“Mr. Villa was a former chief of staff to then (Milwaukee) county executive Scott Walker. Mr. Villa served as an informal adviser to the Friends of Scott Walker. He is and was a personal friend to Gov. Scott Walker.”

Rindfleisch was convicted of felony misconduct in office for campaigning on taxpayer time. She is appealing.

In a Feb. 8, 2010, email from Rindfleisch to Brett Davis, Walker’s preferred candidate for lieutenant governor, Rindfleisch wrote:

“I am also working on Villa to get him to agree to host an event. The money guys know him and associate him with Walker, so they would respond to him. That’s the same reason John Hiller is on the list. He’s known as a Walker guy.”

According to DFI, Maxwell is a former lobbyist for the state credit union association who also worked for more than a decade in the Legislature, including as chief of staff for Sen. Luther Olsen, R-Ripon, current chairman of the Senate Education Committee.

The System did not provide additional biographical details or resumes for the finalists. They’ll be interviewed in Madison on March 20.

The newly created job is described as: “Reporting to the president of the UW System, this new position will supervise a team that is broadly responsible for external and internal communications, state government relations, and federal relations.”

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