For Immediate Release
Contact: Courtney Beyer, courtneyb@wisdems.org

WisDems: Breaking: third former Walker cabinet member slams Walker’s dishonesty & failed leadership

HEADLINE: Scott Walker’s ex-DOT secretary says governor isn’t telling the truth about roads

Former DOT Sec. Mark Gottlieb: Walker’s recent comment on roads is “not factually based, and is profoundly disrespectful to the professionals in the private and public sector..”

This morning, yet another one of Scott Walker’s former cabinet members is sharply criticizing his old boss.

This time, it’s former Department of Transportation Secretary Mark Gottlieb, who told the Journal Sentinel Walker isn’t telling the truth about the states’ roads, which rank 44th in the nation under the Governor’s failed leadership.  Gottlieb slammed Walker’s  understanding of the state’s road projects, describing them as “increasingly inaccurate,” high risk, and “profoundly disrespectful” to public and private sector experts in the field.

From the Journal Sentinel story:

”Gov. Scott Walker’s former transportation secretary says the GOP governor isn’t telling the truth about road projects and is taking a high-risk gamblethat could see the state invest billions of dollars in obsolete highways.

Walker has been “increasingly inaccurate” when describing the state’s highway system, said Mark Gottlieb, a Republican who was in the Assembly for eight years and served as Walker’s transportation secretary from 2011 to 2017.

Gottlieb is the third former top aide to Walker to speak out against the governor in recent months as he faces a re-election challenge from Democrat Tony Evers, the state schools superintendent.

“Most highways being actively considered for expansion in Wisconsin are already unacceptably congested today, causing delay, economic loss and higher crash rates,” Gottlieb said in his statement. 

“How much risk are we willing to accept to see if the governor’s predictions hold true? If they don’t, we will have spent billions of dollars to duplicate 1960-era designs that will be obsolete the day they are built.”

His criticism comes after a week of bad headlines surrounding Walker’s failures on infrastructure. Walker raised eyebrows when he claimed Wisconsin didn’t need to expand its highways at all, which runs contrary to findings in multiple state studies, and ultimately prompted Gottlieb to speak up. Then a reportbroke that Walker’s DOT mysteriously withheld $46 million in federal funding from local municipalities, which they still haven’t provided an explanation for.

For those counting at home, this is the THIRD former Walker cabinet member to publicly denounce the governor for putting his own political interests before the good of the state.

Former Finance Secretary Peter Bildsten spoke out against Walker for forcing him to cater to special interests and lobbyists, and that he was directed to avoid creating public records. And former state Corrections Secretary Ed Wall tore into Walker for refusing to meet with him during the Lincoln Hills crisis.

It’s clear there’s a pattern here. Those who know Scott Walker best know he has failed to put Wisconsin first. Whether it was the corrections system, the state’s finances, and now its infrastructure, it’s clear Scott Walker is only worried about himself – Wisconsin be damned.

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