This morning, a criminal complaint filed in circuit court alleges that William Gardner, the president and CEO of Wisconsin & Southern Railroad Co., skirted campaign donation laws by soliciting employees to give to Scott Walker’s campaign and then reimbursing them, in what amounts to two felony counts. It has also come out that Walker’s campaign then reimbursed Gardner and seven additional railroad employees to the tune of $43,800, which indicates a criminal probe is imminent of Walker’s campaign.
The Wisconsin State Journal reports:
It’s illegal to direct company funds to political campaigns in the state. But William Gardner, the president and CEO of Wisconsin & Southern Railroad Co., told the state last May that he gave company money to reimburse employees for making political donations to Gov. Scott Walker and other political candidates.
Gardner was charged Monday morning with two felony counts of violating campaign finance laws, including charges of excessive political contributions and unlawful political contributions…
Last May, Walker’s campaign reimbursed Gardner and seven additional railroad employees $43,800, spokeswoman Jill Bader said at the time.
Wisconsin state law states that , “No person may, directly or indirectly, make any contribution other than from funds or property belonging to the contributor. No person may, directly or indirectly, furnish funds or property to another person for the purpose of making a contribution in other than the person’s own name. No person may intentionally accept or receive any contribution made in violation of this subsection.” Furthermore, the law elaborates, “The unit of prosecution under sub. (1) is every transfer of funds to another person accompanied by the false listing of any single contributor. An individual illegally furnishing funds from a corporate account may be convicted under sub.”
The state might be trying to get William Gardner to testify against Walker with the two felony counts. If this is legitimate, the people of Wisconsin have more than enough reason to oust Walker. If it’s unclear how serious this is, think Tom DeLay.
A pattern of systemic corruption within the Wisconsin Republican Party is being established by recent events. What we have here is a pattern of reckless disregard for the law, which I deeply suspect will eventually rear its head in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race as well, though we don’t know exactly how yet. But the Walker administration and the Republicans in the state Senate and House have established a pattern of violating the law, now topped off by allegations against a donor of violations of campaign laws.
At 2PM Wisconsin time, the state Government Accountability Board and Milwaukee County district attorney’s office will have a press conference to discuss the news of their investigation. A criminal probe is heading Walker’s way or has already hit.
If the GAB and DA can prove their allegations and the probe extends to Walker’s campaign itself, it suggests that Walker and his gang are not only corrupt, but inept criminals who have brazenly broken the law at every turn in an executive power grab that will go down in history as an example of what not to do.
Related posts:
- In Wisconsin Obama’s Approval Soars as Scott Walker Plummets
- Scott Walker Being Sued For Violating Wisconsin Open Records Law
- Buyer’s Remorse: Wisconsin Voters Wouldn’t Elect Scott Walker Today
- Scott Walker Rewards Wisconsin Tax Cheats While Homeowners Pay More
- Scott Walker Is Doing His Part to Help Wisconsin Reelect Barack Obama
Isn’t that the same amount that the kock brothers donated to walker? if not it is within dollars..could this be the start of something really really big..to snare walker and the kocks in one fell swoop!
Ha !
This may be it. This is what brought “the Hammer” Tom Delay down (and into prison orange). Oh, wouldn’t it be loverly!
Delay isn’t in prison orange just yet, and may never be; he’s appealing and out of jail for god knows how long!
those were my thoughts exactly Jlt .. ive read the figure Koch’s gave him so many times that when i read the amount Gardner donated to sw, Koch popped right into my mind .. it is a shame what sw has done to the Wonderful People in Wisconsin .. he festers dishonesty all around him .. unlike we have ever experienced before .. it is so sad …
LOL, Kock brothers. hahahaha
Thanks Sarah for this information. The Tea Party that screams “Big Government” in regards to Obama needs to just visit the states with the newly elected GOP governors like Wisconsin, Florida, Ohio, etc. to examine some real government over reach. And how about the new plan for America presented by Congressman Ryan? Steal from the poor and give to the rich. And get rid of the the middle class period. RECALL is the new name of the game.
Don’t bet on that. The tea party is damn happy to cheat to win at all cost. They have no sense of fair play.
