Conservatives regularly observe that today’s liberals peddle old tropes. But they usually at least take the time to reword them.
Not so Wisconsin’s Democratic candidate for governor. Last week Buzzfeed reported that Mary Burke’s jobs plan bears marked similarities to a variety of other sources, including previous Democratic gubernatorial candidates in other states:
Burke’s economic plan “Invest for Success” copies nearly-verbatim sections from the jobs plans of Ward Cammack, who ran for Tennessee governor in 2009 before withdrawing from the race, a 2008 plan from Delaware Gov. Jack Markell, now-Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe’s plan from his failed-2009 bid, and John Gregg who ran for governor of Indiana in 2012 and lost to Mike Pence.
Another section takes the same language as a White House press release.
Furthermore, a small section of language is copied from a Harvard report.
For a sampling of Burke’s generous borrowing, here’s Buzzfeed comparing her plan with Cammack’s:
Here’s Cammack:
Requiring our land-grant institutions to make supporting small farms a priority. These institutions can provide a wide range of support to small farmers to help them to improve farm profitability. Research and new technologies have played a significant role to increase yields and reduce costs throughout the agricultural system. Many of these advances can be targeted to help small farmers who could and benefit greatly from having site-specific information to increase yields, and therefore, improve economic performance. We can make new advances in technology – GPS systems to guide farm machinery and reduce overlap, early pest detection, identification of soil nutrient deficiencies, detection of plant stress, use of yield monitoring equipment – all advances that can significantly help the small farmer.
And here’s Burke:
These institutions can provide a wide range of support to a new generation of small farmers to help them to improve productivity and profitability. Research and new technologies have played a significant role to increase yields and reduce costs throughout the agricultural system. New technologies – like GPS systems to guide farm machinery and reduce overlap, early pest detection, identification of soil nutrient deficiencies, detection of plant stress, use of yield monitoring equipment – can significantly help farmers be more productive.
Here’s Cammack:
Expanding intern programs to provide help to small farmers and also give students direct agricultural education and experience.
And here’s Burke:
Expanding intern programs to provide help to small farmers and also give students direct agricultural education and experience.
Here’s Cammack:
Helping farmers with succession planning by developing new programs that match new farmers with those retiring who have no successors interested in continuing the family farm.
And here’s Burke:
Developing new programs that match new farmers with those retiring who have no successors interested in continuing the family farm.
Here’s Cammack:
Supporting the development of public-private partnerships by working to match small farmers with business professionals to help farmers improve management, develop new markets plans and improve use of risk management tools and risk reduction strategies.
And here’s Burke:
Supporting the development of public-private partnerships by working to match small farmers with business professionals to help farmers improve management, develop new markets plans and improve use of risk management tools and risk-reduction strategies.
Now Buzzfeed reports that “sections of Wisconsin Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke’s veterans and rural communities plans appear to copy text directly from a variety of sources. The sources include, but are not limited to, academic journals and reports, and a local newspaper column.” While Burke occasionally links to sources in footnotes, phrases and lines are still used verbatim.
For instance, here’s Buzzfeed’s analysis of Burke’s “Invest in Our Rural Communities”:
Here’s a Council Of State Governments report from 2003:
At a time when U.S. manufacturing employment is generally on the decline, the production of wind equipment is one of the few potentially large sources of new manufacturing jobs on the horizon.
And here’s Burke:
While manufacturing employment in general has been declining for years, the production of wind equipment is one of the few potentially large sources of new manufacturing jobs.
And here’s an excerpt from Burke’s “Plan for Wisconsin Veterans”:
Here’s a 2013 Dunn County News column:
The opposition argued that the bill would impose additional burdens on those that were injured — and in some cases plaintiffs could die before their cases made it through the lengthened court process.
And here’s Burke:
This places additional burdens on those who were injured and in some cases plaintiffs could die before their cases make it through the lengthened court process.
In Burke’s defense, she does say she is a staunch defender of recycling . . .