Kochs Hit the Airwaves in Support of WI Corruption Measures
Source: prwatch.org
By Brendan Fischer on October 29, 2015 - 6:29am
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The Koch-backed measures to eviscerate Wisconsin's limits on money in elections and neuter the state's election watchdog hit a stumbling block in the state senate this week, with a handful of Republican senators expressing concern that the measures go too far.
So the Kochs are going on the offensive.
David Koch's Americans for Prosperity is up with ads targeting constituents of GOP Senators Rob Cowles of Green Bay, Luther Olsen of Ripon, Sheila Harsdorf of River Falls, and Jerry Petrowski of Marathon, who have expressed reservations about the measures. The ads portray the nonpartisan Government Accountability Board (GAB) as a cold war-era agency "silencing free speech" and "raiding conservative's (sic) homes." AFP Wisconsin's director Eric Bott also said the group would be mobilizing its activists this week. AFP is the only group registered to lobby in favor of dismantling the GAB.
Wisconsin Club for Growth also launched a robocall campaign on Tuesday, with a recording of the Club's director Eric O'Keefe urging the wavering senators' constituents to demand the senators vote "yes" on the bill.
Wisconsin Club for Growth and Scott Walker were part of a $20 million scheme during the recall elections to evade the state's campaign finance laws and disclosure requirements, prosecutors believed. The GAB assisted in that investigation, sparking a legal and media counter-assault from the Club, with O'Keefe as its most visible proponent. The Wisconsin Supreme Court, whose majority was elected to the bench with at least $10 million in spending from the Club and other groups under investigation, shut down an investigation into the scheme earlier this year...............
Read more: http://www.prwatch.org/news/2015/10/12959/kochs-wi-corruption-measures#sthash.EcYySOVh.dpuf
Our INfamous Gov Walker is back and is being very vindictive.
Also see this:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/108418264
NYTimes Editoriall-->> The Revenge of Scott Walker
Even if he had not dropped out of the Pres. race--vindictive Walker and his Republican lawmakers would have done this.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/27/opinion/the-revenge-of-scott-walker.html?_r=0
The Revenge of Scott Walker
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD OCT. 27, 2015
NYTimes Editoriall-->> The Revenge of Scott Walker
Even if he had not dropped out of the Pres. race--vindictive Walker and his Republican lawmakers would have done this.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/27/opinion/the-revenge-of-scott-walker.html?_r=0
The Revenge of Scott Walker
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD OCT. 27, 2015
Photo
Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin Credit Michael Zamora/The Des Moines Register, via Associated Press
Only weeks after giving up on his lackluster presidential campaign in the face of national indifference, Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin is back to making mischief in his home state. Last Friday, Mr. Walker signed a bill to protect public officials like himself from an effective and well-established tool for rooting out political corruption.
The tool, known as the John Doe law, lets prosecutors conduct secret investigations into possible crimes by executing search warrants and compelling people to testify. It is essentially a grand jury proceeding, with a judge rather than jurors deciding whether there is enough evidence for an indictment.
Mr. Walker has been a target of two John Doe investigations in recent years. The first, which looked into misconduct by his aides or associates while he served as Milwaukee county executive, led to six convictions. The second involved allegations of illegally coordinated fund-raising between Mr. Walker’s campaign for governor and conservative political groups. In July, a deeply split Wisconsin Supreme Court — several of whose justices were backed by the same groups in their election campaigns — shut down the investigation, adopting an unprecedented reading of the state’s campaign-finance laws to find no problem with the activities in question. Mr. Walker was not charged in either case.
Under the new law, which passed on party-line votes in the Republican-controlled Legislature, neither of these investigations would be permitted. Bribery, official misconduct, campaign-finance violations and many other election law offenses — all are now exempt from a law that has served Wisconsin well, and without controversy, since the mid-19th century.........................
Photo
Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin Credit Michael Zamora/The Des Moines Register, via Associated Press
Only weeks after giving up on his lackluster presidential campaign in the face of national indifference, Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin is back to making mischief in his home state. Last Friday, Mr. Walker signed a bill to protect public officials like himself from an effective and well-established tool for rooting out political corruption.
The tool, known as the John Doe law, lets prosecutors conduct secret investigations into possible crimes by executing search warrants and compelling people to testify. It is essentially a grand jury proceeding, with a judge rather than jurors deciding whether there is enough evidence for an indictment.
Mr. Walker has been a target of two John Doe investigations in recent years. The first, which looked into misconduct by his aides or associates while he served as Milwaukee county executive, led to six convictions. The second involved allegations of illegally coordinated fund-raising between Mr. Walker’s campaign for governor and conservative political groups. In July, a deeply split Wisconsin Supreme Court — several of whose justices were backed by the same groups in their election campaigns — shut down the investigation, adopting an unprecedented reading of the state’s campaign-finance laws to find no problem with the activities in question. Mr. Walker was not charged in either case.
Under the new law, which passed on party-line votes in the Republican-controlled Legislature, neither of these investigations would be permitted. Bribery, official misconduct, campaign-finance violations and many other election law offenses — all are now exempt from a law that has served Wisconsin well, and without controversy, since the mid-19th century.........................
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