Tea partiers cheat????? Are you for real??? Why do you think that the democratic party in Wisconsin doesn’t want photo ID’s for voting? That’s a lot bigger cheating than money. Vote stealing!! These protesting democratic teachers lied about taking off so they could protest. Got doctors to lie for them too. Basically stole money from the tax payers and mad life miserable for families that had to scramble to find sitters for their kids because of school closings. Then the state senators left the state and still got paid for 3-4 weeks for dodging their jobs. And you say tea partier’s are cheats? Think again
Now, what has that to do with the fact that the tea partiers cheat?
BTW, I am a proponent of photo ID for voting, but at the same time demanding one restricts who votes. Do try to think these things through
We do not need photo ID to vote. That basically denies the poor and elderly (who are most likely to not have driver’s licenses) the right to vote. It is morally wrong to make photo ID a legal requirement.
It is also unnecessary. Fact: There has been only one person convicted of illegally voting in an election in the last ten years, anywhere in the US. It was a Republican legislator in Indiana, who lied about his address to keep his seat. There have been many cases of incorrect or even illegal REGISTRATIONS, but only the one case of an illegal VOTE. In the meantime, literally tens of thousands of poor and elderly Americans have been denied the right to vote by Voter ID laws.
I could have sworn I said it restricts who can vote. But I could be wrong.
Oh, we also have the GOP dude from CA who ran the GOP GOTV operation who not only voted illegally in CA but also committed election fraud by registering people as Republicans with a sing up sheet that misled them about what they were signing (they were told it was to protect children). This skewed the polls for CA, which showed a surge in registered Republicans and allowed them to generate a lot more money and buzz in CA than they would have. Turns out, the guy didn’t live in CA.
Sorry to burst your teabag, but America is starting to have buyers remorse with your corrupt little group. In a year and a half the teabaggers will be nothing but a bad decision made by middle class voters who were looking for a savior at the time and will go down in history as a very bad memory,much like McCarthyism. But hey, we all make mistakes at some point in our lives.
Oh gee has anybody read the record of this clerk who magically found 20,000 votes. In one of the pass years she found a little more than that for the AG Van Hollen. With only 154,000 ballots registered as votes she “found” 174 for AG Van Hollen. She should have been fired right then and there. After being questioned she stopped listing total ballots cast.
I used to live in Arkansas where you show your drivers license or state id to vote & I can assure you it doesn’t stop a person from voting where they shouldn’t be voting.
If you don’t update your id information you can vote in whatever city your id states you live in.
This argument of vote stealing without id’s is utter BS.
Many people who are much smarter than you (or I) have done many studies and written many words about how:
1) requiring a photo ID is unnecessary and disenfranchising to entire groups of people
2) voter fraud at the polls is a rare thing and almost never done in a way that a photo ID would stop
Republicans pushing for voter ID laws either know these things perfectly well or choose not to look at the research-backed facts at all. I’m not sure which is worse. Either way, it is an obvious and intentional tactic to keep poor people from voting, flat-out. That’s all it is.
That is correct.
it’s called a state i.d.if you want one it’s not to hard to get. i’m disabled and on state funds and i have one. the same “smarter than you” folk have shone the the same poor and or elderly don’t vote for any number of reasons. don’t be like the my professors and pick your facts. also “painting with a broad brush” is a logical fallacy know as “hasty generalization” just something to chew on. your polarization is showing. not saying i disagree just that polarization is historically from pre-imperial Rome a major step to losing freedoms and it start’s with them vs. us
Do you have any facts to back up your claim of voter fraud?
Voter fraud claims are largely over stated everywhere. The only reason to impose voter id requirements is to suppress democratic voters.
For all the blather about voter fraud, there are precious little actual accounts of it, and certainly no prosecutions of it. If it is a real problem (which it isn’t but let’s play devil’s advocate) then putting government resources into prosecuting voter fraud is the right answer, not passing laws to suppress already under-represented voting groups.
Absolutely true.
It just another prong in the GOP tactic of generating fear where none is really justified.
Heavier vote restrictions actually would decrease votes for the dems. Since the Youth and Poorer people tend to vote for the Democrats, increasing voting restrictions would decrease their numbers at the polls. Young people dont want to go too far out of their way to vote, while poorer people dont have as much time to spend filling these requirements.
Requiring a photo id does inhibit voting. If you go to vote and have forgotten your id – no vote. If you lose your id and can’t get a new one in time – no vote. It is just an additional hurdle to those that already find getting out to vote hard enough. And there is no justification in it.
I don’t know if the “Tea Party”(tm) is about cheating to win but it certainly wouldn’t surprise me.
