Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Walkergate: Walker Sinks Further Into Dark Money Pit



Last year, court documents revealed that prosecutors said that Scott Walker was at the heart of a "criminal scheme," in which he, his campaign and top lieutenants were trying to skirt campaign finance and election laws. The gist of the scheme was that Walker would help raise funds for conservative groups, especially Wisconsin Club for Growth (WCfG), which would use that money to help advance his campaign. (Walker has admitted that he had solicited funds for WCfG, but denies any knowledge of it in the next breath.)

A couple of months after this, it was revealed that a mining company, Gogebic Taconite, had donated $700,000 to WCfG. In return, Walker reduced environmental protections by signing into law a bill that was written by the mining company.

Now, Michael Isikoff, writing for Yahoo News, has come out with a blockbuster report showing that the mining company wasn't the only one in Walker's pay for play scheme:
John Menard Jr. is widely known as the richest man in Wisconsin. A tough-minded, staunchly conservative 75-year-old billionaire, he owns a highly profitable chain of hardware stores throughout the Midwest. He’s also famously publicity-shy — rarely speaking in public or giving interviews.

So a little more than three years ago, when Menard wanted to back Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker — and help advance his pro-business agenda — he found the perfect way to do so without attracting any attention: He wrote more than $1.5 million in checks to a pro-Walker political advocacy group that pledged to keep its donors secret, three sources directly familiar with the transactions told Yahoo News.

Menard’s previously unreported six-figure contributions to the Wisconsin Club for Growth — a group that spent heavily to defend Walker during a bitter 2012 recall election — seem to have paid off for the businessman and his company. In the past two years, Menard’s company has been awarded up to $1.8 million in special tax credits from a state economic development corporation that Walker chairs, according to state records.

And in his five years in office, Walker’s appointees have sharply scaled back enforcement actions by the state Department of Natural Resources — a top Menard priority. The agency had repeatedly clashed with Menard and his company under previous governors over citations for violating state environmental laws and had levied a $1.7 million fine against Menard personally, as well as his company, for illegally dumping hazardous wastes.
Walker's spokeswoman, of course, denied that Walker had anything to do with this bit of quid pro corruption (emphasis mine):
Laurel Patrick, Walker’s press secretary, strongly denied that the governor had provided any special favors for Menard and said Walker was “not involved” in the decision to award his firm tax credits, which were approved by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation for expansions of existing facilities in order to create jobs. (She also noted that Menard’s firm had been awarded $1.5 million in tax credits in 2006 under Democratic Gov. James Doyle. State records show these were reduced to $1 million when the company failed to meet its full job-creation requirements.)

Patrick declined, however, to respond to any questions about the Menard contributions. Citing a “pending legal” investigation into Wisconsin Club for Growth fundraising that will be argued next month before the state Supreme Court, AshLee Strong, a spokeswoman for Walker’s political organization, Our American Revival, said she also could not answer any questions about the Menard donations, including whether the governor had solicited them, was aware of them or had ever discussed state business with Menard.
Oopsie! Perhaps Patrick forgot that Walker is the Chairman of the WEDC.

Walker created the WEDC for exactly this type of pay for play, despite the repeated warnings that these quasi-private/public schemes never end up well. In an ominous move, Walker want's to take away legislative oversight of WEDC and have it completely under his control and run by his political appointees. Methinks that the above stories gives us a clearer understanding why Walker would want this.

While it is good that Walker's corruption is finally having the light of day shown on it, it comes as nothing new to us in Wisconsin, where Walker has a long history of this sort of unethical and illegal behaviors. As I noted then, the only surprise is that Walker hasn't gotten any better at concealing his corruption. Then again, he's always been a slow learner.

It is also worth noting that lawsuits regarding the John Doe probe is scheduled to be heard by the Wisconsin Supreme Court later this year. Four of the seven justices have had extensive help from WCfG, which, according the Supreme Court of the United States, is grounds for them to recuse themselves. That said, given the prevalent and pervasive corruption that Walker and his dark money supporters have foisted upon the state, I wouldn't hold my breath for them to do the right thing either.

19 comments:

  1. The quasi-defendents seem to have much success preempting charges with lawsuits, perhaps the plaintiffs can file a preemptive lawsuit of their own asking for WISC judges to recuse themselves.

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  2. The Wisconsin Supreme Court will not only kill all probes into Walker, but they will proclaim that, since he's running for president, for pete's sake, each and every business in Milwaukee must tithe 10% of their earning to Walker's campaign and individual wage earners must tithe 20%.

    The rational will be that since Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has determined that Scott Walker is a cross between Abe Lincoln and The Son of God Jesus Christ of Nazareth, we must do more than bow before and worship him. We have a duty to finance his aspirations because The Lord has told Scott Walker that he is entitled to be president now.

