Yesterday’s news was that the state Republican Party has filed a complaint with the Government Accountability Board for alleged illegal coordination between Mary Burke’s campaign for governor and Trek Bicycle …

… which is in response to a TV ad:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGhFTBVv5S8

I’m not an expert on election law (and who wants to be?), but I think this complaint is going to be punted by the GAB for reasons besides its usual bias against Republicans and conservatives. Notice what’s missing in the ad? The word “Mary.” There is also no criticism or even mention of Gov. Scott Walker’s policies, only the ad.

There is great irony, of course, in seeing Republicans attack a business. (More about that later.) On the other hand, Collin Roth notices considerable hypocrisy over how the media treated the last statewide candidate with a background in business, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, compared with how the media is treating Burke:

Fairly sure if I asked, I can still get her to give me their definition on command.

“Her” is Sara Sendek, who was campaign press secretary for Ron Johnson for Senate. “Their” is Industrial Revenue Bonds (IRBs), a form of financing tool cities throughout the country use to lure new start-ups to their towns, and is essentially a business loan since no taxpayer money is used and it is completely paid for by the business using it.

From nearly her first day on the job until Election Day 2010, the number of press inquiries Sara got about IRBs and a $75,000 rail spur were almost endless. For many in the press, all they ever wanted to know about was IRBs Ron Johnson’s company Pacur took out in the 1970s and 80s, but nothing about deficits the Obama Administration was piling up. Nor did they want to hear anything about Russ Feingold’s voting record or issues in the campaign.

It was frustrating to say the least.

What is more frustrating for me though is watching the press rally around presumptive Democratic gubernatorial Mary Burke and Trek in the latest volley of attacks in the race for governor. Instead of asking if there is any truth to what Walker’s campaign is saying about the company’s record of outsourcing while Burke was there, the press is more concerned about why he’s “attacking” a Wisconsin company.

The most overtly biased of these pieces is by Scott Bauer of the Associated Press, who calls Trek “a respected company” and a true Wisconsin success story. You know, all the red, white and blue, apple pie Americana that’s supposed to encourage pity in the reader for Burke while reading it.

While no one has little doubt about the humble beginnings of Trek, at issue is not the company, but what Burke did while there. If the press felt in 2010 that a proctologic exam of Pacur was needed, then why are they stopping short on Burke’s years at Trek?

Like it or not, the Burkes (both Mary and her brother John) opened up Trek to this type of scrutiny when Mary announced her intentions to run for public office beyond the Madison school board. No longer was it just “part of her bio” to get her political appointments (like her stint as Doyle’s Commerce Secretary) or charity work around Madison.

Trek is part of who she is. That means every deal it has made, how well its employees are compensated, where its plants are located and so on.

It doesn’t mean, they can hide behind it under a veil of secrecy, nor should the press give it to them. By deciding to run for governor, everything gets examined. For them to think otherwise is to honestly ask if the Burkes were misled upon starting this venture or if members of the media are rooting for a certain outcome.

If Democrats and the Burke Campaign are willing to film television ads inside Trek manufacturing facilities, then they should be ready to defend its business practices. If Pacur was fair game in 2010 because Ron Johnson ran it, then the same ought to apply to Mary Burke’s years at Trek.

As you know, there is a considerable bias against business in the media. There is even more bias against people like Johnson, a certified public accountant. Maybe a reporter who doesn’t like his or her employer anyway can be stirred to write something about an entrepreneur who creates something, but no one has anything good to say about accountants, because accountants are the No people in a business, at least from the reporter’s perspective. Accountants are the people who place and enforce limits — there’s not enough money for raises in your department, there’s not enough money to upgrade equipment, and by the way, did you really drive this many miles in the last month?

None of this is good for the state, by the way. If Republicans were honest about this, and if Mary Burke were not running for governor as a member of the anti-business party, Trek is in fact the kind of business that Republicans would fall all over themselves praising. Instances like this certainly help to convince any business person of what can happen to them if they run for office, and Wisconsin needs more, not less, business people serving in office.

One question that has yet to be asked, though, is whether Burke’s experience with Trek is actually applicable to the vast majority of Wisconsin businesses, or whether Trek is really representative of Wisconsin businesses.

A lefty critic of Burke points out that not even 1 percent of Trek’s annual bicycle production takes place in the U.S. On the other hand, the critic adds, in volume Trek is still number one in domestic bicycle production among the high-end bike manufacturers. Apparently Trek and every other bike manufacturer has determined that building bikes in the U.S. is too expensive, which means that bike manufacturers are indeed concerned about production costs, a concept Democrats appear to not grasp. (Despite, by the way, the absurdly weak American dollar, which is supposed to help manufacturers.)

Trek and its competitors make bicycles for serious bicyclists. I would bet Trek and its competitors therefore make pretty healthy profit margins (and profit is never a bad thing; all those things the ad lists that Trek is able to do are the results of years of profits) because its customers make buying decisions based on the bike’s features and brand reputation, not on price. If you’re looking for a bike because your child suddenly demands a non-one-speed bike, you’re probably not buying a Trek, and if price is an object, you’re not buying a Trek.

Every Wisconsinite should know that this state has three main business sectors — manufacturing, agriculture, and tourism. High-end manufacturing is a pretty small subset of manufacturing. Most businesses operate on small profit margins, and so production costs are absolutely a major factor in their being able to price their products appropriately to make money and therefore stay in business.

Which brings to mind Burke’s adamant anti-business agenda from a candidate touting her business background. The only actually pro-business aspect of her agenda is increasing exports, which is a no-brainer. Trek can pay its employees whatever Trek wants, but increasing the minimum wage — which forces every business to pay its minimum-wage employees more — means giving employees money they haven’t earned by working harder or better. Increasing wages increases costs, which forces businesses to reduce costs by, in this case, reducing employment. And there is nary one mention of the two biggest issues businesses face — taxes and regulations — particularly in this state, which has much too much of both.

Burke’s campaign is a great failed opportunity for Burke to critique her own party’s anti-business history and present, not to mention the Democratic Party’s two biggest support groups — organized labor and teacher unions — in a manner that certainly worked well for Bill Clinton when he was successfully running for president. As I pointed out here yesterday, a debate about business incentives — particularly the business incentives designed to counteract our uncompetitive corporate and personal tax structure — would also be a good thing. Of course, that debate isn’t happening, and isn’t going to happen.

Burke is basing her candidacy on her business experience, so critiquing her business experience is absolutely legitimate. (Including whether her business experience is typical of a typical Wisconsin business.) Attacking a Wisconsin business because one of its owners is running for governor is not the right thing to do.

The correct thing for Republicans to say during this campaign (to channel my inner Lyn Nofziger for a moment) is along this line: Trek Bicycle is a great Wisconsin business. Trek has made business decisions over the years that Trek felt was correct for its business. Businesses should have the right to make business decisions based on what they feel is right for their business, not have those decisions made for them by government in areas like wages. The policies Mary Burke espouses would be, in fact, bad for Wisconsin businesses, because they would increase costs (by opposing tax cuts and espousing minimum-wage increases) without making Wisconsin businesses more profitable. And without profit, businesses can do nothing, including pay their employees.