Posted on Saturday, 28th February 2009 by Patrick Dorwin
Mark Belling has broken a story that, if it were reported about a Conservative, would likely end with people doing prison time (actually, Scott Jensen is still fighting to stay out of prison on this very charge). But since it was done by big time liberals in support of the teachers union candidate for the Wisconsin Superintendent of Public Instruction, it will probably never be investigated by either law enforcement (read J.B. “Empty-Suit” Van Hollen) or the main stream media. But Belling broke it, and we will help push the story along.
Jeff Dickert is the administrator of the Cooperative Educational Service Agency #7, a state agency that coordinates with the schools of Northeastern Wisconsin. Dickert, in clear violation of the law, has been doing political work on behalf of the teachers union and AFSCME backed candidate, the entrenched Tony Evers. Jeff Dickert has used state resources to not only campaign, but to raise money for Evers, by using his official Wisconsin email account and email list to campaign to public school administrators of Wisconsin and encourages them to pass the message along to their principals and teachers. This is clearly a violation of the law by a public official that is in a position that clearly knows the rules for doing political work with state resources. State Representative Scott Jensen was charged and convicted of this very thing a year and a half ago.
Both Dickert and Evers are long time liberal bureaucrats in the educational system, and thay know this law, but Evers, at least, blatantly violated it and a criminal investigation should begin immediately.
Please take the time to listen to Mark Belling break this story and provide more details.
It’s time to change this status quo in our educational system, lets throw the bums out and vote for Rose Fernandez, and Change DPI
Earth to J.B. Van Hollen and the Wisconsin media, reality is calling!
Update: A copy of the email sent in clear violation of the law
Here is a copy of the email CESA 7 Administrator Jeff Dickert sent from his government email account. You can see it has all of his official contact information intact.
Subject: Support Tony Evers – Meet and Fundraiser
To: Superintendents; CESA 7 Business Officials
Sent: Friday, February 27, 2009 7:55 AM
From: Jeff Dickert [mailto:jdickert@cesa7.k12.wi.us]Folks,
Tony Evers will be in Green Bay next Wednesday, March 4th. Many groups are hosting a meet, greet, & support fundraiser:
Tony Evers for State Superintendent
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
5:00 – 7:00 pm
Green Bay Country Club
2400 Klondike Rd.
Green Bay, WI 54311
Tony is endorsed by the SAA and will need our help to send a true educator to lead DPI for the next four years.
Please pass this message to your principals and teachers; Tony is endorsed by both groups.
The attached flyer has many more details and is a great attachment to forward.
See you there,
Jeff
Jeffrey P. Dickert, Agency Administrator
Cooperative Educational Service Agency #7
595 Baeten Road
Green Bay, WI 54304
920-492-5960 x612
Here is a copy of the attached flier for the Evers campaign. Again, the law is clear, state officials are prohibited from doing political work using state resources. What you have just read is a violation of the law. WISN’s Mark Belling is also following up with an open records request for more information from Dickert, we will be following this closely, will the Journal Sentinel or other MSM outlets in Wisconsin?
Posted in Home | Comments (17)
17 Responses to “Liberal DPI candidate supporter campaigning using state resources”
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February 28th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
Maybe he was just doing it on his lunch break (sarcasm here). At least that’s what one of our local leftys gave as an excuse when asked about blogging while at work. You gotta love ‘em.
March 1st, 2009 at 12:32 pm
I did a blog about this on my site. Keep in mind that we aren’t sure yet if Dickert is a real player in the Evers campaign. For sure, he is a supporter.
March 3rd, 2009 at 2:54 pm
[...] Patrick has the details on the backstory. [...]
March 5th, 2009 at 9:57 am
Our WI eductional officials time and time again, prove that THEY ARE ABOVE THE LAW. You should hear what they pulled off here in Central WI.
March 10th, 2009 at 5:18 am
[...] is an update in the story that we have been following, of a state official, Jeff Dickert, head of CESA7, illegally using state resources for campaigning [...]
March 20th, 2009 at 8:33 pm
Looks like campaigning using state resources isn’t confined to Democrats:
http://www.wisdems.org/release_details.asp?id=196
March 20th, 2009 at 10:42 pm
Not the same thing. Pridemore is issuing a statement about Tony Evers. Public officials do not lose the right to political speech.
By comparison, the other guy is advocating the election of Evers and is promoting a fundraiser.
March 21st, 2009 at 7:32 am
Of course it’s not, Peter. After all, when a Democrat engages in political activity on state time, it’s illegal, but when a Republican does it, it’s “free speech.”
March 21st, 2009 at 8:30 am
Zach campaigning and making statements are not the same thing. The problem here is dim bulbs such as you, aren’t man enough to call Dickerts acts wrongful. To point out their wrongfulness is not campaigning. Didn’t your Mommy teach you moral Zach? Are you always going to be a dishonest hack or are you going to grow into a man someday?
March 21st, 2009 at 6:16 pm
Zach,
The guy isn’t campaigning. He issued a political statement as en elected official. Once again, he’s not campaigning for Rose Fernandez on state time. Her name was not even mentioned, nor was any endorsement or encouragement to donate or anything. As an elected official, he condemned a hack for the Wisconsin Extortion Association Council. I wish mroe elected officials would condemnd those goons.
March 21st, 2009 at 6:17 pm
He does not surrender his right to 1st amendment protected freedom of political speech simply because he is elected to public office.
March 22nd, 2009 at 6:11 pm
“Zach campaigning and making statements are not the same thing. The problem here is dim bulbs such as you, aren’t man enough to call Dickerts acts wrongful.”
Gus, do a search. I said what Dickert did was wrong, and I said it in response to a thread here at Badger Blogger.
March 24th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
Anyone interested in continuing the previously listed “discussion” that had nothing to do with the DPI discussion are encouraged to visit this comment thread:
http://badgerblogger.com/?p=9308
The off-topic comments have been condensed here:
http://badgerblogger.com/?p=9308#comment-214259
March 24th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
UPDATE:
Mark Belling talking about Evers and Dickert right now. Sounds like both of them were using government email accounts for campaigning activity….OOPS! I guess all those assurances that this had nothing directly to do with Evers carry as much weight as Obama’s campaign promises.
March 25th, 2009 at 7:42 am
First of all, Dickert is clearly in the wrong here.
But anybody who doesn’t think Pridemore was campaigning against Evers read the release:
http://www.wispolitics.com/index.iml?Article=152710
If that’s not campaigning, I don’t know what is.
This isn’t a free speech issue. Rep. Pridemore is still perfectly free to say whatever he wants about Tony Evers. He just can’t say this kind of thing on the taxpayer dime.
Keep in mind, his response to the DPW was to say the anti-Evers release was NOT to say “I wasn’t campaigning,” but rather to say that the press release was sent by a staffer from the staffer’s personal computer. Even he admits, therefore, that it’d be inappropriate coming from a state office computer.
April 11th, 2009 at 3:46 pm
An anonymous poster at Angry Journalist seems to write that at least one local media outlet attempted to cover the story up. Look up http://www.angryjournalist.com, comment number 8500.
If I were in Wisconsin, I’d be lighting up the publisher and editors asking them who knew what, when, and why did they cover up the story?
http://iraqnow.blogspot.com/2009/04/newspaper-covering-for-corrupt.html
September 6th, 2009 at 9:04 pm
[...] for the State Department of Public Instruction had a highly placed DPI bureaucrat, Jeff Dickert was sending out campaign and fund raising emails on behalf of the establishment’s candidate Tony E… from his official state email account, something that is so clearly illegal, that Dickert himself [...]