"She needs to manage her credibility very carefully right now:" Expert weighs in on Burke scandal

MILWAUKEE (WITI) -- A new wrinkle in the Mary Burke plagiarism scandal as even more documents are found to be copied word-for-word.

BuzzFeed has done it again. The website posted some of the sections of Mary Burke's "Rural Communities Plan" on Wednesday night, September 24th. It appears some lines are lifted from other sources, including a failed 2010 gubernatorial candidate from Nevada, and newspaper articles.

One expert FOX6 News spoke with believes this scandal is growing, and has mixed feelings about how Mary Burke is handling it.

"She needs to manage her credibility very carefully right now," said President of Stir Advertising and Integrated Messaging, Brian Bennett.

After a similar scandal last week involving her jobs plan, Bennett says Burke still has some explaining to do.

"Mary in a lot of ways, she's handled this to date fairly well. She addressed it head on. But she tended to minimize it, I don't think voters want candidates to minimize problems like this," said Bennett.

Bennett deals with regional, and even international clients. He says a continued scandal like this can be a fatal blow to a campaign. Bennett says Burke wisely severed ties with the consultant who helped draft her jobs plan -- the one that was at the center of scandal last week, but he says it's a short term solution. Especially during the critical final leg of the campaign.

Bennett says Governor Walker doesn't really have to say anything about this topic, it may actually benefit him not to. He says the story will continue to be about alleged plagiarism as long as it doesn't get weighed down in political mud slinging.