He recalled a Democratic bill he had favored because it would benefit consumers. Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) called him into his office and told him the leadership didn’t like the bill. Spanbauer told him it would help a lot of people. Fitzgerald replied, “No, that bill’s going to cost the insurance company money.”
Spanbauer told him, “You know Fitz; I didn’t come here for the insurance company.” Fitzgerald shot back, “Dick, you have to remember one thing, the insurance companies give us a lot of money at campaign time.”
But, his main disappointment was with Scott Walker. Spanbauer initially liked and campaigned rigorously for him, but Walker’s lack of integrity soon became apparent. On the night before his budget bill was presented, Walker told party members he was going to eliminate collective bargaining. Spanbauer was shocked. He wasn’t upset about union members paying more for their benefits, but he didn’t want their voices silenced, and he said so.
Walker then called him into his office and said, “‘Dick, I’m going to tell you something, I will not cut their wages, I will not cut their benefits, and we’ll get rid of the furlough days.’ He lied to me,” said Spanbauer, “I’ll never forget that. He lied to me and I trusted that guy. He did fool with the benefits and he did fool with the wages. He lied.” Spanbauer concluded that if Walker had told the truth about his plans during the campaign he never would have been elected.
= new reply since forum marked as read