JIM DOYLE FINED FOR BEING A CROOK

December 28, 2006

Governor fined for taking Packers tickets
By Ben Jones
Post-Crescent Madison bureau chief

MADISON — Gov. Jim Doyle will pay a $300 fine for violating the state’s ethics laws by accepting Packers tickets from a firm engaged in lobbying.


The state Ethics Board announced today that it has imposed the penalty for Doyle’s acceptance of corporate skybox tickets for a Dec. 7, 2003, game at Lambeau Field.

The board also imposed $300 penalties on Doyle’s campaign committee; Wisconsin Public Service Corporation, the company that provided the tickets; and Ron Antonneau, a lobbyist employed by the firm.

According to a news release from the state Ethics Board, Doyle paid the $63 face value for the tickets to attend a game in a WPS box but the exchange was not permitted under law.

“Wisconsin’s lobbying law, perhaps the strictest in the nation, does not permit exchanges between a state governmental official and a business that employs a lobbyist,” the release said.

“Wisconsin Public Service Corporation readily acknowledged that it does not offer football tickets and premium seating at Lambeau Field to the general public.”

Doyle spokesman Dan Leistikow issued a statement that said Doyle’s office “works hard to ensure that we comply with all standards and rules.”

“Over three years ago, on Dec. 7, 2003, Gov. Doyle attended a Green Bay Packers-Chicago Bears game,” he said. “This was consistent with the practice of governors over many years.

"Obviously, the Packers are an important part of Wisconsin, and a Packers-Bears game is always a special event. The tickets were all paid for in a manner this office believed was proper.

“The Ethics Board has recently raised questions about the manner of payment. The governor respects the board’s concerns and has agreed to a settlement of the matter.”

Doyle’s office on Thursday declined to comment beyond the statement.

According to the Ethics Board, Doyle accepted five tickets from WPS, including one for himself, two for his son and two for his son’s friends. His campaign committee reimbursed $63 for one of the tickets and Doyle paid the utility $63 for each of the other four tickets.

According to the board, during the 2003-04 session, WPS “employed four lobbyists and spent nearly a quarter of a million dollars trying to influence more than a dozen bills dealing with topics such as utilities’ payments to local governments.”

The Post-Crescent reported in October that Doyle frequently attends games at Lambeau Field, but it’s difficult for the public to discern through public records whether the candidates were at the games in their official capacity, who provided the tickets, and whether the money came from public, private or campaign pockets.

It is also difficult to get this information from Doyle and his staff.

The WPS tickets, which were listed in a campaign finance report, were among a number of tickets Doyle and his staff declined to provide specifics about. They also declined to say whether Doyle has ever accepted tickets from a lobbyist or a company seeking business from the state.

“You can be sure that we follow all of the laws correctly,” Doyle said in a short October interview in Lomira.

As recently as last week, Doyle still was not answering questions about how he handles Packers tickets.

Doyle, through his staff, offered The Post-Crescent an interview on Thursday at the Executive Residence but said in advance the governor would not speak about game tickets or government ethics.

The Post-Crescent declined the interview because of the conditions put on it.

JIM DOYLE -- OUR NIXONIAN GOVERNOR

THURSDAY, Sept. 28, 2006, 8:47 a.m.
OUR NIXONIAN GOVERNOR

(Note: This column appears in the Madison weekly Isthmus.)
By Charles Sykes

I’m sorry now that I once said Jim Doyle looks like a cross between a basset hound and Richard Nixon.

It was unfair to the hound and trivializes the Nixonian side of Doyle’s character. Make no mistake, the chilling aspect of last week’s banana republic moment at the state Elections Board was its Nixonian overtones.

“What’s really scary about this,” one business leader told me, “is that we have now have a governor who is willing to use the powers of government to punish political appointees. This time, it’s the Elections Board. Next time, will it be the Department of Revenue? The DNR?”

You probably know the story: In trying to rig a vote of the state Elections Board involving Republican Mark Green, a lawyer for the Doyle campaign laid out the strategy to Democratic appointees. The goal was to embarrass Green by retroactively changing elections rules and forcing him to return more than $400,000 he had transferred from his federal account.

That sort of transfer had been considered legal for 28 years and when former Democratic Congressman Tom Barrett did the same thing, the Elections Board said it was perfectly okay. But the Doyle team, faced with mounting scandals, set out to find some way to accuse Green of being as much of a crook as the governor.

The clock was running. Doyle Administration official Georgia Thompson had been convicted of a felony for rigging a state contract to benefit a contributor to the Doyle campaign. (At her sentencing last week, she got 18 months.) The federal investigation is ongoing and the media continue a steady drip of stories about state contracts with suspicious links to Doyle campaign cash.

And so Doyle’s lawyer, Michael Maistelman, reached out to Election Board members. The board then voted 4-3 (three Democrats joined by a Green Party rep) to ignore the advice of its own lawyer, George Dunst, who had said Green’s transfer should be allowed to stand. It declared the transfer illegal and ordered Green to divest himself of the cash, just two months before the November election.

Almost immediately, Doyle began a television ad barrage attacking Green for his “illegal money.”

That, of course, was the whole point.

In an e-mail the day before the vote, Maistelman advised one Election Board member that “the Gov’s Campaign and the Dem party and others will give you cover on this in the media. Even if this ends up in Court it is a PR victory for us since it makes Green spend money and have to defend the use of his Washington DC dirty money.”

In other words, it wasn’t about the law; it was about using the board’s actions to damage Doyle’s opponent. The language could hardly have been balder.

Other e-mails recount how Maistelman got other appointees “on board” the plan to whack Green. At one point, he assured a supine board member, “I ran this by the powers that be and was given a ‘green’ light on this idea.” The strings had been well and surely pulled; the supposedly independent watchdog had been turned into a plaint lapdog.

Much of the media have taken to calling Maistelman’s involvement “lobbying” the Elections Board. It wasn’t. The lawyer for the Democratic governor was giving marching orders to his party’s appointees, who promptly complied.

This, in itself, is hardly news. In fact, it could be argued that it’s perfectly consistent with the way this governor has done business. But who knew his minions would be so arrogant as to actually put it in writing?

Doyle’s response has been predictable. He denied knowing that Maistelman was his lawyer (yeah, that’s the ticket); seized on a story that a GOP official had also called a member of the Elections Board (apparently to ask, “Is it true the Dems are going to screw Green?”); and has continued to run ads decrying Green’s “dirty money,” while the dispute wends its way through the courts. In other words, the scheme worked exactly as planned.

As collateral damage, the gambit exposed the lawmakers (primarily Republican) who scuttled plans to reform the absurd practice of letting partisan hacks dominate the Elections Board.

But primarily, it gave us a glimpse of the new face of politics in Wisconsin. Doyle defenders have half a point when they note that Doyle did not invent aggressive fundraising or hardball politics, citing his predecessors including Pat Lucey and Tommy Thompson.

What they gloss over, however, is how far Doyle has taken this – from the shakedown of companies bidding for state contracts to the casual cynicism of his political thuggery. It is one thing to use spin to cover deficiencies of substance, but Doyle has turned to outright deception and official bullying to cover up an ethical meltdown.

In 1972, Richard Nixon survived Watergate to win a second term. Doyle may well survive Travelgate and other scandals, but his second term could well turn out to be as eventful as his new role model’s
***
UPDATE:
I received this email from local consultant George Mitchell:

Charlie,

Stepping back from the fray, it is just plain discouraging to realize if a straight arrow like Mark Green loses it will because Jim Doyle — of all people — prevented him for using legally raised funds. Walters' story today on the joke of an institution that is our Elections Board makes this all the more troubling. Doyle has raised more "dirty money" than any candidate for Governor...EVER...and he caps that off by rigging the Elections Board vote.

Think what it will be like in Madison for the next four years...and beyond...if Doyle is re-elected. He will have debased the office of Governor and gotten away with it.

George

Exactly.

DIRTY TRICKS FROM DESPERATE TEAM DOYLE

Doyle lawyer urged sanction

He lobbied 3 on Elections Board before Green vote

By STEVEN WALTERS
swalters@journalsentinel.com

Posted: Sept. 20, 2006

Madison - A lawyer for Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle's campaign repeatedly lobbied three Democratic members of the State Elections Board before they voted with the majority to order Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Green to divest $467,844 in donations from out-of-state political action committees, records show.

Attorney Michael S. Maistelman bluntly told Democratic Party members of the board he contacted why they should publicly sanction or punish the Green campaign, according to documents obtained by the Journal Sentinel under the state's open records law.

"Even if this ends up in Court it is a PR victory for us since it makes Green spend money and have to defend the use of his Washington DC dirty money," Maistelman said in a 9:31 a.m. e-mail one day before the vote. He sent the message to Carl Holborn and Kerry Dwyer, board members appointed by Democratic leaders of the Legislature.

Holborn, Dwyer and another Democratic appointee, Robert Kasieta, were part of a five-vote majority that gave Green's campaign 10 days to divest itself of $467,844 in donations from political action committees not registered in Wisconsin - an order the Green campaign will fight in a Dane County courtroom today.

Maistelman declined to be interviewed but told the Journal Sentinel in an e-mail that he was working for the Doyle campaign when he contacted Elections Board members. He noted that it was the non-partisan Wisconsin Democracy Campaign - and not the Doyle campaign - that filed the complaint about Green's political action committee donations that was upheld by the board.

"I'm an elections lawyer retained in connection with a matter before the Elections Board," said Maistelman, who campaign finance records show has been paid more than $21,000 by the Doyle campaign since January 2004.

"Of course I had conversations with the board members about the legal issues involved in this case, and the merits of Congressman Green's arguments, as I'm sure counsel for Green did," Maistelman said.

Asked why the Doyle campaign hired Maistelman, spokesman Anson Kaye said that Green's campaign "broke the law" by taking the $467,844.

"There was an important matter before the Elections Board," Kaye said. "We retained an attorney to advocate on our behalf, just as the Green campaign did."

Mark Graul, Green's campaign manager, said "nobody from the Green campaign" contacted any Elections Board member before the board's vote Aug. 30. The Journal Sentinel's open records request turned up no e-mail correspondence between Green aides and Elections Board members.

Green's argument

On the day the board voted, a lawyer for the Green campaign argued that the campaign should not have to divest itself of the PAC money. Green's lawyer, Don Millis, said that over the years, the board had approved three similar transfers.

Eric Schutt, Green's deputy campaign manager, on Wednesday called the documents outlining Maistelman's actions "yet another example of Jim Doyle manipulating state government for political gain."

"The information provided in these e-mails proves the decision was made well in advance of the State Elections Board meeting and that the decision was orchestrated by Jim Doyle's attorney," Schutt said.

Maistelman's contacts with the three board members were legal, said board legal counsel George Dunst. Any member of the public, and officials of the Green campaign, could have contacted board members to argue their position before the vote, Dunst said.

Dwyer noted, "Certainly, people contact us - that's what happens when you are in our positions."

The controversy over the Election Board's decision in the Green case has revived a debate over whether the board should be abolished. A move to combine the Elections and Ethics boards, and give the new merged board more authority to investigate corruption, passed the state Senate but died in the Assembly this year.

Avoided 'walking quorum'

E-mails and other documents obtained under the open records law show that Maistelman carefully chose which board members to lobby to avoid a potentially illegal "walking quorum" of board members scheduled to vote on Aug. 30 on whether to penalize Green's campaign.

At one point, Maistelman noted that another Democratic board member, Sherwin Hughes, Doyle's designee on the board, must be kept "out of the (contact) loop as I do not want to run into a violation of the Open Meetings laws."

The records show that Maistelman targeted Democratic board members Kasieta, Dwyer and Holborn with his e-mails and calls, and a visit to Kasieta's office, to advocate that the board find a way to punish Green's campaign.

Maistelman also suggested ways to do it.

"We need to accomplish the following," Maistelman e-mailed Holborn and Dwyer at 9:30 a.m. on the day before the Elections Board vote. In the same e-mail, Maistelman suggested possible anti-Green decisions the board could make.

In another e-mail the same day, Maistelman told the three Democrats that Holburn had suggested to him that the Elections Board "give Green an opportunity to get the out-of-state PACs registered so the (board) looks reasonable."

Maistelman added that he had run that idea "by the powers that be," and they had approved it.

Asked whom his comment referred to, Maistelman said he "was dealing with Dan Schooff on a regular basis on this matter, and we discussed possible legal remedies from time to time."

Schooff is Doyle's re-election campaign manager. Before joining the campaign, he was a state Public Service Commission official and member of the Assembly.

Holburn said he listens to Maistelman sometimes and at other times doesn't respond to his calls and e-mails.

Kasieta, who was out of town and not available for comment Wednesday, was appointed to the board by the state Democratic Party chairman.

Hughes and Libertarian Party designee Jacob Burns voted with the three other board members lobbied by Maistelman; two Republican board members backed Green. One non-partisan board member was absent, and the ninth member, a Republican designee, did not participate because of a conflict of interest

John Savage and John Schober, the two Republican members of the board who voted against sanctioning Green's campaign, responded to the newspaper's open records request by saying they did not have any documents covered by the request.

The $467,844 in question was legally given to Green's congressional campaign but was part of $1.3 million he transferred to his state campaign fund in January 2005.

Rule changed next day

The transfer came one day before the Elections Board adopted a rule requiring that all money spent on campaigns for governor must be given by political action committees registered with the state.

Maistelman was present on Aug. 30 when the Elections Board took its action against Green's campaign and talked to some board members before the vote. The same day, he denied that he was there working for the Doyle campaign.

Citizens Allied for Sane Highways: Doyle’s lost his mind

Citizens Allied for Sane Highways: Doyle’s lost his mind
9/15/2006

For more information contact
Robert Trimmier (414) 232-1466 or
Gretchen Schuldt (414) 331-0724

Sept. 15 – Gov. Jim Doyle’s unfunded proposal to rebuild the Zoo Interchange at the same time the unfunded North-South I-94 reconstruction project is scheduled to be underway is fiscal, planning, and congestion lunacy, Citizens Allied for Sane Highways said Friday.

CASH is a coalition formed to oppose freeway expansion in Milwaukee.

“This is a cheap election year ploy to win Waukesha County votes Doyle is not going to get anyway,” CASH co-chair Robert Trimmier said. “The $27 million to $28 million Doyle says he will propose for Zoo Interchange environmental and engineering studies ought to come from his campaign fund. This is the most expensive campaign commercial on record, and he’s charging it to the taxpayers of Wisconsin.”

Rebuilding North-South I-94 and the Zoo Interchange at the same time is sure to drive up the costs of both projects, since the state will be competing against itself for workers and equipment.

The North-South project may well cost more than $2 billion. The Zoo Interchange project would add at least several hundred million dollars to the price tag.

The simultaneous projects in and around Milwaukee also would create gridlock in the city, discouraging visitors and costing residents time and money while greatly increasing frustration.

“Doyle needs to explain today – before we spend millions and millions on pre-construction studies – how the state is going to pay for this project,” CASH co-chair Gretchen Schuldt said. “The federal government isn’t going to have the money – is Doyle advocating toll roads, higher taxes, or both?”

“Doyle wants to drain the entire Transportation Fund into the Milwaukee area,” Trimmier said. “The message to the rest of the state is: Drop dead.”

RPW: Asks Public Integrity Unit to Investigate Doyle Administration

RPW: Asks Public Integrity Unit to Investigate Doyle Administration
8/18/2006

Contact: Bob Delaporte, (608) 257-4765

(Madison, WI)...The Republican Party of Wisconsin is asking The Department of Justice's Public Integrity Unit to investigate the actions of Jim Doyle's campaign chair, Marc Marotta. This week, a Madison television station revealed that for at least the second time, Doyle's top aide may have given a campaign donor an unfair and illegal edge on a lucrative state contract.

Channel 27 News in Madison reported that Marotta met directly with the head of a firm just before they were awarded a $68.7 million dollar state contract. That company rewarded Marotta's boss, Jim Doyle, with $51,000, at least, in campaign donations. The Executive Director of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, Rick Wiley, says the meeting is in clear violation of Wisconsin law.

"There is a clear pattern of campaign donors getting special access and lucrative state contracts from Doyle," Wiley said, "Sadly this is just the latest in a long line of stories of how Jim Doyle has put Wisconsin up for auction."

This is not the first time that the Doyle administration appears to have a cozier relationship with campaign donors than firms that did not donate. According to information uncovered by the FBI, four phone calls were placed between Adelman Travel and Marotta's office during their bid for a lucrative state travel contract. Omega World Travel was not given the same preferential treatment. The FBI says no similar phone calls were exchanged with Omega World Travel. If Marotta discussed the procurement with Adelman and did not with Omega World Travel, it would likely be a violation of state law.

According to Wisconsin Procurement Law, the state must give fair and equal access during the bidding process:

Adm 10.08(5) Discussion with proposers. Fair and equal discussion may be conducted with all proposers for the purpose of clarification, and with proposers whose proposals are reasonably apt to be awarded the contract for the purpose of negotiating the best offer.
Doyle's administration remains under investigation by federal and state authorities.

Doyle Gas tax Pander -- Too Little, Too Late

Doyle defends action amid criticism

By STEVEN WALTERS and DON WALKER
swalters@journalsentinel.com

Posted: Aug. 9, 2006

Madison - Up for re-election in less than three months, Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle saw a political chance this week to woo angry consumers by trying to show that he's on their side on the potent election-year issue of soaring fuel prices.

At 11 a.m. Tuesday, Doyle said he didn't know if he could tell state regulators to not enforce the minimum markup law on ethanol-based gasoline. The law, written decades ago when all gas was totally derived from oil, requires a 9.18% markup from wholesalers to retailers. His lawyers were studying the issue, the governor said Tuesday morning.

A few hours later, he ordered state regulators not to enforce the minimum markup law on ethanol blends.

Between Doyle's late-morning uncertainty and his mid-afternoon action, his Republican challenger for governor, U.S. Rep. Mark Green of Green Bay, issued a news release that challenged him on the issue.

Were the two - Green's challenge and Doyle's swift response - related?

Doyle said Wednesday that Green's statement had nothing to do with his order, because he has been opposed to the minimum markup law since he was Dane County district attorney from 1977 until 1983.

"I don't know anything about opponents' actions," Doyle said.

As a district attorney, he said: "They would come in and ask me to enforce the law and I'd say, 'You mean you want me to go ask a jury to convict somebody for selling a product for less?' "

He said that he acted legally and that anyone who thought otherwise could sue to resolve that question.

"I can decide whether or not the state is going to use its enforcement authority to proceed," he said. "We've got five Big Oil companies that are taking unconscionable profits from people and they have no real legitimate competition."

Doyle also appeared to suggest that enforcing the minimum markup law on fuel without ethanol should not be a priority. "We haven't been using much enforcement authority on regular gasoline on this law, either," he said.

Some Republicans saw politics in Doyle's actions.

"The governor had an epiphany," said Senate Majority Leader Dale Schultz (R-Richland Center), who had wanted Doyle to exempt one type of ethanol-blended fuel - called E-85 and usable only in specially equipped vehicles - from the minimum markup law.

Schultz said that he was delighted by Doyle's order but noted that the broad scope of it - including not only E-85 but also the more popular E-10, a 10% ethanol blend that is sold statewide - was a sign that he's worried about his re-election.

"I think the governor knew he was in deep trouble in the Milwaukee metro area," Schultz added. "He was hoping what he did would turn around his fortunes in southeast Wisconsin."

Little effect on prices

If Doyle and his campaign advisers expected immediate help Wednesday where it matters most to consumers - at the gas pumps - they didn't get it.

Although some Wisconsin retailers cut the price of unleaded regular slightly Wednesday, the owner of one convenience store - the Woodman's grocery on Madison's east side - said the reductions were in response to competitors, and not to the governor's order.

"What the governor says publicly has nothing to do with anything in reality," said Phil Woodman. "I've talked to my lawyers, and they haven't got a clue as to what the governor did and what it means."

Bill Ball, the owner of a BP station in Phillips in northern Wisconsin, also doubted that the governor's action would cut his gas-pump price, which was $3.25 for regular unleaded on Wednesday.

"Doyle's order had no effect on my prices today, and I don't see it having any effect in the near future, either," Ball said. "I say that because most of the time gasoline with 10% ethanol cost more from my supplier."

Although Ball said he voted for Doyle in 2002, he also linked Doyle's ethanol order to the campaign.

"Is the governor that ignorant to what is really going on, or is he just using this to fool people into thinking he is doing something about gas prices while he pads his re-election war chest?" Ball said.

Ball said convenience store owners such as himself are more squeezed than ever.

"This year has been a very tough year for us since, as most economists will tell you, when the price of a product jumps, (profit) margins go down, and that is exactly what has happened in the gasoline retail business," Ball said.

"Our piece of the pie has gotten smaller, while the oil companies and the credit card companies are making more then ever."

Richard Shaten, a faculty associate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies who has studied ethanol, said Doyle's order could cut the price of ethanol-based fuel along borders where retailers compete with states without minimum markup laws.

But any potential price cuts on ethanol blends in Wisconsin could be offset by the national pinch caused by the shutdown of a major Alaskan pipeline - a pinch he said could add 25 cents to 40 cents to each gallon of fuel.

Shaten also saw politics in Doyle's decision.

"He does need to fortify his base, which includes the alternative-energy people, the ethanol people, the farm community" that grows the corn used to make ethanol, Shaten said.

"It's kind of like a no-brainer for him to wave the sword against the evil oil companies," he said. "I would assume that anybody with political savvy would take the opportunity to show that they're just not going to sit there and do nothing."

On Tuesday, Doyle and Green agreed on one thing: the need to help Wisconsin's ethanol industry grow. By Wednesday, officials of both campaigns were blasting each other over high gas prices.

"While Big Oil has driven gas prices through the roof, Mark Green has rewarded them with billion-dollar tax breaks," said Doyle campaign spokesman Anson Kaye, criticizing Green's voting record in Congress.

"Mark Green's been fattening up on Big Oil money for so long he might as well be on Exxon's payroll," Kaye added.

That's not true, said Green campaign manager Mark Graul. Green was vacationing with his family and was not available for comment.

"There's nothing in Mark Green's record that has been anything but making sure that Wisconsin consumers get a good price for their gasoline," Graul said.

"Jim Doyle has received tens of thousands of dollars from the very same Big Oil companies," Graul said. "The Doyle campaign has a problem telling the truth."

Steven Walters reported for this story from Madison and Don Walker from West Allis.

Another Jim Doyle Quid Pro Quo

Firm that won state grant hosted Doyle fundraiser, records show

July 30, 2006


Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle, second from left, uses a remote control to operate a Travelift yacht lift at Burger Boat in Manitowoc, Wis. He is flanked, from left, by Manitowoc Mayor Kevin Crawford, Burger Boat General Manager Jim Ruffolo and Burger Boat President David Ross. Two months after Doyle handed Burger Boat a $1.16 million state grant, Ross hosted a fundraiser that netted more than $16,000 in donations to his campaign, records show. Doyle accepted the donations even though he had returned $10,000 in contributions from the same Burger Boat Co. executives months earlier, citing the company's pending application for the state aid.

MADISON - Two months after Gov. Jim Doyle handed a yacht-building company a $1.16 million state grant, the company president hosted a fundraiser that netted more than $16,000 in donations to his campaign, records show.

Doyle accepted the donations even though he had returned $10,000 in contributions from the same Burger Boat Co. executives months earlier, citing the company's pending application for the state aid.

The donations Doyle returned were made in November, three days after a Department of Transportation panel recommended Burger Boat for the grant. Doyle, a Democrat running for re-election against U.S. Rep. Mark Green, has said he became aware of the close timing and returned them to avoid the appearance of impropriety.

But Doyle's latest disclosure report shows he turned around six months later and accepted $16,300 from company executives in May, two months after he formally announced the awarding of the grant at the company's Manitowoc headquarters.

Doyle had a $2 million fundraising advantage over Green as of June 30, with $5.17 million in the bank. But he has insisted there's a firewall between the campaign and state government.

David Ross, president of Burger Boat, the 143-year-old maker of luxury yachts, said the latest donations came at a fundraiser he hosted at his home for the governor. He gave $1,300 while his wife Katherine, also a company owner, gave the maximum $10,000 allowed.

Company vice president James Ruffolo gave $5,000 - the amount that was returned to him by Doyle's campaign six months earlier. Other executives from Manitowoc firms gave a total of $3,000 on the same day.

The fundraiser was in no way tied to the grant, Ross said, describing himself as a huge Doyle supporter.

"We want to help him out in his campaign," Ross said. "That's the bottom line and it really doesn't get simpler than that."

Doyle campaign spokesman Anson Kaye said the donations last year were returned "out of an abundance of caution" but that nothing inappropriate had occurred. He said Burger Boat executives approached the campaign after the grant process to again offer their support and the campaign accepted.

"The main thing here is that this is a good Wisconsin business that supports the governor for the work he's done for the state," Kaye said.

Bob Delaporte, spokesman for the state Republican Party, which has repeatedly accused Doyle of rewarding campaign contributors with state business, said Doyle was "tone deaf to the appearance of things."

"It looks like he got a refund," he said. "If the donations were inappropriate at one time, what made them suddenly appropriate?"

A Department of Transportation official has said a five-member advisory committee was not aware of the company's donations to Doyle and enthusiastically endorsed its grant proposal. The grant helped the company build a ramp to launch oversized yachts into the Manitowoc River.

The grant was one of three harbor assistance grants that Doyle announced this spring, with the others going to the city of Superior and the Port of Milwaukee.

Ross and Ruffolo brought Burger Boat out of bankruptcy, reopening the shipyard in February 1993. Doyle has called the company "one of the great success stories in Wisconsin."

Ross said state aid has been critical for an expansion of Burger Boat that has doubled the size of the firm to 400 employees. The company won $2.1 million in state grants and loans in 2003. Executives donated $10,000 to Doyle's campaign that year, too.

The Burger president said the governor has helped the economy in the Manitowoc area rebound from factory closures and mass layoffs.

"We need more people in politics that are like Jim Doyle," he said. "He's going up against a formidable opponent here and I happen to think he's doing a wonderful job and would like to see him re-elected."

The "know nothing" Doyle Campaign

Common Cause chief goo-goo Jay Heck thinks the Doylies are starting to sound like an old comedy routine.

Like Sergeant Schultz in the old "Hogan's Heroes" television comedy of the 1960's, the Governor Jim Doyle re-election campaign repeatedly says they "know nothing" about any connection between the awarding of lucrative state contracts and the significant campaign contributions to Doyle's re-election from executives in the firms receiving those contracts. Doyle's campaign mouthpieces go even further, on an almost daily basis, sometimes angrily denying any link whatsoever between campaign contributions and state contract awards--as if such a consideration would be inconceivable under any circumstances. Doyle campaign spokespersons Melanie Fonder and Anson Kaye say over and over again that there is absolutely no connection between the hundreds of thousands, even million of dollars in campaign contributions and the state contracts awarded (i.e. Adelman Travel), reversed policy decisions (i.e. sale of the Kewaunee Nuclear Power Plant), and significant public policy decisions (i.e. signing of gaming contracts in perpetuity for Native-American Tribes).

How naive do they think the citizens of Wisconsin are?

Lawmaker Asks For Probe Into Packers Tickets For Doyle, Aides

Lawmaker Asks For Probe Into Packers Tickets For Doyle, Aides

Complaint Referred To State Ethics Board

POSTED: 10:24 pm CDT July 20, 2006
MADISON, Wis. -- A state lawmaker is calling for an investigation into whether Gov. Jim Doyle and his aides broke any rules in accepting tickets to a Packers game.
Assemblyman Stephen Freese of Dodgeville has asked the state's attorney general to investigate.
A Milwaukee Journal Sentinel report said Doyle and the aides were given the tickets for a Packers-Bears game in 2003.
The report said two companies provided the box seats. The governor's campaign said it reimbursed one company $170 for the tickets used by Doyle and his chief of staff, Susan Goodwin.
Freese said he wants to know whether those companies had business in the state at the time and whether $170 was fair reimbursement for the skybox tickets.
State ethics guidelines say state officials shouldn't accept tickets to events unless the same offer is available to the general public.
The state Department of Justice has referred the complaint to the state Ethics Board.
Doyle campaign spokesman Anson Kaye said the complaint is without merit -- but he didn't answer questions about the tickets.

Verdicts hurt Wisconsin governor's re-election bid, analysts say

Verdicts hurt Wisconsin governor's re-election bid, analysts say

RYAN J. FOLEY
Associated Press
MADISON, Wis. - Democrats' hopes of retaining the governor's office in this key swing state took a hit with the conviction of a state official for steering a contract to a company that donated to Gov. Jim Doyle, political analysts said Tuesday.
Federal jurors Monday convicted Georgia Thompson, a Department of Administration purchasing official, of fraud charges for steering a contract to book travel to Adelman Travel Group. The company's chief executive and a board member each gave $10,000 to Doyle's campaign before and after winning the contract.
The felony convictions add an explosive issue into Doyle's campaign in which he is trying to become the first Democratic governor to win re-election in Wisconsin in 32 years.
Doyle is facing a challenge from U.S. Rep. Mark Green, R-Green Bay, in the November general election. Polls already show the race in a statistical dead heat five months before the election. Even before the conviction, several analysts said Doyle was among the most vulnerable Democratic governors running for re-election.
"I think this is definitely going to be an issue in the race, especially in an election cycle where ethics is playing a role," said Jennifer Duffy, a political analyst for the Cook Political Report. "As Democrats have pushed this message of a culture of corruption at the national level, it has a backlash effect on someone like Doyle."
Voters in Wisconsin, a state traditionally known for its clean government, tend to punish elected officials for corruption, said Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics.
"It does hurt him and the amazing thing is he's only been in one term. Usually it takes awhile to develop corruption," he said. "Does this trial mean Doyle himself is corrupt? Of course not. But he's going to be held accountable for what's happened in his administration."
Doyle said Tuesday the trial made clear Thompson acted alone and that he was moving to fire her, saying he has "zero tolerance for ethical lapses in government." He said he's not worried that the conviction could hurt him politically, saying voters would be focused on issues like education and the economy.
"I've been around tough campaigns before and I know that there are going to be a lot of accusations back and forth," Doyle told reporters after an appearance at a home in a Madison suburb. "The fact is that this was a verdict about one state employee, a woman to this day I've never met."
Both national parties are focusing on the race because they believe control of the governor's office will help them carry the swing state in the 2008 presidential election.
U.S. Sen. John Kerry defeated President Bush to take the state's 10 electoral votes by 11,000 votes out of nearly 3 million cast in 2004. Doyle served as Kerry's campaign chairman in the state and used the powers of his office to help him win.
The convictions of Thompson came just three days after Doyle kicked off his re-election campaign with a speech at the state Democratic Party convention in La Crosse.
During the weeklong trial, U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic painted a cozy relationship between Doyle and Adelman.
The governor met with Adelman executives months before the contract competition and his top aide at the time met and traded phone calls with Adelman before and during the competition. Doyle appeared at the firm's 20th anniversary party last summer, just months after it won the contract worth an estimated $750,000.
Thompson, a civil servant, said she was unaware of the close relationship between Doyle and Adelman and felt no pressure to award the contract to Adelman. Biskupic cautioned that the case was not about Doyle.
Still, the state Republican Party wasted no time in going on the attack.
The trial "showed how far this administration is willing to go to reward political cronies and campaign donors," state GOP Chairman Rick Graber said in a statement.
Green, who became Doyle's main challenger after Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker dropped out of the race earlier this year, called for a change in state law to prohibit campaign contributions while companies compete for state work.
Doyle canceled the contract after the indictment but has kept the story alive by refusing to return the donations, analysts said.
"Give the money back. It's not worth it," Sabato said. "That's always a mistake when officials turn stubborn."
Sabato said Doyle's popularity has been hampered by battles with the Republican-controlled state Legislature and the shadow of four-term Gov. Tommy Thompson, the state's most popular elected official who stepped down to join President Bush's cabinet in 2001.
Doyle is making his support of embryonic stem cell research, pioneered in Wisconsin, the centerpiece of the campaign and framing the election as a choice between Wisconsin values and Washington, where Green has served in Congress since 1998.
Doyle's top aide, Department of Administration Secretary Steve Bablitch, said the case wouldn't hurt Doyle's campaign. He said Doyle would be rewarded by voters for balancing a $3.2 billion budget deficit he inherited without raising taxes, boosting funding for schools and downsizing state government.
"At the end of the day, the voters are going to be looking at the governor's track record," he said.

Jim Doyle's Deficit -- Lie Exposure #483

The Oshkosh Northwestern
Posted June 16, 2006

Editorial: Doyle's deficit problem

The numbers are out. Wisconsin state government will start planning the 2007-09 budget with a $2.5 billion deficit. The figures came from the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau, at the request of state Sens. Mike Ellis and Rob Cowles.

Point the finger of blame at the governor. Gov. Jim Doyle "balanced" the existing budget by borrowing money from funds he wasn't supposed to touch or simply not counting some costs.

Bizarre, but true.

An honest approach would have had a budget with a combination of cuts, mergers and reduced spending when writing the 2005-07 budget.

So, Doyle needs to explain why he doesn't want to be serious or he needs to get serious for 2007-09.

The governor with the most powerful veto pen in the nation shouldn't have a deficit problem like the one of Gov. Jim Doyle of Wisconsin.

Timing of Doyle gift questioned

Timing of Doyle gift questioned
Donation, meeting with former aide at state office coincide
By PATRICK MARLEY
pmarley@journalsentinel.com
Posted: July 7, 2006

Madison - Former Administration Secretary Marc Marotta met last year in his state office with a Philadelphia-area attorney who gave Gov. Jim Doyle $10,000 on the same day, state records show.
Advertisement
71900More Coverage

Click to enlarge
Section : State Politics
Section: Election 2006

Katie Boyce, Doyle's fund- raiser, helped arrange the meeting, said Anson Kaye, a spokesman for Doyle's campaign. Marotta's calendar lists Boyce as an attendee to the meeting, but Kaye said she was included on the calendar in error.

The April 6, 2005, meeting was with Richard Schiffrin and Nicholas Pullen of Schiffrin & Barroway, a firm that specializes in shareholder lawsuits. That same day, Schiffrin gave Doyle's campaign $10,000, the maximum allowed under state law.

Marotta, who stepped down as secretary in October and became Doyle's campaign chairman, did not return phone calls. Sean Dilweg, who served as Marotta's top aide, said the lawyers met with Marotta for less than an hour to discuss hiring the firm to ensure that the state's pension fund signed on to successful shareholder lawsuits. The firm did not get any state work.

The donation and meeting were in no way linked, Dilweg and Kaye said.

