded the state contract'donated $20,000 to Doyle's campaign fund in the months before and after the contract announcement.
If it is revealed Doyle or his assistants instructed or pressured Georgia Thompson to alter the contract scoring process in Adelman's favor, the governor will be in trouble of criminal implications.
However, today that is far from the case.
In a statement Wednesday, Doyle said he has never met Thompson. We have no reason to believe otherwise and urge state legislators and gubernatorial candidates to cease speculating on the issue. Investigators and prosecutors should be left to do their jobs in a politics-free zone.
