POLITICS NEWS: Wisconsin governor candidate cuts ties with consultant over jobs plan

MILWAUKEE (Reuters) - Wisconsin Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke severed ties with a political consultant after he used similar language in her jobs plan as he did in economic plans he drafted for other clients, Burke's campaign said on Friday.

Burke's spokesman, Joe Zepecki, said the campaign ended its relationship on Thursday with Eric Schnurer of Public Works, a Pennsylvania-based consulting firm, after he used about 10 passages from the past plans he drafted for former clients in Burke's "Invest for Success," a 40-page jobs plan.

"He fell short of the expectations that Mary laid out and, as a result, he no longer has any involvement in the campaign," Zepecki said.

Schnurer was a subcontractor for the campaign, Zepecki said. Schnurer could not be reached immediately for comment.

Schnurer used passages from economic plans he drafted for previous governor's races in Delaware, Tennessee and Indiana, Buzzfeed.com reported.

"In a few, isolated instances similar language from those plans is used to describe ideas that are widely accepted as best practices or are ideas which hold promise for Wisconsin," Zepecki said.

Burke, a former executive at bicycle manufacturer Trek, is in a statistical dead heat in opinion polls with Republican Governor Scott Walker less than two months before the November general election.

"It's a sad day for Wisconsin when the Democratic nominee for governor misleads voters by offering a plagiarized jobs plan, in which she has staked her entire candidacy," Stephan Thompson, Walker's campaign manager, said in a statement.

Walker, a potential Republican White House hopeful in 2016, won election in 2010. In June 2012, he became the first governor in U.S. history to survive a recall election after he angered Democrats and labor unions by spearheading a bill that stripped public-sector unions of much of their power.

(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee; Editing by Jim Loney)


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