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    1. Even if he is, in fact, the antichrist.

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    2. Especially if he is the Antichrist! Remember, no Second Coming without a thousand years of misrule -- the GOPs want to get those Tribulations started, the sooner the better! Well, for them, anyway.

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  3. It would be great if the U S Dept. of Justice with a soon to be new Attorney General would launch an investigation as we all know the Wisconsin Supreme Court has Walker's back along with WCFG's money so their rulings are a forgone conclusion.

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  4. There will be no investigation by the Feds, even though there is more-than good reason too and it was Federal Agents that seized top Walker associate Cynthia Archer's computer.

    If the republican's break the law, the media will scream PARTISAN WITCH HUNT if anyone with authority investigates and they will scream bloody murder if any legal action is taken against the lawbreakers.

    When you become a tool of the Koch brothers, you are now above the law which is why they themselves can flagrantly violate environmental & anti-trust laws.

    I know a few second-rate bloggers will complain, but what this post really points to is how the root cause of virtually everything posted on this blog about Scott Walker is a dysfunctional media that enables, cheerleads, and casts republican talking points across the state and nation.

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  5. Even and especially sad with WPR. Scroll down to the comments.

    http://www.wpr.org/shows/big-question-mandatory-voting-america

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  6. Don't feel too badly about the comments on that Wisconsin Public Rado page. Conservatives troll "liberal" and "liberal media" sites to raise a ruckus, just like Club for Growth and others trolled the courts to raise a ruckus over the Doe. To them it's just priming the pump. Individual, outsider tea party types are just as adept as elected Republicans in reading the daily blast faxes to get their talking points, but they've got nothing more than that.

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    1. If you were replying to me, go read my comment there, please. It was not about conservative trolls. It was about right-wing extremists being invited as guests, disguised as professional academics, and the conflation of credibility being given these guests by inviting them vomit their crap.

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  7. Michael Isikoff joins Kathleen Dunn Wednesday at 1pm to discuss his breaking investigative Scott Walker dark-money probe. http://www.wpr.org/shows/walker-probe-intensifies

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    1. Michael Isikoff was the hack that "broke" the Monica Lewinski "story". When Clinton was being impeached, were you a big fan then?

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    2. Yes. The article actually broke on Drudge Report. Good investigative reporting never gets old.

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    3. To Anon at 3:57 pm. You see, this is the difference between you and me. I don't care which side of the aisle someone is on. You do bad things, I support you getting busted for it. You republicans overlook the dirty players on your team and give them a pass. I don't. Who has integrity?

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  8. Listen live online: http://www.wpr.org/listen-live

    If you miss it, you can find archived programs here: http://www.wpr.org/programs/kathleen-dunn-show

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  9. Illinois is rapidly falling behind as a leader in corruption.

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  10. The "dark money" tax credits were "strictly performance based with strong contractual requirements," and were tied to things like job creation, job retention or capital investment. She noted that companies led by Democrats have also received tax credits, which are awarded by a vote from the bipartisan WEDC board.

    "For example, last month, WEDC announced it will provide $9 million in tax credits to Exact Sciences Corp," she said. "The CEO of Exact Sciences is a Democrat and his wife was actually the campaign treasurer for Gov. Walker's 2014 opponent."

    Sheila Conroy, the wife of Exact Sciences CEO Kevin Conroy, served as treasurer for former Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke."
    HA!

    It's OK when liberals exercise their constitutional rights bit not so for conservatives.

    What a juvenile blog...

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    1. That's such a precious attempt to deflect from your boy Scotty's corruption. A massive fail, mind you, but it is previous.

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    2. "She noted that companies led by Democrats have also received tax credits,..." --- Did you hear the part where she mentioned the percentage of tax credits given to companies controlled/owned by Republicans, as compared to Democrats? No? Neither did I....because she never mentioned it. And I doubt she ever intends to. Here is the likely reason why you will never hear anyone on Walker's team give any specifics on that particular aspect of the tax credits awarded by Walkers WEDC: "The report from One Wisconsin Now maintains that nearly 60 percent of some $975 million in assistance distributed by WEDC went to firms that had contributed to Walker or the Republican Governor’s Association."

      The link is to the "Cap Times" article is below, and you can get to the report by "One Wisconsin Now" from there.

      Read more: http://host.madison.com/news/local/writers/mike_ivey/one-wisconsin-now-says-wedc-money-going-to-scott-walker/article_f3449668-e779-11e3-a759-001a4bcf887a.html#ixzz3VTQ2dYZS

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  11. More: http://www.alternet.org/election-2012/major-retailer-urges-workers-take-civics-course-anti-obama-content

    Bully or nazi?

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