As secretary, Marotta was a member of the State of Wisconsin Investment Board, which runs the pension fund. The attorneys met with board staff members the day before; Marotta advised them that those were the people the attorneys should talk to, Dilweg said.

The meeting "was completely about what business they could offer to the state, and he referred them swiftly to SWIB," Dilweg said.

Rick Wiley, executive director of the state Republican Party, said the explanations from Doyle's aides were not credible.

"That is the lamest excuse I have ever heard coming out of their campaign," Wiley said. "I think they're lying about this. This is just another example of the arrogance of Marc Marotta and Jim Doyle."

Wiley said he would ask prosecutors to investigate whether the meeting was improper. Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard and Mike Bauer, an aide to Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager, said they were not familiar with Marotta's meeting with Schiffrin.

Blanchard and Lautenschlager - who, like Doyle, are Democrats - have been involved in investigations into ties between campaign donations and state business. Campaign records show Lautenschlager received a $5,000 donation from Barbara Schiffrin of the same firm a day before Richard Schiffrin donated the $10,000 to Doyle.
Balancing act

Marotta's schedule shows that like most of his Democratic and Republican predecessors, he was consistently involved in both campaign work and running the state. His aides have long said he maintained a firewall between political activities and state business by campaigning only off state property and on his own time.

The calendar lists Boyce, by last name only, as a meeting attendee. She is not listed as an attendee for other meetings she arranged for Marotta. Instead, those entries include a notation that says "per K. Boyce."

A call to Boyce was returned by Kaye, the campaign spokesman. He could not explain why Boyce was listed as a participant if she was not supposed to be at the meeting.

Kaye said Boyce referred the lawyers to the Department of Administration several weeks earlier when they asked about state business.

"She never was at the meeting, she was never going to attend the meeting and she never would attend such a meeting," Kaye said.

The meeting was not unusual, Kaye said. "The job of the DOA secretary is to meet with business leaders and find out their ideas for the state," he said.

Marotta has made that argument in the past to explain why he met with Adelman Travel officials about how the state could save money on travel. That firm, whose executives gave Doyle $20,000, eventually landed a $750,000 state contract. State procurement worker Georgia Thompson was convicted last month of illegally steering business to the firm.

Dilweg said Marotta's door was open to a range of business and community leaders, and campaign donors do not have special access to government. He noted Marotta had more than 250 meetings in April and May 2005, including ones with Milwaukee pastors and James Klauser, the administration secretary under Republican Gov. Tommy G. Thompson.

Richard Schiffrin did not return calls. His $10,000 donation to Doyle is the only one he has ever made to a Wisconsin candidate, according to campaign finance records. He is a heavy donor to national Democratic campaigns and Democratic-leaning causes. For instance, he gave $250,000 to outside spending group America Coming Together in 2004.

Schiffrin is one of the founders of Schiffrin & Barroway, a law firm that represents shareholders in class-action suits.
Governor's mansion meeting

Most meetings Marotta had with Boyce occurred off state property over the lunch hour or after normal business hours. One exception was a Dec. 28, 2004, meeting at the governor's mansion.

Kevin Kennedy, the executive director of the State Elections Board, said such a meeting was probably not inappropriate because the governor may conduct personal business at his state-owned residence, even if that means meeting with campaign advisers.

Released Friday under the state's public records law, the calendar also shows that Marotta attended after-hours meetings at Boyce's request, such as a Feb. 9, 2005, budget briefing for the Governor's Circle, a campaign group. On Feb. 15, he attended a dinner with building contractors at the governor's mansion at Boyce's request.

Dilweg said the governor has hosted a number of dinners at the executive residence for various groups, but they were not campaign related.

The schedule also shows Marotta attending a fund-raiser for Senate Democrats in Spring Green from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. May 26, 2005, at Boyce's request. But the schedule also shows Marotta worked past 9:30 that night because he traveled to Eau Claire to speak with the League of Wisconsin Municipalities.

Jonathan Becker, counsel for the state Ethics Board, said cabinet secretaries have flexible schedules because they typically work more than 40 hours a week.

"I don't think cabinet secretaries punch a clock," he said.

On June 15, 2005, Marotta is listed as doing "Desk Time (per K. Boyce)" at the governor's campaign headquarters. Dilweg said that was to make campaign fund-raising calls or to do other political work.

INVESTIGATORS QUESTION DOYLE TEAM ON CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS-NUCLEAR APPROVAL CONNECTION

Psc Workers Interviewed In Probe
Investigators Look Into Controversial Sale Of Nuclear Power Plant.
Wisconsin State Journal Wednesday, May 10, 2006
JASON STEIN jstein@madison.com 608-252-6129

Investigators at the state Department of Justice conducted long interviews last month with at least three state regulatory employees involved in the approval of the controversial sale of a nuclear power plant last year, agency records show.
Authorities have also questioned two employees at a Green Bay utility whose executives held a fundraiser for Gov. Jim Doyle the day before state regulators made an initial decision on the $191.5 million sale of a nuclear plant owned in part by that utility, a company spokesman said.

The three April meetings recorded in the visitor log at the state Public Service Commission show a probe into possible influence-buying in the Kewaunee plant case is ongoing.

Department of Justice spokesman Brian Rieselman declined comment.

PSC spokeswoman Linda Barth confirmed the logbook was accurate but wouldn't comment on what was discussed, saying the PSC doesn't "comment on any matter where there's a review pending and it's DOJ's review."
"We are cooperating fully with the Department of Justice. We are confident that the process and procedures followed in this decision were accurate and appropriate and that we're looking for a speedy resolution in this matter," Barth said.

The log showed that between April 4 and April 11, two agents of the state Division of Criminal Investigation met for several hours each with: PSC economist Dennis Koepke, who served as an analyst on the Kewaunee sale case; Jeff Kitsembel, who handles nuclear issues for the PSC; and PSC general counsel David Gilles, who also played a role in the case.

Koepke wouldn't comment, other than to say he was the first person interviewed by investigators. Kitsembel and Gilles did not return messages.

A November 2004 fundraiser by the top executive of the parent of utility Wisconsin Public Service Corp. of Green Bay drew $25,750 for Doyle -- the largest single day of donations by utility workers for a state political candidate from 1993 to June 2005, a State Journal analysis found. The Kewaunee plant was then owned by WPS and Alliant Energy Corp. of Madison, which were attempting to sell it to Dominion Resources of Richmond, Va.

The PSC initially denied the request for the sale in November 2004, but after the three companies revised their proposal, the PSC approved the sale in March 2005.

WPS spokesman Kerry Spees said Tuesday that an executive at the utility and one other employee have also been interviewed by investigators about the Kewaunee case. Spees said he wasn't sure of the date of the meetings and he wouldn't give other details.

"We think that trying to make a connection between a campaign contribution to Gov. Doyle and some (PSC decision) is quite a stretch," Spees said. "We don't believe there's anything there."

Investigators have not questioned any Alliant employees, spokesman Scott Smith said.

Both PSC officials and Doyle's campaign denied any connection between donations and regulatory action.

"That's ludicrous," campaign spokesman Anson Kaye said, noting the independence of PSC regulators.

The three members of the PSC are appointed by the governor. It is controlled by two Doyle appointees.

Late last year, state Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager said her office was looking into possibly improper meetings in 2004 between top aides at the PSC and utility executives in the months leading up to the first Kewaunee decision.

In the recent interviews, Lautenschlager's office appears to be focusing on the campaign donations and not those meetings, said one source who has spoken with investigators. The source asked not to be named to protect professional relationships.

Of the April interviews, none were with the top aides who were involved in those 2004 meetings, though Gilles has also been a point person for the PSC on that matter.

MORE PAY TO PLAY WITH JIM DOYLE

Consulting execs give Doyle $45K
Donations made after firms win state contracts
By David Callender

Months after landing lucrative state contracts, executives from two out-of-state consulting firms gave donations totaling nearly $45,000 to Gov. Jim Doyle's re-election campaign.

The donations to Doyle marked the first time that anyone from either company - Chicago-based Equis Corp. and Indianapolis-based Crowe Chizek - gave significant cash to any candidate in Wisconsin, according to an analysis of campaign finance records by the nonpartisan Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.

In the case of Equis Corp., the firm's president and his wife gave Doyle nearly the maximum contribution allowed under state law - $10,000 each - less than a year after the state approved a contract amendment potentially worth millions to the firm.

The firm's chief operating officer and three other top executives gave Doyle a total of more than $7,000 in the same period.
Consulting execs give Doyle $45K

Crowe Chizek officials, meanwhile, gave Doyle a total of $17,500, beginning with a donation of $2,500 from one of the firm's executives only months after the firm won a $6.7 million contract.

Both contractors submitted low bids for their work, but Wisconsin Democracy Campaign director Mike McCabe said the donations renew questions about so-called "pay-to-play" practices in state government.

"This is a classic pattern where campaign contributions flow in after a company wins a contract, where before you didn't see any big donations from folks and then all of a sudden they give these huge amounts," McCabe said. "It could be coincidence, but it creates the appearance that government is for sale," he added.

DOYLE SWITCHES PSC CRONY TO CAMPAIGN CRONY

SAT., FEB 25, 2006 - 12:57 AM
PSC aide gets Doyle campaign position
PHIL BRINKMAN and JASON STEIN Wisconsin State Journal
The top aide to the chairman of the state Public Service Commission has taken a job with Gov. Jim Doyle's campaign, a move that has critics once again questioning the independence of the regulatory body.

Dan Schooff, executive assistant to PSC Chairman Dan Ebert, is leaving to become the political director for the Democratic governor's re-election campaign.

Schooff, of Beloit, served three terms in the state Assembly before Doyle appointed him in 2004 as administrator of the state Department of Administration's energy division. He was appointed to the PSC last March.

"Dan Schooff is talented, well-respected, and has done great work as a former legislator, as a member of my administration, and at the PSC," Doyle said in a statement Friday. "I look forward to working closely with him as the campaign moves forward."

Doyle's relationship with the PSC has come under scrutiny with recent revelations that authorities are investigating possible links between donations from utility executives and state regulators' approval of the sale of a nuclear power plant.

Although Doyle has appointed two of the PSC's three members, both the governor and regulatory officials maintain the commission is independent of the governor's influence.

Schooff is a longtime Doyle loyalist and was one of the few Democratic lawmakers who supported Doyle in the Democratic primary during his first bid for governor four years ago, said Jay Heck, executive director of government watchdog group Common Cause of Wisconsin.

"The governor's campaign claims that the PSC and even the appointments to the PSC are totally independent of the governor's office and are not subject to pressure or discussion," Heck said. "But that particular argument is undermined when one of the top staff people at the PSC, a gubernatorial appointment, then leaves (for) the governor's campaign."

Doyle campaign spokeswoman Melanie Fonder rejected the suggestion that Schooff's hiring showed the governor was too cozy with the PSC.

"This is a person who has a long history in Wisconsin including as a former legislator and as a member of the governor's administration," Fonder said of Schooff. "The governor always picks the people who are best for the jobs."

Jim Doyle and Steven Avery -- What Do They Have In Common?

At least 7 firms winning no-bid contracts gave Doyle money

At least 7 firms winning no-bid contracts gave Doyle money
By JR Ross
Associated Press

MADISON, Wis. - Employees of at least seven companies donated to Gov. Jim Doyle's re-election campaign around the same time the state picked their firms for no-bid contracts totaling more than $36.1 million, according to an Associated Press review.

They include two IBM salesmen who gave Doyle more than $11,000 over a three-year period as the business won more than a dozen contracts worth more than $6 million.

Also, three Oracle Corp. employees gave Doyle $3,250 within days of the company winning a contract that could be worth up to $29 million to provide software and technical support to the state.

Some $16,000 in donations from employees of the other five companies in the AP review were given to Doyle around the time their firms won work.

Doyle has been under fire over the last several months as federal, state and local prosecutors review a contract won by a travel agency whose executives gave $20,000 to Doyle shortly before and after the deal took effect. A federal grand jury last month indicted a state employee involved in selecting the firm, alleging she manipulated the process to help the company beat out a competitor to "cause political advantage for her supervisors."

Mike McCabe, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, said a culture has developed in Madison that vendors feel they must make campaign contributions to enhance their chances to win state work.

"They've almost been trained like rats," McCabe said. "You push the right button, and out comes a treat."

Doyle's office referred all questions about the donations to his campaign. Doyle campaign spokeswoman Melanie Fonder said the governor has never tied state work to political contributions. He returned $10,000 in donations from executives of a Manitowoc company that came in three days after the firm won a $1.1 million grant.

Fonder said the campaign reviews all donations and has no plans to return those identified in the AP review.

"There is no connection," Fonder said.

IBM won more no-bid contracts awarded from the state's three largest agencies than any other company over the past three years, according to the AP's review. The work was largely related to hardware maintenance and software purchases.

Around the time the company won those contracts, salesmen Daniel Meixelsperger and Mark Ronnie made a series of donations to Doyle's campaign totaling $11,100. Some of the donations were made within weeks of the company winning the no-bid contracts.

Meixelsperger is the main sales representative the state deals with, according to the Department of Administration. A contract lists Ronnie as a company contact for the state.

Department of Administration Executive Secretary Sean Dilweg said the state selected IBM for its mainframe in the 1990s, which required the state to purchase IBM products that are compatible with its system.

According to a database of contributions maintained by the Democracy Campaign, Meixelsperger also donated to former Govs. Scott McCallum and Tommy Thompson while they were in office.

"These were private donations, and they weren't connected with contracts awarded by the state," IBM spokesman Scott Cook said, declining further comment.

Various Oracle offices had 47 contracts with state agencies to maintain databases tracking things like road work and criminal histories before the state decided to consolidate the work into one contract, Dilweg said. The contract is expected to save the state up to 45 percent of its prior costs, including a $2 million savings achieved in the first year of the six-year deal, Dilweg said.

The donations from Oracle employees came between May and June 2005, within weeks of the contract's approval. All three live outside Wisconsin, including Margaret Kuhlman, an account manager who works with the state. She is the only one of the three to have made a political contribution to a state candidate in the previous decade, giving Doyle $500 in 2003, according to the Democracy Campaign database.

Kuhlman did not return calls from the AP to her Chicago office, and a company spokeswoman declined comment.

McCabe said vendors seeking state work have given to governors since long before Doyle took office.

Campaign finance reports show McCallum received $4,001 in 2001 from executives of an Oklahoma company that built a private prison in Wisconsin hoping the state would buy it. The money came in one week before the state Building Commission, chaired by McCallum, approved buying the prison for $75 million.

In 1999, executives of a Fond du Lac construction firm gave Thompson $37,000 two weeks before the Building Commission he chaired gave the company a $29.5 million, no-bid contract to build a prison for sexual predators in Mauston.

Thompson faced other allegations that contributions were tied to state work but denied there was any connection.

McCabe's group last year reviewed more than 5,000 Commerce Department economic development grants handed out between 1999 and 2004, a period covering the terms of Thompson, McCallum and Doyle. It found those who had donated to political candidates received awards averaging more than $1 million. It said that those that did not received an average of $129,990.

"They're not making donations to get good government," McCabe said.

The consulting firm Mead & Hunt won a no-bid contract from the state in 2004 to do an analysis of the Dane and Milwaukee county airports as the state fought the proposed closure of Wisconsin military bases. Company president Rajan Sheth gave Doyle $1,250 over the course of the year, including $250 eight days before the almost $80,000 contract was approved.

Sheth said he opposes exchanging contributions for political favors and said the donations were not tied to the contract the company won.

Sheth has made multiple donations to numerous candidates spanning the political spectrum, according to the Democracy Campaign database. Mead & Hunt is one of the state's oldest consulting firms, in business for 106 years.

"Mead & Hunt has done work for state government since long before I was born," said Sheth, who has worked for the company almost 30 years. "I don't think there is any correlation with any contribution any of us make."

Why would you keep someone running your campaign who failed to tell you that he had admitted to violating the law?

GarveyBlog
by Ed Garvey
February 2, 2006

Should have asked?
Jim Doyle announced that he will keep his campaign manager despite "the revelation that he had campaigned on state time when he worked for the Assembly" according to MJS. The Governor said he was never briefed on what his manager said to prosecutors in 2001.

Isn't that the point? Why would you keep someone running your campaign who failed to tell you that he had admitted to violating the law? OK, you didn't know and practised "don't ask don't tell" policy in hiring staff. OK. But how about your manager? Has he fully briefed you now or should we wait for the Jensen trial to learn more?

This is not good.

Doyle Defends Criminal Behavior of Team Doyle

Doyle to keep campaign manager
Governor says he won't try people for things that happened years ago
By PATRICK MARLEY
pmarley@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Feb. 1, 2006

Madison - Gov. Jim Doyle said Wednesday he would retain Rich Judge as his campaign manager, despite the revelation this week that Judge told investigators in 2001 that he had campaigned on state time when he worked for the Assembly.

Although Doyle was attorney general when investigators interviewed Judge in late 2001, the governor said that he was never briefed on what Judge said. During a yearlong inquiry into Capitol corruption, Doyle's agency lent investigators to Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard, but Doyle said that he consciously avoided being updated on the cases and made no charging decisions.

The Democratic governor said he also was not aware of the details in the reports when he hired Judge to lead his re-election campaign.

His comments came a day after Rep. Scott Jensen (R-Town of Brookfield) filed with a Dane County court copies of investigative summaries of interviews with Judge and other Democratic Assembly workers.

Jensen is to go on trial Feb. 21 on felony charges of directing aides to campaign on state time. He maintains the reports show he is the victim of selective prosecution because no Assembly Democrats were charged.

Two Democrats who were Senate leaders at the time have been charged and convicted, however.

Taxpayers spent $9,193 to cover Judge's legal bills, according to Assembly Chief Clerk Patrick Fuller. Doyle said he did not support the Legislature's decision to pay that tab.

Doyle said he had no plans to review the interviews with Judge.

"Whatever happened four or five years ago with Rich is something that he cooperated with everybody about, and that's fine," Doyle said. "I'm not going to go back and try people for things that happened many years ago."

Judge worked for the Assembly Democratic Caucus from mid-1998 to May 2001, serving as caucus director for his last year. He told investigators he attended two campaign meetings in 1999 in the Capitol office of then-Rep. Jeff Plale (D-South Milwaukee) to discuss fund raising.

Plale, who is now a state senator, said he could not recall the particulars of those meetings but acknowledged that "lines were blurred" at the time.

"I know we had meetings in my office," Plale said. "To remember six, seven years ago what all those meetings were about, I'd be guessing."

Plale was co-chairman of the Assembly Democrats' fund-raising campaign in 1998 and 1999. He said he did not seek another term because of mounting concerns about campaigning on state time.

"As the lines got blurrier, I got more uncomfortable," he said.

Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Madison), the other campaign co-chairman, also attended those meetings, Judge told investigators. Pocan said this week he did not recall the meetings and was unaware of employees campaigning on state time.

Most of the alleged campaigning took place under the leadership of Rep. Shirley Krug (D-Milwaukee), who was then the minority leader, according to the reports. Krug, who retired from the Legislature in 2004, could not be reached Wednesday.

Doyle Gives Back Some Dirty Marina Money

Posted February 2, 2006
Doyle returns Burger Boat donations
Governor sends back $10,000 to avoid appearance of influencing a major state grant
By Charlie Mathews
Herald Times Reporter


MANITOWOC - Gov. Jim Doyle has returned $10,000 in campaign donations from Burger Boat owners David Ross and Jim Ruffolo, according to a campaign finance document filed Tuesday.

Two days after each man made a $5,000 donation, a Department of Transportation advisory committee accepted the company's $1.1 million grant proposal for a boat ramp.

Larry Kieck, a DOT harbors and waterways analyst, said the advisory committee was not aware of the company's donations and unanimously endorsed the project.

Ross said the donations were not meant to influence the grant award, but acknowledged "the timing was not right."

He said he understood the return of the donations.

"We were in the middle of the application for the HAP grant ... (Doyle) wanted to make sure there were no improprieties so the funds were returned," Ross said.

"I am very supportive of the governor and always have been. He has been so pro-business," said the company president. "When our entire community was hit hard with loss of jobs he stepped right up to the plate. He's my kind of guy ... I wanted to continue to show my support."

If Doyle approves the grant, the company would become the first private firm to receive a Harbor Assistance Program (HAP) grant.

The grant would cover 80 percent of the $1.4 million construction costs of a sloped ramp allowing Burger to launch megayachts, up to about 160 feet in length, into the Manitowoc River. It also would help underwrite repair to the docks and seawall.

Ross said the project would help keep about 400 Burger employees' jobs viable.

The Harbor Assistance Grant program has existed since 1979, but private companies weren't eligible until a change in state law in 2004.

Kieck said the committee thought Burger's plan "was one of the best ones they had seen in a long time."

Doyle's office is expected soon to announce the grant for Burger Boat, Kieck said. The state transportation secretary already approved the award, he said.

Doyle's campaign will not return $5,000 donations that Ross and Ruffolo made in 2003, spokeswoman Melanie Fonder said.

Those donations came six months after Burger Boat won $2.1 million in state grants and loans for a company expansion and two months before Doyle appeared at the company's groundbreaking on the project.

The move comes against a backdrop of intense scrutiny over campaign donations. Doyle and the two Republicans hoping to defeat him in November, Mark Green and Scott Walker, each has returned contributions they considered tainted this month.

Doyle, however, has refused calls to give back $20,000 in donations tied to a travel agency that won a state contract.

Mike McCabe, director of the campaign finance watchdog group Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, called the cash return "an important step for the governor." But he said Doyle was "splitting hairs" by refusing donations in this case while accepting them from others that get state business.

Earlier this week, Republicans called on Doyle to return $20,000 from executives of a company that won a travel contract after prosecutors say a state employee manipulated the bidding process to favor the company, Adelman Travel Group.

Doyle canceled the contract but said he would keep the donations because they were made legally and neither donor — the company's CEO and a board member — had done anything wrong.

Doyle said those contributions were different than the Burger Boat case because they came "well before and well after the contract was given."

"It's time to put an end to the governor's shady deals. Wisconsin deserves better."

RPW: Doyle Administration Must Come Clean to Voters About Travel Contract Scheme
1/27/2006
Contact: Bob Delaporte, (608) 257-4765

(Madison, WI)...The Republican Party of Wisconsin says it will continue to seek the answers that Governor Jim Doyle refuses to give on his administration's involvement in potentially illegally awarding a lucrative state travel contract.

On Thursday, the party made another open records request for documents surrounding a suspicious October 18, 2004 meeting involving Georgia Thompson and then Department of Administration Secretary Mark Marotta to discuss travel contracts. That meeting took place less than a week after Adelman Travel donated $2,500 to the governor's re-election campaign. Thompson is now facing two federal indictments for manipulating the process to favor the governor's donor. The Chairman of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, Rick Graber says the taxpayers deserve answers.

"Jim Doyle and his administration can't keep their story straight on what happened to the taxpayer's money," Graber said, "We're going to keep digging because the governor isn't being straight with the people of Wisconsin."

WKOW Television in Madison reported on Thursday that another key DOA official, Gina Frank-Reece is claiming she never heard complaints on how the travel contract was awarded despite claims to the contrary from a University of Wisconsin official. That discrepancy comes on the heels of some news stories stating that the governor won't return the tainted money from Adelman Travel or re-bid the contract and others saying he might. Chairman Graber says Governor Doyle must provide answers.

"The governor owes the people of Wisconsin an explanation," Graber said, "He needs to start realizing that he is accountable to the voters and not the special interests."

Since taking office, Governor Doyle's administration has been plagued by pay-to-play accusations and questionable contracts. In addition to the Adelman contract, investigators are scrutinizing the state's approval to sell a nuclear power plant. Executives of the utilities that owned the plant contributed heavily to the Doyle campaign in the months surrounding approval of the sale.

The Doyle administration is also coming under fire for rewarding a political ally with a $500,000 contract for W-2 services, despite not meeting the goals set out in the last contract. Chairman Graber says both of the Republican candidates for governor give taxpayers hope.

"It's time to put an end to the governor's shady deals. Wisconsin deserves better," Graber said, "This November voters have that opportunity when they elect Mark Green or Scott Walker, who will clean up Doyle's mess and give taxpaying citizens a government that works on their behalf, not that of wealthy donors or powerful special interests."

TRICKY DICK DOYLE -- Sykes Writes

THURSDAY, Jan. 26, 2006, 9:18 a.m.
TRICKY DICK DOYLE

(Note: This column appears in the Madison weekly Isthmus.)
By Charles Sykes

This is a cheap shot, but a lot more folks have begun noticing that Jim Doyle bears an uncanny resemblance to Richard Nixon, especially when he’s got the 5 o’clock shadow thing going.

Maybe it’s the “I am not a crook” thing after the Indian casino cash stories broke.

Or his sweaty, shifty-eyed “I am not a crook” reaction to news this week that a federal grand jury has indicted a state employee for allegedly steering a state travel contract to a company whose officials gave money to Doyle’s campaign. The grand jury is also probing links between campaign contributions and state approval of a nuclear power plant sale.

And it didn’t help when Doyle had to hand back some money linked to super-lobbyist-crook Jack Abramoff. I mean, jeez, you get a massive Republican scandal and Doyle gets caught with his hand in that cookie jar too? Can’t this guy keep his hands in his own pockets?

Even on his best days, Doyle must be starting to think he’s becoming engulfed in a perfect political storm: a national scandal guaranteeing that the media will spend months talking about ethics; weekly stories of pay-to-play in state government; his own administration being investigated by the FBI – all in the midst of a re-election campaign.

He has to wonder: Will voters start to connect the dots? Consider the roll call of political infamy involving Democrats they must consider:

Former state Senate Majority Leader Chuck Chvala convicted of felony misconduct. Former Sen. Gary George convicted of federal graft charges. Former Sen. Brian Burke convicted of felony misconduct charges. Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager busted for drunk driving in a state car.

Former Milwaukee County Executive Tom Ament driven from office after a pension scandal, Milwaukee County Board Chairwoman Karen Ordinans and seven other supervisors recalled after the same scandal. Current Milwaukee County Board Chairman Lee Holloway facing more than 90 ethics violations. Are we having fun yet?

Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist caught up in a sexual harassment scandal, leading to his resignation. Milwaukee aldermen Jeff Pawlinski, Rosa Cameron, Paul Henningsen all convicted and sentenced to federal prison for corruption. Four Democratic activists, including the sons of the former mayor and Milwaukee's Democratic Congresswoman, convicted in an election day vandalism incident.

In a normal year, this would be Doyle’s base. This year, it’s a police lineup.

So this is a particularly lousy time to have people thinking you kind of look like Tricky Dick.

What did Wisconsin do to deserve this parade of disrepute? There’s no evidence state residents have become less honest, or that our tolerance for crooked politicians has approached that of the flatlanders to the South.

So what went wrong?

The Madison-based goo-goos insist the outbreak of venality is the result of weak campaign finance laws. But maybe there is a more human explanation: too many folks with weak moral compasses have spent too long in government and lost their way.

In the past, I admit, I’ve been skeptical of term limits on grounds that they limit voters’ right to choose. But maybe it’s time to put them back on the table.

Limiting terms might slow the process by which normal, rational, intelligent, ethical people go into government and become transformed into the win-at-all-costs hacks who increasingly dominate every branch of government.

“Going native” is a bipartisan disease. Democrats become toadies for the teachers union and trial lawyers, while Republicans become lickspittles for the road builders and the ethanol lobby.

But what’s liberal about screwing kids in the central city? What’s conservative about paving the state with tax dollars? And what’s principle got to do with it, anyway?

Spend enough time in Madison and it’s all about keeping the majority (if you’re a Republican) or losing it (if you’re a Democrat.) The reason you came in the first place? Who can remember? Who cares?

And, hey, isn’t that super-lobbyist Bill Broydrick over there? And is that a big check in his pocket, or is he just happy to see me?

But what if people in government knew they were there for only a brief time? What if they had to return to the communities that sent them? What if the perks, privileges, and innumerable occasions of being sucked-up-to were temporary?

Who knows? Maybe some more of them might actually keep their heads and their wits about them and not sell their souls for the mess of pottage that passes for power and privilege in the Capitol these days.

And while we’re at it, could somebody in the press corps check to see whether Doyle has a dog named Checkers?

INDICTMENT IN TRAVELGATE -- Sykes Writes

TUESDAY, Jan. 24, 2006, 6:36 p.m.
INDICTMENT IN TRAVELGATE

No wonder Doyle left the country.

As Rick notes:

This can't be good news. There is no way that an indictment combining the terms "fraud," "procurement" and "political considerations" in connection with his administration is not a real kick in the solar plexus.

From JS Online:

TUESDAY, Jan. 24, 2006, 5:39 p.m.
State official charged in travel case Note: So far they aren't using "Doyle Administration" or "Doyle aide")

A state Department of Administration official has been indicted in connection with a contract awarded to Adelman Travel.

Georgia Thompson, 55, of Waunakee, has been charged with two federal felonies: causing misapplication of funds and participating in a scheme to defraud the state of Wisconsin of the right to honest services. Thompson was on a team of evaluators that reviewed bids for a contract to be the state’s “travel partner.”

The indictment alleges that Thompson:
- Intentionally inflated the scores of Adelman Travel, which was in competition with other agencies to be named the state’s “travel partner”
- Suggested that committee members change scores when evaluating the agencies.
- Prevented the contract from being awarded to another agency despite the other committee members’ unanimous decision.

Adelman ultimately was awarded the contract, which had been the subject of political debate and investigation.

If convicted, Thompson faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.

-By Gina Barton

Here is the full text of the indictment...

Obvious questions:

Will Georgia Thompson flip?

How far up does this go? Who told Thompson to lean toward Adelman?

What did Doyle or his top aides know and when did he know it?

Did she know of the Adelman contributions to Doyle and, if so, who told her?

How will this affect the 2006 governor's election?

Is it too late for the Dems to bail on Diamond Jim? (And how will Xoff spin this?)

GRAND JURY INDICTS DOYLE OFFICIAL ON TRAVELGATE

WED., JAN 25, 2006 - 12:00 AM
Employee indicted in state travel deal
PHIL BRINKMAN pbrinkman@madison.com

A federal grand jury indicted a state employee Tuesday, charging her with manipulating the process of awarding a state travel contract to ensure it went to a company whose officials gave heavily to Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle's election campaign.
Georgia Thompson, 55, was charged in Milwaukee with the misapplication of state funds and fraud for her role in the state's hiring of Adelman Travel Group of Milwaukee, which prosecutors said was intended "to cause political advantage for her supervisors" and "help her job security."

One of those supervisors, former Administration Secretary Marc Marotta, called the allegations "completely puzzling."

"I don't know what political advantage any of her supervisors could have," Marotta said. "It was a very standard, small procurement that was done to the advantage of taxpayers."

In a statement late Tuesday, Marotta's successor, Steve Bablitch, said, "The Doyle administration has zero tolerance for ethical lapses, but we certainly hope that saving money for taxpayers doesn't become a crime in Wisconsin. We also hope that the career of a civil servant doesn't become a political football."

Among other things, U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic said Thompson intentionally inflated the score she gave Adelman as part of the seven- member committee evaluating proposals by companies to provide travel services for state employees, student-athletes and study-abroad programs.

Six of the seven members of that committee opted to award the largest contract, covering about 40 percent of state travel, to Omega World Travel of Fairfax, Va. But Thompson's high score for Adelman created a virtual tie, prompting the department to call for a "best and final" offer from the two companies.

With its revised bid, Adelman came in about $27,000 cheaper than Omega.

To sweeten the pot, Biskupic said, Thompson told members of the committee she inflated her scores for another travel agency - favored by some members of the group - when they were voting on a separate contract for athletic travel. The indictment says Thompson hoped to use that as a "negotiating tool" to get the group to back Adelman's bid for the larger state employee contract.

Neither Thompson nor her attorney, Steve Hurley, could be reached late Tuesday after the charges were announced. Thompson has previously denied any wrongdoing in the contract award. If convicted, Thompson could face up to 20 years in prison.

The case is being investigated jointly with state Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager, Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard and U.S. Attorney Steve Sinnott in Madison.

Federal authorities were involved in part because much of the money the state spends on travel comes from the U.S. government.

The indictment doesn't say which supervisors Thompson was allegedly seeking to help or whether she was pressured from above to favor Adelman, and Biskupic's office declined comment.
Adelman's chief executive, Craig Adelman, and a board member, Mitchell Fromstein, each gave Doyle's campaign a total of $10,000 - the maximum allowed - in the months before and after the contract was announced in March.

Thompson, who was hired under former GOP Gov. Scott McCallum, is a section chief within the DOA's Division of Enterprise Operations, which helps state agencies procure goods and services, including the state's vehicle fleet.

The division is headed by Patrick Farley, a former assistant Milwaukee County district attorney and labor lawyer for the Wisconsin Education Assocation Council, the state's largest teachers union. Efforts to reach Farley on Tuesday were unsuccessful.

Farley reports to the secretary, who is considered the right hand of the governor. At the time, that was Marotta, who left last fall to head Doyle's re-election campaign. But Marotta said the contract was "very, very small" and never registered on the radar of anyone in upper management.

"Nobody at that level would have ever thought about it," Marotta said.

Bablitch, who took over in October, said as far as he could determine, the contract was awarded to the lowest bidder "and all appropriate procedures were followed," although at least one committee member publicly questioned reopening the bids.

Bablitch noted Adelman didn't win three of the four contracts it bid on, including a contract for booking travel online, which administration officials say could prove to be the most lucrative.

Under the contract Adelman received, the company gets a fee for each ticket it books but is not guaranteed a total amount. Officials have estimated the contract could earn the company $750,000 over three years if past travel is any indication. To date, the company has earned $36,000, Bablitch said.

Bablitch said Thompson will be assigned to different duties until the matter is resolved.

"We hope that this matter will get a swift and fair resolution, free from partisan politics," he said.

But Republicans were quick to pounce on the governor, who was visiting troops in Iraq on Tuesday and limited his remarks in a conference call with reporters earlier in the day to comments about that trip. Doyle has said in the past that he played no part in the contract award.
U.S. Rep. Mark Green, R- Green Bay, a Republican gubernatorial candidate, used the indictment to reiterate his reform plan, which includes banning contributions from individuals associated with companies bidding on state contracts.

His GOP rival, Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker, said Doyle should return contributions from such donors.

Potentially adding more fuel to the fire, the state Ethics Board is expected to announce today the outcome of its investigation into a Doyle campaign fundraiser, held by the Department of Transportation's No. 2 official, to which bidders on state engineering contracts were invited.

State and federal authorities are also looking into that event, as well as possible links between campaign donations to Doyle and state regulators' approval of the sale of a nuclear power plant.

