I Respected Scott Walker. Then I Worked for Him.

The last straw, for both of us, came in February of 2015. Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker had called me into his office ahead of my reconfirmation vote as secretary of the Department of Financial Institutions. He told me he was going to propose merging four of Wisconsin’s state agencies, including mine, into two. This was part of a long-term plan to “shrink government” in Wisconsin, Walker said, and he assured me that the plan would be “well received.”

I knew exactly what he meant. For weeks, there had been talk about Walker throwing his hat into the ring for the Republican presidential primary, and everyone in his Cabinet figured it was just a matter of time before he announced his candidacy. Being able to say that he had “shrunk government” in Wisconsin, he probably thought,