Brad Schimel ran for Wisconsin attorney general in 2014 professing to be a moderate Republican, suggesting he was not all that enamored with the slash-and-burn tactics of the head of his ticket, Gov. Scott Walker.

If only we had known.

Since taking office in January 2015 Schimel, in just slightly more than 18 months, has forged a record that places him squarely in Scott Walker’s camp, taking it upon himself to join suits filed by conservative states to overturn federal rules on everything from transgender bathroom rights to requiring food stamp recipients to submit to drug tests. He has been a key player in the culture wars that have so divided the nation in recent years.

But that all pales in comparison to his incomprehensible positions on Wisconsin’s long-standing environmental safeguards. He has enabled Walker and his look-the-other-way Department of Natural Resources to place the state’s water and air protections in peril.

The latest was his decision to dump the longtime head of the Justice Department’s environmental protection unit, former public intervenor Tom Dawson, and replace him with a Washington, D.C., lawyer with dubious connections, including representing developers in fighting storm water regulations.