Regardless, the “Tea Party”(tm) fails my litmus test for politicians– and regular humans as well– which is: do they mean well?
One may abhor the republican party, everything it stands for, and everything it does, but I am willing to concede there may be a small percentage, ok an extremely small percentage, of individual republicans who actually think they are doing the right thing. This cannot be said about the “Tea Party”(tm).
There are two categories of partiers: 1) a handful of corporate founders, funders, strategists, media shills, and politicians/bagmen; and 2) the mass of ignorant sheep who carry the signs at the astro-turfed rallies. The obvious purpose of the first group is to destroy and loot the middle-class and turn that soon-to-be former middle-class into a semi-skilled underclass which can be exploited mercilessly in sweatshops and boiler-rooms. And I doubt anyone will argue that unrestrained corporate greed intends well for others.
And the second group, comprised as it is of angry, self-destructive, often racist and usually woefully-uneducated peasants, is likewise not about seeking justice or a better standard of living for anyone– ironically, including themselves– but rather about one thing and one thing only, vengeance. Vengeance upon whom? Well, it might be their employer, it might be a culture from which they feel excluded, it might be the jerk who beat them up in grade school, or it might be the guy on the next block whose skin is a shade or two darker. But regardless of who they hope to hurt, they all want to hurt someone. It’s all about blind vengeance and by definition vengeance does not mean well.
The “Tea Party”(tm) is thus a menace, and not just an amoral menace as might be a psychopath (which though not excusing such behavior can perhaps may be considered an “illness”) but rather actively and intentionally immoral– the very intent is to hurt others, as deeply as possible and in as great a quantity as possible, knowingly and with sadistic glee. Which makes it all much much worse than just a cut-throat political and economic agenda. No, what it makes the “Tea Party”(tm) is downright EVIL. Inexcusably, unapologetically, and unredeemably EVIL.
And there can be no compromise with such evil. Ever.
Who picked this fight? Who drew first blood? Oh gee, calling in sick. That is worthy of prosecution? I think the Senators were just trying to slow down the process a little so Wisconsinites could have some time to digest Walkers secret agenda. Or maybe one of his campaign platforms was to screw public employees although I’m betting he didn’t mention that in any of his public speeches. Teabaggers are a loud mouth minority that do not represent most voters but still want to call all the shots. By the way if the supreme court was on the up and up why would this bitch want to make sure nobody had access except her by keeping the tally on her computer only. Where there is smoke there is fire and coming out against an investigation only implicates the Repugs more.
These teachers aretax payers
Teachers are tax payers……
What about the Prosser/Kloppenburg election? County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus said she forgot to include 14-thousand votes from Brookfield in her Election Night tally – and 10-thousand of them were for Prosser? How can someone lose 14,000 votes? Something smells real fishy there. So, before you get on your high horse and start ripping on Democrats, I suggest you consider all the facts!!!
The GOP pushes voter ID laws not to prevent cheating but to depress voter turnount, a key part of their anti-democratic strategy. There is no evidence of voter fraud anywhere, and certainly no evidence that voter IDs would prevent it. It’s a fake solution to a fake problem; part of the diversionary tactics of the GOP and their Tea Tard lackeys. What is true is that in Wisconse and elsewhere, GOP elites (with their corporate funders) have successfully convinced a bunch of people to vote against their best interests. They’re using a variety of tactics to keep people from organizing, being informed, advocating, protesting, and – also – now voting. Like a friend of mine recently posted: “Remember when teachers, public employees, Planned Parenthood, NPR and PBS crashed the stock market, wiped out half of our 401Ks, took trillions in TARP money, spilled oil in the Gulf of Mexico, gave themselves billions in bonuses, paid no taxes, and then took over the government through corporate contributions and corporate owned media? Yeah, me neither.”
LOLOL… yeahhhhh, those pooooor widdle parents whohad to find baby sitters on the spur of the moment, heh heh heh. If it were up to the majority of those parents, they’d find baby sitters 100% of the time they have to spend with their kids. If you yokel Repugs and T-baggers weren’t so damn crooked in the first place, nobody would have had to leave the state OR miss school. You’ve brought it upon yourselves… now live with it!
Then why is it Republicans that always get busted for vote fraud?
This reply is typical of people who are incapable of seeing beyond their own immediate needs. There’s never any kind of ideology present other than what’s in it for me and or what they conceive has been taken from them. There’s a bigger world out there based on ethics, morality and law. All attributes this country was founded on! And I applaud all people willing to sacrifice themselves to the blind judgment of simple minded people to defend the principles that have made this state a great place to live! God forbid some people would have to suffer some inconveniences for this greater truth.
