Second Former Walker Official Comes Out Against Him, Supports Evers

A second former Walker administration official has come out in support of the governor’s opponent Democrat Tony Evers.

Peter Bildsten served as Gov. Scott Walker’s secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions from 2011 until 2015.

Bildsten appears in a digital ad for Evers released Monday. In it, he says he was pressured to meet with special interests and lobbyists during his time as a administration official, and that he was directed to avoid creating public records.

In an interview with WPR, Bildsten said he believes he was asked to refrain from creating electronic records because they would be subject to open records requests by reporters and the public.

“I certainly got the message that they wanted to minimize those kinds of requests, particularly for anything that might be sensitive, that might be of interest to the public,” he said.

He said Walker became increasingly political during his tenure.

“Particularly the last few years of the Walker administration has been much more about what’s good for Scott Walker and not so much about what’s good for the state of Wisconsin and the citizens of Wisconsin,” he said.

Former state Department of Corrections Secretary Ed Wall has also publicly supported Evers in the governor’s race. Wall says the governor didn’t address abuse at the state’s youth prison for political reasons.

The state Republican Party dismissed the allegations.

“Tony Evers is so desperate to distract from his failed record that he keeps peddling debunked statements from disgruntled ex-employees who have an agenda to push after leaving on bad terms,” said state GOP spokesman Alec Zimmerman. “These attacks have been repeatedly shown to be false, including in a statement by Wall himself making clear that he had ‘never been instructed’ to circumvent records laws.”

Editor’s note: This story was updated with original reporting from WPR at 3:55 p.m. Monday, Aug. 20, 2018.