Den of Thieves!

Matthew 21:12

(KJV) And Jesus went into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves,

We all know what happened when the republican party took control of Wisconsin in 2010.  They had a plan to gerrymander the state, to make sure they did not have to worry about running on the issues and facing the voters for the nest ten years.   While we had a pretty good idea what that meant to WI, the fact that the republican party then elected Robin Vos as their leader we knew for sure.   Ethics in Government was now a thing of the past! 

The first (and definitely NOT last) story comes from the very small, dark mind of Robin Vos.   Vos decided that he was sick of lobbyists just buying his loyalty with their clients money, so he decided to implement a pay to play system with the lobbyists themselves:  

For years, Madison pols have been asking lobbyists to hit up their clients and company execs for donations. But starting in June, Vos and the Assembly Republican leaders began calling in and contacting lobbyists one by one to say they were each on the hook for at least $500.
The result: Vos collected $36,000 in personally signed checks from scores of lobbyists in the final months before the November election, money that went into a fund and then was distributed to targeted Assembly races, according to recently filed campaign reports. The maximum donation to a state rep is $500.
Some Madison types contacted No Quarter to complain about what were dubbed "loyalty checks" - though the tactic is perfectly legal.
"Lobbyists were quite upset - most of them saw it as an obnoxious 'loyalty check' by the new leadership and an incredibly arrogant display of partisan power," said one Republican insider. "Who was going to say no to a personal request from the next speaker of the Assembly?"

The best part about Robin Vos is that because he is not the brightest light on the tree, and he knows that because of the gerrymandered districts it will be practically impossible to lose his majority, he is prone to occasional bouts of actual honesty!   He had one here(emphasis mine):

"Lobbyists are in Madison happily raising money from their clients or other individuals to give to legislators," Vos said Friday. "This might have been the first time that many of them were actually asked to give their own money to attend an event, as opposed to spending yours"

Finally someone admits that the hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars that companies spent buying legislators, comes right out of the consumers pockets!   Of course Vos does not care or have a fix, he just wants to make sure that when it comes out of our pockets, it goes into his!    

Robin Vos found one way to get more money in his pockets and then once he smelled the money, he needed more.  In order to get more money, Vos decided to change the rules and allow fundraising during the budget process. 

Assembly members will be able to raise money while considering the state budget under a policy approved by paper ballot on Thursday — reversing a ban that had been in place since 2009.
The policy, approved by the Republican-controlled Committee on Assembly Organization on a 5-3 party-line vote, allows most Assembly lawmakers, their campaign committees and support committees to raise funds everywhere in Wisconsin except Dane County. Legislators whose districts include Dane County are exempt.
It is in force during the budget period, beginning the day the biennial budget bill is introduced and ending on the date the bill is presented to the governor. Gov. Scott Walker plans to unveil his 2013-15 spending plan on Wednesday. July 1 begins the new fiscal year.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, circulated the ballot and urged adoption of the policy change. He could not be reached for comment Thursday.

What could go wrong with this really? 

Mike McCabe, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, called the move a step in the wrong direction. He pointed to a policy banning all fundraising for Assembly members during the budget period, which was approved when Democrats were in control during the 2009-2010 session.
"We still believe there should be a law banning this," he said. "It definitely weakens the Assembly policy."
He and others other campaign finance reform advocates have long argued that lawmakers raising campaign cash during the budget process creates the appearance that special interests can buy budget provisions.
McCabe and Jay Heck, executive director of Common Cause Wisconsin, both said that lawmakers should go beyond setting just policies and pass a law banning fundraising during the budget process.
"It's going in the wrong direction," Heck said. "We shouldn't have fundraising during the budget and I'm always at a loss to figure out why the Legislature thinks it's a good idea."

Once again the republicans prove that both parties are NOT the same since one party (democrats) enacted the ban and the other party (republicans) lifted the ban - thus turning on the  FOR SALE  sign.   