I understand the implications of Gardner’s actions–it is clearly criminal behavior. I’m afraid I don’t understand the implication of Wlaker’s actions–his “reimbursement” of the donation. Is that different from simply returning a donation that isn’t allowed (which we’ve seen many campaigns do–not illegal, just embarrassing)? Or am I mixing up personal and campaign funds–did he give it back to Gardner from his own pocket? Sorry-I’m not as clear on campaign finance laws as I should be, I guess. It sure would be easier if we had public financing of all campaigns.
I didn’t understand that either. The only thing that I could think of was that he should have reported it?
http://www.wispolitics.com/index.Iml?Article=232983
“Gardner, the president and CEO of the railroad, faces two class I felonies, one for making excessive contributions and the other for unlawful donations.
He acknowledged making illegal contributions last year, and Walker’s campaign returned $43,000 in donations following the revelations. ”
Sorry guys, this is not the evidence you were looking for.
You’re saying they returned it upon learning of this, though that isn’t how it was worded in the WSJ. However, if they let him contribute over the legal limit, they have a problem, even if they returned it after it came out. An investigation is likely under those circumstances.
The contributions came from individuals within legal limits, I don’t think they had any way of knowing at that time that the contributions were illegal. Look, I’m as anti-Walker as the next Madisonian, but I want real evidence – too much speculation and conjecture before we have all the factual data we need.
While I agree that they would have a hard time proving they knew this (hence the testimony of Gardner becomes imperative), that’s not what I’m suggesting. I am saying there will most likely be or has been an investigation into when they knew.
Given Walker’s turning down of the high speed rail money and yet asking for money for the existing rail road, questions will be asked. You say they had no way of knowing this, but what are you basing that on? I think what you meant to say is that it’s possible that they didn’t know. And that is true.
Possible is not the same thing as probable, and in the end, we are discussing the inevitability of an investigation.
Waterboard him till he implicates Walker….After all according to republicans it’s not torture
Walker RETURNED the contributions the moment he found out that they were submitted by the employees illegally. I know that doesn’t fit into your conspiracy theories…but get the facts straight before you go off spouting about criminal activities.
Contrast that to Democrat Governor Jim doyle who received $200,000 from Dennis Troha and DID NOT return the funds. http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/94625799.html
What Gardner did is a criminal activity. It involves the Walker campaign. There will be (or have been) probes into this. You say Walker gave this back as soon as they knew about it, but you have no proof of that. What you meant to say is that they gave the money back after it Gardner admitted to doing this. Gov Doyle is not in office right now, so I don’t know why you’re bringing him up.
If nothing else, this story will create more questions and rumors about Walker’s ethics and his big money supporters.
Right, and if I had had the time, I would have included many examples of this kind of fraud taking place, and why they do it — typically, the chances of being caught are so slim as to make this a viable risk. And even with the evidence, prosecution is tough. That said, when they are prosecuted, it’s serious and Gardner knows he’s facing that possibility right now.
Good job deflecting with the classic Republican “but they did it too!”. Good job deflecting onto a politician who is no longer in office. Yet you guys have all sorts of hissy fits when someone blames the Bush regime for their failures.
Doyle had his own set of problems!- he had a report that said that gov’t engineers saved the state money, which was suppressed defying a FOIA request, until he was able to get a second report that said the opposite. Doyle was in the pocket of private contractors, and served them instead of the people of Wisconsin. Going after Campaign contributors is partisan right now, but campaign finance reform has to happen. There is too much private money in Government. We need to reverse Citizens United, demand PACs disclose donors; Perhaps expand public financing….I don’t have all the answers but there are a lot of smart people out there and we can all work together and solve this. I have only lived here for 4 years, but I have heard that in many ways Tommy Thompson was more pro-worker than Doyle. Also, just because Doyle does something bad does not mean that Walker should do it too-
I can answer that. Republicans have gotten into the bad habit of trying to excuse their own bad behavior by drudging up some bad behavior by the other side in the past. It’s an irrelevant distraction that says nothing about the current situation meant to score points in protection of their party. As a country, we would do far better to evaluate the current issues and event on their own merit and not try to win the battles on moral high ground which can be made relative.