Travel contract probe summary : Georgia Thompson, an official within the Department of Administration's procurement bureau and member of a committee that evaluated bids for a state employee travel contract, was indicted on charges of misapplication of funds and fraud related to the contract selection process.

INDICTMENT

ALLEGATION: Thompson is accused of inflating her score for Adelman Travel Group, which ultimately caused the contract worth up to $750,000 to be awarded to that company.

CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS: Two Adelman officials each gave Gov. Jim Doyle's campaign $10,000 in the months before and after the contract was announced.

"DOYLE ETHICS" AND OTHER OXYMORONS

THURSDAY, Jan. 12, 2006, 3:49 p.m.
"DOYLE ETHICS" AND OTHER OXYMORONS
Note: This column appears in CNI Newspapers.)
By Charles Sykes

Imagine these best-sellers:

“My Dieting Secrets,” by Michael Moore

“12 Steps to Humility,” by Bill O’Reilly

“Restoring Political Ethics,” by Jim Doyle

But the last one isn’t a punchline. Last week, amid what one pundit called “a perfect storm” for the governor, Doyle hastily trotted out an “ethics plan,” that promptly – and predictably – turned into a political pratfall.

First was the Ellis problem.

Doyle’s press release touted the governor’s new-found virginity by claiming that he was joined in making his proposals by Republican State Senator Mike Ellis, the longtime champion of campaign finance reform proposals in the legislature. Ellis’s support for Doyle thus gave the announcement a veneer of credibility as well as bipartisanship.

The only problem?

While some of the information was cleared with a staffer, nobody cleared it with Ellis himself, who promptly called the governor “a liar,” and the “most ethically challenged governor” in the state’s history.

“The only reason Governor Doyle is now coming out in support of even this tepid reform package is so that he can cover his butt now that he’s under the microscope for alleged ethical lapses,” Ellis said.

“Suddenly, in an election year, when he is being investigated by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the state Justice Department, the governor gets religion and starts to pose for holy pictures. Give me a break.”

Noting that Doyle had also flown flew in a private airplane owned by a campaign donor to a basketball game in New Orleans, Ellis quipped: “Governor Doyle ought to get his state airplane out of the Bermuda Triangle, because clearly, his ethical compass is spinning like a top.”

One after another, Ellis ticked off the various probes: The investigation into the awarding of a state travel contract to campaign contributors, the approval of the sale of the Kewaunee nuclear power plant after utility executives pumped cash into Doyle’s coffers, and questions about the award of road building contracts after a fund raising event held by honchos in Doyle’s Department of Transportation.

All of this on top of Doyle’s by-now notorious ties to tribal casino interests, the teachers unions, and the trial lawyers. For three years it has been pay to play writ large: Doyle gave the casinos “perpetual” compacts casinos, the teachers union got hundreds of millions of tax dollars; and the trial lawyers got vetoes of liability reform. Not surprisingly, Doyle’s “ethics” plan won’t do anything to staunch the flow of cash from any of those groups into the governor’s campaign warchest.

The day before his ethics-plan fiasco, Doyle reportedly had gotten testy with reporters who wanted to ask him about reports that the FBI probe into his pay to play had apparently expanded.

He had reason to be upset. While the Abramoff scandal has congressional Republicans skittish, it also guarantees that the role of tribal casino cash in politics will be the headlines for months.

In Wisconsin, say tribal casino cash and people think: “Diamond” Jim Doyle. That can’t be good.

Campaign Donation Investigation Expands Beyond Travel Contract

Sources: Campaign Donation Investigation Expands Beyond Travel Contract
Investigators Look At Nuclear Power Plant Sale

UPDATED: 7:13 pm CST December 21, 2005
MADISON, Wis. -- While federal, state and local investigators are looking into questionable campaign donations surrounding a state travel contract, the probe into Gov. Jim Doyle is now going beyond just that.
Investigators are currently looking into how travel agency Adelman Travel Systems won a state contract. The company apparently donated money to Doyle's re-election campaign. The governor has said he had nothing to do with it.
Now, two unnamed sources close to the investigation said that prosecutors have widened the probe beyond the concern over the contract, WISC-TV reported.
One of the sources said that investigators are looking into the Public Service Commission's decision to allow the sale of the Kewaunee Nuclear Power Plant four months after the three-member commission rejected the deal.
At around the same time, according to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, Doyle took in more than $41,000 in campaign cash from utility executives involved in the deal.
Doyle appoints members to the Public Service Commission, but the commission is designed to make independent decisions.
The controversy began when Virginia-based Dominion Resources asked the PSC two years ago for approval to buy the power plant from Wisconsin Public Service (WPS) and Alliant Energy, who co-own it.
Three months later, Dominion executives donated $2,000 to Doyle's campaign.
In November 2004, the PSC rejected the deal, 2-1. Both of Doyle's appointees voted against it.
Later, that same month, WPS and Alliant executives gave $25,000 to Doyle's campaign.
Then, in January, the PSC re-opened the proposed sale and approved it on March 17 of this year. Both of Doyle's appointees switched their vote from no to yes.
In the month before and after the vote, WPS and Alliant Energy executives gave another $15,900 to Doyle's campaign.
The governor insists he had no influence on the vote.
"The Public Service Commission is a completely independent body, it makes independent decisions ... based on the record," Doyle said. "I do not make the decisions for the Public Service Commission, they make the decisions."
Dan Schooff, executive assistant for the PSC, also rejected suggestions that the commission was influenced, WISC-TV reported..
"Campaign considerations do not enter into official policy out here, they're not considered and they have no impact," Schooff said.
Schooff said that protections for ratepayers were put in the deal, which is why the two commission members changed their votes.
One of the two commissioners to change their vote was Burnie Bridge. She said that "the allegations about improper influence in the Kewaunee case are absolutely untrue and deeply offensive."
Bridge said that she studied the testimony, "my decision was based on that record-nothing more, nothing less."
The governor, nor any of his staff, have been interviewed by prosecutors, but are willing to if it comes to that, WISC-TV reported.
One of WISC-TV's unnamed sources said that Doyle will be questioned.
Prosecutors will be looking for any links between those donations and any influence on the PSC decision.

Doyle rebuffs review questions

Doyle rebuffs review questions
Campaign donations by Adelman Travel investigated
By STEVEN WALTERS
swalters@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Jan. 4, 2006

Madison - A testy Gov. Jim Doyle on Wednesday refused to say whether he has been interviewed or approached by investigators probing a controversial travel contract given to a company whose officers gave his campaign the maximum donation of $10,000 each.

"Look, I'm not going to talk - the reviews are being made," said Doyle, who also wouldn't disclose whether he had retained a personal attorney to deal with the controversy. "We are cooperating in every way we can with the reviews. . . . You can talk to those conducting the reviews."

In a related development, the head of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign said state Justice Department investigators in October asked for information on campaign finance donations to the governor's campaign from utility executives trying to arrange the sale of the Kewaunee nuclear power plant - a sign that the pending investigation may have gone beyond the Adelman Travel contract.

Mike McCabe, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, said his organization had given the state investigators records of $43,000 in utility-related donations to Doyle's campaign. McCabe said the state investigators told him they were going to turn the materials over to the office of Milwaukee-based U.S. Attorney Steven M. Biskupic, who is leading the state-federal probe.

McCabe said his group also volunteered records documenting increased donations by SBC executives to the governor's campaign in 2004. The timing of SBC donations to Doyle were "interesting," McCabe said, because the governor later signed a $108 million, five-year telecommunications contract with an alliance led by SBC.

McCabe said state investigators came to him asking for records of campaign donations to aid Doyle's re-election bid. The non-profit Democracy Campaign has the most complete database of campaign gifts of $100 or more to Capitol officials.

"It's not our job to decide if laws have been broken," McCabe said. "It's the job of citizens to decide." He added that he personally believes the campaign cash played too great a role in Doyle administration decisions.

From the questions asked by state investigators, McCabe said he concluded that investigators are not only probing whether politics played a role in the Adelman Travel contract, but are also:

• Checking any improper relationship between campaign donations from executives of two utilities, Wisconsin Public Service Corp. and Alliant Energy, who hosted three fund-raising events for Doyle before and after the Public Service Commission declined, and then approved, sale of the Kewaunee nuclear plant to a Virginia utility.

• An August fund-raiser for Doyle sponsored by Deputy Transportation Secretary Ruben Anthony Jr., who personally invited engineering consultants, road builders and other DOT vendors to the event. Who contributed, and how much they gave, won't be disclosed until later this month, when the Doyle campaign files its next finance report covering the last half of 2005.

It was not clear what - if anything - Biskupic has decided to do with campaign-finance records provided by the Democracy Campaign documenting campaign cash to Doyle from utility and SBC employees.

The new SBC contract "saved taxpayers $65 million," said Rich Judge, the governor's campaign manager.

He said SBC "didn't want this thing to be competitive," since it had the contract for years, but Doyle and his aides insisted on negotiating a better deal.

The Democracy Campaign's new role in the investigation was first reported Wednesday by The Associated Press.

"We don't comment on investigations," said Bill Lipscomb, Biskupic's top assistant.

"This agency has no comment on any ongoing investigations," said Kelly Kennedy, spokesman for Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager.

Taking orders from Biskupic, federal and state investigators have been investigating whether $10,000 contributions each from two Adelman Travel executives, company founder Craig Adelman and board member Mitchell Fromstein, played any role in a $750,000, three-year contract the firm was awarded last year to coordinate travel by state employees.

The contract has not yet been fully implemented, although state officials say they hope to have it in place within a few months.

Doyle again said Wednesday that he played no personal role in the bid process that led to Adelman Travel getting the contract. He said that during his three years as governor, he made it clear that campaign donations must play no role in contracts or state work.

"The contracting process is to be done by civil servants, to be done by people who are isolated from the political process - that's something I've respected all of my time as governor," Doyle said. "There are campaigns, and you keep that very separate from what you do in government."

In his first 2 1/2 years as governor, Doyle raised about $4.7 million - well on his way to what campaign officials say is their $11 million goal by the November election.

If Doyle raised $11 million on his re-election bid, it would set a record for spending by a single candidate for governor of Wisconsin.

Doyle (D, WI) Tight-Lipped on Donation Probes

(Gov) Doyle (D, WI) Tight-Lipped on Donation Probes
Madison.com ^ | December 21, 2005 | David Callendar
Posted on 12/21/2005 1:14:52 PM PST by Diana in Wisconsin

(Scope may widen over travel, nuke contracts...)

Gov. Jim Doyle today would not say whether he has spoken with investigators probing possible ties between donations to his re-election campaign and controversial decisions by his administration.

"I'm not going to comment. It doesn't mean I have or haven't," he said when questioned by reporters at a bill-signing ceremony. "It'd be for the investigators to talk about."

A source familiar with the investigation confirmed today that state and federal authorities are looking at the timing of campaign donations to Doyle by interest groups and key decisions by state agencies under his authority, including the awarding of a multi-year travel contract and the approval by the Public Service Commission of the sale of the Kewaunee nuclear plant.

The source indicated that the probe may extend beyond those two decisions.

Doyle has come under fire on both cases already.

He received more than $10,000 in campaign donations from officials from Adelman Travel, which was awarded a five-year contract to exclusively handle the state's travel arrangements, shortly after the state Department of Administration approved the contract.

Doyle and administration officials have responded that Adelman Travel was the low bidder on the contract, but some employees have said they felt pressured to award the contract to the firm.

Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager announced last month that the state Justice Department, along with the Dane County District Attorney's Office and the U.S. Attorney's Office in Milwaukee, would conduct a joint investigation whether the contract were awarded on the basis of so-called "pay-to-play" practices.

A source familiar with the investigation confirmed today that the probe has expanded to include contributions linked to the sale of the Kewaunee plant.

Lautenschlager announced earlier this month that she was examining whether state Public Service Commission officials violated the open meetings law by discussing the sale with parties involved in the sale.

Justice Department spokesman Kelly Kennedy declined to comment on the status of either probe. "We really cannot comment on the scope of an ongoing investigation," he said.

Doyle has also come under fire from the nonpartisan Wisconsin Democracy Campaign for the timing of donations to his reelection campaign just as officials from the Public Service Commission were voting on the sale of the power plant.

Doyle said today he has no influence over the commission's decisions.

"The Public Service Commission is a completely independent body," he said. "It makes independent decisions based on the record. I do not make the decisions of the Public Service Commission. They make the decisions," he said.

The governor does, however, appoint members of the Public Service Commission, and two of his appointees - former state Sen. Mark Meyer and former Doyle aide Burnie Bridge - initially voted against the sale and then reversed their position last year.

Campaign finance records compiled by the Democracy Campaign indicate, however, that officials from the owners of the plant - Alliant Energy and Wisconsin Public Service - gave more than $41,000 to Doyle after they first announced plans to sell it to Virginia-based Dominion Resources in 2003.

Roadbuilding firms that getteth the most from WisDOT giveth the most to Doyle

Playing and paying
Roadbuilding firms that getteth the most from WisDOT giveth the most to Doyle

Nov. 28, 2005 -- The four roadbuilding consulting firms paid the most by the Wisconsin Department of Transportation from 2002 through 2004 also gave the most to Gov. Doyle's campaign fund during the same time, according to a review of records for 26 firms.

The four are are CH2M Hill, HNTB, Earth Tech, and Ayres Associates Inc.

The "get and give" pattern of WisDOT payments and political donations has been a recurring one over the years.

CH2M Hill had the biggest WisDOT payday from 2002 through 2004 -- it hauled in $48.3 million, or an average of $16.1 million a year, records show.

HNTB Corp. was next at the trough, and was paid $31.2 million by WisDOT, an average of $10.4 million per year. Earth Tech took in $28.2 million, or $9.4 million per year; and Ayres Associates Inc. was paid $24.4 million, or $8.1 million annually.

HNTB won the "doling to Doyle" contest by miles, giving him $55,465 over the three years, according to the campaign donation database maintained by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.

CH2M Hill gave $6,729 to Doyle, Earth Tech gave $7,600, and Ayres gave $6,125, according to WDC.

Those are the highest amounts among all the firms reviewed.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that representatives from CH2M Hill, HNTB, and Ayres attended a Doyle fundraiser held by WisDOT Deputy Secretary Ruben Anthony Jr. in September. The amounts given at that fund raiser are not yet publicly available and are not included here.

HNTB and CH2M Hill together form Milwaukee Transportation Partners, the joint venture that holds design contracts for the Marquette Interchange reconstruction project.

HNTB has been paid $18.2 million and CH2M Hill has been paid $17.2 million for work under those contracts, according to the WisDOT. The firms, individually, are subcontractors to MTP.

The preliminary design contract and related work orders, as of June, had been amended 63 times, more than doubling their value from $9,999,999.49 to $20,666,752.93.

MTP also will be the lead consultants for engineering and environmental studies for the North-South I-94 reconstruction project.

On June 29, one day before the MTP selection was announced for the I-94 project, CH2M Hill official Patrick Klampe dropped $1,000 on the Doyle campaign, while co-worker Denise O'Brien-Snell kicked in another $500, according to WDC.

storyhill.net compared the records of 26 of WisDOT's highest-paid consultants for whom the information was available. The "highest paid" status was determined by the value of open contracts and work orders assigned to each firm late last year.

Inquiry launched into state travel contract

Inquiry launched into state travel contract
U.S., state, DA to look into donations to Doyle
By STEVEN WALTERS and GINA BARTON
swalters@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Oct. 20, 2005

Federal, state and Dane County authorities have launched a joint investigation into a travel contract given to the company of a major contributor to Gov. Jim Doyle, officials said Thursday.

The contract was awarded to the lowest bidder, saving taxpayers $30,000. The normal process was followed. It was conducted by civil servants who were not appointed by my administration and who were simply doing their jobs as best they could.
- Gov. Jim Doyle,
in a prepared statement
The public needs to trust that (this investigation) will be done in a non-partisan, fair fashion.
- Steven Biskupic, U.S. Attorney, Eastern District,
speaking about the need for investigative authorities to work together

The investigation will be conducted by both the FBI and the state's Division of Criminal Investigation, which is supervised by Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager. Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard also will play a role in the process.

"By working together, we want to avoid any accusations of bias," said U.S. Attorney Steven M. Biskupic in Milwaukee.

Biskupic was appointed to the U.S. attorney's post by President Bush, a Republican. Lautenschlager, Blanchard and Doyle are Democrats.

Both Doyle and Lautenschlager are up for re-election next year.

"Any investigation with political overtones needs to have public credibility," Biskupic said. "The public needs to trust that it will be done in a non-partisan, fair fashion."

Biskupic said he didn't know when the investigation would be complete. In a statement, Doyle said that he was not personally involved in the decision to give the contract to Adelman Travel of Glendale and predicted that the probe will find "nothing inappropriate was done."

"The contract was awarded to the lowest bidder, saving taxpayers $30,000," Doyle said. "The normal process was followed. It was conducted by civil servants who were not appointed by my administration and who were simply doing their jobs as best they could."

The governor said that he has directed all state employees involved in the bidding process to cooperate with authorities "so the matter can be settled as quickly as possible."

Asked if he expected to speak to investigators personally, Doyle said after a public appearance Thursday night: "I have no idea. That's their call."

In March, Adelman Travel was awarded a three-year contract with the state worth up to $250,000 a year. Before and after bids were solicited and the contract awarded, the firm's owner, Craig B. Adelman, gave the $10,000 maximum allowed to Doyle's re-election campaign.

A competing company, Omega World Travel of Fairfax, Va., led the bidding at one point in the process. But state officials said both bids were so close that they asked for head-to-head final prices - and Adelman won that competition.

Also, a member of Adelman Travel's board, Mitchell Fromstein, gave Doyle's campaign the maximum $10,000 allowed at about the time the contract became effective, campaign finance records show.

Thomas Holbrook, a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee political scientist, said it's too early to tell how the investigation will play out in next year's race for governor. Doyle is trying to be the first Democrat elected to a second term as governor since 1974.

"Any sort of hint or scandal or investigation by officials at this point is not what the governor wants," Holbrook said. "It will embolden his opponents. It could have an impact on his own fund-raising abilities."

Or, Holbrook noted, "This could be something nobody even hears about a year from now."

Marc Marotta, secretary of Department of Administration when the Adelman contract was signed and now chairman of Doyle's re-election campaign, said there was nothing improper about the contract.

"They can investigate all they want," Marotta said.

Marotta said Craig Adelman met with him about a year before the request for bids went out. At that meeting, Marotta said, Adelman argued that the state could save money by consolidating the number of travel agencies booking trips for state workers - an idea first discussed in 2000, when Republican Tommy G. Thompson was governor.

Based on their meeting, Marotta said, he assumed Adelman's company would bid on the travel contract.

Once the request for bids went out, neither Adelman nor anyone with his company discussed it with him again, Marotta said.

Biskupic said various authorities had been considering the matter over the past few days, independent of a request Thursday by state Republican Party Chairman Rick Graber for Lautenschlager's office to investigate the matter.

The joint investigation is "entirely appropriate," Graber said later in the day. "I think people in this state deserve answers."

Deputy Attorney General Dan Bach said state laws limit the attorney general's role in cases like these, so the office will have its investigators work with Biskupic and Blanchard.

"It's just like we did in the caucus case," Bach said, referring to the 2001-'02 probe of Capitol corruption that resulted in criminal charges against five legislators - two Senate Democrats and three Assembly Republicans. Those cases are being prosecuted by Milwaukee and Dane County prosecutors.

Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker, one of two Republican candidates for governor, said the controversy is an example of how Doyle has "failed the integrity test."

Walker said state government should adopt a ban like one he signed into law in Milwaukee County that says no one seeking a contract with the county can contribute funds to an official who has "final authority" over the contract while it is being negotiated.

The other Republican candidate, U.S. Rep. Mark Green of Green Bay, said that the state should have a rule that would prohibit any employee, director or owner of a company that has bid on a state contract from donating to a governor's political committee from the time the bid process starts until 60 days after the contract is awarded.

It is far too soon to tell whether the investigation will result in criminal charges. But Biskupic is not one to shy away from prosecuting government and political figures.

Since he took over as U.S. attorney in Milwaukee about 3 1/2 years ago, he has won felony convictions against former state senator Gary George, once a powerful Democrat who served 23 years in the Legislature; Mark Sostarich, former chairman of the state Democratic Party; and three Milwaukee aldermen. A fourth Milwaukee alderman was indicted in July on a federal misdemeanor charge and has pleaded not guilty.

Also, a fraud case involving tainted donations to several high-profile Republican candidates and officeholders is making its way through the federal courts. In that case, former Elkhorn Mayor Paul Ormson has pleaded guilty to a felony and is awaiting sentencing. Christopher R. Koceja, former chairman of the Walworth County Republican Party, has pleaded not guilty to a federal misdemeanor in the same case.

Doyle Fundraiser Questioned

Doyle Fundraiser Questioned
By Molly Marcello
Mendota Beacon
November 22, 2005
The Wisconsin State Ethics Board is preparing a potential investigation into a September 8th fundraiser for Governor Jim Doyle’s re-election. The probe surrounds Deputy Secretary of the Department of Transportation (DOT), Ruben Anthony Jr., and whether inviting clients that compete for DOT engineering contracts was unethical.

Inviting these companies, which included HNTB Corp., CH2M Hill Inc., and Ayres Association, raises questions about Anthony’s intentions. Some Wisconsin politicians worry that undue pressure was placed upon those companies to either donate to Doyle’s re-election campaign or risk the loss of state engineering contracts.

A formal schedule of approvals made by the DOT cites Anthony as having the last judgment as to which agencies receives the contracts. However, a contrasting DOT flow chart for contract approval denotes a committee of civil servants with the final power to approve the contracts.

Attempting to clear confusion, the DOT stated that they recently reorganized their approval policies and have yet to write a formal procedure. They assert that contract approval now rests with the committee to make the final judgment call.

Ideally, DOT engineering contracts are determined solely by evaluating the company based upon their credentials. Only after selecting the qualified clients does the DOT negotiate prices. Unfortunately, Anthony’s alleged motives may have compromised this otherwise equal competition.

Prompted by news coverage of the potential Deputy Secretary investigation, the Wisconsin State Ethics Board is now pushing even harder for legislation that would ban department secretaries, executive assistants, administrators, and commissioners from soliciting political donations in order to avoid similar conflicts of interest.

Legal counsel for the State Ethics Board, Jonathan Becker, asserts that the board lobbied for a bill banning full-time political appointees from obtaining contributions “as early as three years ago” and only now is more adamant as a result of the widening publicity surrounding the DOT. Becker alludes that with the news coverage of the potential Anthony investigation, not enacting this legislation simply “looks bad”.

“If this legislation becomes law”, comments Deputy Secretary Anthony on the Ethics Boards’ bill proposal, “I will follow the law”. However, faced with the facts of the fundraiser, the question remains whether his previous actions were above the law. The Ethics Board promises to move forward with this investigation and new legislation, as they hope to secure an equal playing field for all companies within the state of Wisconsin.

New questions raised about Doyle

New questions raised about Doyle
Governor's team says nothing was wrong with utility-backed fund-raiser
By THOMAS CONTENT, STACY FORSTER and STEVEN WALTERS
tcontent@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Dec. 21, 2005

Madison - Executives at one of the utilities whose employees donated more than $43,000 to Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle during the process that led to the sale of its nuclear plant held a second fund-raiser for the governor this fall, as state regulators were considering a price increase for the utility, it was learned Wednesday.

A fund-raiser was held for Doyle on Oct. 25, said Kerry Spees, a spokesman for Wisconsin Public Service Corp., the company that was the primary owner of the Kewaunee nuclear plant. The fund-raiser was held during a period when the Public Service Commission was considering whether to give WPS the 17% price increase it had requested.

Last week, the PSC voted to grant the utility a price increase of $79 million, or 9.9%, most of which was tied to the rising cost of natural gas and the company's investment in a new generating plant under construction near Wausau. WPS had sought a much bigger increase - $142 million.

Spees insisted that there is no link between the campaign fund-raisers and actions by the PSC, an independent regulatory agency whose three commissioners are appointed by the governor and confirmed by the Senate. Doyle appointed two of the three members currently serving on the PSC.

"I think people are fishing for stuff that isn't in the water," Spees said.

But the utility's Oct. 25 event for Doyle generated new questions about the governor's fund raising, which is already being investigated because of a controversial $750,000 contract given Adelman Travel, whose founder gave the governor's campaign the maximum $10,000 before and after the contract was signed.

Also, the state Ethics Board is reviewing whether a top state Department of Transportation official broke any state rules by inviting transportation contractors and consultants to another fund-raising event for Doyle. The board's attorney, Jonathan Becker, said that inquiry could be completed by January.

Last week, Milwaukee District Attorney E. Michael McCann said Doyle should have disavowed $725,000 from three Indian tribes given the national Democratic Party, which then spent that amount and then some on the governor's first campaign in 2002.

Jay Heck, executive director of the government watchdog group Common Cause in Wisconsin, said Wednesday that it was inappropriate for Wisconsin Public Service to help raise money for the governor who appoints utility regulators when a rate increase was pending.

The "constant, incessant, perceived need to raise so much money" leaves the Doyle administration open to the perception that its decisions are driven by campaign cash, Heck said.

The Doyle campaign raised about $4.7 million in his first 30 months in office, and campaign advisers say they hope to raise about $11 million by the end of next year. Doyle is up for re-election in November.

"If there wasn't such a need to raise so much money, you wouldn't have to have those fund-raisers," Heck said. "As long as that kind of money is going to be raised, people are going to question whether it comes with strings attached."

Spees said Wisconsin Public Service, like most other utilities, routinely files for rate increases.

"And we'll have one pending after next April, because we file in April of every year," Spees said. "It's safe to say we have one pending, because eight months of the year we do."

WPS employees host fund-raising events for leaders of both parties, in support of "all candidates that are pro-business," Spees said. This year, WPS employees have also co-sponsored fund-raisers for Republican gubernatorial candidate U.S. Rep. Mark Green of Green Bay, as well as for Assembly Speaker John Gard of Peshtigo, a Republican candidate for Green's House seat.

Doyle aide Dan Leistikow said Heck's criticism of the utility's Oct. 25 fund-raising event was "preposterous."

"The PSC is an independent agency that acts like a court," Leistikow said. "The governor doesn't have a role in its decision-making. It's just absurd to try and connect these two things."

WPS executives also sponsored a fund-raiser for Doyle in November 2004, just one day before the PSC rejected the proposal to sell the Kewaunee plant for $220 million to Dominion Resources Inc. of Richmond, Va.

The deal later was approved after Dominion and WPS made changes to the deal at the suggestion of PSC commissioners. Alliant Energy later sponsored a fund-raiser, which occurred less than two weeks after the PSC's vote to endorse the Kewaunee sale. Alliant had owned a small share of the Kewaunee plant.

Utility officials said fund-raisers often are scheduled as long as a year in advance.

Leistikow said Doyle has not been interviewed by investigators looking into circumstances surrounding the Adelman contract. "He's more than willing to talk to them, if they feel it's appropriate," Leistikow added.

Doyle also called the PSC an "independent body" that "makes its own decisions."

Dan Schoof, executive assistant to PSC Chairman Dan Ebert, said the attorney general's office has not been in contact with the agency since issuing a request for records to the PSC earlier this fall.

The PSC turned over 600 pages of records connected to the Kewaunee case to the attorney general's office.

"We anxiously await answering any question they might have about them," said Schoof.

The attorney general's office has been investigating whether the PSC followed the open meetings law and other procedures in the Kewaunee case. In a Dec. 6 statement, the attorney general's office said it would also "investigate any campaign-finance related matters," but refused to explain that statement.

Wednesday, former PSC Chairwoman Burnie Bridge issued a statement calling questions about whether campaign donations played any role in the sale of the nuclear plant "absolutely untrue and deeply offensive."

U.S. Attorney Stephen Biskupic is leading the investigation of the Adelman Travel contract, with the help of the attorney general's office and the Dane County district attorney. Wednesday, a Biskupic aide said he would not comment on the status of the investigation.

Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard also declined to comment Wednesday.

Despite the many questions being raised, Doyle said he was comfortable with fund-raising events scheduled by his campaign.

Doyle campaign manager Rich Judge said he has not been questioned about the Adelman Travel contract, and dismissed criticism of it. That contract was awarded "by the book, with the best and final offer that saved the taxpayers' money," Judge said.

Casino interests make bets on Doyle

Casino interests make bets on Doyle
Posted: July 27, 2005
Cary Spivak & Dan Bice

When it comes to gambling, nobody around here wins as much as Gov. Jim Doyle.

During the first half of this year, the gamblin' guys' favorite gov raked in nearly $130,000 from folks with a keen interest in turning Kenosha's Dairyland Greyhound Park into a Menominee Indian casino. The dollars flowed in from as far as Connecticut, where the Mohegan tribe that hopes to manage the gambling hall is based. And even more cash came from as near as Kenosha, home of millionaire Dennis Troha, the driving force behind the project.

So why is everybody throwing so much money to Doyle, who's up for re-election next year?

Why, they want good government, of course.

Or so they say.

"The Mohegan see the governor putting the state in the right direction," said Evan Zeppos, the Milwaukee spinmeister for the proposed Kenosha casino. "They're comfortable with that leadership."

So comfortable, in fact, that nine high-ranking officials in the 1,600-member tribe or the hugely successful Mohegan Sun casino poured 20 grand into Doyle's war chest between January and July.

Of course, it's just coincidental that as governor, Doyle can single-handedly approve or kill the project if it wins federal approval.

Zeppos, a veteran Democratic operative, sounded aghast at the suggestion that the Mohegan were trying to win the governor's favor with campaign cash.

"Anyone who knows this governor would find that logic to be out of the realm of possibility," Zeppos intoned.

The governor's guy was clueless about the Mohegan motivation.

Asked if they dropped the money to influence the first-term Democratic governor, Doyle flack Dan Leistikow said:

"If they are, it's not going to work."

Something short of a denial, isn't it?

Is it possible East Coast tribal types have some other issue on their agenda?

"You have to ask them - I don't know," Leistikow said. "If this is the issue they're concerned with, they know full well that the governor is going to make his decision based on the merits."

According to Doyle's campaign finance report filed last week, Doyle received $56,500 from members of the Troha family. Dennis Troha didn't give any money himself because he maxed out by giving the governor $10,000 two years ago.

All told, the Troha clan has given $152,500 directly to Doyle's camp since January 2002. They also gave $25,000 in soft money and another $25,000 to help pay for the governor's 2002 inaugural party.

On top of that, Troha's business associates and allies coughed up another $48,000 in the first half of this year, with most of it coming at a January fund-raiser put on by Troha and others at the Kemper Center in Kenosha. Some 200 attendees got some real face time with Doyle, who made a personal appearance at the gala. Among those at the event were a handful of Menominee tribal officials, who kicked Doyle's campaign $1,550, which is really nothing more than a rounding error with this group.

But, before anybody gets too excited about this campaign largess, Zeppos argued that the Kenosha-Connecticut gang is just a bunch of pikers.

"Other interests probably make that pale in comparison," Zeppos said.

This was a not-so-subtle reference to the $700,000 that the Potawatomi and Ho-Chunk tribes made in soft-money donations to Doyle in the waning days of the 2002 campaign. Those two tribes already run lucrative casinos and are fighting incursions into their territories.

And the longer off-reservation proposals remain up in the air, the fatter Doyle's war chest will get.

There's no denying an unmistakable pattern has emerged -- WDC Reports on Doyle Pay to Play

Money Talks, Public Walks
Time and again, state officials make policy favoring big givers
by Mike McCabe
Executive Director

Critics are calling the latest scandal-in-the-making "travelgate." The top-ranked bidder for a state travel contract was passed over in favor of another contractor whose executives made more than $20,000 in campaign donations to Gov. Jim Doyle's reelection campaign just before and just after landing the contract.
The governor says the donations "in no way influenced the decision." Federal, state and county law enforcement officials aren't so sure. They're investigating whether the Doyle administration tampered with the bid evaluations.

The curious timing of the donations would be easier to overlook if it weren't for the fact that an administration official, Georgia Thompson, is said to have told members of the evaluation committee that their initial ranking of the bidders would not "fly politically" and urged them to change their scores.

At best, the circumstances surrounding this comparatively small state contract - about $750,000 over three years - makes the Doyle administration look shady. At worst, we're dealing with more of the pay-to-play criminality the corrupt Capitol culture is spawning.

There's no denying an unmistakable pattern has emerged.

Doyle recently received nearly $6,000 from SBC Communications executives in Texas, and SBC's political action committee now tops the list of PAC donors to the governor's reelection campaign. The company landed a $116 million state contract when the governor had a sudden change of heart on how to handle a new video and data network for the state and University of Wisconsin System.

After issuing the standard denial of any connection between the contributions and the policy shift, the governor's campaign manager offered an alternative explanation: People from outside Wisconsin are giving Doyle money because he has developed a national reputation on stem cell research.

Yep, that's gotta be it. Phone company bigwigs love stem cell research.

Then there's the 17-fold increase in contributions to Doyle from utility executives and American Transmission Co officials. Could it be connected to the governor's approval of legislation forcing communities to sell land to utilities for power line projects, overruling an action by the Douglas County Board to prohibit the use of public land for this purpose?

And could there be a connection to the Doyle-controlled Public Service Commission's practice of letting utilities write orders increasing electric rates without letting ratepayer-advocates in on the secret? That has triggered an investigation, too.

It's not just Doyle who mines the connection between policy-making and campaign contributions. Nor is it, for that matter, confined to former state Senators - and now convicted felons - Gary George, Chuck Chvala and Brian Burke. . . and to state Reps. Scott Jensen and Steve Foti, who still await their fate on corruption charges.

Nope, the campaign money chase and the corruption that comes with it are endemic to the Capitol. It's business as usual in Wisconsin.

The bosses at the Capitol all deny it. They all parrot the party line that any appearance of a link between campaign donations and state actions is purely coincidental.

But who's kidding who?

When my group, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, reported that legislators raised nearly $1.4 million in campaign donations while the state budget was being shaped, and more than half of the money went to five legislative leaders and four party committees they control, the director of the Committee to Elect a Republican Senate insisted: "There are no strings that are ever attached. There is no such thing as pay to play in this Legislature."

There's a time when dishonesty and hypocrisy stop offending and start to amuse. That time has arrived in Wisconsin.

State lawmakers are pushing legislation to overrule local decisions on smoking in bars and restaurants. They've already blocked local living-wage ordinances passed in several communities. And they took away local control of school-start dates. Other "preemption" bills are in the works.

Time and again, locally elected representatives are responding to the wishes of voters and solving problems for their communities, only to have the state representatives of those very same voters reverse these local decisions.

