Gov. Scott Walker Defense of Taking Donation From Marijuana Industry Advocates While Calling For More Drug Testing: $25,000 Check Too Small to Influence Him

Cash. Photo by Moritz Wickendorf.

MADISON, Wis. — Gov. Scott Walker has offered an excuse perhaps even more incredible than the hypocrisy he displayed in pushing a drug testing scheme on Wisconsinites while, as head of the Republican Governors Association (RGA), accepting a major contribution from a marijuana industry trade group. According to Walker, a $25,000 campaign contribution isn’t big enough to buy his support.Madison – Gov. Scott Walker has offered an excuse perhaps even more incredible than the hypocrisy he displayed in pushing a drug testing scheme on Wisconsinites while, as head of the Republican Governors Association (RGA), accepting a major contribution from a marijuana industry trade group. According to Walker, a $25,000 campaign contribution isn’t big enough to buy his support.

“Scott Walker has outdone himself this time,” commented One Wisconsin Now Deputy Director Mike Browne. “He’s trying to tell us he’s not a hypocrite for taking money from advocates for the use of marijuana at the same time he’s pushing for policies to impose drug testing on people because the check wasn’t big enough to buy his support.”

Responding to a media inquiry about the information revealed earlier in the week by One Wisconsin Now:

The governor also indicated a $25,000 donation won’t sway the organization.

“If you look at that dollar amount versus the tens of millions of dollars we’ve raised, I doubt that has any more influence,” he said. 

Walker added that any money wouldn’t sway his agenda.

Walker began calling for drug tests as a condition of receiving public assistance benefits in late 2014 as he also began ramping up for his run for the Republican presidential nomination. Finding the issue of targeting vulnerable populations with punitive drug tests politically popular with the right wing, he has continued, and expanded on his scheme. In 2016 Walker appealed to the federal government for waivers to require Wisconsinites submit to drug testing to receive food assistance and job training. Most recently, Walker has proposed making Wisconsin the first state in the nation to require drug tests for certain Medicaid recipients.

Yet in the midst of his political posturing on drug testing, Walker, as head of the Republican Governors Association, accepted a $25,000 contribution to the organization from the National Cannabis Industry Association (NCIA) on February 7, 2017. The NCIA touts itself as, “… the nation’s only industry-led organization engaging in legislative efforts to expand and further legitimize the legal cannabis market in the U.S.”

“This one donation is nearly double what a person struggling to get by, who Scott Walker thinks should have to take a drug test, makes in a year. Defending his hypocrisy by claiming $25,000 in campaign cash isn’t enough money to merit his attention shows just how warped the world view of career politician Scott Walker has become,” concluded Browne.

One Wisconsin Now is a statewide communications network specializing in effective earned media and online organizing to advance progressive leadership and values.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.

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