Walker has played procedural games in office since the beginning. To date, I am not certain why. With unprecedented control over the Assembly and the Senate, he could have done anything he wanted to completely up and up on using totally open and straight forward tactics including engaging the minority and even giving them concessions to help maintain political civility. Instead he chose to wage an underhanded procedural war that divided Wisconsin like never before. Very strange. Very short sighted. Not promising for his ability to actually govern the State.
Because he’s so darn stupid.
I have wondered the same thing. At first I thought it was a move to bring public support against the Protest, but now it seems to be a sort of power trip. I hope that he is incompetent enough to bring himself down, but in the mean time I can protest and work on the recalls.
If these claims are untrue, then it should withstand the scrutiny of investigation. If they are not, then justice, hopefully, will be served. No point getting into “I KNOW HE DID THIS AND THAT AND KEPT THIS AND RETURNED THAT BLAH BLAH BLAH”.
Given the factual circumstances, an investigation is totally legit.
wjcalvin is bringing up a Democrat because that’s what they do…”oh, well, Scotty may have made a mistake, but did you hear about the Democrat?” This is why the GOP is so corrupt. Their members share the same ‘win at any cost’ mentality as the Kochs, so until they get caught, anything goes. WHEN they get caught, it is never their fault. They either didn’t know the law, made a little error, or it was Obama’s fault. And I bet no one involved in this ever says they are sorry, either, because admitting to being sorry equates with being a toad in their world.
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Didn’t Scotty get into some trouble in the County of Milwaukee with respect to firing the security guards after he had been told twice that he did not have approval to do so, which ended up costing the County some money to correct?
If he isn’t culpable in this instance, I’m sure he will eventually get into trouble. The more he gets away with, the smarter he will believe he is and the more brazen he will become(see Tom DeLay). Karma has a way of catching up with those people; unfortunately a lot of damage is done before they’re caught.
Yes, he did get in trouble for that. And then he did it again, or tried to by publishing the law while a restraining order was in place and announcing he would start deducting from paychecks as per his law, which would have been a real debacle of chaos – something he is sadly familiar with engendering (see guards).
I’m so loving this. I pray they put this sorry you know what in jail. May he never get a job again so he can feel hunger pains like he’s caused so many with his barbaric practices. May he never run in any office again so he can feel the shame and disgrace he so deserves. This is what you get. But your constituentcy is getting a break because of US DEMOCRATS!!! We are saving THEM from you! You have your constiuency so fooled they don’t care if they DON’T get fair WAGES or BENEFITS; they don’t care if Walker has a dictatorship -breaking laws left and right and abusing its citizenry; they don’t care that Walker would rather give CORPORATIONS MULTI MILLION DOLLAR BREAKS while YOU–THE CONSTITUENT–GET NOTHING BUT MORE CUTS IN YOUR PAYCHECK!–these people really don’t mind!!! The RW women don’t care if THEIR RIGHTS GET TAKEN AWAY..because if they get raped..they’ll JUST make koolaid– while their GOP LEADERS get to sleep with whomever they please–lobbyists, men, women, gay, straight, married or not, girlfriends can GET higher paying jobs than YOURS! RW contituents don’t care if they and their children have to breath poisonous gases either and then NOT HAVE AFFORDABLE INSURANCE to save their childrens lives after their LEADERS POISONED THEM. They REALLY don’t mind this at all. They don’t care if they have to work 15 hour days without OVERTIME– something the UNIONS fought for so you can have honest OT pay!!! They don’t care for stuff like that. They don’t mind working for nothing. Walker and the GOP are worth it I guess. They don’t care if they get reduced to mere dollars an hour to work for the CORPORATE MASTERS, they don’t even care if the repubs put their children to work! They don’t care because they’re too busy taking the word of the very people who almost brought this country to its knees and caused PRESIDENT OBAMA TO HAVE TO BORROW ALL THIS MONEY TO CLEAN UP THEIR MESS! But go ahead and conveniently deny as you have for years. If it feels good blame it on Dems. But its not us that’s making your life miserable. ITS YOUR OWN CHOSEN LEADERS LIKE WALKER AND THE GOP!!! WAKE UP AMERICA!