What gives? It's more a matter of who gives. Special interests favoring state preemption of local decisions have given 13 times more money to Republican legislators who control the Legislature than supporters of local control have given.

That's what distinguishes locally elected officials from their counterparts at the Capitol. Unlike their local brethren, state lawmakers are more beholden to their cash constituents than their voting constituents.

Assembly Speaker John Gard is the poster boy for this addiction. Gard gets over 95% of his contributions from people who live outside his district.

The influence of special interest money leaves a trail in every corner of state government. We reviewed more than 5,100 state Commerce Department grants, low-interest loans and tax credits awarded between 1999 and September 2004 and found that recipients of state aid who did not make campaign contributions received awards averaging less than $130,000 while those who made donations received awards averaging more than $1 million.

Our research mirrored a 2003 University of Michigan study of construction and road-building contracts in Wisconsin showing donors to former Gov. Tommy Thompson's campaign got contracts averaging $20 million while the average value of contracts awarded to non-contributors was $870,000.

For example, executives of a Fond du Lac construction company gave Thompson $37,000 in campaign donations in a single day. The contributions came within two weeks of the company, C.D. Smith Construction, getting a no-bid contract to build a $29.5 million prison from the State Building Commission, which Thompson chaired.

It doesn't matter if Tommy started it, or if Doyle is perfecting it. Pay to play will be here to stay as long as office seekers have little choice but to take out a second mortgage on their souls to seriously compete for voters' attention.

Other cases in point:
Wisconsin's Native American tribes made more than $1 million in soft-money contributions to gubernatorial candidate Jim Doyle's successful campaign. Gov. Doyle in turn, presided over the largest expansion of gambling in the state's history.
Polluters gave four times as much to Doyle and Republican lawmakers than did opponents of an environmental deregulation bill dubbed the "Job Creation Act." The legislation was enacted with breathtaking speed.
Road builders have made well over $2 million in campaign donations to top state officials in recent years and not only succeeded in protecting a self-escalating gasoline tax but also won $824 million in construction projects that the state Department of Transportation never asked for.
The Oklahoma-based developer of a privately built prison near Stanley made $15,001 in timely campaign contributions and pumped another $125,000 into an "issue advocacy" group controlled by then Senate Democratic leader Chuck Chvala. Lawmakers decided to purchase the prison for $79.9 million despite the Corrections Department never requesting it. The prison then sat empty for a year and a half because the state could not afford to open it.
Loans sharks (who prefer to call themselves "payday lenders") became the top source of out-of-state campaign donations to Wisconsin politicians, who then thanked the industry by repeatedly killing proposed legislation to limit the interest charged for payday loans. Left unregulated, the interest rates on these short-term loans often exceed 500% annually.
Ashley Furniture executives contributed $11,550 - most of it to former Gov. Scott McCallum - and were exempted from environmental regulations, thus allowing the company to fill in wetlands to expand its plant.
The New York-based Peoples Lottery Foundation made $5,000 in well-placed donations and got a change in state law allowing private companies to buy out the annuities lottery winners receive for a cut of the winnings.
The 3M Corporation made a little over $7,300 in contributions during a past budget deliberation and got a tax exemption giving the company a $500,000 annual tax break.
Bankers lavished over $11,000 in donations on a single state senator who then cast the deciding vote to kill a bill that would have prevented banks from charging consumer fees for using automated teller machines.
Pay-to-Play Archive

The Rent-A-Politician Industry -- WDC Blog Explores New Doyle Friendship

Thursday, November 10, 2005

The Rent-A-Politician Industry
The rent-to-own industry has been trying for years to win an exemption from state consumer protection laws and hasn't been bashful about lubricating the political machinery with big campaign donations.

The industry has not hit paydirt yet, but has enlisted some important new allies and appears to have succeeded in resuscitating a consumer protection exemption bill that was all but dead.

When the state Senate took up the industry's exemption bill last week, it was defeated 18-15. Not one, not two but three motions to reconsider the vote were then offered. On the third attempt, the bill was revived by a one-vote margin, 17-16.

That's where one of the rent-to-own industry's new allies comes in. Sources close to the legislative negotiations tell the Democracy Campaign that an Ashley Furniture executive called Senate leaders to urge them to bring the bill back for another vote. Ashley reportedly plans to place its merchandise in 300 new rental centers if the bill passes.

A top executive with the Eau Claire-area furniture maker made $1,000 contributions right after the 2004 election to the bill's lead sponsor, Eau Claire Republican Ron Brown, and another Eau Claire-area senator, Republican David Zien, who also signed on as a sponsor of the exemption legislation.

Ashley also has taken quite an interest in another of the exemption bill's newfound supporters, Governor Jim Doyle.

Doyle's apparent willingness to sign the bill if it passes the Legislature is curious because during his long stint as state attorney general he often locked horns with the rent-to-own industry. He once sued the Texas-based Rent-A-Center for failing to disclose credit provisions and engaging in deceptive advertising. The lawsuit resulted in an $8 million settlement that was used to pay restitution to customers scammed by the company and its subsidiary Colortyme Inc.

The Democracy Campaign's database of contributors to state campaigns shows that Rent-A-Center has made a couple of large donations to Doyle this year and has been feeding campaign money regularly to the Committee to Elect a Republican Senate and the Republican Assembly Campaign Committee.

Another firm, Eau Claire-based Lebakken Rent-to-Own, also has given Doyle $3,000 since March 2004.

Neither Rent-A-Center nor Lebakken Rent-to-Own ever gave Doyle any money when he was attorney general. Ashley Furniture also never donated to Doyle until he ran for governor.
posted by Mike McCabe at 3:50 PM 0 comments

DOYLE FAVORS BIG CONTRIBUTORS OVER LOCAL CONTROL

Communities Losing to Big Contributors
Report shows special interest influence eroding local control

Madison – Wealthy special interests are blocking communities from tailoring laws that best fit the needs and wishes of their citizens because they contribute millions of dollars to state policymakers who concoct state laws that prohibit local decision-making to benefit big campaign contributors, a Wisconsin Democracy Campaign report shows.
The report, “Gagging Democracy,” highlights state laws and proposals introduced since 1999 to overrule actions by locally elected officials on smoking in bars and restaurants, workers’ wages, public land use, billboard removal, school start dates and other issues previously left for local governments to decide. The proposals were backed by business, manufacturing, tourism, construction and other wealthy special interests that felt they were hurt by decisions by local communities.

Collectively, the state proposals to preempt local laws were supported by nine special interest groups and two unions that have contributed $8.1 million in campaign contributions to current legislators. That is seven times more than the $1.17 million in contributions collectively made to legislators by local officials, health and environmental groups and selected labor unions that opposed the proposals.

Big campaign contributors that favored preemption have given Republican legislators who have backed the preemption proposals and who control the Assembly and Senate about 13 times more in campaign contributions than the opponents of those proposals – $6.51 million versus $511,282.

Democratic Governor Jim Doyle, who has signed into law at least four preemption proposals since taking office, has accepted $2.53 million from the special interest that favor preemption, about two times more than the $1.15 million in contributions he received from groups that opposed preemption.

Among the proposals highlighted in the report are bills that would establish a statewide smoking ban supported by taverns, restaurants and other tourism interests that critics say is not really a ban because it exempts taverns, bowling alleys and restaurants that seat 50 or fewer. The Assembly passed the measure on a 48-45 bipartisan vote. Despite the close vote, contributions by the bill’s supporters to those who voted for and against it were far from close. The 48 legislators who voted for the bill have received $597,306 from tourism, beer and liquor interests while the 45 who voted against it have received $232,805 from those interests.

The report also reviews a measure signed into law by Doyle that increases the statewide minimum wage but also prevents communities from setting a minimum wage different than the statewide rate. The measure drew the ire of some unions and local governments but was favored by powerful business, manufacturing, tourism and oil and gas interests which have given majority Republicans in the legislature $3.14 million, versus $124,396 by opponents of the restriction. Doyle has accepted $1.12 million from the law’s supporters since June 2000 when he announced he would run for governor, versus $234,288 from its opponents during the same period.

The Legislature and Doyle also approved a law to guarantee utilities access to land owned by a community or county for transmission line projects. The pro-utility proposal, Assembly Bill 437, is backed by utility, business, manufacturing, restaurant and transportation interests and two trade unions which have contributed $3.55 million, or 80 percent, of their legislative contributions to Republicans. The measure was approved 61-35 in the Assembly and 27-6 in the Senate and sent to Doyle.

Utilities have been one of Doyle’s fastest and most generous special interest friends. Between 1993 and 2001, the industry contributed a scant $8,661 to Doyle when he was attorney general. Their contributions to the governor have increased 1,986 percent to $180,663 from 2002, when he successfully ran for governor, through 2004. WDC previously reported that between October 2002 and June 2004 Doyle received $50,660 in contributions from executives of three utilities shortly before and after the state approved a transmission line and power plants sought by the utilities.

In his latest campaign finance report covering January through June 2005, Doyle reported receiving three contributions totaling $6,500 from American Transmission Company executives only months before he signed the bill. The proposal was initially introduced to help pave the way for the company’s controversial $420 million transmission line project from Duluth, Minnesota to Wausau.

The report also reviews contributions from the outdoor advertising industry which is backing Senate Bill 89 and Assembly Bill 155 to prohibit communities from requiring billboard owners to take them down when they become eyesores. The bills, sponsored mostly by Republicans, have not been considered by the Legislature. Billboard owners and an array of powerful special interests that back the changes have contributed $5.56 million, or 82 percent, of their contributions to legislators to Republicans who control the Legislature.

The industry’s annual campaign to weaken billboard regulations coincides with a spike in their contributions since 2001. From 1993 through 2000, the billboard industry contributed $12,785 to former Republican Governor Tommy Thompson and legislative leaders. But from 2001 through 2004, the industry more than tripled its contributions, giving $43,875 to former Republican Governor Scott McCallum, Doyle and legislative leaders.

Doyle Spin on Vitamin Grants Unconvincing

Doyle Spin on Vitamin Grants Unconvincing
Concerns Over Grantmaking Process, Link to Donations Persist

Madison - A statement released by Attorney General Jim Doyle's gubernatorial campaign on Friday does not put to rest concerns about grants his office handed out to charitable groups and campaign contributions he received from officials of some of the agencies, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign said today.
"The fact that people with some connection to groups that received grants from the attorney general have made campaign contributions to other candidates does not make the timing of donations to Doyle any less suspicious," WDC executive director Mike McCabe said.

One of the contributions was a $10,000 donation from Hollywood producer Jerry Zucker. The contribution came three weeks after Doyle issued a $250,000 state grant in Zucker's name to the University of Wisconsin-Madison for one of the filmmaker's pet causes.

"The Doyle campaign's spin hardly makes the Zucker contribution smell like a rose," McCabe said.

WDC remains concerned that the attorney general was able to personally steer grants to particular groups and there was no formal request for proposals allowing other groups to compete for the grants. The grantmaking procedure, coupled with the timing of donations from individuals connected to the groups receiving grants, creates an unseemly appearance, he added.

"Any time one elected official has the power to singlehandedly spend state funds, it's an invitation to mischief. That's why checks and balances are so important in our system," McCabe said. "The appropriate checks and balances were missing in the system used to award the vitamin settlement grants. The flaws in the process magnify the concern about the campaign contributions."

WDC's contributor database shows at least four of the individuals - Sherrie Tussler, Jose Milan, Criselda Ros-Dukler and Michael Frank - who made contributions to Doyle's campaign shortly before or just after their groups received grants have no prior history of giving to Doyle or any other state candidate.

"It is disappointing that the state's top law enforcement official is not more sensitive to the obvious appearance of a conflict of interest in this case," McCabe said. "The attorney general could take a big step toward laying the suspicions to rest if he would just acknowledge the apparent conflict and return the donations."

Back • Send to a friend • Search our site

LIBERAL CAP TIMES BLASTS DOYLE

Editorial: Doyle should clean house
CAPITAL TIMES - An editorial
Gov. Jim Doyle needs to make a New Year's resolution to clean up his political act.

The governor's fast-and-loose approach to campaign fundraising and government ethics caught up with him in the last weeks of 2005.

Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael McCann, the state's longest-serving prosecutor, delivered a blistering personal indictment of Doyle in mid-December, when McCann told reporters that, under Doyle, "the government is for sale."

McCann condemned schemes that had directed money from Indian tribes with gambling interests in the state to pro-Doyle campaign groups and suggested that the governor is more interested in taking advantage of the current corrupt system than in fixing it.

Gov. Jim Doyle speaks during a news conference Dec. 1 in Milwaukee, before executives from the world's five largest oil companies were scheduled to appear at a state administrative hearing on increases in gas and oil profits this year.
In no uncertain terms, the veteran prosecutor urged Doyle to change course and embrace the current push to clean up state politics.

"There needs to be serious, organic change on campaign financing. If there isn't, this will continue," said McCann, whose office played a critical role in investigating the legislative caucus scandal and in successfully prosecuting former state Senate Majority Leader Chuck Chvala, D-Madison. "There will be another day when another legislative leader is in a criminal courtroom. I want clean government back in our state. It can be done."

Doyle's response to McCann's call was embarrassing. After attempting to blur the issues by making the false claim that McCann had his facts wrong, Doyle said, "I'm the one who has asked several times for changes in the (campaign finance laws)."

"And," whined the governor, who is expected to raise more than $10 million for his 2006 re-election campaign, "a lot more has been spent against me than for me."

Where do we begin?

First off, Doyle has not been a serious advocate for campaign finance reform. He has been an obstacle to it.

Second, Doyle does not seem to understand that genuine campaign finance reforms are needed so that campaigns are no longer about who spends more against whom.

Instead of getting angry with McCann, Doyle should have recognized the district attorney's words as a friendly warning to act before it's too late. Doyle and his aides are now the subject of one of the broadest investigations of political wrongdoing ever seen in Wisconsin. In addition to an extremely serious investigation of a state travel contract that was given to one of Doyle's major donors, authorities are now examining whether donations from utility executives to Doyle's campaign were linked to a decision by state regulators to approve the sale of the Kewaunee nuclear power plant, sources say.

Published reports indicate that state and federal authorities are asking whether the controversial decision by the state Public Service Commission to allow the $191.5 million sale of the Kewaunee nuclear plant in July might have resulted from a political quid pro quo.

Whether Doyle can survive the political fallout from these investigations remains to be seen. But he will stand himself in better stead with the voters of Wisconsin if he returns all of the campaign contributions he has received from sources that are currently under scrutiny and follows McCann's advice to start promoting campaign finance reform.

The governor can, and should, do that by calling a special session of the Legislature to enact needed reforms in the first weeks of 2006.


Published: December 28, 2005

Is Doyle a One-term Governor? -- SYKES WRITES

THURSDAY, Oct. 9, 2003, 6:11 a.m.
Is Doyle a One-term Governor?

(Note: An edited version of this column appears today in CNI newspapers. This was written BEFORE Tuesday's landslide recall of Gray Davis -- another lackluster governor who raised taxes, tacked left when he got into political trouble, relied on Indian casino cash, as was seen as a captive of special interests like trial lawyers and the teacher's union.)

By Charles J. Sykes

A governor’s first year in office is a lot like a pavement of wet concrete. In his first few months he has a chance to make an impression in the public mind before it hardens. Once it sets, though, that image is extremely hard to change.

Tommy Thompson’s banked goodwill from his first year gave him a Teflon quality that allowed gaffes and missteps to slide off harmlessly. Tony Earl’s shaky start on the other hand made him the Velcro governor. Everything stuck to him. Taxes. The budget. The economy. Packer losses.

And Jim Doyle?

It’s not a pretty picture.

Doyle managed to kill his honeymoon faster than a guy who gooses the bridesmaid during the ceremony.

He set the tone for his relationship with the legislature by granting eternal gambling compacts to the Indian tribes in return for generous campaign contributions and modest help with the state budget deficit.

For many voters, the casino giveaway was their first impression of Doyle, but his defining performance may have been his veto of the property tax freeze.

While winning the legislative round, a new poll suggests just how badly Doyle lost the public debate on the issue. The poll, conducted for Wispolitics.com by UW Political Scientist Ken Goldstein, suggests that Doyle was not able to sell his line on taxes even to his own hard core base.

The poll found that fully 40 percent of likely Democratic voters in the state agreed that property taxes are too high and needed to be frozen. Only 47 percent agreed with Doyle that the freeze was a “hypocritical gimmick” that could “cripple job creation, deny police and fire resources the need and cut education by more than $400 million.” And these are Democrats.

The poll found that 47 percent of the Democratic voters would support a constitutional cap on spending, a likely Republican initiative in coming months.

Perhaps worst of all, more than one out of five Democrats (22 percent) say that Doyle has failed to keep his no-tax increase promise.

But Doyle may have other problems as well. Having run as a moderate, he has tacked sharply left, vetoing bills that would have given local school districts the option of not hiring convicted felons and requiring that voters actually be able to identify themselves before they voted. Other vetoes will likely anger supporters of gun rights and school choice.

This might not matter so much for a politician who was better known and liked. But Jim Doyle is a species of the genre politicus lacklusterus, a charisma-deprived breed that wins points for earnestness, but which is avoided at social events. And remember that Doyle rolled into the governor’s office without winning even 40% of the Democratic primary vote and with only about 45% of the general election vote.

His first year was a chance to introduce himself to a skeptical majority. But the concrete is hardening; and Jim Doyle’s may not like what people are writing in it right now.

##

Soft Money, Sweet Deals -- SYKES WRITES

THURSDAY, March 6, 2003, 7:58 a.m.
Soft Money, Sweet Deals

By Charles J. Sykes
(Note: An edited version of this column appears today in all CNI newspapers.)

Some lingering questions for Diamond Jim Doyle:

(1) Soft money. Shortly before the election, three tribes with the most at stake in the gambling negotiations sent $700,000 in soft money contributions to the Democratic National Committee in Washington, apparently knowing that the money would be kicked back to Wisconsin to help elect Jim Doyle.

Was this an attempt to circumvent Wisconsin election law? Who suggested the money laundering to the tribes? And why?

(2) Marty’s role. Marty Schreiber was one of Doyle’s campaign co-chairmen, was the master of ceremonies of his inaugural ceremony and apparently a transition advisor. He is also a registered lobbyist for the Potawatomi tribe. What role did he play in raising campaign money from the tribes? What role did he play in the negotiations?

State Administration Secretary Marc Marotta, Doyle's lead negotiator, said Schreiber "was involved in some of the discussions, no question about it." But, says, Marotta, "I don't think Marty lobbied the governor" on the new Potawatomi compact.

Schreiber says that he had spoken to Doyle about "the importance of long-term compacts for economic development." He also acknowledges that he sat in on some bargaining sessions, but says that none of this constitutes “lobbying” the governor on the deal.

But if talking to the governor and sitting in on the negotiations doesn’t constitute lobbying, what would?

3. The deal. Last year the Potawatomi put its own deal on the table. In a memo to state negotiators, tribal lawyer Eric Dahlstrom wrote: “This document represents a deal we [the Potawatomi] can support and is comprehensive. If we reached agreement on this document, we would not need to raise any other topics or issues.”

That deal would last only 10 years and would have paid the state 15% of net wins over $550 million. Based on those numbers the state stood to receive substantially more under the tribe’s original offer than under Doyle’s deal.

The tribe’s offer to McCallum also offered millions for the redevelopment of the Menomonee Valley. Those offers vanished in the deal Doyle accepted.

Was Doyle too naive to know he had been taken? Or did he intentionally give away the store?

(4) Papa needs a new pair of shoes. I personally think people have the right to be buttheads. That includes gambling away your Social Security check at the craps table. But there’s a fine line between giving people freedom to engage in socially dysfunctional behavior and state sponsorship.

Has Wisconsin now become a silent partner in games of chance? And does having more craps, roulette, and blackjack make a us a better place?

(5) The double standard. Diamond Jim’s plan involves a massive expansion of gambling in a state that makes gambling illegal for everyone else.

The state will continue to fine and jail non-Indian gamers for precisely the same activities that the state’s governor now celebrates as a social and economic windfall for the state.

Is there a moral basis for the distinction (Indian gambling good; non-Indian gambling bad)? Or is that just something that campaign cash buys?

ANOTHER SWEETHEART DEAL - SYKES WRITES

MONDAY, Feb. 24, 2003, 4:19 p.m.
ANOTHER SWEETHEART DEAL


Faced with the loss of his sole power to negotiate gaming compacts -- and hours after we posted the details of the McCallum-Potawatomi negotiations -- Governor Doyle rushed to announce his deal with the Potawatomi.

Assembly Speaker John Gard, issued this statement:

“Governor Doyle’s action to announce a sweetheart deal with the Potawatomi today is panicked, partisan and premature. The tribe’s current compact does not expire until June of 2004. His mishandling of this executive prerogative makes a compelling case for legislative oversight. We hope that the governor will act quickly to sign SB 41 and that Governor Doyle will live up to the lofty statements made by Attorney General Doyle and Candidate Doyle.”

Senator Bob Welch is even angrier:
“At no time during our discussions with Governor Doyle did he mention that this deal was close to being done,” said Welch. “Looking us in the eye in a meeting and not telling us about this is disingenuous. This deal is sleazy.”

Legislators filed an open records request to get details of ongoing negotiations between the tribes and Governor Doyle but no information was ever provided to legislators on this subject.

“Withholding information after an open records request was made is Nixonian at best, illegal at worst,” commented Welch.

“This move to secretly sign compacts in the middle of the night while the legislature’s bill to gain oversight is sitting on the Governor’s desk can be compared to ducking the landlord because you can’t pay the rent,” said Senator Scott Fitzgerald. “Governor Doyle’s absolute disregard for the legislative branch of government is a slap in the face to each and every citizen of Wisconsin.”

County Exec Scott Walker noted that Doyle deal did not include the economic development provisions that had been part of the original negotiations.

"[The Potawatomi] had previously placed an investment in creating jobs and cleaning up and developing the Valley on the table as a part of their compact negotiations,” said Walker. “Governor Doyle left the idea on the table and left the taxpayers of Milwaukee County holding a losing hand.”

Senate Republican Leader Mary Panzer:
"The Governor has sold the state’s future for a handful of magic beans. There is no going back, perpetuity is forever. He has sold the ability of future governors, future legislatures and future generations to negotiate new compacts."

I smell blood in the water.

“Diamond Jim” Pays to Play -- Sykes Writes

WEDNESDAY, Feb. 26, 2003, 7:25 p.m.
“Diamond Jim” Pays to Play
By Charles J. Sykes
(Note: An edited version of this column appears Thursday in the Madison newspaper Isthmus.)


This is “pay to play” on a biblical scale.

Profits measured in billions.

Deals that will outlive the Second Coming.

Campaign cash siphoned to the one political figure with the absolute, unreviewable power to grant perpetual monopoly status to the most powerful special interest lobby in the state.

Next to “Diamond Jim” Doyle’s deal with the Indian tribes, quipped Senator Mike Ellis, the charges against legislators who traded campaign cash for votes look like “stealing a gumball in a penny arcade.”

And yet the watchdogs were apparently sleepwalking through what may have been the most massive quid pro quo in state politics. At least two things should have tipped them off.

The first was the decision by the cash-heavy Indian tribes to become heavily involved in state electoral politics. The second was the coziness of their gaming lobbyists with the Doyle administration.

First, let’s understand the stakes. The tribes have a government-mandated monopoly on gaming in Wisconsin, in effect a license to print money. In 2001, their net revenue from gaming – the amount wagered minus payouts – was $971 million and rapidly rising.

That cash gives a potential war chest that eclipses anything that either business or labor can muster. Given the stakes, it’s not inconceivable that they might invest as much as $10 million in the campaign of a friendly politician. In pure political clout, the tribes could dwarf the teachers union, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, even the trial lawyers.

Last year, for the first time, the tribes decided to begin spending that money to elect their friends and defeat their foes.

That, of course, is their right. But it also represented a seismic shift in state politics. Gambling money became the trump card in state politics.

Since Doyle announced his extraordinary sweetheart deal with the Oneida’s – perpetual compacts, 24/7 casinos, a green light for craps and roulette – the extent of the tribes’ political support for his campaign has become apparent.

Within days of walking away from negotiations with the McCallum administration, three of the tribes with the most at stake siphoned more than $700,000 to the Democratic Party which kicked the money back to help elect Doyle. In addition to the soft money contributions, the tribes spent at least $275,000 on “issue” ads advocating Doyle’s election and another $75,000 on his inauguration.

It gets worse. According to a former McCallum aide, a representative of the Ho-Chunk allegedly offered former Governor McCallum a half million dollars in campaign money if he would agree to a deal that would go on forever. When McCallum refused, the money promptly went to Doyle.

Somebody please wake up Brian Blanchard, because that sounds a lot like “pay to play,” except that the numbers are so much larger than anything the Capitol has ever seen.

But at the time nobody seemed to notice. Even though they were in High Sanctimony about corruption in state government, neither the media nor the watchdog groups paid much attention to the amount of money that the tribes were investing the campaign or what they wanted in return.

Nor was there any comment when Governor-elect Doyle tapped the registered lobbyist of the Potawatomi to be the emcee of his inaugural event. Former Governor Martin Schreiber was a Doyle campaign insider, but he has also been the most prominent lobbyists for the Forest County Potawatomi, which had a huge stake in the negotiations with the state.

The bottomline: the “negotiations” between the tribes and the state were over before they even began. If there was any hard-nosed bargaining it was over which sandwich to order during the talks. On the substance of the deals, Doyle caved as quickly as completely as the tribes could have imagined.

Doyle and his supporters insist that the legislature’s action last week to require legislative approval of the gaming deals amounts to a power “grab.” Republicans, they point out, never wanted a veto when it was held by Tommy Thompson. About the only politician who objected was Jim Doyle, who thought the system was ripe for abuse until he had the power himself.

But the Legislature’s action was also recognition (belated) that absolute power corrupts absolutely. Under the current system of negotiating the gaming compacts, a single official has the power to change fundamental public policy unilaterally and in secret. In his first major action in office Diamond Jim used it to grant a perpetual monopoly to one of his biggest cash contributors.

The system of checks and balanced failed, because there is no check and no balance. Just campaign cash and monopolies that go on forever.

"We are selling the integrity of Wisconsin down the sewer," said Mike Ellis.

But the most cutting comment came from one of Doyle’s fellow Democrats. "Desperate times, desperate circumstances, desperate governors sometimes make mistakes,” said Senator Chuck Chvala, who faces 19 felony charges for trading votes for cash. He should know.

##

"There is an appearance here that government grants were being traded for campaign donations,"

Group asks Doyle to withdraw from investigation into caucuses
11:34 AM 6/12/02
Phil Brinkman State government reporter

A government watchdog group Wednesday called for an investigation into Attorney General Jim Doyle's handling of settlement proceeds from a price-fixing lawsuit after critics questioned whether Doyle directed the money to certain groups in exchange for campaign contributions.
indentThe Wisconsin Democracy Campaign asked for Doyle to withdraw from the ongoing investigation into illegal campaign activity by the legislative caucuses, citing a potential conflict of interest. Part of that investigation may involve allegations of legislators trading votes for campaign donations.
indent"There is an appearance here that government grants were being traded for campaign donations," said Mike McCabe, executive director of the Democracy Campaign. "That appearance alone does great harm to the integrity of state government and further undermines public confidence in our elected state officials."
indentThe state Republican Party also called on Doyle, a Democratic candidate for governor, to return the donations.
indentThat's not going to happen, said Doyle campaign spokesman John Kraus, who said Doyle did nothing wrong.
indent"There's absolutely no connection between the grant process and campaign contributions," Kraus said. "Everybody who knows Jim Doyle knows he doesn't operate that way. It's crazy to suggest a $50 donation would get you a $50,000 grant."
indentDoyle spokesman Randy Romanski called the Democracy Campaign's appeal to quit the caucus probe "ridiculous."
indentDane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard said he saw "no basis to open a criminal investigation" into the allegations.
indentThe clamor came after the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported individuals connected to at least six of the 12 charitable groups receiving grants contributed to Doyle's campaign shortly before or after the grants were announced.
indentThe donations ranged from $50 from the director of an anti-hunger group receiving a $50,000 grant, to $10,000 from movie producer Jerry Zucker after Doyle gave a $250,000 grant to UW-Madison's stem-cell research program in Zucker's name.
indentThe newspaper also reported that Doyle picked five of the groups for grants rather than rely on the recommendations of a nine-member advisory panel to distribute all of the $6.6 million settlement, as presented to a court.
indentBut the judge who approved the distribution said Wednesday he understood the suggestions came from the panel.
indent"If I had been told otherwise, I would have asked some different questions about the identification of the groups," Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Timothy Dugan said.
indentRomanski said Doyle was involved in picking the groups but "ultimately, the recommendations that were presented to the court were recommendations approved by the committee."
indentThe money comes from Wisconsin's share of an antitrust settlement against six major vitamin manufacturers who conspired to fix prices. The grants were awarded to groups that feed the hungry, help the homeless and provide dental care for the poor.

Doyle Tapping Wealthy Special Interests Far and Wide

Doyle Tapping Wealthy Special Interests Far and Wide
Campaign report also shows guv illegally accepted $12,500 from one donor

Madison - Democratic Governor Jim Doyle accepted more than $200,000 in campaign contributions during the first six months of 2005 from wealthy out-of-state donors who also give generously to shadow groups that spend millions nationally on negative campaign advertising, a Wisconsin Democracy Campaign review shows.
Doyle’s latest campaign finance report, which shows he raised $1.44 million, also shows:

The governor has illegally accepted $12,500 in the current 2003-06 election cycle from Quarles & Brady lawyer Frank Daily (see Table 1), which is $2,500 more than the $10,000 limit a candidate for statewide office can accept from one individual during a four-year election cycle.
Table 1
Election Cycle Contributions to Governor Jim Doyle
from Attorney Frank Daily

DATE CONTRIBUTOR EMPLOYER CITY AMOUNT
5/3/2005 Daily, Frank Quarles & Brady Milwaukee $6,900
3/7/2005 Daily, Frank Quarles & Brady Milwaukee $100
12/10/2004 Daily, Frank Quarles & Brady Milwaukee $2,000
11/11/2003 Daily, Frank Quarles & Brady Milwaukee $2,500
2/24/2003 Daily, Frank Quarles & Brady Milwaukee $1,000
Doyle continued to receive large amounts of utility industry contributions, and then approved legislation beneficial to the industry.
Utilities and American Transmission Company, which is building a $420 million transmission line from Duluth, Minnesota to Wausau, gave Doyle $38,250 between January and June. Shortly after, Doyle signed a bill in July that forces communities to sell land to utilities for transmission line projects.

The governor raised $203,238 from individuals outside Wisconsin (see Table 2), accounting for 15 percent of the $1.38 million in total individual contributions he accepted between January and June. It was only the second time he raised more than $200,000 from outside Wisconsin during a six-month period.
Doyle accepted $26,000 from Connecticut contributors, including $20,000 from employees of the Mohegan tribe and its casino, the Mohegan Sun. The tribe has partnered with tribes in other states, like Washington, to build and manage casinos. Previously, Doyle had received $4,000 from the tribe in 2003.

The governor also accepted $9,830 from Texas contributors, including $5,950 in January from SBC Communications executives in San Antonio. The contributions came shortly before the state signed a $116 million contract in March with a group of telephone companies, including SBC, to design a new video and data network for the state and University of Wisconsin System. The project has drawn criticism from some at the UW that want a separate system developed in-house. Doyle initially said in May 2004 that the state and UW could develop separate computer networks, but then announced in August 2004 that he wanted to have the systems combined and farmed out to a private contractor.

In Indiana, Doyle accepted a first-time $4,000 contribution from Dale Conrad, head of Government Payment Services. The company contracts with government agencies to process credit card payments from the public.

Doyle accepted $23,170 from California contributors, including $5,000 from Stanley Gold of Shamrock Holdings in Burbank. Gold is better known for siding with Roy Disney in the much-publicized corporate scuffle between Roy Disney and the Walt Disney Company board of directors to replace Michael Eisner, former company chief.

In the first half of the year, Doyle hobnobbed with silk-stocking special interests around the country that have doled out $1.5 million to groups that can raise and spend unlimited amounts on negative political advertising and electioneering activities. These so-called 527 groups like America Coming Together and Swift Boat Veterans for Truth are named after the U.S. Internal Revenue Service code that regulates them.

The governor also accepted $2,000 from Robert Abernethy, owner of American Standard Development, and $1,000 from multi-billionaire Eli Broad, both of Los Angeles. Broad is former owner of SunAmerica and one of the largest home builders in the country. Abernethy and Broad also have given 527 groups a combined $254,000.

From New York, Doyle received $5,000 from Harold Snyder, former owner of Biocraft Laboratories who has doled out a whopping $841,000 to Democratic-leaning 527s.

Doyle also accepted $15,000 from Pennsylvania contributors, including $10,000 from Richard Schiffrin of Schiffrin & Barroway in Wynnewood. Schiffrin and his wife, Barbara, gave Democratic-leaning 527s $325,000 in 2004.

DOYLE MILKS BUDGET CASH COW

Legislative Leaders Continue to Milk Budget Cash Cow
Nine of 135 Committees Responsible for Over Half of $1.36 Million Raised

Madison – Legislative leaders and the four leadership committees they control raised 56 percent of the $1.36 million in contributions gleaned from special interests by all legislators while they were considering the 2005-07 state budget, a Wisconsin Democracy Campaign analysis shows.
Legislative fundraising during the first half of 2005 invited powerful special interests to use their clout and cash to affect key policy and spending decisions in the budget. The practice has continued for yet another state budget despite trials pending against four former legislative leaders accused in 2002 of pay-to-play corruption and other felonies. The current legislative leaders milked special interests for $765,893 between January and June.

Key findings in the WDC review include:

Gearing up for his reelection bid in 2006, Democratic Governor Jim Doyle held at least six fundraisers, including a pricey $1,000-a-head golf outing, while his budget was in play. He raised a record $1.44 million for a six-month budget period. His fundraising total was 2.5 times more than what he raised during consideration of the last state budget in the first half of 2003. Doyle’s fundraising put him well ahead of his Republican challengers; Mark Green and Scott Walker (see Table 3).

FAVOR-SEEKERS FUND DOYLE INAUGURATION

Familiar faces among inauguration donors
Casino advocate one of nine who contributed $25,000 each to gala
By RICHARD P. JONES
rjones@journalsentinel.com
Last Updated: Jan. 21, 2003

Madison - A Kenosha businessman who led the effort to turn the Dairyland Greyhound Park into an Indian casino was among nine contributors of $25,000 each to help cover the cost of Gov. Jim Doyle's inaugural gala.

