Emails shed light on Ryan, Walker relationship
Source: AP-Excite
By SCOTT BAUER
MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Rising political stars and personal friends, Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker worked quietly behind the scenes to coordinate public policy, avoid each other's limelight and steer clear of political minefields that would haunt their campaigns, according to more than 1,000 pages of internal emails obtained by The Associated Press. But there was at least one pointed snub between them, too.
Ryan and Walker, both in their early 40s, have made Wisconsin a focus of the political universe. In June, Walker became the first governor to defeat a high-profile recall election. Ryan, the congressman from Janesville, Wis., ascended the national political stage in August when Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney picked him as his running mate. In the presidential race Wisconsin is a battleground state, one of a handful that will determine who moves in - or stays in - the White House.
The emails reviewed by the AP offered an unusual, behind-the-scenes glimpse of the interpersonal relationship between Ryan and Walker. Although as a congressman Ryan's emails are exempt from disclosure under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, messages sent by Ryan or his aides to Walker or the governor's staff are subject to Wisconsin's open records law. The week after Ryan was tapped as Romney's vice presidential candidate, the AP requested all such emails since Walker was elected in November 2010. It received 1,037 pages of them late Friday.
The day after Walker won his recall election, Ryan tried to call Walker to congratulate him. Was there a better phone number?
FULL story at link.
Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20121027/DA25L9981.html
Lucinda
(31,170 posts)"...The emails also show how Ryan and Walker sought to steer clear of sensitive political traps, and how Ryan was sensitive as early as September 2011 about offering any praise to government projects funded with money under Obama's economic stimulus law. In August, the AP and other news organizations noted that Ryan - a vocal opponent of the stimulus law - sought to steer money under the program to companies in his home state, which Ryan first awkwardly denied then acknowledged to be true.
In the emails, Walker's director of federal relations, Wendy Riemann, sent a message to Ryan's aide, Kevin Seifert, to describe a new grant from the U.S. Veterans Affairs Department awarded for a local water project. Riemann asked whether Ryan wanted to be quoted in a press release praising the money being spent in Wisconsin.
"Not to create more work for you, but do you have any idea where the money for this grant came from? Was it stimulus/the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act?" Seifert replied. "Our concern is that, if it's stimulus funds, we won't want to highlight (and would think you guys wouldn't, either) .... We generally don't do press on things we actively oppose."
Riemann responded that she would check the source of the money, which turned out not to be stimulus funding. "Feel free to proceed without us on this one," Seifert wrote..."
"Party" before everything.
midnight
(26,624 posts)"Not to create more work for you, but do you have any idea where the money for this grant came from? Was it stimulus/the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act?" Seifert replied. "Our concern is that, if it's stimulus funds, we won't want to highlight (and would think you guys wouldn't, either) .... We generally don't do press on things we actively oppose."
Lucinda
(31,170 posts)while publically posturing about how horrible it is.
Coyotl
(15,262 posts)doesn't everyone have a responsibility to NOT act politically, under the law including the Hatch Act, not to mention simple ethics and a responsibility to represent the entire electorate?
Lucinda
(31,170 posts)This has some q&a about emailing and Hatch.
http://www.osc.gov/haFederalfaq.htm