Who in their right mind supports these kinds of DICTATORIAL LEADERS?? WHO? Only a completely uninformed and uneducated person does ..that’s who! And that’s how the GOP KEEPS THEIR CONSTTTUENTS – LIED TO AND UNINFORMED SO THEY CAN RIP THEM OFF BLINDLY DAY AFTER DAY UNTIL YOUR LAST DROP OF DIGNITY IS GONE. That is the republican party’s plan for us all.
one can only hope that this leads to more investigations. Then he cut a lot the same thing will happen to Rick Scott and the Gov. up in Michigan
Dare I dream that Walker shares a cell with DeathStar Cheney and George W. Bush?
totally tasteless and off topic but walker ‘s head looks like the doc that delivered him put a little to much pressure on the forceps during birth, could be that’s part of what’s wrong with him, that or fetal alcohol syndrome, probably both…
walker is delusional. He’s a legend in his own mind. I’ll never forget listening to his nasal voice on that prank call when he thought he was talking to koch on the phone. What a freaking idiot he is. And worse, he actually stated he considered planting a “troublemaker” in the protesters crowd to start a huge mess. He only reconsidered because it might appear the governor doesn’t have control of the situation. That alone should’ve had him fired, recalled or charged with conspiracy. I hope for all of those innocent victims in WI that he is charged, prosecuted and recalled with the condition that he’s never permitted to hold public office again. When are we as a country going to wake up and start demanding these idiots in office do the job we elected them to do and demand their over inflated salaries, bonuses and over the top medical benefits be brought in line with the rest of the country – I don’t care of they’re democrat or republican. I honestly believe we all need to stop this madness and go after all of them. If you research the salaries and benefits this top heavy govt collects from out paychecks – you’d be so freaking pissed. I know I am. And I’m sick of weasels like walker and all the rest of these parasites with delusions of grandeur. Enough!
Amen!!
Great article. I originally thought this was going to be no big deal, but then I was directed to the actual criminal complaint on The Political Environment http://thepoliticalenvironment.blogspot.com/2011/04/walker-to-corporate-donor-now-admitting.html.
Gardner, who claimed he didn’t know it was improper DID ESSENTIALLY THE SAME THING THROUGH HIS DAUGHTER IN 2005. And it gets better: IT WAS TO WALKER’S 2005 CAMPAIGN. The complaint also documents some correspondence between Walker and Gardner, including Gardner seeming to ask for preferential treatment. It’s definitely worth a look, and DEFINITELY worth further investigation.
Thank you for the info:-) This is definitely a big deal; for them to have gotten to this point already says they have good evidence, which is usually the problem in cases like this. Interesting that he previously gave illegal donations to Walker.
This may be his Waterloo (or maybe his Watergate…).
For the first time, today I saw a “Recall Scott Walker” bumper sticker. I WANT ONE!! Where can I get one? (Or maybe four or five for friends.)
You can get a recall walker sticker at shakti on state st
Yup! I was Correct–he got caught in the downtown square, without his shorts! Too bad! So Sad! Bye Bye!
[...] Wisconsin Titanic: Criminal Probe Heading Scott Walker’s Way. Read more [...]
Excuse me, but the underlying news story does not suggest any wrongdoing by Walker or his campaign. Returning tainted donations is a common way for politicians to get clear of scandals. Also, it appears that the contributor in the case donated to members of both parties. Allow me to quote the article:
“Investigators learned that Walker’s campaign managers believed Gardner was working to raise $100,000 for them. Between November 2009 and April 2010, Gardner reimbursed himself out of the railroad’s expense account for $10,000 in donations he made to Walker and an additional $4,000 he gave to the Assembly Democratic Campaign Committee and former Democratic Assembly Speaker Mike Sheridan.
Walker stressed that his campaign promptly returned any known contributions from Gardner.
‘We immediately returned the contributions and cooperated with the GAB,’ Walker said. ‘We were very helpful in all that.’
The Assembly committee has since donated its contributions to charity, election officials said. Sheridan, who lost his re-election bid in November, also has given some of his donations to charity, they said.”
Walker had already received illegal donations from this same person in 2005 and he held meetings with Gardner. It is his responsibility to make sure he is not receiving illegal donations and this happens enough that campaigns have ways of catching it usually. It doesn’t matter how much you hope it’s not true; he was or will be investigated for this.
It is irrelevant if Gardner donated to both parties in 2005, 2010, or 2011. That has nothing to do with this issue. It is not uncommon for lobbyists to donate to both parties in hopes of buying an open door.
You probably noticed that Gardner gave most often and more money to Republicans and Walker in particular.
