Is WI GOP paying for political yard sign rentals?

Someone passed along this link for me to read the article by Susan of Watertown, regarding the couple who were paid to put a “Stand with Walker” sign in their yard. 

Just to set the record straight, there is nothing illegal about it that I know of and paying people to put signs on their property is fair play for politics from a legal perspective.   But what about from a principle stand point?  Is this the type of election process that we desire for selecting our legislators?  What impact does it have on the quality of those actually throwing their hat in the ring for public office?

Forget about Governor Walker’s $30 million campaign fund for a minute, and take a look at someone like Senator Scott Fitzgerald in the district where I live.   Last I heard, he had close to $500,000 with over half of it from out of state, which makes me wonder just how much of it even came from within the district.  Regardless of the sources, we know that Senator Fitzgerald has more funds than any of the other three senators facing recall.  In fact, he has at least four times the available campaign funds as his opponent Lori Compas.

For those asking the question, “so what?”  Think about how unlevel the political playing field is and how daunting it would be for a non-wealthy person to get into office without being connected to some source of funding if you were to ever stand a chance at beating out a veteran incumbent.   If that incumbent had any campaign war chest at all, then the odds of a newcomer beating them out is even more unlikely under the current process.

Sadly, no matter how badly the incumbent may need to go and no matter how viable the new person was, being elected into office would be largely determined by money.   Case in point is the story conveyed in the attached article.  While some candidates are trying to campaign on a shoestring budget, guys like Senator Fitzgerald are out there passing out huge professionally designed and printed signs.  They may not be expensive, but they certainly are not free and $500,000 will buy you a lot of them to give away.  But when guys like Senator Fitzgerald and Governor Walker have the funds to pay people to put the signs on their property, the cost of the sign is not even an issue.   

I really wonder how many more signs were put up on properties because money was offered up?

Sincerely,

Gary

__________________________________________________________________________________ 

Calling for polling an interesting task

http://www.wiscnews.com/bdc/news/opinion/article_f13eef7e-a623-11e1-8653-001a4bcf887a.html