Walker should demand Ellerman’s resignation

Gov. Scott Walker should cut ties with Jefferson County Republican Party Chairman Gary Ellerman, a former Trek Bicycle Corp. employee who was a primary source for a story this week calling into question the business experience of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke.

Trek, which was founded by Burke’s father and where Burke worked in the 1990s, says it fired Ellerman for incompetence. He had been the company’s director of human resources. He also ran as a sham Democratic candidate in the 2012 Senate recall primary to help the incumbent GOP senator in that race.

Ellerman’s problem is poor judgment, and Walker shouldn’t tolerate it in a party leader.

The Journal Sentinel’s Daniel Bice reported this week that Ellerman had a Facebook page filled with crude postings about President Barack Obama, including one that uses a Nazi swastika to refer to Obama’s message of “hope and change.”