The Green Bay Police Department should Release it's Report into the Recall Hansen Office Break-in

Now that the charade up in Green Bay is over, the local press or, at the very least, the state Dems should push for the GBPD to release it's findings into it's investigation into the supposed break-in at the David VanderLeest-run recall office in April. DVL repeated tossed around wild accusations during his campaign that now make the break-in look dubious at best, such as this doosie:

As the election headed into its home stretch, VanderLeest made such statements as, "None of it's true. I don't smoke rocks, and that's the truth," and threatened to sue Hansen and various Democratic groups for slander. (He also claimed to have learned that there was an investigation against these groups for racketeering. The source: A complaint filed by a supporter close to his campaign.)

So he hasn't proved himself above planting controversies.

Dems are terrible when it comes to following up on shit like this. Every year there are hundreds of reports of voter intimidation and suppression that go unreported by the party because they simply throw their hands up after an election and say, "Well, it's too late now." The state Dems cannot let this type of bullshit slide anymore.

For the last decade the GOP has been peddling the falsehood about voter fraud in Wisconsin, and they've done it so well that it's basically become a teach-the-controversy-type issue for the state press. The state Dems need to attack these allegations with the same ferocity and aggressiveness with which they attacked suspect recall signatures these last few months. This will probably be a long and even expensive process, but it will be worth to bring attention to just how much dodgy nonsense occurs on a regular basis in Wisconsin.

I'm talking about mysterious fliers that show up on people's doorsteps informing them of the wrong polling place, rampant misinformation campaigns on every college campus in the state and God knows what else that occurs in minority voting wards in the greater Milwaukee area. In an ideal world, the robocalls sent out by Wisconsin Right to Life last week -- legal though they may be -- would still earn a strong rebuke from the GAB and guidance on how to avoid such stunts in the future. This never happens and it should start with the GB break-in.

Wisconsin Dems seem content with just putting "election protection" attorneys in targeted polling places. That's fine, and important, but the problem is that most of the shit elections need to be protected from occur outside the polling place. This out-of-sight-out-of-mind silliness, coupled with a general propensity to believe the statute of limitations that covers all the extralegal crap pulled during an election ends when the sunrises the day after the polls close, costs the Dems immeasurably. "Election mop-up" should be a full-time job at the party and it should be treated as just as important as communication or research, etc. This won't happen any time soon, of course, but it should.

And it should start with the break-in police report. The physical evidence at the scene -- that preposterous broken window -- and DVL's subsequent actions all suggest that this was less of a robbery and more of a sympathy stunt. I sincerely doubt the GBPD's report will point fingers at anyone given the sensitive nature of the incident, and an "inconclusive" conclusion is probably a safe bet, but casting further doubt on the original accusation is an important part of winning the message battle and it's a step that universally ignored by state Dems.