Major Donors
Top corporate and individual donors to Gov. Jim Doyle's inaugural:

$25,000 donors
Cobalt Corp./Blue Cross & Blue Shield
Dennis and Natalie Troha
General Beverage and General Beer Distributors
Johnson Controls
Mathy Construction Co.
Miller Brewing Co.
Philip Morris Cos./Kraft Foods
Forest County Potawatomi
SBC Ameritech

$15,000 donor
Ho-Chunk Nation

$10,000 donors
Alliant Energy
American Transmission Co.
DaimlerChrysler
Deloitte Consulting
GE Medical
Ford Motor Co.
Fortis Health
Madison Gas & Electric
Stifel Nicolaus
We Energies
Wisconsin Public Service Corp.

Source: Governor's office
Dennis Troha, along with his wife, Natalie, were listed Tuesday among such corporate heavyweight contributors as Philip Morris Cos., Miller Brewing and Johnson Controls, as well as the Forest County Potawatomi tribe.

Doyle's office released the list of all contributors, as the governor presented the Boys & Girls Clubs of Wisconsin a check for more than $233,000, proceeds remaining after inaugural expenses.

Last month, as he prepared to take office, Doyle said that instead of using tax dollars to cover inaugural expenses Jan. 6, his inaugural committee would seek contributions to cover the costs and benefit the Boys & Girls Clubs.

Defending the arrangement Tuesday, Doyle said it posed no conflicts for him as governor while it avoided further expense to the state, which faces a deficit of at least $2.6 billion in the 2003-'05 budget cycle.

"We were very, very careful in checking with the Ethics Board about how to establish this," Doyle said, when asked about contributors who could come calling at the Capitol with items for the Legislature and governor to consider.

Doyle, former attorney general, said he took pains to "avoid even any appearance of conflict." If re-elected in four years, he said, he hoped to take the same approach and benefit a charity.

Typically what has happened in Wisconsin and other states, Doyle said, is that inaugural committees were formed, and individuals and corporations were asked to contribute to cover the expenses.

"We decided to go a step further and not only raise money, not only for the inauguration and inauguration committee, but to have people really be able to support a really good cause as part of it," Doyle said.

A different approach

Jay Heck, executive director of Common Cause in Wisconsin, said Doyle's method is an improvement over fund-raising for previous gubernatorial inaugurations in Wisconsin. Doyle was upfront about soliciting donations to pay for the inauguration and disclosed the names of people who donated, Heck said.

"The concern is always that these large amounts of money will have undue influence," Heck said. "But it's probably about the best we could have hoped for."

Troha could not be reached for comment. He and other investors joined with the Menominee Indian tribe in an unsuccessful effort to convert the Kenosha dog track into a casino.

Troha also contributed $10,000 to Doyle's campaign, the maximum allowed. After he reached the limit, three of his children contributed $7,500 each to Doyle.

"They're big supporters of the governor from Kenosha," Doyle spokesman Josh Morby said when asked about the Trohas.

Tom Krajewski, a spokesman for the Forest County Potawatomi community, which gave $25,000, said he did not expect the tribe's involvement would necessarily yield favorable results at the Capitol.

"I don't believe that Governor Doyle is going to treat the Potawatomi any differently as a result of that donation," he said.

Chris Schoenherr, spokesman for Madison-based Alliant Energy, which donated $10,000 to the inaugural, said the utility saw it as nothing more than a chance to welcome the new governor.

"Certainly, a contribution that would help the Boys & Girls Club would be appreciated, but it's not going to sway his mind one way or another on any policy issues," Schoenherr said.

Former foes donate

Doyle even got donations from two companies he sued as attorney general - Microsoft Corp. gave $5,000, and Philip Morris Cos. pitched in $25,000.

In 1998, Philip Morris and other tobacco companies agreed to pay $206 billion over 25 years to 46 states, including Wisconsin, to settle lawsuits. Doyle also joined a multistate lawsuit against Microsoft, alleging the company was a monopoly.

The fund-raising effort was similar to one in Iowa, where $100,000 was raised for charity. Flanked by children from clubs in Madison and elsewhere during a press conference Tuesday, Doyle said the committee was able to more than double what it hoped to raise.

The committee raised more than $455,000 in cash and received $21,300 in in-kind contributions, including $10,000 from the Friebert, Finerty & St. John law firm in Milwaukee.

Doyle and Wally Graffen, executive director of the Kenosha Boys & Girls Club, said clubs in 23 cities would share in the proceeds. Each club will receive about $8,200.

GOVERNOR DOYLE DEMOTES WHISTLEBLOWER

Demoted state DOT lawyer files claim, blames Doyle
By PATRICK MARLEY
pmarley@journalsentinel.com

A state Department of Transportation official on Monday accused Gov. Jim Doyle or a top aide of having a direct hand in demoting him after he released a public document to the media.

Jim Thiel, formerly the DOT's lead attorney, says the actions of Doyle or his chief of staff, Susan Goodwin, or both were "substantial factors" in his demotion last month. He does not detail what he accuses Doyle or Goodwin of doing.

Thiel made the accusations in a notice of claim filed with state Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager. The claim is a precursor to a lawsuit.

After 31 years as chief legal counsel, Thiel was pushed out of that position last month by Transportation Secretary Frank Busalacchi.

His demotion came just days after he released a memo to the Journal Sentinel under the state's open records law. The document shows a report on consulting costs was finished in April - seven months earlier than department officials had claimed.

Doyle and Goodwin were unavailable for comment Monday because they were preparing the "state of the state" speech Doyle is to deliver Wednesday, said aide Melanie Fonder.

Neither was involved in Thiel's demotion, Fonder said.

"The governor has confidence in the secretary, and it was the secretary's decision," she said.

Thiel said Monday he had evidence implicating Doyle or Goodwin in the decision to demote him but declined to reveal what it was.

"I don't want to tip them off, but I have a couple independent sources of information that indicate that (the decision) likely came from the governor's office," he said.

The claim does not seek specific damages. But Thiel said Monday that he wanted his old job back and suggested a monetary award was in order.

"I enjoyed going to work every day for 31 years," he said. "This has not been easy for me. Something's wrong here.

"They didn't follow their own rules. There ought to be some sort of message sent.. . . Maybe the only good answer is the ballot box."

If Thiel filed and won a lawsuit, the most he could recover under state law is $250,000.

Thiel also is pursuing administrative remedies through the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission.

The attorney general's office received Thiel's notice Monday.

Records investigation

Lautenschlager is investigating the Department of Transportation on allegations of open records violations in a related matter. In that case, she is looking into claims that the department took seven months to turn over to a state employees union a report that says state engineers cost 18% less than consultants.

That study runs counter to the findings of Doyle's budget office that outside engineers are cheaper.

DOT officials have denied the charges about the delays, saying that the report was not completed in April, as the union believes. They have also said union officials agreed to give the department more time to turn over the report, essentially rescinding their numerous requests for it.

On Dec. 10, a Friday, Thiel responded to an open records request by giving the Journal Sentinel a November memo that says the report on consulting costs was finished in April and presented to the Department of Administration at that time.

He told the Journal Sentinel that Busalacchi approved the release of the memo. But after he sent it out, Thiel said, Busalacchi's top assistant, Randy Romanski, became upset that the release had not been cleared with him.

At 8:10 a.m. the following Monday, Dec. 13, Busalacchi removed Thiel as chief DOT counsel. He gave no explanation for the move but told him he would retain his $112,579 salary.

In a letter that day, Busalacchi said Thiel would be given "high-level attorney assignments." No such assignments have been made, Thiel said.

Reduced role

The day after the demotion, Deputy Secretary Ruben Anthony Jr. told Thiel not to attend meetings of the department's board of directors or meetings on the Marquette Interchange rebuilding project, the claim says.

The latest organizational chart for the department shows a new chief counsel above Thiel. That position has yet to be filled.

Under the new chart, Thiel is at the same level as his former deputy, Joe Maassen. Thiel is shown with three attorneys beneath him but no other staff. Maassen is shown overseeing four attorneys, as well as four support staff.

Busalacchi has denied the demotion was related to the release of the memo, saying he simply wanted an attorney he felt more comfortable with. Last month, he described Thiel as an "adequate attorney."

That contrasts sharply with the review Anthony gave Thiel in June.

"Jim is a great attorney," it says. "He is dedicated and works extremely hard. He and his staff are very proactive and prompt. Jim and his staff have provided good advice and counsel."

There is nothing critical of Thiel in the review.

Busalacchi, Anthony and Romanski declined comment Monday through Peg Schmitt, the Department of Transportation spokeswoman.

In addition to Doyle and Goodwin, Thiel names several people as being responsible for his demotion: Busalacchi, Anthony and Romanski; Karen Timberlake, the state director of employee relations; and Patricia Almond, state administrator of merit recruitment and selection.

DOYLE MAKES ATTORNEY POWER GRAB

Doyle takes firm hand with state lawyers
Posted: May 17, 2005
Cary Spivak & Dan Bice

It sounds like a gubernatorial daydream - launching your own in-house state law firm.

Gov. Jim Doyle, a Harvard-educated lawyer, must be tired of the hassles that come from dealing with scores of state lawyers and their department bosses, all of whom enjoy civil service protection. And, he's obviously none too pleased with the legal eagles in the office of Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager, a fellow Dem but no political friend.

So why not just create a new firm? It could be dubbed Doyle & Associates. Or, maybe Doyle & Marotta - Secretary of Administration Marc Marotta knows a thing or two about running a big firm, he was a partner at Foley & Lardner before joining the cabinet.

Actually, this isn't a dream - creating an in-house firm is in Doyle's budget bill.
The governor is recommending moving about 120 lawyers to a new division in the Department of Administration. The suggested operation has an organizational chart that looks very much like the ones used by silk stocking firms. Just like the big boys, it would be overseen by a managing partner and the lawyers would track billable hours, since state agencies would be charged for their services.

Dan Leistikow, Doyle's chief of flacks, said the proposal would save taxpayers money by cutting 13 lawyer jobs and making the state's army of lawyers more efficient.

"Now we have a situation where we have groups of lawyers at different agencies arguing with each other on state time," Leistikow said. "It makes more sense to take those lawyers and put them together under one roof."

That's the good government reason.

But there's also a couple subtle political benefits to launching Doyle & Marotta.

For one thing, Team Doyle would get some satisfaction by yanking two jobs out of Lautenschlager's shop and placing them under Marotta.

Those jobs just happen to be in the Justice Department's tax section, which had urged the state to lick its wounds and not appeal a complex tax case.

Doyle overruled Justice, hired the law firm of Axley Brynelson, where one of his closest pals is a partner, and paid it more than 80 grand to press forward. The bottom line, as we reported Sunday, is the state lost the appeal.

Despite getting whacked in court, Doyle's guys still blame Lautenschlager for not taking the case. In fact, that's one reasons Doyle wants the tax attorney jobs under his wing.

"There have been some difficulties in getting them to take up these very important cases," Leistikow said.

But the icing on the cake, however, is the idea to strip 12 of the general counsel positions in various state agencies of their civil service protection.

The result: They would become political employees who could be fired at will.

"Secretaries and governors come and go, but lots of these people tend to stay," one Madison insider said of general counsels. "You want somebody with an unbiased opinion."

Worried state lawyers who oppose Doyle's plan point to the case of Jim Thiel, who had been the general counsel for Department of Transportation.

Thiel was demoted in December, after he released a memo to the Journal Sentinel that showed a report on consulting costs was finished seven months earlier than department officials had claimed.

Providing the media with the means to contradict the administration was not good for Thiel's career. The 31-year veteran was demoted and has since filed a claim against the state. And all this for following the state's Open Records Law.

"There is a real danger that with the loss of civil service protection for general counsels, legal service and legal advice would be subject to politics and political pressure, said Bill Gansner, head of the state lawyers union, which is fighting Doyle's proposal.

Leistikow said removing the civil service protection is not related to Thiel's demotion. The protection would be removed because the job of general counsel would change.

"This was all in the works well before that situation developed," Leistikow said, taking pains not to mention Thiel by name. "The problem being addressed is about state lawyers spending a lot of time arguing with each other across the departments."

Not to mention sometimes annoying the governor.

Connecticut's Mohegan Indians Hold Doyle Fundraiser

Doyle isn't leaving donations to chance
Posted: Oct. 29, 2005
Cary Spivak & Dan Bice

In 2002, now-Gov. Jim Doyle didn't receive a huge helping hand from casino-rich tribes until some $700,000 in soft money made its way to state Democratic coffers days before the election.

This time around, the guv isn't waiting. He's already been out there mining Indian Country for several months.

Back in May, Doyle raked in 20 grand from Mohegan tribal officials who would manage the humongous casino that the Menominee tribe wants to open in Kenosha. Those contributions were part of the nearly $150,000 that Doyle collected this year from folks involved in the effort to turn Dairyland Greyhound Park into a casino.

A new Doyle campaign filing shows the Mohegans got something for their money:

Face time with the governor - the very same governor who may have the final say on the proposed $808 million casino.
The filing shows that Doyle's campaign paid a couple thousand bucks to fly out East to hit up contributors in New York City, where he raised $11,235, and in Connecticut, where the Mohegan tribe operates its casino. The campaign dropped about $400 for Doyle, chief of staff Susan Goodwin and an aide to stay at the tribe's hotel.

Doyle's campaign manager, Rich Judge, estimated Friday that about 40 or 50 people showed up for the Wisconsin governor's gala fund-raiser at the Mohegan Sun hotel, which is part of the casino complex.

When quizzed about the propriety of flying to Connecticut for a sit-down with casino execs, Judge began his holier-than-thou routine, saying Mohegan officials loved Doyle's views on national issues.

"The Governor is recognized as a national leader on many issues (stem cell research, re-importation of drugs from Canada, etc) and he is certainly highly regarded in the various tribal communities for the leadership and respect that he has shown on issues of tribal sovereignty," Judge wrote in an e-mail.

Hmmm, who knew Doyle's stem-cell policy was such a hit with the Mohegans? And the fact that Doyle has unilateral veto authority over the Kenosha gambling hall didn't even cross their minds, right?

"To suggest there is any connection to any of that is not even close to reality," Judge said in an interview.

Just last week, Doyle was shaking down tribal officials closer to home.

On Tuesday, Doyle, who will face either U.S. Rep. Mark Green or County Executive Scott Walker next year, attended a Green Bay fund-raiser sponsored by the Oneida tribe at its hotel near its profitable casino.

Oneida officials said the tribe played host to about a half-dozen Wisconsin tribes, including officials from the Ho-Chunk, Stockbridge-Munsee, St. Croix Chippewa and Potawatomi, a vehement opponent of the Kenosha casino proposal.

Judge declined to say how much was raised at the one-hour event, but he said, "We were very pleased."

Kevin Cornelius, the Oneidas' political honcho, played down the fund-raising aspect, but acknowledged that Doyle brought along his campaign finance chief to bag the checks.

"It was a private reception," Cornelius said. "But I understand that in the normal process of business, people will give checks, and they were given to the campaign (aide)."

Even so, you can't help but wonder: Should the Democratic governor be collecting cash from tribal types while his team is in the midst of contentious compact negotiations with the tribes? The new compacts - only the Potawatomi have a signed deal - will lay out the rules for Indian gaming for years to come.

"The governor doesn't negotiate the compacts," Judge said.

But his staff does, and he signs them.

Judge said he didn't believe that anybody would make a contribution to get a better deal from the governor.

Perhaps these tribes - all of which depend on their casinos for millions of dollars in revenue - are just crazy about Doyle's position on stem cells.

DOYLE POWER GRAB REJECTED AS UNCONSTITUTIONAL BY SUPREME COURT

Court strikes down casino deal
Justices say Doyle exceeded authority with new games, open-ended compact
By STEVE SCHULTZE and STACY FORSTER
sschultze@journalsentinel.com
Posted: May 13, 2004

Madison - The state Supreme Court shuffled the deck on tribal casino gambling in Wisconsin on Thursday, ruling that Gov. Jim Doyle overstepped his authority in negotiating an expansive gaming compact with the Forest County Potawatomi tribe.

The court's 4-3 ruling says that Doyle's gambling deal improperly cut the Legislature out of the decision, overstepped state constitutional bounds by allowing craps, roulette and other Las Vegas games and that Doyle had no authority to give up the state's sovereign immunity as part of the deals.

But there was a lot the ruling did not say, raising thorny questions without any clear-cut answers:

Whether tribal casinos in Milwaukee and around the state could be prevented from continuing to offer craps, roulette and poker games authorized by gambling deals now ruled invalid. The Potawatomi casino remained open for business Thursday, and the tribe said that no games would be shut down.
Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael McCann, who sided with Republican lawmakers against the compacts, said he was barred from taking any action against the Milwaukee casino by a federal injunction still in force.

Whether Wisconsin tribes would withhold more than $100 million in casino payments due June 30, under terms of the invalidated gambling compacts, and how the Legislature will fill a new hole in a precariously balanced state budget.
Potawatomi tribal attorney Jeff Crawford said that tribe's $40.5 million payment due June 30 would not be paid. He said the tribe might instead pay the $6.4 million it would have owed under terms of its old gambling compact.

How ongoing uncertainty over the rules on Indian casinos jeopardizes casino expansion plans around the state. Crawford said the Potawatomi tribe's ambitious $240 million upgrade of its Menomonee Valley casino was on hold as a result of the ruling.
"The highest court in the state decided rather convincingly that those compacts are unconstitutional," Assembly Speaker John Gard (R-Peshtigo) said. But he conceded: "Everybody is going to have a lot of questions as to what this (ruling) means."

Crawford said the ruling "throws Wisconsin into economic and legal chaos," putting thousands of new casino jobs and massive development projects in jeopardy.

Marc Marotta, a top aide to Doyle, said: "Right now, there's just a lot of confusion." He said the state would try to negotiate some interim amendments to the tribal compacts, while an expected federal lawsuit over the issue simultaneously is litigated.

Different deals

Not all 11 Wisconsin tribes will be affected in the same way. While all compacts are similar, each tribe has different terms on casino payments and a variety of other details.

One key difference: Three tribes - the Oneida, Stockbridge-Munsee and St. Croix Chippewa - have fallback provisions that say if a court invalidates the clause that would allow the deals to continue in perpetuity, their compacts would stay in force for 99 years.

Doyle said the state could be the biggest loser in the case, because Wisconsin had negotiated such favorable terms in the new compacts. The $206.6 million the state expected to receive under the new compacts in the next two years and $2 billion over 10 years would make Wisconsin the No. 2 state in the amount of money collected from tribal gaming, he said.

"The issue here is whether the state is going to get any money out of Indian gaming," Doyle said, noting that the casino payments he negotiated helped balance the state budget.

Thursday's ruling says some changes approved last year must be renegotiated, and Republican lawmakers said they were eager to have the casino discussions resume. Meanwhile, the rules that applied under prior gambling agreements take effect, the Supreme Court decision says.

"We hold that the governor exceeded his authority when he agreed unilaterally to a compact term that permanently removes the subject of Indian gaming from the Legislature's ability to establish policy and make law," said the 71-page majority opinion, written by Justice David Prosser.

Doyle said an appeal to federal court was likely but probably would be made by the Potawatomi, not the state. Crawford said the tribe was considering a federal lawsuit and predicted a flood of litigation from other parties.

Gordon Baldwin, a retired University of Wisconsin Law School professor who argued the case for Gard and Senate Majority Leader Mary Panzer (R-West Bend), said he didn't see any issues in the lawsuit that would merit an appeal in federal court.

The ruling was a major victory - at least for now - for Republican lawmakers, who filed the lawsuit last year after saying Doyle got a lousy deal from the tribes.

While the case decided Thursday focuses only on the Potawatomi gambling deal, the ruling is expected to affect similar agreements with Wisconsin's other 10 tribes.

Panzer and Gard were emphatic in their hope to work with Doyle to renegotiate the contracts in a way that would be more appealing to the Legislature.

Though Panzer and Gard are looking for a greater voice in dictating the terms of the compact, it's unclear whether they have any role to play.

While the court ruled that Doyle's agreement went too far, nevertheless, the decision upheld the governor's right under state law to negotiate such deals without receiving legislative approval.

Crawford said the tribe would respond if asked by the state to discuss its gaming compact, but he noted that the ruling makes it unclear with whom the tribe should negotiate.

While roulette, craps and poker games are at risk as a result of the ruling, the removal of an old limit of 1,000 slot machines for the Potawatomi Bingo Casino in Milwaukee is not at issue, Crawford said. Slots account for the vast majority of casinos' revenue. The ruling specifically mentions only the open-ended duration of the Potawatomi compact and the new games as having run afoul of the state constitution.

Big dollars at stake

Gard encouraged Doyle not to delay any talks that would address the $206.6 million budget shortfall the ruling could create. "My hope is that (Doyle) takes the opportunity to have the do-over he's been given to make up for the worst mistake he's made as governor," Gard said.

Gard said in other states, Indian tribes were offering states up to a 25% cut in their revenue.

The Oneida Indians of Wisconsin don't expect that the Supreme Court's decision will affect their operations, said Bobbi Webster, the tribe's spokeswoman. Under the terms of its compact, the tribe is scheduled to make a $20 million payment to the state in June.

"We're going to continue to honor the terms of the compact," she said, but declined to say specifically whether that full payment would be made.

Webster said the Oneida plan to continue to offer a full range of gambling activities - including poker, roulette and craps.

Three justices, in a dissenting opinion, said Thursday's majority ruling "raises substantial federal issues, rendering this court a stopping point on the parties' way to the federal courts."

The ruling will jeopardize not only the tribal payments to the state but also the 35,000 current casino-related jobs in Wisconsin and an additional 20,000 jobs and estimated $1 billion in casino expansions the 2003 gambling agreements were projected to generate, wrote Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson and Justices Ann Walsh Bradley and N. Patrick Crooks.

Prosser's majority opinion, however, dismisses such concerns as the state's hunger for additional revenue.

"This court does not decide cases on these grounds," Prosser wrote.

Overstepping authority

The ruling said although a 1992 state law gave the governor sole authority to negotiate casino deals with tribes, the 2003 compacts were so sweeping they deprived the Legislature of its role in shaping the state budget.

By agreeing to the perpetual term of the new compacts, Doyle improperly curbed the Legislature's role, the ruling states.

When the Legislature gave then-Gov. Tommy G. Thompson sole power to cut casino deals, it was "extremely unlikely" it intended to cut itself out of any role on tribal gambling, Prosser states in the ruling.

The ruling says the 1993 state constitutional amendment barring new forms of gambling beyond the lottery, raffles and pari-mutuel betting also precluded approval of new casino games in the 2003 compacts.

But slot machines and blackjack at the casinos remain legal because they were authorized under terms of original tribal-state gambling deals in 1992, the decision says.

The ruling said Doyle also exceeded his power by agreeing to submit the state to arbitrators' rulings on disputes with tribes over gambling compacts, thereby waiving the state's sovereign immunity.

Voting with Prosser in the majority ruling were Justices Jon Wilcox, Patience Roggensack and Diane Sykes.

BIA QUESTIONS LEGALITY OF DOYLE DEAL WITH TRIBES

Gambling compact barely approved
Potawatomi deal OK'd by federal officials after last-minute lobbying
By STEVE SCHULTZE
sschultze@journalsentinel.com
Last Updated: May 1, 2003

Federal officials reluctantly approved the new gambling agreement between the Potawatomi Indian tribe and the state only after an intense round of last-minute lobbying, and they still view claims that the deal violates the state constitution to be an open question.

A letter released Thursday from Acting Assistant Interior Secretary Aurene Martin noted that two lawsuits have questioned whether additional games allowed under the new Potawatomi agreement were barred by a 1993 amendment to the constitution.

Both lawsuits contend that provisions of the Potawatomi gambling deal authorizing several new games, including roulette, craps and poker, are illegal.

Even though that "is an unsettled issue," Martin wrote, "the best alternative available to the Department of Interior under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act" was to passively allow the Potawatomi deal to take effect. Martin leads the department's Bureau of Indian Affairs.

The Martin letter to Potawatomi Chairman Harold "Gus" Frank does not say what would happen to the Potawatomi deal - or the seven other similar pending deals with other Wisconsin tribes - if a court rules that they conflict with the 1993 ban on new forms of gambling.

Potawatomi spokesman Tom Krajewski said Thursday that although the Interior Department raised concerns, the tribe's new gambling pact was a done deal.

"They may view it as unsettled, but I'm not sure that we do," he said.

Senate Majority Leader Mary Panzer (R-West Bend), an opponent of the new gambling deals, said she was heartened by the BIA letter. It may signal an intention by BIA to reopen the compacts if a court rules the new casino games are illegal, she said.

The Interior Department's finicky handling of the Potawatomi compact may reflect the legal complexities raised, including whether state or federal law trumps on the matter. One lawsuit, filed by Dairyland Greyhound Park in Kenosha, is before the state Court of Appeals. A second lawsuit, filed by Republican legislative leaders, is pending in federal court, but the lawmakers want it transferred back to state court.

Martin's letter also says the Interior Department was unsure whether the tribe was paying the state too much under terms of its new deal. The Potawatomi have agreed to pay the state $84 million over the next two years, and between 6% and 8% of net casino revenue after that. The tribe paid $6.75 million a year under its old gambling agreement.

Tribal payments are supposed to be made solely for exclusive gambling rights, not for adding new games, raising limits on numbers of slot machines or extending the duration of the tribal-state deal, Martin wrote.

The Potawatomi pact and other new gambling deals negotiated by Gov. Jim Doyle's administration run forever, which was the key change sought by the tribes. The old compacts had five-year terms. All terms of the Potawatomi compact can be reviewed after 25 years at the request of the tribe or the state.

The Interior Department, however, didn't ultimately object to the new Potawatomi payments because the tribe "reassured us that it will receive the benefit of the bargain" and will be able to afford the payments to the state, Martin's letter said.

Intense lobbying

The Potawatomi deal, the template for similar deals with the state's other 10 tribes, was subject to an extraordinary 11th-hour round of intense Washington lobbying by forces both for and against the plan. Key congressional figures sympathetic to tribal gambling were tapped for the fight, as well as former Gov. Tommy G. Thompson, now U.S. Health and Human Services secretary.

Assembly Speaker John Gard (R-Peshtigo) and Panzer said they each telephoned Thompson seeking advice and assistance on the Potawatomi deal they hoped to kill.

Gard and Panzer said they didn't specifically ask Thompson to try to pull strings with the Bush Administration to put a stop to the Potawatomi gambling pact, and they didn't know whether he made any contacts.

"What I talked to him about was the best way to approach the BIA," Panzer said. "His suggestion was to write a letter." Thompson aides did not return phone calls on the subject Thursday.

The Interior Department was poised to kill the Potawatomi deal just days before its April 5 deadline for action, according to an aide to Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii). That's when Inouye and Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colo.) agreed to try to salvage the pact after an appeal by lawyers for the Potawatomi, said Patricia Zell, the Inouye aide.

A flood of correspondence to Interior officials and key congressional supporters of Indian casinos also was triggered by the National Indian Gaming Association, a pro-tribal casino group.

Both Inouye and Campbell sent letters in early April to Interior Secretary Gale Norton about the Potawatomi deal, with Inouye cautioning her that rejecting the Potawatomi deal would amount to a major policy shift.

Both noted it has been general practice for the Interior Department to approve gambling deals negotiated by states and tribes.

DOYLE GIVES TRIBES SWEETHEART DEAL "IN PERPETUITY"

7 more tribes sign gaming compacts
Casino deals would be permanent
By STEVE SCHULTZE
sschultze@journalsentinel.com
Last Updated: April 25, 2003

Madison - Gov. Jim Doyle and leaders of seven tribes completed permanent gambling agreements Friday that would abolish most limits on casinos - something state and tribal officials say will mean $105 million in payments to the state over two years and various tribal expansions.
The deals mirror most provisions of the gaming compact approved earlier this month for the Forest County Potawatomi tribe, which operates one of the state's largest casinos, in Milwaukee.

The casinos, now limited to slot machines and blackjack, would be permitted to add roulette, craps, poker and virtually any other table game, and to offer betting on televised horse or dog races. The old $200 limit on blackjack bets is gone. And the new gambling agreements have no set duration, a key point for the tribes' ability to secure long-term financing for expansions. The old compacts expired after five years. The new terms require approval by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, which has 45 days to review them. The bureau approved the Potawatomi compact earlier this month.

"These compacts are good news for the tribes and the communities" near casinos, Marc Marotta, secretary of the state Administration Department, said at a Madison news conference.

He also called the deals "very welcome news for Wisconsin taxpayers" because of the gambling payments the state would receive.

The seven tribes signing new agreements with Doyle were the Oneida, Ho-Chunk and Menominee and the Bad River, Sokaogon (Mole Lake), Lac Courte Oreilles and Red Cliff Chippewa bands.

The Oneida released a statement Friday, saying the new agreement was prompted by "the need to create a stable and competitive gaming industry." The tribe also called for an end to "political and media attacks."

GOP blasts deals

Friday's gambling compact signings immediately provoked Republican legislators, who said Doyle could have gotten more money with stricter limits.

"It's such a huge expansion for such a small payback," said state Sen. Bob Welch (R-Redgranite). "The outrage continues."

Doyle's administration now expects to get more than $200 million total over the next two-year budget period, from all 11 Wisconsin tribes, Marotta said. That's down some from the original $237 million estimate from Doyle, perhaps in part because of the political opposition to the deals that's boiled over in the Legislature, Marotta said.

"It hurt our momentum significantly, so we may come up a little short," he said.

Republicans, who control both houses of the Legislature, have battled with Doyle over gambling since February, including filing a lawsuit and passing two bills to give themselves a say in the deals. Doyle vetoed both measures.

Doyle, during a visit to Racine on Friday, scoffed at the idea that the agreements, while falling short of his goal, amounted to a shortfall - something his Republican critics charged.

"It's $210 million more that we didn't have before," Doyle said. "It's a lot of additional revenue that is important to the state."

The Democratic governor added that he will later propose a way to make up the difference.

With the new agreements, "Wisconsin is receiving more (tribal gaming) money by far than any other state" except Connecticut, Doyle added. Connecticut will get an estimated $400 million next year from two tribes.

Ho-Chunk, Oneida to pay most

Of the seven new deals signed Friday, the Ho-Chunk and Oneida tribes would pay the vast majority in "revenue sharing" payments to the state. The Ho-Chunk would pay $60 million over the next two years and the Oneida $40 million.

By comparison, the Potawatomi tribe previously agreed to pay the state $84 million over the 2003-'05 state budget period.

The other five tribes whose gambling deals were signed Friday taken together would pay about $5 million over the next two years, Marotta said. He didn't provide a breakdown but said most of those have relatively small incomes from their casinos.

In future years, Marotta estimated, that gambling revenue to the state from all tribes would amount to about $100 million a year. Formulas for payments change in subsequent years to a percentage of the "net win" from casinos, the total amount bet minus prize payouts.

Those percentages vary from tribe to tribe. The Oneida, for example, would pay from 4.5% to 6% of net win from 2006 and beyond. The Ho-Chunk would pay from 6% to 8% of net win starting in 2006.

Tribes with smaller casinos would have lower rates for state payments: nothing if casino revenue is less than $5 million; 1.75% if revenue is $5 million to $35 million; 3% if revenue is $35 million to $80 million; and 4.5% if revenue exceeds $80 million a year.

Some tribes may pay relatively little over the next two years, to give them a chance to expand their operations, Marotta said.

Welch, using his own calculations, said annual casino revenue would likely amount to just $50 million after 2005. He based his estimate on $1 billion in gross casino revenue, which is what the combined figure was in 2001.

Marotta said his figure was higher because it was assuming casino revenue would grow by 10% a year on average. The open-ended compacts and lifting of game restrictions are expected to boost attendance and revenue, he said.

The Ho-Chunk compact provides an avenue for the possibility of converting its DeJope facility in Madison to a full-fledged casino: a positive vote in a Dane County referendum before Dec. 1. Doyle, however, still would have the option of not agreeing to the Madison casino.

Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk, in a statement, were skeptical about the prospects for a Madison casino. DeJope now operates with electronic machines that resemble slot machines but technically are considered a version of bingo.

Gambling agreements with the Lac du Flambeau and St. Croix Chippewa and the Stockbridge-Munsee (Mohegan) tribes are expected to be signed next week, Marotta said.

As the new deals were announced Friday, Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager went to federal court asking that a lawsuit filed by Republican legislative leaders be heard in U.S. District Court instead of by the state Supreme Court.

The Republicans want the state's highest court to rule that Doyle's deal with the Potawatomi is unconstitutional. They claim it impermissibly expands the scope of gambling and violates the separation-of-powers doctrine.

But Lautenschlager, representing the Doyle administration, contends the suit raises questions of federal law set forth in the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act. Doyle said moving the suit to federal court would speed a decision.

"No matter what the state Supreme Court would have done, it would have ended up in federal court," Doyle said, adding that similar cases across the country have gone to federal court.

But Gard and Welch disagreed, saying the suit raises legitimate questions of Wisconsin law better decided in a state courtroom.

"They're very concerned about what a state court would decide," Gard said, noting that the Doyle administration seems bent on striking deals quickly. "They are clearly racing to the finish line and trying to get ahead of any court decision."

DOYLE VETOES VOTER ID BILL IN DEFENSE OF FRAUDULENT VOTING

Doyle vetoes voter ID bill, but fight continues
GOP pledges to push for constitutional amendment

By STEVEN WALTERS
swalters@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Aug. 12, 2005

Madison - For the third time, Gov. Jim Doyle on Friday vetoed a bill that would have required voters to show a photo ID, saying it would have disenfranchised the elderly and poor who do not have driver's licenses or state-issued proof of identity.
"Senate Bill 42 unfairly restricts the right to vote at the expense of far too many of Wisconsin's law-abiding, elderly citizens," Doyle said. "Under this proposal, nearly one-quarter of Wisconsin's elderly population could be disenfranchised. I cannot allow that to happen." The Republicans who sponsored the measure, Rep. Jeff Stone (R-Greendale) and Sen. Joe Leibham (R-Sheboygan), said they would now push to amend the Wisconsin Constitution to add a requirement that voters must show a photo ID. Stone said that changing the constitution would take until 2007, at the earliest, and be like "using a sledgehammer," compared to the relatively simple process of writing a new law that would require a photo ID to vote. Republicans control the Legislature, but not by the two-thirds majority needed to override vetoes of the governor. Republican leaders want a first vote on the constitutional amendment this fall. "Maybe it's time to take the governor out of the equation and go directly to the people," Leibham said. A proposed constitutional amendment must pass two sessions of the Legislature, so the second vote could not come until 2007. After that, the measure would bypass the governor and go directly to the voters in a statewide referendum. 'No legitimacy' Leibham said Doyle's criticism that a photo ID law would keep the elderly and ill from voting has "no legitimacy," because the bill he vetoed Friday exempted anyone living in an assisted-living facility or nursing home from the photo ID requirement.

