Several at City Hall raised the question before the election:

Had Scott Walker cut any closed-door deals with the local police and firefighters unions to gain their support during last year's campaign?

Some Milwaukee officials believe they have an answer now that the state budget repair bill is out and Walker has exempted law enforcement and firefighters from the dramatic changes he is proposing in bargaining rules for other public employee unions.

"I'm very disappointed," said Ald. Michael Murphy, a critic of the newly elected governor. "It seems to be almost like a pay-to-play."

Except the Milwaukee Professional Firefighters Association and Milwaukee Police Association don't deliver much in terms of campaign donations. The firefighters gave Walker no money, while the police union chipped in $1,100 to his campaign and that of his lieutenant governor.

What these labor groups deliver instead is an image that their candidate is tough on crime. You may remember that in addition to endorsing the eventual winner, leaders from both Milwaukee unions starred in one of Walker's most compelling campaign ads late in the election season.

"I can't speak to whether any deals were cut," said Patrick Curley, chief of staff for Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, a Democrat who was defeated by Walker in November. "But it's obvious that these two groups received special consideration in this bill."

On Friday, the first-term Republican governor called it "utterly ridiculous" to suggest that the provision in the budget bill was a payback to Milwaukee's police and fire unions.

Walker noted that the Wisconsin Professional Police Association and the Professional Fire Fighters of Wisconsin - the two state organizations - backed his opponent. If the new governor really wanted to reward his supporters, he said he could have simply exempted the Milwaukee unions from his proposal.

Instead, the governor said he is concerned that his budget bill may lead to walkouts by some public employees. He didn't recommend changing the rules for cops and firefighters because he said Wisconsin can't afford for them to leave those positions vacant for even a short period.

"To me, that's not an area to mess around with," Walker told the Journal Sentinel.

The head of the Milwaukee police union agrees.

"I don't think we're being paid back," said Michael Crivello, the union president.

From the start, Crivello said, Walker's message hasn't changed. He said the former Milwaukee County executive has emphasized the need to make the state strong again and the need to have strong public safety.

Under his proposal, public employees - except police, firefighters and inspectors - would lose many bargaining rights and could opt out of paying union dues in the future, with dues no longer collected automatically. He is also recommending limiting pay raises for state workers while asking them to contribute more to their pensions and health insurance.

Murphy, the Milwaukee alderman, said he still expects Walker to push a bill to end the requirement that police and firefighters have to live in the city in which they work.

"A lot of them will want to leave the city because the taxes are too high because we're paying high benefits to police and firefighters," said the west side politician.

Dave Seager, head of the Milwaukee firefighters union, said Walker has made his group no promises on any issue. But Seager - who appeared in his full firefighter's garb for the Walker TV spot last fall - said he would have been derelict in his duties if he hadn't raised the residency issue with Walker last year.

And what was the response? Seager said Walker pointed out that he backed legislation to repeal the requirement when he was a legislator.

"He said, 'I support it now; I supported it then - I support the residency repeal,' " Seager said. "But there were no promises at all."

No promises. No deals. Just a meeting of minds.

Strange bedfellows

It's a bizarre political metaphor, one that County Board Chairman Lee Holloway keeps calling up.

The north side pol says he is under attack from the local media - the Journal Sentinel, in particular - but will fight off the criticism and rise up like Godzilla.

"I may be down, but I come back stronger than ever," he says in a cheap and campy YouTubead.

Last week, the clip was the buzz - much of it negative - of bloggers, news outlets and talk radio.

But here's the surprising part:

The Godzilla video and a couple dozen other Holloway YouTube clips are the work of a former GOP operative who is helping out the north side politician's campaign.

Holloway said political consultantTodd Rongstad, who got his start in the Assembly Republican caucus and recently did campaign work for school choice supporters, approached the County Board chairman about assisting the campaign. Holloway attacks the media, his opponents and city building inspectors in the other videos produced by Rongstad, who once described himself as a political "hit man."

"He felt sorry for us," Holloway said.

Holloway's campaign manager, Barbara White, declined to say how much the Holloway team is paying Rongstad for the low-budget videos, saying that the figure will be disclosed in future campaign reports.

Despite the generally negative coverage for the videos, White said she couldn't be happier with them. Holloway must agree. He did a contentious Thursday radio interview in which he likened himself to Godzilla, something he did again at the start of his Friday press conference.

"Young people love it," White claimed.

Return to sender

Millionaire philanthropist Chris Abele has been a big-time backer of former Gov. Jim Doyle.

In the past decade, Abele has given $30,000 to the Democrat's campaign fund.

So it was something of a surprise to see that Abele, now himself a candidate for Milwaukee County exec, recently returned a $2,500 donation from Doyle's campaign account. Doyle made the contribution late last year.

Is this another instance of Abele trying to downplay his links to Democrats?

Not at all, said Abele spokesman Brandon Lorenz.

The first-time candidate is not taking any money from political action committees or candidate funds, Lorenz said. The campaign had not worked out all of its rules for donations when Doyle mailed his check.

Daniel Bice can be contacted by phone at (414) 224-2135 or by e-mail at dbice@journalsentinel.com.