Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Boycott targets contributors to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker

By Eric W. Dolan

Wisconsin citizens upset with Gov. Scott Walker's attack on public employees' collective bargaining rights have launched a boycott campaign aimed at his campaign contributors.

The Republican governor signed a bill Friday that eliminates most union rights for public employees.

One Wisconsin resident, Sam Hokin, started a Facebook pagethat lists companies and political action committees that had at least one contribution of $5,000 or more to Scott Walker's campaign, Channel3000 reported.

"I just grabbed the top contributors off of wisdc.org and put them up on a Facebook page," Hokin said. "We've had companies say, 'We give to both sides. It's not fair for you to boycott us.' It's not an issue of fair. If I don't want to buy your products, I'll choose not to buy your products."

According to the page, the goal of the boycott is to "bring economic woe to companies that support Scott Walker, and therefore his anti-worker, anti-education and anti-progress politics."

Another website, ScottWalkerWatch.com, also has listed companies to boycott. The website said it would remove companies from the boycott list if they renounced Gov. Walker’s policies and supported his recall as soon as possible.

Jennifer Alexander, President of the Greater Madison Chamber of Commerce, warned that the boycott could have the unintended consequence of hurting workers.

Madison prides itself on diversity of ideas and political perspectives," she said in a statement. "Workers hurting other workers seems to run contrary to that Madison ideal."

The boycott is part of a larger backlash against Republicans in Wisconsin.

The Wisconsin Democratic Party has collected over 56,000 signatures supporting a recall of eight state senators who aligned themselves with Gov. Walker's controversial budget repair bill, making theDemocrats nearly halfway to recalling the GOP state senators.

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