Doyle scolded Republicans for sending him the bill. "Hopefully, they will realize that if they actually want to get something done, they need to get to work in a bipartisan way on a sensible election reform package," Doyle said, referring to election-related changes he has recommended. The governor did sign into law one of those changes (AB 61), allowing communities to share poll workers if not enough local residents are available. It allows municipal clerks and other elections administrators to waive residency requirements for some poll workers. Assembly Speaker John Gard (R-Peshtigo) and Leibham said Republicans rewrote the photo ID law because of some of the governor's objections. "The governor has got to work with the Legislature, as well," Leibham said. Assistant Senate Majority Leader Neal Kedzie (R-Elkhorn) said he wasn't yet ready to "run to the constitution" to require voters to show a photo ID. Trying to negotiate a compromise Doyle will ultimately accept is "far from dead," Kedzie added.

"Jim Doyle is single-handedly standing in the way of the most significant step we can take to fix Wisconsin's broken election system," said U.S. Rep. Mark Green (R-Green Bay), who is running for governor. "Unfortunately, he's made it very clear the only way Wisconsin will ever achieve significant election reform is to remove him from office." The other GOP candidate for governor, Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker, said Doyle signed into law a bill requiring a photo ID to buy some cold medicines - a move to limit the production of the drug methamphetamine - but won't accept the same requirement to vote.
Doyle is "another liberal from Madison," Walker added.

Rewriting Wisconsin election laws are at the top of the agenda of state officials in the Capitol for several reasons:
• Signs of fraud and inaccurate or misleading vote counts in Milwaukee and elsewhere in the November presidential vote, and federal and state investigations of those problems.
What touched off the probes were Journal Sentinel stories that reported a vote gap, with more ballots cast than people recorded as voting in the presidential election, in Milwaukee. There were also 1,200 votes cast from invalid addresses, and investigators said 200 felons voted illegally, and more than 100 other people voted fraudulently.

DOYLE UNDER INVESTIGATION FOR A NEW TRAVELGATE

Inquiry launched into state travel contract
U.S., state, DA to look into donations to Doyle

By STEVEN WALTERS and GINA BARTON
swalters@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Oct. 20, 2005

Federal, state and Dane County authorities have launched a joint investigation into a travel contract given to the company of a major contributor to Gov. Jim Doyle, officials said Thursday.

The investigation will be conducted by both the FBI and the state's Division of Criminal Investigation, which is supervised by Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager. Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard also will play a role in the process.

"By working together, we want to avoid any accusations of bias," said U.S. Attorney Steven M. Biskupic in Milwaukee.

Biskupic was appointed to the U.S. attorney's post by President Bush, a Republican. Lautenschlager, Blanchard and Doyle are Democrats.

Both Doyle and Lautenschlager are up for re-election next year.

"Any investigation with political overtones needs to have public credibility," Biskupic said. "The public needs to trust that it will be done in a non-partisan, fair fashion."

Biskupic said he didn't know when the investigation would be complete. In a statement, Doyle said that he was not personally involved in the decision to give the contract to Adelman Travel of Glendale and predicted that the probe will find "nothing inappropriate was done."

"The contract was awarded to the lowest bidder, saving taxpayers $30,000," Doyle said. "The normal process was followed. It was conducted by civil servants who were not appointed by my administration and who were simply doing their jobs as best they could."

The governor said that he has directed all state employees involved in the bidding process to cooperate with authorities "so the matter can be settled as quickly as possible."

Asked if he expected to speak to investigators personally, Doyle said after a public appearance Thursday night: "I have no idea. That's their call."

In March, Adelman Travel was awarded a three-year contract with the state worth up to $250,000 a year. Before and after bids were solicited and the contract awarded, the firm's owner, Craig B. Adelman, gave the $10,000 maximum allowed to Doyle's re-election campaign.

A competing company, Omega World Travel of Fairfax, Va., led the bidding at one point in the process. But state officials said both bids were so close that they asked for head-to-head final prices - and Adelman won that competition.

Also, a member of Adelman Travel's board, Mitchell Fromstein, gave Doyle's campaign the maximum $10,000 allowed at about the time the contract became effective, campaign finance records show.

Thomas Holbrook, a University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee political scientist, said it's too early to tell how the investigation will play out in next year's race for governor. Doyle is trying to be the first Democrat elected to a second term as governor since 1974.

"Any sort of hint or scandal or investigation by officials at this point is not what the governor wants," Holbrook said. "It will embolden his opponents. It could have an impact on his own fund-raising abilities."

Or, Holbrook noted, "This could be something nobody even hears about a year from now."

Marc Marotta, secretary of Department of Administration when the Adelman contract was signed and now chairman of Doyle's re-election campaign, said there was nothing improper about the contract.

"They can investigate all they want," Marotta said.

Marotta said Craig Adelman met with him about a year before the request for bids went out. At that meeting, Marotta said, Adelman argued that the state could save money by consolidating the number of travel agencies booking trips for state workers - an idea first discussed in 2000, when Republican Tommy G. Thompson was governor.

Based on their meeting, Marotta said, he assumed Adelman's company would bid on the travel contract.

Once the request for bids went out, neither Adelman nor anyone with his company discussed it with him again, Marotta said.

Biskupic said various authorities had been considering the matter over the past few days, independent of a request Thursday by state Republican Party Chairman Rick Graber for Lautenschlager's office to investigate the matter.

The joint investigation is "entirely appropriate," Graber said later in the day. "I think people in this state deserve answers."

Deputy Attorney General Dan Bach said state laws limit the attorney general's role in cases like these, so the office will have its investigators work with Biskupic and Blanchard.

"It's just like we did in the caucus case," Bach said, referring to the 2001-'02 probe of Capitol corruption that resulted in criminal charges against five legislators - two Senate Democrats and three Assembly Republicans. Those cases are being prosecuted by Milwaukee and Dane County prosecutors.

Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker, one of two Republican candidates for governor, said the controversy is an example of how Doyle has "failed the integrity test."

Walker said state government should adopt a ban like one he signed into law in Milwaukee County that says no one seeking a contract with the county can contribute funds to an official who has "final authority" over the contract while it is being negotiated.

The other Republican candidate, U.S. Rep. Mark Green of Green Bay, said that the state should have a rule that would prohibit any employee, director or owner of a company that has bid on a state contract from donating to a governor's political committee from the time the bid process starts until 60 days after the contract is awarded.

It is far too soon to tell whether the investigation will result in criminal charges. But Biskupic is not one to shy away from prosecuting government and political figures.

Since he took over as U.S. attorney in Milwaukee about 3 1/2 years ago, he has won felony convictions against former state senator Gary George, once a powerful Democrat who served 23 years in the Legislature; Mark Sostarich, former chairman of the state Democratic Party; and three Milwaukee aldermen. A fourth Milwaukee alderman was indicted in July on a federal misdemeanor charge and has pleaded not guilty.

Also, a fraud case involving tainted donations to several high-profile Republican candidates and officeholders is making its way through the federal courts. In that case, former Elkhorn Mayor Paul Ormson has pleaded guilty to a felony and is awaiting sentencing. Christopher R. Koceja, former chairman of the Walworth County Republican Party, has pleaded not guilty to a federal misdemeanor in the same case.

WILL CORPORATE MONEY FLOAT OR SINK DOYLE'S BOAT?

Soft money flood should float Doyle's boat
Posted: Dec. 17, 2005
Cary Spivak &
Dan Bice

What's a Wisconsin business to do when it wants to give Gov. Jim Doyle big bucks but can't because of the state's ban on corporate donations?

Well, that's what soft money is all about, as the first-term Democratic governor gratefully found out in 2002.

And the spigot is already flowing to one key Democratic soft-money account for next year's contest.

Records show that Wisconsin firms - including utilities, tribes and a smattering of big businesses - have given more than $264,000 to the Democratic Governors Association between January 2003 and June.

Sure, that's about a third of the $725,000 that Wisconsin tribes dropped on the Democrats in the 11th hour of the 2002 election, but, hey, it's a pretty decent start.

Among the big givers during that 2 1/2 -year stretch were philanthropist Dan Bader, $50,000; Wisconsin Insurance Alliance, $40,000; manufacturing giant Johnson Controls, $35,000; Oneida tribe, $10,000; and Doyle's favorite law firm, Foley & Lardner, $7,500. That sum doesn't include out-of-state corporate giants, like Maximus, Georgia Pacific and Waste Management, that do significant business here.

By contrast, no firms based here gave a dime to the group just five years ago, when then-Gov. Tommy Thompson, a Republican, was serving out his fourth term.

"We have a Democratic governor, and we were looking for ways to be involved in the process in Wisconsin, so we gave to the Democratic Governors Association," explained Kerry Spees, flack for Wisconsin Public Service. "I hate to see it painted like an evil thing. . . . You support people who are your friends."

The utility dropped $20,000 on the association in 2004, including 10 grand shortly after state regulators shot down a plan by WPS and Alliant Energy to sell their Kewaunee nuclear plant.

In recent days, Doyle has been hammered because his campaign accepted $43,650 from WPS and Alliant execs while the state was considering the deal. The sale was eventually approved in April by the Public Service Commission, headed by three gubernatorial appointees.

Could there be any link between the contributions to the governors' group - or, for that matter, the money that went directly to Doyle's war chest - and the PSC actions?

"Obviously not," Spees said. "My company is happy to contribute to candidates in Wisconsin who are pro-business, and we believe Gov. Doyle is pro-business."

Several other givers also had major dealings with the state at the time of their contributions to the Democratic group.

The Oneida and Ho-Chunk Nation, which gave $1,000 in 2004, were negotiating payments with the state over their compact payments. The insurance alliance has been fighting a proposal by paper manufacturers to make insurers pick up a large chunk of the $600 million cost of cleaning up the Fox River. Wisconsin Energy, which gave $10,000 in 2003, was pushing a plan to build an Oak Creek coal plant.

But Doyle's campaign manager, Rich Judge, was appalled that anybody could even think that big bucks given to the guvs' group could have any link to an action that benefits a state business.

"To suggest that there is any kind of coordination is ridiculous," Judge said Friday, repeating a variation of the comments all campaign managers make whenever reporters ask about large donations.

But, wait a minute - just last week Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael McCann blasted Doyle for not objecting to casino-rich Indian tribes making that $725,000 in soft-money contribution to Democrats in 2002. McCann said Doyle, a fellow Democrat, lost credibility on campaign finance issues by not saying the legal contribution had a nasty odor and disavowing or rejecting them.

"I think that McCann is entitled to his opinion," Judge said. He added, "Certainly, the governor is a leader on campaign finance reform."

Besides, Spees pointed out, his bosses don't try to curry favor only with Democrats. They spread cash to politicians on both sides of the aisle and had no problem giving the Republican governors' group cash when Thompson ruled the state.

Indeed, a few of the contributors made nearly equal donations to both Republican and Democratic groups in the past three years. For instance, Wisconsin Energy gave $10,000 to the GOP governors' association in June 2003, just two months before it kicked the same amount to the Democratic association.

"We try to have as much of a balance as we can, though it obviously is not always dollar for dollar," said Wisconsin Energy mouthpiece Rick White.

So what happens with all this Wisconsin loot that's sitting in the Democratic association's D.C. coffers?

Roberta Heine of the group said there are strict limits on the amount of money it can give Doyle.

"Unfortunately, he has some pretty severe limits monetarily," she said. "We can give him $10,000. We're compliant with all federal and state laws."

Thank goodness for loopholes.

The group, of course, is free to spend that money on its own or can give it to other groups backing Doyle's re-election. It's not unusual for the association to pour a six-figure sum into a state.

And it can expect to receive more home-grown Wisconsin money as long as a Democrat lives in the mansion. One political insider said the corporate cash tends to follow the party in power.

"It's a natural thing for the tide to rise and fall, depending who is in the governor's office," the insider said. "If you look at the 16 years (before Doyle), it was high tide for the Republicans.

"It's just cyclical."

Cary Spivak and Dan Bice can be contacted by phone at (414) 223-5468 or e-mail at sb@journalsentinel.com.

Taxpayers Fleeced as Big Campaign Donors Get Sweetheart Privatization Deal

Taxpayers Fleeced as Big Campaign Donors
Get Sweetheart Privatization Deal
State pays $165,000 for job previously done by $11-an-hour state worker;
Doyle top recipient of HNTB Corp. donations


Madison - Top executives of the company the state is paying nearly $80 an hour to maintain a road sign inventory after eliminating the job of a state employee who did the work for a fraction of that amount have made over $140,000 in campaign donations to Wisconsin politicians in the past decade but kicked their giving into high gear three years ago, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign has found. Employees of HNTB Corp. made contributions averaging a total of $3,648 a year from 1993 to 2000, most of it going to former Governor Tommy Thompson. But executives of the firm from 12 different states got heavily involved in the 2002 race for governor, making $29,968 in donations in 2001 and $67,848 in 2002. The company continued making donations after the election, giving $13,375 in 2003.

The top recipient of contributions from HNTB is Governor Doyle, who received $46,275 from employees of the company through the end of 2003. A preliminary review of Doyle's campaign finance report covering the first half of 2004 shows the governor received two more contributions totaling $1,000 from HNTB executives during the period.

DEMOCRAT ELDER STATESMAN MCCANN CONDEMNS DOYLE

McCann criticizes Doyle on donations
DA pushes reform on campaign finance
By STEVEN WALTERS and PATRICK MARLEY
swalters@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Dec. 15, 2005

Madison - Gov. Jim Doyle lost his credibility on campaign-finance reform when he did nothing to disavow or discourage the donation of $725,000 by tribes on his behalf in 2002, Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael McCann said Thursday.

A day after McCann announced he would not seek re-election next year, he was in Madison to witness the sentencing of former state Senate Majority Leader Chuck Chvala (D-Madison) on two felonies related to Capitol corruption.

"There needs to be serious, organic change on campaign financing. If there isn't, this will continue," said McCann, whose office prosecuted Chvala. "There will be another day when another legislative leader is in a criminal courtroom. I want clean government back in our state. It can be done."

Although he is a Democrat, and Doyle is the leader of his party, McCann said that Doyle's ability to advocate for campaign-finance reform was crippled because he did not renounce the tribes for giving $725,000 to the Democratic National Committee, which soon gave money to the state party to promote Doyle in the election.

"I think that was a tragedy, because the ball was rolling to have government reform," McCann said. "How could the governor stand before the people and call for reform with respect to campaign financing? I'm urging him to do that now."

McCann, a vocal opponent of gambling, announced Wednesday that he will end his 38-year career as district attorney when his term is up next year. On Wednesday, Doyle praised McCann's long career in public service. On Thursday, he blasted the district attorney.

"He ought to get his facts straight," Doyle said, insisting that he has been at the forefront in calling for campaign finance reform in Wisconsin. "I'm the one who has asked several times for changes in the law," said Doyle, speaking after a Milwaukee news conference where he signed into law a bill requiring physicians to inform pregnant women of their option to donate their umbilical cord blood for medical treatment and research. "And a lot more has been spent against me than for me," added Doyle, whose campaign hopes to raise about $11 million for his re-election bid next fall.

McCann acknowledged that the tribal donations were legal but said such contributions compromise politicians.

The critical need for campaign-finance reform has been illustrated by the convictions of Chvala, former state Sen. Brian Burke (D-Milwaukee) and the scheduled trial next year of three Republicans, including Rep. Scott Jensen of the Town of Brookfield, who faces three felony charges of having aides campaign on state time, McCann said.

McCann said he supports and will lobby for public financing of elections.

"The government is for sale," McCann said. "The people ought to buy it."

Shortly before the 2002 election, the Democratic National Committee received $500,000 from the Ho-Chunk Nation, $200,000 from the Forest County Potawatomi and $25,000 from the Oneida. Within days, the committee gave about $1 million to the state party, which used the money to support Doyle and other Democrats.

Additionally, Doyle's campaign has received more than $190,000 since 2002 from the family of Dennis Troha, who is seeking state approval to allow the Menominee tribe to build a Kenosha casino.

After his election, Doyle signed perpetual casino agreements with the tribes that allowed them to offer poker and other new games. The state Supreme Court ruled that Doyle did not have the authority to sign such agreements.

The state and Potawatomi have since reached a new, 25-year deal; the tribe maintains it can continue to offer the new games under that agreement, despite the court's ruling. Negotiations with other tribes continue.

Asked what happened after the tribes indirectly donated $725,000 to help elect Doyle, McCann said: "They did tremendously well. How much better could they have done?"

Potawatomi spokesman Ken Walsh acknowledged the tribe has set aside $7.2 million for political, lobbying and legal purposes in 2006 but declined to say how much of that money would go toward campaigns and election ads. Much of the money was set aside because of Dairyland Greyhound Park's lawsuit claiming the state constitution bars Indian casinos.

The tribe's spending on elections is no different from other groups', he said.

"Not unlike businesses or organizations, the Potawatomi participate in the political process," he said. "They participate in a bipartisan manner."

Crystal Holtz, a spokeswoman for the Oneida, said that tribe gave money to both the Democratic National Committee and the Republican Governors Association and had no say on which candidates benefited from the spending by those groups. Ho-Chunk officials did not return a call.

Money talks

Sen. Mike Ellis (R-Neenah) praised McCann's comments, after the senator watched his proposal for campaign finance reform trounced by both parties in the Senate this year.

The spending by the tribes "was the first example that the governor's campaign pledge as a candidate was going to go down the drain when he became governor, so McCann was right on the money," Ellis said.

Ellis said he hoped McCann's comments - along with recent criticism of Doyle's fund raising - would help him get Doyle on his side as he pushes another campaign-finance reform bill in the spring. But he said it would be tough to garner Doyle's support as he heads into his re-election campaign.

"I think his inner self would like to change the system, but like his predecessors, once he gets in that powerful seat, he isn't interested in leveling the playing field for people who would like to take that seat," Ellis said.

Ellis blamed both Doyle and Republicans who control the Legislature for killing his bill. "I lay the blame on a culture of the preservation of incumbents. . . . Both sides are beholden to the people who paid for the yard signs, paid for the TV ads, paid for the radio ads," he said.

A Democratic leader on the issue, Sen. Jon Erpenbach (D-Middleton), said negotiations have bogged down on two issues: whether tax dollars should be used to help candidates being attacked by third-party groups; and whether those groups should be required to disclose not only what they are spending but how they raised the money.

Erpenbach said Doyle could do nothing to stop the tribes from exercising their legal right to give to the national Democratic Party.

"You can stand up and say, 'Don't do it.' That's all you can do," Erpenbach said.

Jay Heck, head of Common Cause in Wisconsin, a group that helped write Ellis' bill, said he was disappointed that Doyle had not pushed for campaign-finance reforms, as he'd said he would as a candidate.

"I think he's been silent on the issue because he sees far more to gain right now in raising a big pile of money for re-election and doesn't want to put that re-election at risk," Heck said.

Doyle's Republican opponents - Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker and U.S. Rep. Mark Green of Green Bay - do not support public financing of campaigns.

Walker said candidates should agree to voluntary spending limits, though he acknowledged such deals were unlikely in the current race for governor. He said he would support regulating in some form ads supporting candidates made by groups other than the candidates' campaigns.

Green's campaign manager, Mark Graul, said Green supports full disclosure of those independent expenditures.

GREEN BAY PAPER LECTURES DOYLE

GREEN BAY PRESS GAZETTE
Posted December 29, 2005
Editorial: Public's perception matters, too

"Absolutely untrue." "Deeply offensive." "Baseless."
"Absurd."
"Ludicrous."
"A slap in the face."

The main characters in a recent campaign-finance transaction used all sorts of descriptive words to criticize a reformer for suggesting anything suspicious in their activities. But, in doing so, they overlooked the fact that appearances often are as problematic as the campaign contributions themselves.

In this case, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported earlier this month that employees of Green Bay-based Wisconsin Public Service Corp. and Madison-based Alliant Energy Corp. contributed $43,650 to Gov. Jim Doyle's re-election campaign — at the same time the state Public Service Commission was reviewing the sale of the two companies' Kewaunee Nuclear Plant to a Virginia utility. The three commission members, two of whom were Doyle appointees, had final authority to approve or reject the sale.

"Obviously, the utilities did not believe that they could win on the merits of the case," Executive Director Mike McCabe of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, a nonprofit watchdog group, told the Milwaukee newspaper. "They obviously felt that they could lubricate the political machinery, and they spent a lot of money on lubrication."

WPS, Alliant, Doyle and the commission all vehemently denied any connection between the campaign contributions and the commission's change of heart in first rejecting the sale, then approving it after the utilities met certain PSC conditions.

"The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign accusations are baseless and absurd," Commissioner Mark Meyer told the Journal Sentinel. Meyer, a Doyle appointee, first voted against the Kewaunee sale but later voted to approve it.

"In the sale of the Kewaunee nuclear power plant and in every decision that comes before the commission," he said, "we base our decisions solely on the information in the record that is developed during a contested case proceeding. It includes information from the utilities, advocacy groups and the public. No one else, not even the governor, can influence that process."

Maybe not. But try telling that to a public made cynical by blatant campaign-finance abuse at both the federal and state levels. And try telling that to a public that bought Doyle's promise in the last gubernatorial election that he would champion campaign-finance reform.

Until he and the Legislature do that, there's nothing baseless, ludicrous or absurd about the public perception, valid or not, that utility money greased the skids in the Kewaunee case.

TOXIC JIM

Toxic Jim
By Rebecca Katers

Many people who care about the environment assume that Governor Jim Doyle is pro-environment because he is a Democrat and Democrats tend to be stronger advocates for environmental protection. Similarly, many environmentalists assume they must “get along” with Doyle because “he’s better than the alternative.”

Are these assumptions accurate? Not in my opinion.

In Governor Doyle’s first year, he has made several environmental decisions that are as bad as, or worse than, those of his Republican predecessors. Indeed, many believe Doyle has seriously weakened Wisconsin’s environmental protections in several ways that Republicans might have dreamed of, but never dared.

Governor Doyle also gave strong support to his friends in the utility industry, helping to promote the plan for a gigantic, destructive transmission line across Northwest Wisconsin, against the wishes of thousands of local citizens, conservationists and local governments. He also promoted and signed legislation to “streamline” the permitting process to push through the construction of several new power plants in Wisconsin...

Jim Doyle is no friend of Wisconsin’s environment. He is just a politician. We must hold him accountable for his actions just as we would anyone else.

April 8, 2004
Rebecca Katers is the executive director of Clean Water Action Council of Northeastern Wisconsin in Green Bay.

DOYLE "PARTISAN AND PETTY" VETO OF REAGAN HIGHWAY

Doyle vetoes Ronald Reagan Highway
Friday, April 23, 2004
By Abby Peterson

Gov. Jim Doyle vetoed legislation Wednesday that would have renamed U.S. Highway 14 the Ronald Reagan Highway.
The highway, which runs from the border of Illinois up to Madison, would have been christened with signs bearing Reagan’s name, using private funds to do so. In his veto address, Doyle argued that designating names for highways and bridges should be a tribute reserved only for Wisconsinites. The bill’s author, however, state Sen. Bob Welch, R-Redgranite, said Wisconsin should join the tradition of other states in honoring the former Republican president and criticized Doyle’s decision as “partisan” and “petty,” according to The Capital Times.

DOYLE VETO HURTS US, PROTECTS TRIAL LAWYERS

Doyle Veto Jeopardizes Manufacturing Jobs
Illinois Trial Lawyers Already Suing State Firms

MADISON – Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce Friday criticized Governor Jim Doyle for vetoing a bill overturning a Supreme Court ruling that created a “guilty-until-proven-innocent” standard for all manufacturers in some lawsuits.

“Clearly, without this legislation, Wisconsin is becoming a magnet for personal injury lawyers from other states who don’t care how many jobs they kill,” said James A. Buchen, vice president of government relations for WMC. “This bill protects all manufacturers who are now sitting ducks for trial lawyers.”

At least 13 Wisconsin companies have been sued so far under the new court ruling. None of those firms produced lead paint. “This is only the beginning of what experts believe will be an avalanche of lawsuits using this bizarre legal theory,” Buchen said.

Doyle vetoed SB 402 – The Job Preservation Act – Friday in Milwaukee. The bill would have re-established the nearly 1,000-year-old legal tradition that a plaintiff must prove which defendant caused a harm in order to win a claim.

Wisconsin is the only state in the nation that has a “guilty-until-proven-innocent” standard in product liability cases. In 2005, Wisconsin’s manufacturing sector did not expand as rapidly as other sectors, possibly in reaction to new liability standards created by the Supreme Court.

“In the wake of this veto, we hope Governor Doyle will take leadership and offer proactive solutions to our state’s liability crisis and protect jobs for our families,” Buchen said.

The Supreme Court ruling has drawn national attention, including an editorial in The Wall Street Journal.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Jim Pugh, (608) 219-0157

LAKELAND TIMES EDITORIAL CONDEMNS DOYLE CORRUPTION

What lies beneath the governor’s lie: corruption
By: Gregg Walker
LAKELAND TIMES

Of all the revelations – and there have been many – in our series of articles on the relationship between politics and gaming in the Forest County Potawatomi Community, perhaps nothing is more shocking than the lie told by Gov. Jim Doyle about former Gov. Martin Schreiber’s role in negotiating the tribe’s gaming compacts.

That’s not to say there haven’t been other appalling disclosures. There have been.

Putting $7.2 million in the tribe’s politics/government account – a 75 percent increase – is startling. It is also outrageous to learn the tribe has paid out more than $1.2 million to Quinn Gillespie and Associates, a Washington-based consulting firm, and that it pays Mr. Schreiber more than $73,000 a month to do its bidding.

But the lie is so telling it must be dealt with before all the other issues at hand, for understanding the importance of that is essential to understanding the dreadful political situation we face here in Wisconsin.

To recap: On July 17, 2003, in an interview with WisPolitics.com’s Jeff Mayers, Gov. Doyle, when pressed, told Mr. Mayers that his friend and former campaign co-chair Martin Schreiber did not participate in the negotiations leading to the ill-fated 2003 gaming compact the governor signed with the Potawatomi.

Of course, because of our reporting, everyone now knows this was not true. This is an important point, so here is the relevant verbatim transcript:

Mayers: “We deal in rumors sometimes, but I mean there has been a lot of speculation of what former Governor (Martin) Schreiber’s role in all of this has been. I mean, can you clarify that?”

Doyle: “This was negotiated completely between Marc Marotta and the representatives of the Potawatomi Tribe.”

Mayers: “Not Schreiber.”

Doyle: “Right. He was not part of these negotiations ...”

However, in statements since our stories broke, both tribal spokesman Ken Walsh and Mr. Schreiber have on separate occasions insisted Mr. Schreiber played the same role in those negotiations that he did this year.

That’s problematic, because documents obtained by The Lakeland Times reveal that, in the new compact signed last month, Mr. Schreiber was not only part of the negotiations but served on the tribe’s compact negotiation team and is bound by his consulting contract to represent the tribe before governmental entities.

So he’s one of those “representatives of the Potawatomi Tribe” the governor was talking about. Yet the governor looked Mr. Mayers in the eye and denied it in 2003.

With gubernatorial elections approaching, voters should think hard about the governor’s statements. I, for one, find them unforgivable, both as a journalist and a citizen.

It’s true that it’s not a crime to lie to the press – it goes on all the time – but how can any reporter in this state now believe anything the governor says? Credibility is everything in this business, and Mr. Doyle has irretrievably lost his.

More important, when the governor lied to Mr. Mayers, he was in effect lying to every citizen in the state. Just as credibility is the cornerstone of journalistic integrity, honesty is the foundation of our political system.

A democracy depends on the free flow of truthful and accurate information to and between the people; a misinformed public, lied to by its leaders, cannot possibly govern itself effectively. The system becomes doomed.

The governor is certainly not without his accomplices in this sad affair. His partners in crime most recently are the mainstream and corporate media downstate, which have chosen to overlook Mr. Doyle’s duplicitous behavior.

Most reporters and observers have simply failed to call the governor on the carpet and make him explain himself. The only exception I know of is the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, which has called its members’ attention to the governor’s now misleading statement.

For its part, WisPolitics.com – the very media the governor made his false statements to – ran our coverage of Mr. Schreiber’s role in the negotiations as, of all things, an opinion piece.

I would like WisPolitics.com to point out one opinion in that news story. Sorry, but it’s a fact that Mr. Schreiber is on the tribal negotiating team and is contractually obliged to represent the tribe before governmental entities. It’s a fact that the tribe and Mr. Schreiber have on more than one occasion insisted that that’s the same role he played in those 2003 negotiations.

And it’s a fact, a painful fact, that the governor denied Mr. Schreiber had any such role.

Apparently, at WisPolitics.com, if you don’t like the facts, you make believe they are opinions. Instead of conjuring up such fiction, the editors and reporters there would better serve the public by making Mr. Doyle explain his own invented story.

The lie is not the only troubling aspect of Mr. Schreiber’s role in the negotiations. It’s enough on its own to judge the governor, but let’s assume for a second it doesn’t exist, that he never said it.

Even in that circumstance, there is the matter of ethical disclosure to consider.

If everything was above reproach, as the governor says it was – if Mr. Schreiber never lobbied the governor on behalf of the tribe, if Mr. Schreiber did not serve as a go-between whose job it was to secure a good deal for the tribe in exchange for political contributions for the governor – then why not disclose Mr. Schreiber’s role in the negotiations?

Imagine this dialogue from Mr. Doyle as he announced he was going to sign a deal instead of the backwash we actually got:

“Look, folks, I want to tell you right now that my good friend and campaign co-chair Martin Schreiber worked for the tribe in negotiating this compact. He never lobbied me, he has never discussed this with me, and there is no quid pro quo. Everything was above board and this is a good deal for the taxpayers of Wisconsin. But I owe it to the people and the public interest to be forthcoming.”

That might have killed the deal right there, both in 2003 and this year. Or maybe not. But the appearance of a conflict of interest is as bad as a real one; the governor should have been up front with the people – that’s his job, after all – and let the people make up their minds.

That he did not sends up a whole bunch of red flags.

The truth is, every time the levers of the political slot machines are pulled in Wisconsin, everything comes up cherries – both for the governor and for the tribe.

There we were back in late 2002, when the gaming compact with the Potawatomi was being feverishly negotiated and the governor’s race was being just as feverishly contested. And there was Mr. Schreiber, working busily for the governor and just as busily for the Potawatomi.

Working, as it were, from both sides of the table.

And what do you know? Suddenly and coincidentally the Potawatomi run issue ads supporting Mr. Doyle and $200,000 of its money finds its way to the Democratic National Committee and back again to the Doyle campaign, along with $500,000 more from another tribe.

Mr. Doyle – dancing around with tribal money in his pocket – is elected and unveils a perpetual gaming compact, locking in for eternity very low rates of revenue-sharing payments to the state. Who could possibly be suspicious?

Now, the Supreme Court having foiled that plot, the same cast of characters is at it again.

There’s Mr. Schreiber, in the back room dealing once more as another election looms, there’s the sweet deal for the tribe, and, lo and behold, there’s the tribe budgeting a record $7.2 million for its 2006 government/politics account – the account where the political contributions come from.

The tribe doesn’t deny it has put that money aside but says it’s for various litigation purposes, to be used to fight lawsuits it says could end tribal gaming in Wisconsin.

Nice try, fellas, but we don’t buy it, and neither should the public. While a lot of that money may be in so-called litigation line items, we have documents proving that the tribe has routinely shifted hundreds of thousands of dollars out of the budgeted litigation line item, only to use it for political purposes.

Hmmm. Wonder what those political purposes could be in 2006? It certainly won’t be for Mark Green, whose pockets will be empty of tribal money after the tribe’s executive council voted recently not to contribute to his campaign.

Anyway, if you don’t believe the new compact is a sweetheart deal, then I have a bridge I’d like to sell you. As the article in today’s paper demonstrates, the outcome is another perpetual compact, albeit a cleverly disguised one, giving the tribe gaming exclusivity in the immediate Milwaukee area.

Most outrageous are the low payments the state will be receiving compared to what tribes are offering and paying in other states and also compared to what corporations in this state are paying – the tribe’s and Mr. Doyle’s arguments to the contrary notwithstanding.

And those corporations don’t have the same contractual guarantees against competition that virtually lock in windfall profits for the tribe. Only the tribe is not paying the equivalent of a windfall tax, or even of a fair one.

Assembly Speaker John Gard and other Republican opponents of Mr. Doyle have pressed these arguments, but, it’s important to note, the same criticism has come from some liberal quarters, and that is especially revealing about the sweetheart nature of the deal.

Calling the governor’s gaming negotiations controversial and sometimes flawed, the liberal newspaper, The Capital Times, has also questioned whether the state has gotten the best deal and has called upon the governor to consult with legislative leaders.

That’s exactly what the governor should do, instead of spinning tales out of thin air.

That gets us back to the governor’s footloose and fancy-free attitude toward telling the truth. As I wrote at the outset, it is essential to understand the governor’s misstatements to understand the political situation we are in here in Wisconsin.

Where there are lies there are cover-ups, and where there are cover-ups there are serious violations of the public trust. In this administration, the violations are rampant.

We have had our own version of Travelgate; we have seen the rigging of the competitive bidding process inside the DNR, with no punishment; we have seen agencies go to extraordinary lengths to conceal facts about alleged wrongdoing on the job, just to name a few of the goings on in this ethically tainted administration.

Now we know why the corruption is so pervasive. That’s because the governor sets the tone, and officials follow his example.

That’s why it is critically important to hold this governor accountable for misleading the public. And that’s why we must call for the latest compact to be renegotiated with the doors open and the light of day shining in.

Published: November 15, 2005

REFORMER BLASTS DOYLE AND SCHREIBER

Ed Garvey: Tribe's millions for elections a nail in democracy's coffin
By Ed Garvey
I have always liked Marty Schreiber. Nice guy. Honest, hard-working and earnest. But is he worth $800,000 per year from one Indian tribe? (Is anybody worth $800,000 per year?)

The Lakeland Times, a Minocqua newspaper, uncovered some interesting facts last week. The Forest County Potawatomi Community is planning to spend $7.2 million on politics in Wisconsin in the 2006 election cycle.

