Tony Evers submitted budget request with plagiarized sections, raising new issue in governor's race

Patrick Marley | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

MADISON - State schools Superintendent Tony Evers submitted a budget request as his bid for governor heated up in September that included sections plagiarized from Wikipedia, a blog by an intern at a think tank and two other sources.

GOP Gov. Scott Walker's campaign ripped Evers for his handling of the budget plan Friday, just hours before Walker and his Democratic opponent were to debate.

A spokesman for Evers' Department of Public Instruction acknowledged that "proper citation use was missed in certain places" of the budget request. Staff will be retrained but Evers does not plan to discipline anyone, according to the department.

Politico first reported on the issue Friday.

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The plagiarism problem echoes one that rocked the 2014 campaign for governor, when Democrat Mary Burke struggled to recover from reports that her campaign had lifted sections of her jobs plan from others. Walker defeated Burke that year.

Evers' budget request includes a 15-paragraph section on the benefits of summer school programs that is nearly verbatim to a blog post written by a Thomas B. Fordham Institute intern.

A section on the benefits of having students work matches nearly word for word a publication by the National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability. That section includes two paragraphs and a list of four benefits of having students work.

Two other paragraphs appear to be taken verbatim from other sources — one from the Afterschool Alliance and one from Wikipedia.

Walker's campaign found the passages using software that detects possible plagiarism.

The head of the Fordham Institute reacted positively to the disclosure, even though the think tank's work had been used without attribution.

"You call it plagiarism, I call it impact baby!" Michael Petrilli, Fordham's president, wrote on Twitter. "This is definitely going in our annual report."

You call it plagiarism, I call it impact baby! This is definitely going in our annual report. "Scott Walker charges opponent with plagiarizing schools budget plan" (including from a Fordham blog post) https://t.co/3ecG2MuKdg @caitlinzemma @rickhess99 @paigekowalski @arotherham — Michael Petrilli (@MichaelPetrilli) October 19, 2018

In other tweets, he wrote that Evers' team should have credited his institute, but added, "Hard to beat getting plagiarized as proof of influence!"

Well, his team SHOULD have cited it... — Michael Petrilli (@MichaelPetrilli) October 19, 2018

It's notoriously hard for think tanks to prove our impact on public policy. Hard to beat getting plagiarized as proof of influence! — Michael Petrilli (@MichaelPetrilli) October 19, 2018

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Thomas McCarthy, a spokesman for Evers' Department of Public Instruction, said by email that Evers' staff failed in some instances to credit the research it had used to develop the budget request.

"In this case, proper citation use was missed in certain places," his email said. "We are taking action to make sure that does not happen going forward."

The agency stands behind the recommendations, he said.

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McCarthy declined to say whether one or more people were responsible for the sections in question or who they are. He said agency officials view the matter as an "honest mistake" and will retrain workers rather than discipline anyone.

Walker spokesman Brian Reisinger said in a statement that Evers is "not only peddling empty promises but also stolen ideas."

“An educator would know the consequences of plagiarism, and this is damning proof that he's a Madison bureaucrat who will always take the easy way out instead of providing the kind of leadership needed to stand up for hard-working families," Reisinger said.

News of the plagiarism surfaced a day after three former cabinet secretaries under Walker signed a letter criticizing the governor and said they were backing Evers. A fourth former Walker official, ex-Transportation Secretary Mark Gottlieb, has also publicly criticized the governor but has not said whom he will vote for.

"After a week flailing on pre-existing conditions and a fourth former secretary accusing him of putting himself before Wisconsin, the Walker campaign is grasping at straws," Evers campaign spokesman Sam Lau said in a statement.

Some Democrats contended Walker was guilty of plagiarism because he had signed legislation written by the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council. The group works with Republicans and businesses to produce model legislation that can be introduced in any state legislature.

Why has no one called out @ScottWalker and @wisgop for their repeated plagiarism of ALEC legislation. Failure to cite a couple of sources in a lengthy document is not nearly as egregious as taking the same 30 bills passed in 10 other states and pretending like they’re your own. https://t.co/fIcNKaQDEH — Bryan Kennedy (@GlendaleBryan) October 19, 2018

Friday's development came as the campaign headed into its final 2 1/2 weeks with Walker and Evers statistically tied, according to the Marquette University Law School poll. An NBC/Marist poll shows Evers leading.

Evers will get help in coming days with campaign stops from U.S. Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Kamala Harris of California. Walker will get a boost from a Wednesday visit by President Donald Trump. The Washington Post this week, citing unnamed sources, reported some Trump advisers urged him not to go to Wisconsin because they did not think Walker would win.

Walker and Evers will have their first of two debates at 8 p.m. Friday. The forum is sponsored by the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association and will be aired live statewide.

The second debate will be at 6 p.m. Oct. 26 at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and broadcast by WTMJ-TV and WUWM-FM (89.7). Debate partners include the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin.

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