Connections matter when it comes to getting a job, and we realize politics is no different.
Knowing the right people can help you find opportunities, give you an idea of what the employer is looking for and even give you a leg up on the competition thanks to a recommendation or a good word.
It might not sound entirely fair—and perhaps it isn't—but that system is how a lot of people, many of them qualified for their position, find jobs in the private sector and in government.
The problem is when connections cross the line between helping an employer find a qualified employee and enforcing political quid pro quo that puts a price tag on a job, no matter the applicant's competence.
Such an offense came to light this week, when the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that Brian Deschane—a man with no college degree, scant experience and two drunken driving arrests—was appointed to the head of environmental and regulatory affairs in the Department of Commerce.
How did such a woefully unqualified person come to earn more than $80,000 in a state government that is supposed to be broke? The fact that Deschane's father is the executive vice president of a lobbyist trade group that funneled $121,652 to the Walker campaign likely didn't hurt. In fact, in a situation like Deschane's it was almost certainly his best qualification.
A day after Deschane's story came to light Walker reversed the appointment, sending him back to the Department of Regulation and Licensing. But while Walker did the right thing in demoting Deschane, it's not likely he would have done so had the Journal Sentinel not broken the story.
There have been plenty of instances of nepotism on both sides of the aisle, and Deschane is hardly the only example of a familiar face getting a cushy government job because he knew the right people. For instance, Steve Fitzgerald, head of the Wisconsin State Patrol, was selected to lead the department only months after his two sons, Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, and Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald, R-Horicon, took office.
So, while a call to end that kind of corruption is hardly an unheard of idea, with new officials about to take power across Wisconsin, it's a good time to issue it.
There will be turnover between in Madison with Mayor-elect Paul Soglin replacing Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, and political connections will almost definitely play a role in deciding who gets a job in city hall. But what Soglin and others must know as they takes office is that those connections cannot be used to put an incompetent person into a job.
As we begin a new era in Madison government, it must be one free from the kind of patronage that the Walker administration demonstrated this week. That level of cronyism would not only keep officials like Soglin from accomplishing their goals, but would also make clear to Wisconites that positions in his office could be bought and sold.
We have no reason to believe that sort of corruption will exist in the Soglin administration, and we hope we never do. It's a tired warning to issue, but one that is necessary nonetheless: If you cross the line between fair hiring and patronage it will be obvious and inexcusable.
