Republicans are slamming Democrat Mary Burke for a report pointing out her jobs plan includes passages lifted from past Democratic campaigns.
Buzzfeed reported Thursday that portions of Burke’s “Invest for Success” plan were nearly identical to passages from Democratic campaigns in Tennessee, Delaware, Virginia and Indiana.
https://twitter.com/BuzzFeedAndrew/status/512808331577012224
Burke, the former state commerce secretary, is running against Gov. Scott Walker in the Nov. 4 election.
The Burke campaign has fired consultant Eric Schnurer over the error, saying he copied from past work he’s done on other campaigns. Burke told Gannett Wisconsin Media on Friday that she was “disappointed” but said since Schnurer copied from his own work, it’s “mischaracterized to call it plagiarism.”
“Certainly we did not expect that [Schnurer] would take exact verbiage that he had written and provided to other plans,” Burke told Gannett Wisconsin Media. “But these are ideas that I endorse and should be used in Wisconsin to ensure that Wisconsin has a leading economy, not a lagging economy.”
But Republicans are criticizing Burke for the errors, including Reince Priebus, the Republican National Committee chairman who is from Wisconsin.
.@Reince on @Burke4WI jobs plan copying: “Mary Burke now has zero credibility as a candidate."
— Scott Bauer (@sbauerAP) September 19, 2014
Stephan Thompson, Walker’s campaign manager, said in a statement that “Wisconsin deserves better.”
“It’s a sad day for Wisconsin when the Democratic nominee for Governor misleads voters by offering a plagiarized jobs plan, in which she has staked her entire candidacy. Wisconsin deserves better, and its clear that Mary Burke cannot be trusted to lead our state,” Thompson said.
Burke had previously criticized Walker’s 2010 jobs plan for being too short, comparing it to a middle school essay — which conservative talk radio host Charlie Sykes pointed out.
FLASHBACK: Remember when Mary Burke mocked Walker jobs plan? "I've seen 8th grade term papers that had more work put into them.' "
— Charlie Sykes (@SykesCharlie) September 19, 2014
