A Republican who used to sit on Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's cabinet quit his public-facing job so he could come out publicly against the governor.
The Wisconsin State Journal reported Thursday that former Green Bay Mayor Paul Jadin quit his $208,000-year job at the Madison Region Economic Partnership to publicly join three other former members of the governor's cabinet in endorsing Tony Evers, Walker's Democratic opponent.
Jadin — who served as secretary of the Department of Commerce from 2011 until 2013 — joined former Wisconsin Corrections Secretary Ed Wall and former Financial Institutions Secretary Peter Bildsten in signing an open letter endorsing Evers, the state's current superintendent.
Wisconsin's former Transportation Secretary Mark Gottlieb also publicly opposed Walker in recent months and claimed the governor was lying about road funding. Gottlieb, the report noted, has not publicly supported Evers.
Jadin, Wall and Bildsten wrote in their open letter that when they joined Walker's administration, they had a "fervent belief" that he wanted to improve the state.
Over time, however, "it became clear that his focus was not on meeting his obligations to the public but to advancing his own political career at a tremendous cost to taxpayers and families," the men wrote.
"Governor Walker has consistently eschewed sound management practices in favor of schemes or coverup and has routinely put his future ahead of the state," the letter read. "The result is micromanagement, manipulation and mischief. We have all been witness to more than our share of this."
The Journal noted that the former Walker cabinet secretaries did not elaborate on any of the "schemes" or "coverups" they mentioned.
"When he decided to run for President in 2015 he subordinated Wisconsin interests to those in Iowa and New Hampshire and his policy/budget proposals started to clash with members of his own party who still would have to stand for election in Wisconsin," the men added.
