MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, locked in a tight re-election battle, alleged Friday that Democratic opponent Tony Evers plagiarized material in a budget proposal submitted by the state education department he runs.
Evers admitted that the document "should have used proper citations" and "that should not distract from the proactive, positive vision we put forth." The budget submitted by Evers, state superintendent since 2009, calls for increasing funding for K-12 schools by 10 percent, or $1.4 billion.
The plagiarism accusation came hours before Walker and Evers were to meet in their first debate of the hotly contested race on Friday night. Polls show the race to be a tossup and Democrats are optimistic they have their best chance ever to defeat Walker, a two-term Republican governor who survived a recall campaign in 2012 and ran for president in 2015.
Walker also alleged, during his 2014 re-election, that Democratic opponent Mary Burke plagiarized material in a campaign jobs plan. She fired a campaign consultant in response. But Walker hammered Burke on the issue, and her stumbling attempt to define plagiarism when asked about it by a reporter became fodder for attack ads in the waning weeks of the race that Walker won by 6 points.
Walker shared four passages of material in Evers' education department budget submitted in September that were taken from other sources without attribution to Politico, which first reported the accusation Friday.
Department of Public Instruction spokesman Tom McCarthy said in a statement that the agency stands behind the budget recommendations, while saying "proper citation use was missed in certain places" and it was taking action to prevent it from happening again. He said staff use the best available research to prepare recommendations and develop policy papers to articulate the rationale of the department's positions.
Evers, too, said changes will be made.
"I have high expectations for my team and have directed them to revise our citation protocol to prevent this from happening going forward," he said in a statement.
The sections in question deal with summer learning loss, workforce experiences for youth, early childhood education and after-school programs. One part, a total of 15 paragraphs, is nearly identical to a 2016 blog post about summer learning loss written by an intern for the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a conservative education think tank.
Michael Petrilli, president of the think tank, didn't appear to have any problem with how his material was used.
"You call it plagiarism, I call it impact baby!" Petrilli tweeted . "This is definitely going in our annual report."
Democratic strategist Joe Zepecki, who was communications director for Burke's campaign when she faced similar plagiarism charges from Walker, downplayed the impact the charges would have.
"Tony Evers is a known commodity by Wisconsin voters," Zepecki said. "Sloppy staff work doesn't change that fact. And it doesn't change the reality that voters want to see change."
Evers submits an education budget to the governor every two years, who then makes his own recommendations to the Legislature. Whoever wins the Nov. 6 election will submit that state budget request early in 2019.
Walker campaign spokesman Brian Reisinger said in a statement that Evers has "staked his entire campaign on 'what's best for our kids' but when it comes to the most important action he takes in his current job — preparing an education budget — he's not only peddling empty promises but also stolen ideas."