The Potawatomi are no strangers to politics. In 2004 the tribe "kicked in nearly $900,000 in an effort to defeat a referendum proposal for a Menominee tribe-owned casino in Kenosha County," according to the Lakeland Times. An impressive $370,000 for gaming compact litigation went into the trust account of a major law firm "for use in the November 2004 vote."

The paper found that the tribe quietly distributed tens of thousands of dollars to Democratic and Republican candidates as well as to party committees. The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign reminds us that, in 2002, the Potawatomi gave the Democratic National Party $200,000 on the same day as the Ho-Chunk gave the party a check for $500,000. Days later, the national party gave the state Democratic Party $1 million.

Apparently, there is a battle between a Connecticut tribe that would run the Kenosha casino and the Potawatomi. Potawatomi Attorney General Jeff Crawford was quoted by the Lakeland Times: "The Potawatomi are against a Connecticut tribe making millions from a Wisconsin casino at the expense of Milwaukee and Wisconsin ... the proposed Kenosha casino is set up so that Connecticut wins millions of dollars while Milwaukee loses jobs and tourism."

Simple enough. With almost $3 million more promised on political action in 2006 than in 2004, the consultants are drooling. In 2004, $1.3 million was set aside for consultants, "the lion's share to Schreiber," plus $620,000 for lobbying and $900,000 for compact litigation. Not exactly chump change where I'm from.

Two weeks ago, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel columnists Cary Spivak and Dan Bice reported that the Doyle campaign visited a casino hotel run by the Mohegan tribe of Connecticut for a fundraiser. Why? Rich Judge, spokesman for Doyle, said, and I'm not making this up, "The Mohegan officials love Doyle's views on national issues. The governor is recognized as a national leader on many issues," citing stem cell research, importation of drugs from Canada and others.

Yah, sure, Ole. Judge must have consulted the best-selling book by Harry Frankfurt titled "On Bulls--."

So back to Martin Schreiber, who at $200 per hour would have to bill over 4,000 hours to earn the $800,000 retainer. That's a lot of billable hours. He claims he didn't directly lobby Gov. Doyle in connection with the 25-year deal the Forest County Potawatomi recently signed with the governor. Really? Then what did he do to earn the $800,000 from the Potawatomi? If he didn't do anything to advance the Forest County Potawatomi compact, who did? Or did he lobby someone else in the Doyle administration? Don't we have a right to know?

My friends, the system is out of control. According to the New York Times, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg "has spent $66 million in his re-election campaign." I'm not kidding. Sixty-six million. Must be a hell of a job. Jon Corzine, running for U.S. Senate a few years ago, spent $59 million. I joked that for $59 million he could buy the entire Senate - why stop with one seat? Multimillionaire Sen. Herb Kohl will go unchallenged in 2006. Why? You guessed it, so no need for an explanation.

The Brewers will never again win the World Series. They will hit the .500 mark and declare victory. Why? George Steinbrenner has fixed the system, with the complicity of the players, so that the Yankees and other big-city teams will always have 10 times more money to purchase free agents than small media market Milwaukee. Simple. And Bloomberg, Corzine and Kohl will be elected time after time because, like Steinbrenner, they have, with our complicity, fixed the system. They will always outspend their rivals four, 5 or 10 to 1.

So, with all this money flowing into politics, the Doyle people will argue there is nothing wrong with tribes spending millions to offset Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce contributions to the Republican candidates and personal fortunes used to purchase offices. Nothing, I guess, unless you feel a twinge of nostalgia for democracy. Perhaps, just perhaps, Jim Doyle will wake up one morning and ask himself if this money chase feels good or bad. Does the appearance of government for sale cheapen all in government, good and bad, Republican or Democrat?

Governor, do one simple thing. Announce that no entity or individual doing business with the state may contribute to your campaign. That includes the tribes, Accenture, road builders, lobbyists and ... well, you get the picture. It might cost you the election but the current system will cost you your soul.

Published: November 8, 2005

POTAWATOMI PLANNING TO BUY ANOTHER ELECTION

Potawatomi budgets $7.2 million for 2006 political campaign
By: Richard Moore
LAKELAND TIMES

If its proposed 2006 budget is any indication, the Forest County Potawatomi Community (FCPC) is preparing to dramatically increase the amount of dollars it spends on politics and campaigns, budgeting $7.2 million for the 2006 cycle, internal tribal documents reveal.

The tribe’s executive council approved the political spending and overall budget and sent it to a meeting of the general council, which also approved it, sources within the tribe have told The Lakeland Times. The newspaper could not independently verify the general council vote by press time.

The new budget would represent a 75 percent increase over the $4 million the tribe set aside for politics, public relations and lobbying this year and dwarf the amount of money the tribe spent on campaigns in 2004 and 2002.

The year 2004 was itself record-breaking for the FCPC. Among other things, the tribe kicked in nearly $900,000 in an effort to defeat a referendum proposal for a Menominee-owned casino in Kenosha County, transferring at least $370,000 of compact litigation funds into a Godfrey & Kahn Trust Account for use in the November 2004 vote.

The tribe also distributed tens of thousands of dollars to both Republican and Democratic candidates and to party committees.

Documents obtained by The Lakeland Times show a tribe awash in money available for political campaigns – spending the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) has sanctioned despite warnings of abuse from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and other high level officials.

Along the way, the records paint a picture of how the Potawatomi and other tribes are using the new-found power of already mammoth and still growing gaming revenues to influence elections, the negotiations of gaming compacts, and both federal and state budget issues, not to mention efforts to stave off gaming competition from other tribes.

They also weave an inside tale of political intrigue, documenting the way tribal officials route gaming dollars to state candidates through national parties, spend lavish sums for banquets and political golf outings, and shower consultants and lobbyists with millions of dollars a year.

Not surprisingly, given the amount of money tribal officials handle, the records tell an additional story of internal conflict, allegations of mismanagement and graft, as well as blatant violations of the Potawatomi tribal constitution.

The spending

According to PoliticalMoney Line.com, a campaign finance watchdog website, Indian tribes have doled out more than $23.6 million nationally to federal candidates, PACs and political parties between 1999 and the present, and the amount of the contributions, fueled by gaming profits, is continuing to increase.

In 1999-2000, for example, recipients received $3 million from tribes. In 2001-02 the giving topped $9.3 million; in 2003-04 that figure rose to $10.5 million.

Among PoliticalMoneyLine’s biggest listed tribal contributors are the Morongo Band of Cahuilla Mission Indians ($2,096,760), the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians ($1,678,624), the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe of Connecticut ($1,426,218), and the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians (Calif.) ($1,004,808).

Now the Potawatomi – along with other Wisconsin tribes – are making their move to join the ranks of the elite.

It wasn’t too long ago that political involvement by Wisconsin tribes was virtually non-existent, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign (WDC), a nonpartisan campaign finance group, has reported.

“They were not players in Wisconsin politics until very recently,” Mike McCabe, the group’s executive director, told the Associated Press in 2003. “When they jumped in, they made a big-time splash. What we’ve seen is the entrance of a new and very powerful force in Wisconsin.”

The FCPC’s aggressive political involvement dates back only to 2001, when it reportedly spent about $700,000 on issue ads aimed at stopping the Crandon mine. The tribe promptly followed those with ads supporting Jim Doyle’s bid for governor.

Those ads only served as a prelude to the most controversial campaign finance incident of the 2002 gubernatorial race. On Oct. 29, the FCPC gave the Democratic National Committee (DNC) $200,000 on the same day the Ho-Chunk gave the DNC a check for $500,000.

Within days, the DNC gave the Doyle campaign $1 million for a final push to victory, which prompted accusations of money laundering from some finance reform groups.

Since then the tribe has kept on giving, with checks being written to help pay for such things as party conventions and a Native American weekend outing in South Carolina. On July 22, 2004, for example, the FCPC gave $30,000 to help pay for the 2004 Democratic National Convention.

The Republicans have not been left out. On April 30, 2004, the tribe’s executive council approved a $15,000 contribution to the Republican National Committee.

For the year, according to documents, the tribe allotted similar amounts of $15,000 to the GOP and Democratic national committees, with another $2,000 each flowing to the Kerry and Bush campaigns.

Beyond those contributions, according to a memo from tribal political consultant Martin Schreiber (and former governor), the tribe unleashed a series of federal contributions.

“Pursuant to the action of the Executive Council to protect and enhance tribal enterprises and relationships, the attached sets forth the second wave of federal political contributions,” Schreiber wrote to Tribal Chairman Gus Frank on July 9, 2004.

On the Republican side, the memo called for the tribe to contribute to Sen. John McCain ($4,000), Straight Talk America PAC ($2,000), Rep. Dennis Hastert ($4,000), and Rep. John Boehner ($2,000). Both the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee received $15,000 each.

On the Democratic side, Rep. Ron Kind received $2,000, Sen. Tom Daschle and Rep. Robert Menendez got an equal amount, and $1,000 went to BadgerPAC. As on the GOP side, both the National Democratic Senatorial Committee and the National Democratic Congressional Committee received $15,000 each.

But nothing quite matched the tribe’s spending on the nonbinding referendum concerning a proposed Indian casino complex at a Kenosha County dog track, a partnership between the Menominee and Connecticut’s Mohegan tribe. The Potawatomi spared nothing in trying to fend off gaming competition in the Milwaukee area.

Indeed, Kenosha County finance records show the tribe spending $893,529 as of last Dec. 31.

The tribe apparently set up a separate fiduciary account to handle the referendum’s public relations effort, and tribal e-mails obtained by The Lakeland Times show hundreds of thousands of dollars being deposited in the account, transferred from funds set aside for compact litigation.

“Following our conversation in connection with the Trust Fund for the Kenosha Referendum campaign the FCPC has authorized a wire transfer of $370,000 into the specified account of Godfrey & Kahn to serve as the fiduciary agents for this fund,” the tribe’s Chief Financial Officer Steven LaVake wrote to Godfrey & Kahn attorney Mike Wittenwyler in an Oct. 6, 2004 e-mail.

That transfer authorization occurred less than a week after the tribal executive council approved the shifting of an equal amount of funds from its compact litigation budget line item.

“Ruth Pemma motions to approve $370,000 of the Compact Litigation line item from the proposed FY 2004-05 Budget, if not approved, revert back to the FY 2003-04 Compact Litigation Budget for Kenosha referendum,” state the minutes of that meeting, which took place Sept. 30.

The motion carried 4-0.

On Oct. 12, 13, and 14, one week after the wire transfer authorization for the Godfrey & Kahn trust account, the Potatwatomi made three contributions on three successive days to the referendum effort. The amounts totaled $364,750.

A committee called Citizens Seeking Honest Answers handled actual deposits and spending for the referendum campaign. However, the FCPC were the only citizens contributing to the committee.

All totaled, the tribe contributed $893,529 in cash and vaguely described in-kind professional services. In fact, the Potawatomi reported $301,279 of in-kind contributions between Oct. 12 and Dec. 31, 2004 for undefined professional services.

The other side spent heavily as well, collecting more than $1.1 million by the end of 2004 for a committee called Jobs for Kenosha. The Menominee Indian tribe through its gaming development company bankrolled most of that effort, though finance records also show significant individual, local business and labor donations.

This past June, in testimony on legislative gaming bills, Potawatomi Attorney General Jeff Crawford stayed away from tribal self-interest in framing the FCPC’s opposition to the casino and talked instead about the best economic interests of the Milwaukee area.

“The Potawatomi are against a Connecticut tribe making tens of millions from a Wisconsin casino at the expense of Milwaukee and Wisconsin,” Crawford stated. “The proposed Kenosha casino is set up so that Connecticut wins millions of dollars while Milwaukee loses jobs and tourism.”

Despite that larger assertion, beginning in 2002 and continuing into 2005, the FCPC has quickly become one of the state’s biggest political special interests. That those interests are related to gaming compacts and the growth of the gaming industry – and the FCPC’s place in that market – is something not even the tribe has denied.

“Tribes are beginning to understand the value of making contributions to candidates who understand the potential of economic development,” Potawatomi spokesman Tom Krajewski told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s Spivak & Bice in the wake of the 2002 gubernatorial election.

If the tribe comes anywhere close to spending its $7.2 million political budget next year, the impact could be enormous and certainly record-breaking.

Of course, not all that money would be slated for direct contributions to candidates or party committees. Substantial amounts go for independent issue ads, and much goes to political consultants.

Of the $4 million budgeted in 2004, for example, $1.377 million was budgeted for consultants, the lion’s share to Schreiber. The tribe also budgeted $260,000 for media and public relations, $620,000 for lobbying, $900,000 for compact litigation, $375,000 for a line item called intergovernment agreement, and $490,000 for direct contributions to candidates.

Those numbers are not absolute, however, and it is impossible to tell just how much is actually spent on referenda and political campaigns because of line item transfers within the tribal budget, as happened in the Kenosha referendum.

No matter what the final spending will be, what is certain is that those seeking political contributions for next year are already lining up, and the tribe has begun to make its electoral decisions in earnest.

In July, for instance, the executive council voted to deny a campaign contribution request from gubernatorial candidate Mark Green. On Sept. 13 – before the tribe’s new gaming compact was signed with the state – the council voted to table a donation to the Doyle campaign.

Doyle ally served on tribal compact negotiation team

Doyle ally served on tribal compact negotiation team
By: Richard Moore
The Lakeland Times

Former Gov. Martin Schreiber – a key ally of and adviser to Gov. Jim Doyle – served as a member of the Potawatomi tribe’s (FCPC) negotiating team for a gaming compact signed with the state Oct. 4, a tribal spokesperson and Schreiber associate said Tuesday.

Ken Walsh, tribal spokesperson and employee of Schreiber & Associates, acknowledged his firm’s extensive involvement in gaming negotiations and said Schreiber served in virtually the same capacity on the tribe’s behalf as he did in 2003 gaming negotiations.

“Our firm has worked for the tribe going on 10 years and what we do is handle lobbying at the state, county and local level, and we do strategic planning and public relations for the executive council,” Walsh said. “Within those duties, we help in planning and work with the tribe’s executive council on gaming and compacts. Gaming has lifted the tribe from poverty.”

Walsh acknowledged that Schreiber served on the tribe’s compact negotiation team for the 2005 compact with tribal Attorney General Jeff Crawford and tribal attorney Eric Dahlstrom. When asked specifically how that role compared with Schreiber’s role in the 2003 negotiations, Walsh said: “It is essentially the same.”

Both Doyle and Schreiber have previously denied that Schreiber had any role in negotiating the 2003 compact, which the State Supreme Court ultimately struck down. The new deal lasts for 25 years and is expected to bring in about $750 million for the state over its quarter-century term.

The governor and Schreiber had responded after several lawmakers raised questions about possible conflicts of interest between Schreiber’s business relationship with the tribe and his political relationship with the governor. Schreiber served as Doyle’s 2002 campaign co-chair, emceed Doyle’s inauguration, and has remained in his inner circle.

In a July 20, 2003 interview with Jeff Mayers of WisPolitics.com, Doyle said the bargain was hammered out between Department of Administration Secretary Marc Marotta and tribal representatives and specifically told Mayers that Schreiber was not involved in the negotiations.

Schreiber himself told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel he sat in on some bargaining sessions leading to the 2003 pact but did not directly negotiate and never lobbied Doyle.

Walsh told The Times Schreiber did not lobby the governor this time, either.

Monthly retainer

For his services, The Times has learned, the FCPC is paying Schreiber and his firm $73,150 a month.

Schreiber inked his new three-year deal with the tribe June 7, 2004. The effective beginning date of the agreement was Oct. 1 of last year.

The tribe’s executive council approved the contract in a special meeting May 22, 2004. However, sources have told The Times the tribe’s general counsel, its governing body, never approved the contract.

Indeed, according to the Potawatomi constitution, the next regularly scheduled meeting of the general council would have been the second Saturday in August.

Both the contract and other tribal documents obtained by The Times show the consultant deeply involved in the compact process on behalf of the Potawatomi tribe.

Not only did the contract give Schreiber specific gaming responsibilities but other records indicate he routinely updated the tribe’s executive council on the negotiations’ progress and developed public relations campaigns to support impending deals.

According to the agreement, the contract calls for Schreiber to monitor the activities of federal, state and local government bodies as they affect the tribe and particularly the FCPC’s gaming activities and environmental issues, as well as to represent the tribe before those entities “as necessary.”

In addition, Schreiber and his firm would provide public media support for the tribe, would develop recommendations for media communications, attend key government committee meetings and “enhance government-to-government relationships with key representatives of the State of Wisconsin.”

In return, the Potawatomi agreed to pay Schreiber’s firm a retainer of $73,150 a month. In addition, the FCPC agreed to pay expenses incurred in connection with services performed, including travel, meals, lodging, long distance phone calls, photocopying, postage and like expenses.

The retainer alone translates into revenues totaling $877,800. According to the 2005 Wisconsin State Journal Book of Business, Schreiber’s firms’ annual revenues are “$980,000-plus.” If that is accurate, the FCPC contributes a sizable portion of the firm’s business.

Other Schreiber clients include Miller Brewing, Philip Morris, and the Wisconsin Trooper’s Association.

Schreiber: Actively involved in compact process

Certainly the Potawatomi’s executive council minutes show a close working relationship between the tribe, the governor and Schreiber on a wide variety of issues, with Schreiber as the go-between.

For example, according to the Sept. 8, 2003 minutes, one motion directs tribal attorneys to “work with Governor’s office through Schreiber & Associates to influence the Secretary of Interior’s position and research the claim of historic use by Chippewa Tribes.”

That issue concerned federal attitudes toward off-reservation gambling. Other tribal records specifically document Schreiber’s active participation throughout 2005 in the compact negotiations.

On May 5 and again May 17, executive council minutes show Schreiber, Crawford and Dahlstrom updating the panel on the progress of the talks between the tribe and the state.

At the end of the compact discussion during the May 5 meeting – a special executive council session – tribal Treasurer John Alloway offered a successful motion to direct “the Compact Negotiating Team, that if no gaming compact amendment is made and approved by the Bureau Of Indian Affairs, the tribe will withhold the June 30, 2005 compact payment.”

After this reporter read those minutes to Walsh and asked specifically if Schreiber was a member of the referenced compact negotiating team, Walsh said, “Yes. I can’t deny what you have in front of you.”

A tribal chairman’s report shows FCPC Chairman Gus Frank traveling to Milwaukee for another special meeting July 20, 2005, a “meeting on compact negotiations with Executive Council, Attorney General (Jeff Crawford), Marty Schreiber and Attorney Dahlstrom.”

On Sept. 28, the council’s minutes report yet another compact update by the same team: Crawford, Schreiber, Dahlstrom and Walsh.

Even before then, on Jan. 13, Schreiber was launching various projects connected to the impending compact deals.

“Dean Pauliot motions to authorize Schreiber & Associates to update public opinion research on Indian gaming and compacts for the amount of $40,000 ($25,000 for benchmark survey and $15,000 to conduct two sets of focus groups on in-depth issues to help sharpen the benchmark poll),” the minutes state.

In the meantime, Schreiber was pushing public relations projects designed to win over public support for any gaming deal that might be struck.

“John Alloway motions to authorize and budget (phase 1) for a paid advertising campaign in support of the new compacts through Martin Schreiber & Associates for the amount not to exceed $425,000 and monies to come from tribal government compact litigation line item,” the March 16 minutes state.

Schreiber and his team have been involved with far more than just the gaming compacts. The minutes and records also show them pitching a variety of projects to the executive council and winning approval to carry forward.

“Marty Schreiber would like to do an economic study for Kenosha ($50,000),” the May 2 executive council minutes state. “Al Milham motions to take the money from the Compact Litigation Fund.” The motion carried unanimously.

Political whirlwind

The money wasn’t just flowing into the Schreiber firm’s coffers: the Potawatomi were giving lots of it to politicians, too, with Schreiber & Associates acting as an intermediary.

E-mails between the tribe and the Schreiber firm during the 2004 campaign in fact paint a picture of how intense special interest giving was during that summer. They also demonstrate just how much money the tribe had to give and how confusing and hard it was to keep track of the contributions.

A July 14, 2004 e-mail from Crawford to Walsh shows campaign activity moving at a whirlwind pace as the tribe was sorting out contributions to the Bush and Cheney campaigns.

“I am losing my mind on these checks,” Crawford wrote. “I need a call ASAP to determine which checks are to be mailed, to whom, when, and which checks are held for hand delivery. Every corner I go around has another layer of bureaucracy.”

Among other things, Crawford mentioned, the Bush campaign had informed him the tribe might not have sent in a check for the “Cheney Event,” and the tribe didn’t know how to handle other checks still in its possession.

“The Chairman has a handful of checks from the first wave memo and does not know what to do with them,” Crawford wrote. “Now we are processing wave 2 checks and our accounting wants to know if they should mail, to whom or hand deliver!!!!!”

Finally, Crawford told Walsh he was working to get himself and Frank to Washington, D.C., for the “President’s dinner” and wanted to know which checks counted for that.

This week, Walsh said the tribe had not decided what role it would play or how much money it would spend in next year’s elections, including the governor’s race.

“They’ve been focused on the state compacts, and have yet to turn attention to next year’s races,” he said.

But, in responding to a report last week in The Lakeland Times that the tribe had budgeted $7.2 million in politics/government budget for next year, Walsh said that didn’t mean the money would end up in campaign coffers.

Indeed, he said, the increased budget was due to anticipated resource needs related to a lawsuit filed by a Kenosha greyhound track alleging that all of the state’s gaming compacts are unconstitutional because of a 1993 state constitutional amendment barring the expansion of gaming.

“That suit could mean the end of tribal gaming in Wisconsin,” Walsh said.

Milwaukee parents "take a back seat to the agenda of his special interest backers,"

Howard Fuller, chairman of the alliance, said Doyle should approve raising the cap and drop the other proposals, which he said had no chance of passing the Legislature. Fuller said Doyle's plan makes Milwaukee parents "take a back seat to the agenda of his special interest backers," a reference to the state teachers union, the Wisconsin Education Association Council, which has traditionally opposed the voucher plan.
Journal Sentinel 1/15/6

DOYLE FLIES FREE TO FINAL FOUR - were we invited?

Ethics Reform Needed Now
The Capital Times :: EDITORIAL :: 8A
Friday, May 13, 2005
The revelation that Gov. Jim Doyle traveled to New Orleans for the NCAA Final Four college basketball tournament on the private plane of a campaign donor was troubling.
But even more troubling was his explanation for why he accepted the ethically dubious trip in 2003. "It wasn't given to me as a person," Doyle claimed. "It was given to me as the governor of this state." Technically, Doyle is right. The campaign donor, Perry Armstrong, did "give" the trip to the state as a free gift. But it was a gift that could be used only by Doyle. This is precisely the sort of double-dealing the state Ethics Board should be targeting. It is illegal under state law for an official such as the governor to take anything of value - even a cup of coffee. But the Ethics Board staff found Doyle's trip acceptable, on the grounds that he was acting in his official capacity as allowed under state statutes. That's a bizarre reading of the rules. It is also something else: a clear signal that Wisconsin needs to reform how the Ethics Board does its job. Senate Bill 1, a measure crafted by state Sen. Mike Ellis, R-Neenah, and other legislators, with the help of Common Cause in Wisconsin, would combine the state Ethics and Elections boards into a single entity that should have more power and more flexibility to examine shady political deals and to hold politicians and political donors accountable. Ellis' Committee on Campaign Finance Reform and Ethics will hold a public hearing on the bill at 10 a.m. Wednesday. It is time to clean up the way elected officials and campaign donors are playing the game of politics. Ellis' bill could be the first step to do just that. Wednesday's hearing should set the stage to get the ball rolling.

DOYLE REPAYS LIQUOR WHOLESALERS

A sop to the liquor lobby? Cheers!

Posted: May 3, 2005 - Cary Spivak & Dan Bice

You could almost hear the clanking of champagne glasses as Gov. Jim Doyle's campaign team counted about $45,000 in contributions from liquor wholesalers. Cheers! And it's just as easy to picture the wholesalers contentedly sipping some fine cognac from snifters as they read the governor's budget and saw that he inserted language reinforcing the decades-old, state-mandated protection of liquor distributors. Here's to ya! And there's the drinkers gathered at the bar, enjoying shots of their favorite spirts - be it whiskey, vodka or brandy - whining about the ever-increasing cost of their favorite beverage.
Here's mud in our eye. "All the people who make that wonderful nectar that we enjoy should not be taxed for making that wonderful nectar and shipping it to Wisconsin," said Chris Tackett, a lobbyist for the Wisconsin Merchants Federation, which is fighting what it admits is likely a losing war. Yup, it's another skirmish in Wisconsin's Great Liquor Wars. Still, when you mix liquor with politics, you know you'll come up with one pricey concoction. Tucked deep in Doyle's budget is a provision that would spell out exactly what a liquor wholesaler is, saying that distillers always have to ship booze to a middleman when selling it in Wisconsin - pretty much the current practice. The measure also would mandate that a wholesaler have at least 10 retailers to which it dishes out spirits. In addition, the wholesalers would have to pick up the $750,000 tab for the eight state inspectors who are responsible for making sure that nobody cheats - a cost, we are sure, that eventually would be passed to consumers. All of this, according to Doyle's budget summary, is to "strengthen the three-tier liquor distribution system." Betcha didn't know the liquor distribution system was in need of shoring up. Doyle flack Dan Leistikow dragged out an old boogeyman in making the case for protecting the wholesalers, a.k.a., Doyle contributors. "The danger is that a company like Wal-Mart, which is such a huge distributor, could completely bypass Wisconsin wholesalers," he said, "so they basically become the retailer and wholesaler and actually drive people out of the market." As for the new tax to pay the state inspectors, Tackett said Doyle was speaking out of both sides of his mouth. "Everything I hear is that they're against tax increases, but this one is right there in the budget," Tackett complained. Leistikow's response: Take a few sips of a nice Chardonnay and relax - the tax works out to a mere 8 cents per gallon of liquor. "That's an increase of about one penny for every 11 shots you drink," the flack said in a Tuesday e-mail. "If someone's had 11 shots, they're probably not going to notice that extra penny." Or so the administration hopes. And maybe Joe Six-pack won't notice all the money from wholesalers sloshing around in Doyle's campaign account. Since 2000, officials with Madison's General Beverage Sales Co. have given the guv about $34,000. By the way, in the 1980s, when Doyle was between jobs on the public payroll, he had the owners of General Beverage as a client. And since 2002, two execs at Edison Liquor Co. - a subsidiary of a giant Chicago wholesaler - have contributed $10,500 to Doyle's campaign. Asked about the cash, Leistikow said, of course, that Doyle isn't rewarding his donors. Still, the only contributor who would even take our call had little to say. "I don't have any comment," said Edison's Mark Cirillo. Not even to say Doyle's a great guy? "I really don't have any comment."

WDC REPORT - CONTRIBUTIONS RECHARGE NUKE PLANT SALE

WISCONSIN DEMOCRACY CAMPAIGN
Contributions Recharge Nuke Plant Sale
Nuke plant sale denied, then approved after campaign contributions flow

Madison - Democratic Governor Jim Doyle accepted $41,550 in campaign contributions from two utilities shortly after a state panel controlled by Doyle appointees first denied, then reopened and approved the controversial $220 million sale of the utilities' Kewaunee nuclear power plant, a Wisconsin Democracy Campaign analysis shows.

Wisconsin Public Service of Green Bay and Alliant Energy of Madison announced November 7, 2003 they wanted to sell their plant to Virginia-based Dominion Resources, and on December 19, 2003 the two utilities asked the state Public Service Commission to approve the deal. Meanwhile, utility executives had ramped up their contributions to Doyle in 2003, giving him $23,270 in 2003, compared to $14,320 between 1993 and 2002. More than half of those contributions - $12,670 from WPS - were accepted by Doyle on October 31, 2003, a week before the utilities' announced a deal to sell the plant to Dominion. After the December 2003 application to the PSC to sell the plant, Dominion executives gave $2,000 to Doyle's campaign on January 31, 2004 - the first and only contributions by any Dominion executive to a Wisconsin candidate before or since. After hearings on the proposal in June 2004, the PSC voted 2-1 November 19, 2004 against the sale, citing concerns about the state's ability to regulate rate increases, nuclear waste storage and other economic, health and safety factors. PSC Chairwoman Burnie Bridge and Commissioner Mark Meyer, who were appointed by Doyle, opposed the sale. Doyle's campaign finance reports show he received $27,750 from Alliant and WPS executives that month, including $25,650 on November 29, 2004. On December 20, Dominion submitted another application asking the PSC to approve the deal, and the commission reopened the case January 13, 2005. The PSC refused to hold a second round of public hearings on the new application to sell the plant, even though Dominion's proposal reportedly contained several new conditions. The sale was unanimously approved March 17, 2005. WPS and Alliant executives, who had not contributed to Doyle since the previous November, gave the governor $15,900 between March 9 and April 8, 2005. "Whenever it was time for a decision to be made, they were at Doyle's doorstep with campaign contributions," said WDC executive director Mike McCabe (see chart and chronology below). Bridge defended the commission's turn-about, saying Dominion's revised application and other changes protect the ratepayers more than the first application. But critics, including the Citizens' Utility Board and the Municipal Electric Utilities of Wisconsin, say the new deal still means the power plant will eventually be exempt from PSC rate-setting, construction and other state oversight. Two weeks after the March 17 nuclear plant decision, Bridge left the PSC to become a Department of Health and Family Services administrator.

GOVERNOR RAIDS SEGREGATED FUNDS OF $800 MILLION

March 15, 2005
Doyle’s Budget Riddled With Fund Raids
Joint Finance Committee co-chairs identify more than $800 million in transfers

[MADISON, Wisc.…] The co-chairmen of the legislature’s Joint Committee on Finance today announced that recent analysis of Governor Jim Doyle’s budget proposal by the Legislative Fiscal Bureau shows more than $800 million in raids from segregated state funds. “The more we examine the governor’s proposal, the worse it looks. Taking segregated funds to pay for new spending is bad budgeting and further reason why the Joint Committee on Finance is going to build its own budget from the ground up, rather than relying on Governor Doyle’s plan as our starting point,” said Senator Scott Fitzgerald (R – Juneau). In addition to the raids on the transportation fund, the Patients Compensation Fund and other segregated funding sources, Doyle’s budget plan increases taxes and fees by more than $300 million and would leave the state with a structural budget deficit of $1.8 billion in the 2007-2009 budget biennium. “The governor is playing a political shell game with fund transfers in an attempt to validate a budget busting at the seams with new spending,” said Representative Dean Kaufert (R-Neenah). “Instead of sending the Joint Finance Committee a legitimate budget proposal, Governor Doyle has balanced his budget with backhanded measures like stealing $180 million from the Patients Compensation Fund. Our state deserves better.” The Joint Committee on Finance is currently hearing public testimony on the governor’s budget proposal at meetings throughout Wisconsin.

Indian Tribes Pay To Elect Their Governor

Tribes directed big money to Democrats
Last Updated: Feb. 20, 2003, by Cary Spivak & Dan Bice

Just days before the November election, the three tribes with the most to lose - or win - in state casino negotiations dumped $700,000-plus of soft money into Democratic coffers to help elect Jim Doyle governor. Previously undisclosed federal election reports show that the Ho-Chunk, a tribe that has long wanted to open a full-fledged casino in Madison, made a $500,000 donation to the Democratic National Committee on Oct. 29. The very same day, the Potawatomi contributed $200,000 to the same fund. Two days later the Oneida, which just signed a tentative deal allowing it to offer a wider array of casino games 24/7, sent $25,000 to the Democratic fund. That national fund then turned around and within days kicked back about $1 million to the state Democratic Party, which used the money to boost support for Doyle and the rest of the party ticket. "Tribes are beginning to understand the value of making contributions to candidates who understand the potential of economic development," Potawatomi spokesman Tom Krajewski bluntly stated. This week Madison erupted when news of the very generous compact with the Oneida hit the street. In an unusual move, the Legislature met in an extraordinary session Thursday to discuss a measure that would clip the governor's wings in future gaming negotiations. Did the tribes use their money to help ensure that Doyle - who was sympathetic to the Indians during the campaign season - would be on the other side of the table during compact talks, which are now under way? Well, duh. "Why wasn't (former Gov. Scott) McCallum smart enough to do it a year ago?" Krajewski asked, referring to how it took the Doyle team just over one month in office to cut its first compact deal. "He didn't understand the impact, he didn't understand the potential (of extended compacts). Doyle understood that - that's why Doyle got the contributions." Which is why, Krajewski testily argued, the Doyle team has placed such a high priority on keeping the casinos operating. "The goddamn news media in this state has refused to understand what impact these compacts could have on our economy," he said. Nobody from the Doyle camp returned our numerous calls for comment. Doyle and the Oneida said Wednesday they had reached a tentative agreement on a gaming compact that would give the tribe the right to run a casino forever. In return, the tribe would pay the state $38 million over two years - compared with the $4.85 million annually it now antes up. After that, the tribe would pay 4% to 6% of its gaming revenue annually until 2013, when the state fee would settle at 4.5% ad infinitum. The Oneida also would win the right to offer craps and roulette and remove betting limits. Since 1992, when Indian casinos were legalized, tribes have been allowed to take wagers only on blackjack games, slot machines and video poker. The Oneida pact is expected to be used as the model for other agreements. State officials have already met with representatives from each of the other 10 tribes, and a spokesman from one Indian nation - the Ho-Chunk - was optimistic that his tribe would soon reach an agreement. "They're very close to a deal," said Mark Butterfield, Ho-Chunk spokesman. One key issue for the Ho-Chunk is the location of its fourth casino. The tribe owns a massive gambling hall and hotel complex near Wisconsin Dells and two smaller ones in Nekoosa and Black River Falls. In Madison, it operates a bingo hall equipped with slot-style gambling machines that the tribe hopes to convert to a full-scale casino. Butterfield said he didn't know anything about the Ho-Chunk's half-million dollar donation to the Dems. Oneida spokeswoman Bobbi Webster said her tribe's $25,000 gift was nothing out of the ordinary for the Indian government, which often gives to both parties. She said it was not made in coordination with the larger contributions by the other tribes. By contrast, Krajewski acknowledged that the $200,000 given by the Potawatomi was the largest political donation ever made by the once-impoverished tribe. And the $500,000 by the Ho-Chunk is almost certainly the biggest donation by a Wisconsin tribe ever. Remember all the controversy surrounding the impact that political donations had on the unsuccessful bid to open an Indian casino in Hudson? In that case - which sparked lawsuits and federal investigations - only about $300,000 in soft money was at issue. And this time around the tribes did more than just direct soft-money donations to Doyle. United Tribes of Wisconsin spent a six-figure sum on commercials promoting Indian casinos and Doyle, while the Potawatomi was spending TV money hyping its candidate's views on the controversial Crandon mine. The three tribes also helped pay for Doyle's elaborate inaugural festivities last month, with the Potawatomi kicking in $25,000, the Ho-Chunk $15,000 and the Oneida $5,000. Never before has this much been at stake," Krajewski said.