Look for records amount of fundraising by members of the Assembly and also keep an eye open for those who give the most "miraculously" benefitting tremendously from the new budget!

The ALEC 5!

Common Cause and the Center for Media & Democracy have been following and exposing ALEC's activities in Wisconsin.  They have done Yeoman's work on this important issue!  Such good work that 5 of Wisconsin's republican assemblymen tried to break the law to keep their association with ALEC private.  

  

"Please send ALL ALEC material to the Representative's PERSONAL email . . . from now on," says a June email to ALEC sent from Jeremy Thiesfeldt's state account.

The good folks at CC and CMD did not give up though and took these five to court, and of course, easily won.   Now the fact that these five "fiscal conservative" republican's tried to govern in private, it ended up costing the taxpayers of Wisconsin $2520 in court costs and fees.   There are plenty of places that could use that money right now!  

Five Wisconsin state legislators have agreed to turn over any correspondence and documents with or related to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and held on their personal email accounts; the action settles a lawsuit brought by the Center for Media and Democracy and Common Cause.

The Attorney General’s office will conduct the agreed-upon document search.

"As part of the settlement agreement, the five legislators admitted that ALEC-related records were held on their personal email accounts and are covered by the Open Records Law," said Center for Media and Democracy Staff Counsel Brendan Fischer, who filed the complaint. "They are finally complying with the law and agreeing to release those records to the public."

The five legislators -- Representatives Jeremy Thiesfeldt (R-Fond du Lac), Tyler August (R-Lake Geneva), Dan Knodl (R-Germantown), Tom Larson (R-Colfax), and Pat Strachota (R-West Bend) -- also acknowledged they have a duty as elected officials to fully comply with records requests from the public. They will pay $2,520 in court costs and attorney’s fees involved in bringing the lawsuit.

 "This agreement should put to rest Rep. Pat Strachota’s ridiculous assertion to the press that the suit was a 'political witch hunt,' and ALEC’s absurd claim that seeking its communications with lawmakers was 'abusing' the open records law," said Lisa Graves, Executive Director of the Center for Media and Democracy, which publishes PRWatch.org and ALECexposed.org.

However I doubt it will put to rest Stachota's ridiculousness or ALEC's desire to remain secret.   I also doubt it will mean that republicans will agree to open government in the future.  Remember this is the group that signed "secrecy agreements" during the redistricting process!   

For those of you who care about transparency, open government, not ceding responsibility to shadow organizations and wasting valuable taxpayer money should take a look at these legislators who stand for all of these things and their races!   

1.   Jeremy Thiesfeldt of the 52nd Assembly district.  To change from the tea party extreme to join the ranks of the rest of Wisconsin, Paul Czisny will represent you!  Check his website out here and his facebook page here! 

2.  Tyler August of the 32nd Assembly District.   If you understand that to move WI Forward to the future and job creation, you do NOT cut $1.6 Billion from education, then support and vote for Kim Peterson!  Her website is here and her facebook page is here!

3.  Dan Knodl of the 24th Assembly District.  If you are sick of wild partisan conspiracy theories and blatant dishonesty in advertising and want to be represented by a moderate intelligent skilled thoughtful representative, then Shan Haqqi is the one to vote for.  Check out Shan's website here and his facebook page here! 

4.   Tom Larson of the 67th Assembly District.  If you realize that the health care system in our country and state is broken and needs fixing and want someone with real world experience and ideas to do so, the support and vote for Deb Bieging!  Her website is here and her facebook page is here!

5.  Pat Strachota of the 58th Assembly District.  Unfortunately, Strachota is running unopposed.  If you want to know why the Wisconsin Democratic Party would allow an extremist who completely disregards open government like Strachota to run unopposed please contact the Wisconsin Democratic Party - infor@wisdems.org and (608) 255-5172

Let's show a message to all politicians and let them know that shadow private government behind closed doors and private email accounts is not something we will tolerate in WI!