2002 -- The charges we have leveled are credible and convincing

http://badgerherald.com/news/2002/09/04/poll_shows_doyle_in_.php

The Democratic campaign turned sour recently when Republicans claimed Doyle aid JoAnna Richard campaigned on state time. Although Doyle has denied the claims, the charges are being investigated in Dane and Milwaukee counties.

Republican Party of Wisconsin Chair Rick Graber said Doyle should give a detailed explanation of schedules and phone records that could be seen as misconduct. “The charges we have leveled are credible and convincing,” Graber said. “The fact that Jim Doyle is relying on campaign operatives to pump out a smokescreen of name-calling and spin-control strongly suggests he has no way to defend this conduct.” Graber has also criticized Doyle’s spin on the investigation, as well as his involvement in other caucus probes. “Jim Doyle’s continued involvement in investigating and prosecuting the exact same behavior that those in his office have engaged in is both stunningly hypocritical and a true conflict of interest,” Graber said. “The integrity of the caucus probe is questionable if Doyle is not willing to remove himself from the process and fully own up to the conduct of his top aides.”

In a letter to Doyle, Democratic hopeful Barrett said the investigation into misuse of public funds is a public concern.
“The public must have confidence in any criminal investigation, but this one more than most,” Barrett wrote. Barrett suggested that because of his awareness of Richard’s involvement, Doyle should remove himself from investigation into the case.

THE CONSPIRACY OF SELECTIVE PROSECUTION

Doyle proposes sales tax on Internet downloads

Doyle proposes sales tax on Internet downloads
Republicans vow to delete provision in governor's budget plan

By STEVEN WALTERS
Posted: March 7, 2005, excerpt

Madison - Gov. Jim Doyle wants you to pay Wisconsin's 5% sales tax whenever you pay to download a song, book, movie or piece of art. A little-noticed provision of the Democratic governor's proposed state budget would extend the sales tax to those Internet transactions, officials said Monday. There would be no Internet sales tax police, however, because compliance would be on the honor system. It's a matter of equity, said state Revenue Secretary Mike Morgan, defending Doyle's goal of having consumers voluntarily pay the sales tax on "intangible" items they buy and download from the Internet. Buyers would have to pay the 5% sales tax if they purchased those items at any Wisconsin store. One Internet scholar said Wisconsin might be the first state to tax those downloads, which are exploding. "I'm not aware of any other state that is doing this," said Lee Rainie, director of the non-profit Pew Internet & America Life Project. But the state Revenue Department says South Dakota does. Republican Rep. Scott Jensen, who dubbed the governor's idea an "iPod" tax, said he will ask his fellow Republicans who control the Legislature to kill it. "Unlike Gov. Doyle, I want to encourage electronic commerce," he said. "As the budget process moves forward, I will be working to push the 'delete' button on Gov. Doyle's iPod tax."

CAUCUS SCANDAL - HOW DEMOCRATIC DA'S PROTECTED JIM DOYLE

WEDNESDAY, Oct. 23, 2002, 10:32 a.m.
JIM DOYLE'S WHISTLEBLOWER: EXCLUSIVE

By Charles J. Sykes

Don Fish is the witness who wasn’t called. Fish was a whistle-blower long before the caucus scandal was even a gleam in Brian Blanchard’s eye. In sworn affadavits, the former state Democratic Party staffer charges that prominent Democrats attended meetings where party officials discussed using state employees – including caucus staffers – to develop voter files for use in political campaigns. Fish, who worked for the state Democratic Party from 1998 to 2000, says that two-thirds of the voter information used by the party was created by caucus workers from the state senate and assembly. He provides documents; names names, dates, and places. Fish’s charges are so detailed and so credible that the state Elections Board voted unanimously in July to continue investigating them. But Don Fish was never called before the John Doe probe into the Capitol caucus scandal. Fish suspects Brian Blanchard didn’t want to call him because he had “named too many names.” While Fish can document the abuse of the Democratic caucus staff, he says, “I have even more evidence on how [Jim] Doyle, the state party, and the Democratic congressional delegation did the same thing.” Blanchard never gave him a chance to tell the John Doe what he knew. Fish finds much of the information in the criminal complaints fascinating. “It was particularly disheartening to read how [former senate caucus director and current Doyle aide] JoAnna Richard testified to actively participating in caucus scandal abuse,” he says, “but no charges were filed against her. Could this have something to do with the fact that Doyle ‘was the boss of the investigators’?” Fish was quite familiar with JoAnna Richard. “During 1999 and 2000, I attended at least a dozen meetings of the members of the [Democratic Party’s] coordinated committee, and I remember JoAnna was at most of them, representing Doyle.” Fish says that the current focus on whether Richard may have campaigned on state time for Doyle misses the point. “The real issue,” he says, “is that JoAnna, while representing Doyle on the [Democratic Party’ s] Coordinated Campaign, participated in plans to extensively use caucus and legislative staff in the development of the [the state party’s] voter database program. ” Under the standards set out by Blanchard in last week’s charges, this suggests that Fish has evidence of criminal misconduct, perhaps even felonies, involving some very prominent officials. A year ago, Fish says, he had three lengthy meetings with Blanchard and Milwaukee County prosecutor David Feiss. “I freely provided answers to all their questions, with no lawyer by my side, and provided over 500 pages of documents” including documents that the State Elections Board had not seen. But despite the prosecutors’ apparent initial interest, Fish was never asked to testify before the John Doe. “This seems particularly ironic…because I would probably have been one of the few who would not have brought along an attorney and who would have testified freely without a grant of immunity.” Why does Fish think that he wasn’t asked to testify? “This may sound cynical,” he says, “but I can only believe Brian Blanchard and E. Michael McCann are protecting Attorney General Doyle, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin and other top Democrats; and that there was, indeed, selective prosecution; and that there are, indeed, some people immune from prosecution.” “I also believe Blanchard’s own involvement in caucus scandal abuses may have made it difficult for him to scrutinize others who were doing the same thing.” The failure to include Fish’s evidence in the John Doe investigation raises even more questions about the timing, fairness, and motivation of Blanchard’s election-eve felony charges. After 18 months of investigation and under intense pressure to produce charges, Blanchard was unable to come up with anything against Scott Jensen or Steve Foti that matched McCann’s charges against Chuck Chvala either in drama or seriousness. No pay for play, no shakedowns, no extortion. Blanchard was unable to come up with the staples of political corruption: no sexual misconduct, no million dollar cash grab like Milwaukee County’s pension scandal, no destruction of public records, no bribery, no perjury, no envelopes stuffed with cash. Just allegations that the Republicans had used legislative staffers for political purposes – precisely the charges that Fish had made about the Democrats. Fish says he still considers himself a Democrat, but the bottom-line of Blanchard’s investigation is that: “Most of the Democrats involved with the caucus scandal apparently will not be held accountable for their actions. They have gotten away with it, and they have no incentive to change. “My fear is the result of this investigation will be a continuation of politics as usual, which is tragic. Because so many got away with abuses of power, the caucus scandal is likely to be reduced to a footnote to reference in the next scandal.” Maybe that’s what Brian Blanchard didn’t want to hear.

Doyle Enriches Buddies With Our Money

With friends like these, deals twice as sweet
Last Updated: Nov. 15, 2003
Cary Spivak & Dan Bice

Just how cushy is one of the state deals landed by Gov. Jim Doyle's favorite law firm - Foley & Lardner? Last week, we told you about a couple of contracts given Foley by the Doyle team, but what we didn't know then was just how sweet one of those was and how many Foley lawyers were sharing the wealth, compliments of the Democratic governor. Here are the details, as shown in documents provided under the open records law: Foley, the silk-stocking Milwaukee law firm, has 16 people - including 12 attorneys - billing the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority up to $360 an hour for work on its lawsuit against a spinoff group over $86 million in housing money. The highest rate is being paid to Foley partner David Walsh, who has palled around since childhood with Doyle, who this year appointed Walsh to the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents. What are friends for, after all? Walsh is also a lifelong buddy of WHEDA Chairman Perry Armstrong and represents Armstrong's firm, Preferred Title. Overall, WHEDA has been billed nearly $319,000 by Foley and another $30,000 by Kasdorf, Lewis & Swietlik, a midsize Milwaukee firm, since the two firms were hired by WHEDA this year to battle the Wisconsin Housing Preservation Corp. That's on top of the work that Foley does as bond counsel for WHEDA - a gig it snatched from the firm of Michael Best & Friedrich, which had the deal since Tony Earl was governor. The Kasdorf firm has six lawyers working the case, meaning a total of 18 private attorneys have fed off the WHEDA trough on this matter. Asked why the agency's legal bills are so much higher than the other side's in the dispute, WHEDA's lawyer responded with an e-mail that didn't answer the question. "WHEDA cannot comment on the legal bills of the Wisconsin Housing Preservation Corp. without having had a chance to see them," wrote Mick Conrad. Conrad didn't even go through the motions of trying to answer our question about why his agency didn't require Foley to cap its fees, as Doyle's predecessors had done. He did say the lawyers were being paid out of WHEDA's general fund, which he said includes no tax dollars. Just so you know, the suit, which was filed in June, has not yet gone to trial. Heck, it's barely gotten out of the starting block. The two sides have had a couple of court hearings and are currently taking depositions, and WHEDA has turned over a ton of documents. The suit, no doubt, is a complicated one, as Housing Preservation officials are fighting to keep control of tens of millions of dollars, not to mention their own jobs. Ex-WHEDA boss Fritz Ruf is being paid $100,000 a year to oversee the non-profit that was spun off from WHEDA in the waning days of the Gov. Scott McCallum administration. For comparison's sake, Housing Preservation has five attorneys who have billed a little more than $91,000 - or about one-quarter of what WHEDA's been hit with - and the highest rate paid by the non-profit is $250 an hour. A spokesman for Housing Preservation noted that the full amount will be reimbursed by its insurance company. Ruf and Republican wheeler-dealer/Housing Preservation board member John Petersen III both have lawyered up, as well, and their mouthpieces are also being paid by the Housing Preservation insurance company. Those two lawyers refused to disclose what they are being paid, though sources say each attorney is billing about $200 to $220 an hour. WHEDA's lead lawyer on the case, William Conley, another Foley partner, is being paid $350 an hour and, so far, has put in for 360 hours for a total of $126,000. By comparison, the six Kasdorf lawyers are getting chump change - a mere $115 to $175 an hour. Wanna bet none of those guys shot hoops with a future governor when they were kids? The two previous administrations had required private attorneys to cap their fees at about half of the rate being paid Conley. Overall, Foley is billing at an average rate of $292 an hour for 906 hours of work on the case, on top of a $50,000 contract for work done earlier on this matter, plus expenses. As they say, it's not bad work - if the Doyle administration is willing to pay for it. But the Doyle-Foley relationship isn't a one-way affair. Campaign records show that in the past three years, Foley lawyers and their spouses have coughed up nearly $80,000 to the Doyle campaign. Walsh and his wife, alone, contributed $25,000 since October 1999. Ain't friendship a beautiful thing?

Law firm with links to Doyle runs up the tab

Law firm with links to Doyle runs up the tab
Last Updated: Nov. 4, 2003
Cary Spivak & Dan Bice

Not so long ago, rookie Gov. Jim Doyle's cronies were crowing about how little they had spent on private attorneys compared with the two previous Republican administrations. But Team Doyle is catching up fast. Records show the Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority has been billed $349,402 by Foley & Lardner and a second firm, both of which are representing it in a dispute with a spinoff group over control of $94 million in housing dollars. The lead Foley lawyer on the case is charging WHEDA $350 an hour - about what a top-flight Milwaukee corporate lawyer would charge. Both firms have been running up the legal tab since they were hired five months ago to prepare a lawsuit against the Wisconsin Housing Preservation Corp. The two sides have been battling in court for most of the summer and into the fall. As has been well-documented, Foley has strong ties to Doyle and some of his top aides, including Administration Secretary Marc Marotta, an ex-Foley partner. Also, one of Doyle's best friends, David Walsh, has been with the firm's Madison office for years. Foley also recently won the lucrative contract from the state EdVest board to audit the various investigations of the beleaguered Strong Mutual Funds and to make recommendations to board members on how to protect investors in the popular program. EdVest allows families to invest money, tax free, for their children's education. Strong has been the only firm to oversee EdVest investments for several years. The contract is still being finalized, but a memo from Doyle legal counsel indicates that Foley expects its lead attorney, Doug Hagerman of the firm's Chicago office, to be paid $440 an hour in his work for EdVest. Two other Foley lawyers would get $320 an hour, and a fourth one would collect an hourly rate of $205. Pretty fat fees, but they could go higher. "They have been represented as a slight discount on their market rates," Eric Callisto, a staff lawyer for Doyle, wrote to EdVest officials on Oct. 15 when recommending Foley. "They also would like to raise these fees on Feb. 1, with the same discount, consistent with their annual fee increase." State Treasurer Jack Voight said he expects that the contract will lay out specific sums that EdVest will pay for specific tasks. He said he soon will be asking the Legislature's budget-writing committee to OK spending $200,000 out of its contingency fund for lawyers. Voight, one of those leading the charge against Strong, said the board simply did as told when it tapped Foley to handle the matter. The board voted last month to retain special counsel. The attorney general declined the offer, and the request was kicked to Doyle. "We were being steered by the governor's office," Voight said. Doyle officials denied giving Foley the royal blessing, though e-mails supplied by their office showed that it was the only firm recommended to EdVest. A spokesman said Doyle's folks briefly considered two other Milwaukee firms. Marotta, the top Doyle aide who left Foley last year, said his old pals back at the firm are the best choice for the job - though he might be just a tad biased. "Those other (big Milwaukee) firms don't have the same presence, and I don't think they have same type of depth as Foley," Marotta said. As for the fees being charged by his former colleagues, well, Marotta explained big-time lawyers cost big-time dollars. He should know; back in his day at the silk-stocking firm, he said he billed out in the $400 neighborhood, as well. Sounding like the corporate attorney pitching a potential client, Marotta said now is not the time to pinch pennies. "There is an awful lot at stake," he said. "You don't put in jeopardy millions and millions of dollars because you want to screw around with a real small amount of money compared with what is at stake." That's why, he said, sometimes you have to ante up the big bucks to the guys in the Italian suits. But even Marotta conceded that the world looks different now that he's signing the checks, not cashing them. "I'm on the other side of this now - these fees seem awfully high," he said. Still, the company line in the East Wing of the Capitol is that this administration is very frugal when it comes to outside lawyers. And Doyle flack Dan Leistikow is sticking to that line - no matter the facts. "On the whole," he said, "this administration has been very conservative about the use of outside counsel and the rates." Foley must simply be the exception to the rule.

Doyle, Gard Face $123,000 in Fines for Disclosure Violations

WDC Files Complaints Against Governor,
Assembly Leader for Illegal Donations
Doyle, Gard Face $123,000 in Fines for Disclosure Violations

Madison - Democratic Governor James Doyle and Republican Assembly Speaker John Gard violated state campaign finance laws by repeatedly failing to fully disclose the source of nearly $115,000 in campaign contributions, according to complaints filed today by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. The complaints and 216 pages of accompanying evidence filed with the state Elections Board show the veteran politicians violated the state campaign finance disclosure law requiring candidates to identify the occupation and employer of contributors who give a candidate more than $100 in a year. The law allows the board to levy civil fines of up to $500 per violation. Employment and occupational information is an essential part of campaign finance disclosure because it identifies the special interests behind the contributions that influence elected officials. A WDC analysis of campaign finance reports filed by the candidates with the board show that Doyle failed to identify the special interests behind 207 contributions worth $104,278 to his campaign between August 27, 2002 and June 30, 2003. Among these donations were 31 contributions of $1,000 or more, including three donations of $5,000. (See table.) Under the law, the Elections Board could levy up to $103,500 in civil forfeitures on Doyle's campaign. WDC filed complaints against Gard and Doyle because they were the worst offenders among 60 current officeholders who had missing information on their reports involving a total of 459 contributions worth $183,963. Doyle and Gard accounted for 62 percent of the dollar value of the improperly disclosed contributions and 54 percent of the total number of donations with missing occupational and employment information. In addition, Doyle and Gard have been persistent violators of the disclosure requirement who have received failing grades in past WDC reviews of campaign finance reports filed by candidates for statewide office and the Legislature for January 2001 through August 2002. Doyle received an F for failing to disclose adequate employment-related data on $96,380 worth of contributions received in the first half of 2001. He received a C for $21,736 worth of poorly reported contributions in the last half of 2001 and a B for missing information on $43,800 worth of 2002 contributions accepted through late August. Gard's previous grades were a B, an F and a C for missing information on contributions ranging from $800 to $1,650. The grades were based on the percentage of a candidate's total large individual contributions that had missing information. Gard and Doyle are veteran politicians who have filed dozens of these reports and should know better. Gard has been in the Assembly since 1987 and Doyle was attorney general from 1990 through 2002 before winning the governor's office. State elected officials are required to file two of these reports in each non-election year and four campaign finance reports in an election year. Another factor in the decision to file formal complaints is the state Elections Board's ongoing refusal to take enforcement action against candidates in the past when their failure to comply with the disclosure law has been pointed out by the Democracy Campaign, WDC executive director Mike McCabe said. The cause of the Elections Board's unwillingness to enforce the law is its flawed structure, McCabe said, noting that the majority of board members are appointed by legislative leaders, the governor and the two major political parties. Board member Donald Goldberg of Milwaukee is an appointee of Governor Doyle. Gard appointed Patrick Hodan of Milwaukee to the board. Not only should the Elections Board fine Doyle and Gard, it should order all candidates with improperly reported contributions to provide the missing information or return the money to the donors, McCabe said. "These are illegal campaign contributions and the Elections Board is doing nothing to make sure candidates obey the law," he said. "The law they are ignoring is the most important part of campaign finance disclosure. Citizens have a right to know the interests behind big campaign donations, and the public is cheated out of this vital information when the law is not enforced."

Reformer Ellis Blasts Doyle

Doyle's announcement quoted Sen. Mike Ellis (R-Neenah) praising the package. But in an interview, Ellis blasted it, saying he didn't think the package was comprehensive enough.Ellis accused Doyle of picking off ideas from other lawmakers and said Doyle was being disingenuous because of earlier efforts to block campaign finance reform. "He's trying to repair his image when he did everything he could for four years to kill reform," Ellis said. Ellis suggested Doyle was motivated to push ethics reforms because "he's under the microscope for alleged ethical lapses." And, Ellis again: "Suddenly, in an election year, when he is being investigated…the governor gets religion and starts to pose for holy pictures. Give me a break."
1/6/5

Cowles, Ellis Rip Doyle’s Credit Card Debt Restructuring Scheme

February 5, 2004
Cowles, Ellis Rip Doyle’s Credit Card Debt Restructuring Scheme

MADISON – State Senators Robert Cowles (R-Green Bay) and Michael Ellis (R-Neenah) today criticized Governor Jim Doyle over his proposal to restructure the state’s debt. Gov. Doyle yesterday said he is in support of a debt restructuring plan based on a proposal contained in his original budget bill. A memo prepared by the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau details how this plan would mean tens of millions in additional interest costs to the state. “I sure hope this was only a trial balloon. This credit card scheme should be a non-starter in the Legislature,” said Cowles. Gov. Doyle suggested the Legislature act soon on his debt restructuring plan. The proposal looks to create $175 million in proposed bonding in order to close the yawning gap between revenues and commitments. This structural refunding plan would then increase the life of state debt. Bonds are outstanding over a longer period of time and therefore interest costs will be higher. If state spending is not reduced, the plan only adds to the growing budget structural deficit. “It seems Gov. Doyle never met a bonding proposal that he didn’t like,” said Ellis.

According to a memo produced by the Fiscal Bureau, this will drive up state spending in order to pay down the new debt. It is estimated the state would pay an additional $46.1 million in interest over the life of the bonds that would be issued to refund the $175 million in proposed bonding. State payments would increase by $8.75 million in 2004-2005. To pay off the extra principal and interests costs, the state would pay $52.3 million more in 2005-2006 and $30.2 million more in 2006-2007. “Again, we are looking at a one-time fix and then paying for it long term. It’s kind of like paying for your groceries on your credit card,” said Cowles. At the State of the State address two weeks ago, Gov. Doyle said his budget helped put Wisconsin fiscally “back on track.” But now the Legislature is being asked to consider a debt restructuring plan. “Are we following California down the road to fiscal disaster? This plan is egregious and it puts us in an even bigger hole next time around,” said Ellis.

Donations called 'quid pro quo politics' after merger

Insurers give Doyle $28,500
Donations called 'quid pro quo politics' after merger

By STEVE SCHULTZE
sschultze@journalsentinel.com
Posted: Feb. 4, 2005

Gov. Jim Doyle received $28,500 in campaign donations late last year, near the time a major insurance company merger was finalized, from the firms' top executives, their spouses and former executives, state records show.

Key Dates
Nov. 30 - Date the Wellpoint-Anthem merger was finalized.
Dec. 27 - Date that Wellpoint Chairman Leonard Schaeffer and his wife, Pamela, gave $18,500 to Gov. Doyle.

The money came on top of more than $47,000 in contributions top officials of the Wellpoint and Anthem insurance companies have given Doyle since his 2002 run for governor. The figure also includes contributions from executives at Blue Cross & Blue Shield United of Wisconsin, which was acquired by Wellpoint in 2003. The latest batch of cash for Doyle was given just before and after the huge Wellpoint-Anthem merger was finalized Nov. 30. The Doyle administration has been criticized for allowing the merger without getting monetary concessions from the merged company. The $20 billion merger created the largest health insurer in the United States. The biggest givers were Wellpoint Chairman Leonard Schaeffer and his wife, Pamela, of Westlake Village, Calif. They gave Doyle a combined $18,500 on Dec. 27. Pamela Schaefer's $10,000 donation - the maximum permitted under Wisconsin law - was her first to Doyle. Leonard Schaeffer, who earlier had given Doyle $1,500, also hit the maximum with his $8,500 gift. Aside from those donations, the Schaeffers have never given to any Wisconsin state candidates, according to a campaign contribution database dating to 1993 that is maintained by the non-profit Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. Public advocates criticized the money as inappropriate, though probably legal. "It's evident that quid pro quo politics are very much alive in Wisconsin," said Jay Heck, executive director of Common Cause in Wisconsin, a group that favors stricter donation rules. "The chairman of Wellpoint is able to make big donations and he is rewarded handsomely," Heck said, basing his view on the timing of the donation. The Wellpoint-related donations to Doyle follow a similar pattern the firm has set elsewhere, said Jerry Flanagan, health-care advocate for the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, based in California. Such donations give the appearance of "pay to play," Flanagan said. "That certainly violates the intent of conflict-of-interest laws," he said. "It sends a message to voters that the governor's approval is up for bid." Doyle, through spokesman Dan Leistikow, said the contributions' timing was a coincidence. "The governor has broad support from people in a variety of fields," Leistikow said. "He has broad support for expanding access to health care and it's not surprising that people who support health care support the governor." Flanagan and Heck said Doyle ought to return the donations. But Leistikow said Doyle would not return the Wellpoint-related donations, adding that Doyle has always carefully followed campaign finance law. Tim Cullen, a Wellpoint senior vice president and personal friend of Doyle's, said any suggestion that the donations amounted to a payoff was "outrageous." Schaeffer and his wife donated because Schaeffer "likes Governor Doyle," said Cullen, who was responding on behalf of the Schaeffers and Wellpoint. "They share a lot of the same political philosophy," Cullen said. Schaeffer, like Doyle, is a pro-business Democrat and once served as a top health official under former President Jimmy Carter, Cullen said. In addition to the Schaeffers, Wellpoint chief executive Larry Glasscock gave Doyle $1,000, and other executives provided the rest of the $28,500, all in November. The Schaeffers' donations likely were made after a fund-raising trip Doyle made to California late last year, Cullen said. Schaeffer stood to personally gain tens of millions of dollars through stock options and other benefits linked to the merger, according to company filings. Cullen said money donated by Wisconsin Wellpoint employees came from a fund-raiser Cullen hosted for Doyle at his Janesville home in November. That event had been planned for a year and wasn't tied to the merger approval, Cullen said. He said the timing of the money also shows it was not a thank-you for the Wellpoint merger approval because Wisconsin Insurance Commissioner Jorge Gomez signed off on the deal last April, some seven months before final approvals were given by California and Georgia. But when California rejected the merger in July, Georgia rescinded its approval, and other states were reconsidering their approvals. Eileen Mallow, Wisconsin's assistant deputy insurance commissioner, told The Daily News of Los Angeles in November that Wisconsin officials "have the right to review the deal" if a $265 million concession package Wellpoint gave to California affected the merger. Wisconsin, however, did not reconsider its decision. Gomez said Friday he didn't believe he had the authority to rescind his earlier approval and force concessions like California or Georgia, which received a $126 million concession package. Critics have said Wisconsin may have missed a chance for tens of millions that could have been used for health programs for low-income families. Doyle appointed Gomez to his position in 2003. Gomez said he did not consult with Doyle about his decision on the Wellpoint merger. Gomez once worked for a Wellpoint predecessor firm, but has said he didn't remove himself from the decision because he didn't believe his former job created a conflict.

Doyle Denying Educational Opportunity

Editorial: Time past due for accord

From the Journal Sentinel
Posted: Jan. 1, 2006

It's crunch time now for a deal between the Democratic governor and the Republican Legislature on voucher schools. Unless they act, and soon, chaos may descend on the voucher program. Scores of schoolchildren may lose their seats; scores of others will be denied initial entry and scores of parents may not learn until very late whether their children can attend a voucher school.

For the children's sake, the politicians must end their long standoff and work out an agreement to lift or scuttle the program's statutory enrollment cap, set at 15% of the enrollment of the Milwaukee Public Schools, or at about 14,500 students. Right now the program is pressing against the cap. Hence, the Department of Public Instruction unveiled last week a plan to ration enrollment next school year.

The sketchy plan raises more questions than it answers. It doesn't address, for instance, how schools are to decide which students to accept. Right now, when the number of applicants exceeds a school's capacity, the school chooses new entrants by lottery. Will the same rule hold when a school reaches the limit of students rationed to it?

Rationing will hamper planning by schools, which won't learn until late how many voucher seats they have. This process will also inject uncertainty into their budgets.

The plan put forth by DPI would simply divide the cap by the number of voucher seats the schools have, all told, to come up with a percentage of seats each school can have in the program. For instance, if that arithmetic led to 80%, then each school could fill only 80% of its seats reserved for voucher students.

This could mean that schools will have an incentive to exaggerate their capacity. Schools that play it straight - likely the better schools - may be victimized by schools that don't and may get fewer than their fair share of students under the formula.

Also, the formula delays when students learn whether they are enrolled. Presumably, adjustments will continually be made among schools, as unfilled slots of one school may go to another - a process that could delay until September when some parents learn whether their children can attend.

The Legislature has been pushing to lift the cap. Gov. Jim Doyle has resisted. In November, Doyle proposed a compromise. He would back lifting the cap to 18% of MPS enrollment, if the Legislature would 1) require voucher schools to administer the same state tests public schools must administer and 2) raise the per-pupil amount public schools get from $2,000 to $2,500 for participating in a state program for reducing class sizes.

Republican leaders regard the latter proposal as having too steep of a price tag. Still, they should sit down with the governor and reach a meeting of minds. As for testing, the voucher program does need more academic accountability. So the governor's testing proposal is worth talking about. The best possible plan is a longitudinal study, which the Legislature passed and Doyle vetoed. He should reconsider. Such a study could entail voucher students' taking the state tests.

The governor and the Legislature are finally out of time to do right by children on this issue.

MESSAGE TO JIM DOYLE FROM ED GARVEY

So, with all this money flowing into politics, the Doyle people will argue there is nothing wrong with tribes spending millions to offset Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce contributions to the Republican candidates and personal fortunes used to purchase offices. Nothing, I guess, unless you feel a twinge of nostalgia for democracy. Perhaps, just perhaps, Jim Doyle will wake up one morning and ask himself if this money chase feels good or bad. Does the appearance of government for sale cheapen all in government, good and bad, Republican or Democrat?

Governor, do one simple thing. Announce that no entity or individual doing business with the state may contribute to your campaign. That includes the tribes, Accenture, road builders, lobbyists and ... well, you get the picture. It might cost you the election but the current system will cost you your soul.

ED GARVEY
Th Capitol Times
November 8, 2005

Doyle Spin on Vitamin Grants Unconvincing

Doyle Spin on Vitamin Grants Unconvincing
Concerns Over Grantmaking Process, Link to Donations Persist


Madison - A statement released by Attorney General Jim Doyle's gubernatorial campaign on Friday does not put to rest concerns about grants his office handed out to charitable groups and campaign contributions he received from officials of some of the agencies, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign said today.
"The fact that people with some connection to groups that received grants from the attorney general have made campaign contributions to other candidates does not make the timing of donations to Doyle any less suspicious," WDC executive director Mike McCabe said.

One of the contributions was a $10,000 donation from Hollywood producer Jerry Zucker. The contribution came three weeks after Doyle issued a $250,000 state grant in Zucker's name to the University of Wisconsin-Madison for one of the filmmaker's pet causes.

"The Doyle campaign's spin hardly makes the Zucker contribution smell like a rose," McCabe said.

WDC remains concerned that the attorney general was able to personally steer grants to particular groups and there was no formal request for proposals allowing other groups to compete for the grants. The grantmaking procedure, coupled with the timing of donations from individuals connected to the groups receiving grants, creates an unseemly appearance, he added.

"Any time one elected official has the power to singlehandedly spend state funds, it's an invitation to mischief. That's why checks and balances are so important in our system," McCabe said. "The appropriate checks and balances were missing in the system used to award the vitamin settlement grants. The flaws in the process magnify the concern about the campaign contributions."

WDC's contributor database shows at least four of the individuals - Sherrie Tussler, Jose Milan, Criselda Ros-Dukler and Michael Frank - who made contributions to Doyle's campaign shortly before or just after their groups received grants have no prior history of giving to Doyle or any other state candidate.

"It is disappointing that the state's top law enforcement official is not more sensitive to the obvious appearance of a conflict of interest in this case," McCabe said. "The attorney general could take a big step toward laying the suspicions to rest if he would just acknowledge the apparent conflict and return the donations."

Ho-Chunk dangled $500,000 donation, McCallum aide says

Ho-Chunk dangled $500,000 donation, McCallum aide says
Last Updated: Feb. 22, 2003
Cary Spivak & Dan Bice

The campaign manager for then-Gov. Scott McCallum says the Ho-Chunk dangled a $500,000 contribution for whichever gubernatorial candidate agreed to allow the tribe to run its casinos for as long as the wind blows and the grass grows.
Darrin Schmitz, now the executive director of the state Republican Party, said his guy wouldn't extend the gambling agreements beyond 15 or so years, and ended up not getting a nickel from the tribe. Officials with new Gov. Jim Doyle denied that they cut any pre-election deals with the Ho-Chunk. But the tribe did drop a $500,000 soft-money donation with the Democratic National Committee just days before the gubernatorial runoff - certainly the largest political gift by a Wisconsin tribe. The DNC then dumped nearly $1 million in Wisconsin in the final week of the increasingly tight race to help elect Doyle and the rest of the party's slate. Last week the Doyle team announced, to nearly everyone's surprise in Madison, that it had reached a tentative deal with the Oneida tribe that would allow it to offer a full slate of casino games 24/7 forever and a day - an incredibly generous agreement that was expected to be a model for the other 10 tribes. "It was very clear to me, given the conversation I had with (Ho-Chunk lawyer) Mike Rogowski, what the end result would be," Schmitz said. "Whoever agreed to perpetual compacts and secondly, more games, could end up being the recipient or the party would be the recipient of vast amounts of money." Here is what happened about a month before the November general election, according to Schmitz: Rogowski, McCallum's former chief of staff who now represents the Ho-Chunk, called Schmitz to set up an endorsement interview with McCallum. Then, in a second phone conversation, Rogowski got down to business, telling Schmitz that the tribe was planning to drop a half-million-dollar donation on either McCallum or Doyle.
"He basically said that the Ho-Chunk was going to endorse a candidate and write a check to support the candidate," Schmitz said. "And he said the exact amount, which was $500,000." Surprisingly, Rogowski, a lawyer with Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek in Madison, offered a squishy response to the charge. Did he attach a $500,000 string to the endorsement? "Not that I recall," he said. Later in the interview, Rogowski, who was axed by McCallum last April, suggested that Schmitz may have jumped to a conclusion about the donation. "If I were a campaign manager, I might assume that," he said. "That would be a logical assumption." Schmitz said he told a team of campaign advisers and other staffers about the offer but inexplicably decided not to let the Republican governor in on the secret. "I saw no reason to advise the candidate - that was my decision as the manager," Schmitz said. McCallum sat down for an endorsement interview with a handful of Ho-Chunk leaders and their California attorney Lester Marston in the second week of October. The former governor said he was asked repeatedly during the interview if he would agree to compacts that never expire. The tribes, who now operate under five-year deals, have pushed hard for longer agreements so they can secure financing to expand their operations and improve life on the reservations. "Ninety percent of the meeting was spent on more games and perpetual compacts," Schmitz said, noting that the length of the compact received the greater attention of those two issues. "Les pushed and pushed and pushed him."
McCallum, however, said he would not approve compacts that run forever. "They knew that I wouldn't go in that direction," the ex-gov said. Showing the best defense is a good offense, Marston tried to turn the tables on Schmitz, who he said tried to shake down the Indians during the session at the governor's mansion. "(Schmitz) actually raised the issue of money, and we were so surprised . . . we had to tell them that we weren't going to discuss it," Marston said. Pressed for what exactly Schmitz said, the attorney backed off his initial statement. "My recollection of what occurred in that meeting was that he broached the subject - again he didn't mention money or any dollar amount - I think he broached the subject in terms of what could the nation do to help the governor get elected," Marston said. Marston also contended the issue of whether compacts should run forever was discussed only briefly. So, now we have a classic case of "he said, she said," with each party having something to gain in making his allegation. In the first case, Marston is getting paid good money by the Ho-Chunk. And Schmitz, of course, ran the campaign that lost to Doyle and now heads the party that is working to oust him at the end of this term. But Schmitz said he can point to some facts to back up his charge. "The money did exchange hands. They wrote a $500,000 check - a half-a-million dollar check," Schmitz said. "No one just does that out of the goodness of their hearts."