Time to have elections FOR the people instead of AGAINST the people. Let the government set up tax returns to include a checkoff for the next election campaign. Don’t let big businesses, industries and corporations donate to anyone’s campaign …just individual tax returns. If a candidate earns only $50 that’s his or her campaign money. Period.
I agree with you. A total reform of the election process is required. It never should be the man who takes in the most money wins the election.
I think a television station should be created, funded by the government( our taxes) and give equal time to every single candidate. Forget the Iowa Caucus,if you wish to travel. It is at your own expense. If there is a need for he state caucus the government should fund the trip to the caucus and the trip back for the candidate only. That way no one is taking money from healthcare providers, oil providers, and there should never be any disagreement on who owns who
I am apalled at the way the Republicans have conducted themselves outside the law over the recent past. They are giving the state of Wisconsin the reputation to the rest of the nation that our laws here are meaningless. They seem to think that if a law doesn’t cator to their agenda, they can simply sidestep them and create their own system, one that benefits their agenda. Seems like Chicago in the early 30′s. How long are the people of this state going to stand for this? I have worked all over this country and when I tell people from outside of this state that I’m from Wisconsin, I am treated with respect and held to a higher-than-average standard. I’m not ashamed of my state, don’t get me wrong. I am, however, ashamed that some politicians of this state have used their positions as a bully-pulpit to cast doubt among it citizens as to their honesty and leadership.
As we all know, there is no fault with you and other Wisconsites. In fact, you have our deepest sympathy for being saddled with the sorry GOP excuses for politicians, as well as our most sincere support in ousting them. In your state, as in others with GOP governors, they have an ideological agenda that has absolutely nothing to do with creating jobs. What is going on there is a microcosm of how Tea Partiers are wearing out there welcome on a national scale, sooner or rather than later.
Please, please, please let Walker get arrested in full view of everyone and handcuffs. I want to see him do the perp walk.
The Tea Partiers are still pulling out the “Teachers Called in Sick” card whenever they confront something they can’t defend? Surprise, surprise, surprise.
I’ll spell it out like this, and watch the trolls scatter:
Governor Walker has lied consistently throughout this process, but no bigger lie can be found than the whole “union busting/not union busting” LIE he told. Never campaigned on it, but it was Job #1. Said it was what Wisconsin wanted, but its pretty clear that this is a national ideological movement that has nothing to do with the will of Wisconsin people…other than Walker wanted to be the first pushing off of shore.
When those teachers saw the writing on the wall, saw that the bill was being pushed through with no opportunity for public response, they made a choice. Some may say it was a controversial choice to call in sick or to force their districts to reschedule days…but make no mistake: I have never heard ONE of those teachers whining about the consequences they would face.
And therein lies the conundrum of the Tea Party Talking Points. Those teachers felt so deeply about their jobs and their entire professions, and the impact it would have on Wisconsin kids, parents, and public schools, that they were willing to risk their jobs to fight for it. That’s a pretty big statement.
Because, in retrospect, had they not made that choice, the protests may never have happened, the Dem14 may have not been inspired to make a complimentary risk by fillibustering the legislation (forcing the LIE that the union language was only about the budget). And when those teachers showed up on an off day or during summer vacation, they would have been smugly told, “Sorry, sweetie…you should have spoken up earlier.”
So, here is the Tea Party conundrum. Notice how often they bring up the “bad teachers”, yet never go quite so far as to follow through on threats of getting them fired? It would be pretty easy now with the bill passed, yet they stop just short of actually doing what they say. Why is that?
Because they know those teachers sacrificed and risked their jobs for their beliefs. They knew they were WILLING to accept the consequences. And the Tea Partiers know all too well what martyrs they would create by actually trying to get them fired. So, they just keep it as their toothless talking point…”yah, but wot about dose teechers dot left da skools and made da poor parents have to find de day care?”
Yep…that’s their lame trump card that stopped working over a month ago, but if Charlie Sykes can still use it, so can they. Right?
Not one teacher has been disciplined for standing up for public education, and even the least educated of Tea Partiers (perhaps Walker himself) know that its far better as talk than action.
[...] step too far. In fact, that last step might just have been into a big pile of steaming s*!t. From Politicus USA 4-11-11; (emphasis [...]
[...] Wisconsin Titanic: Criminal Probe Heading Scott Walker’s Way [...]
I hope Walker goes down in flames.
It is ultimately his responsibility to make sure the donations he receives are legal and legitimate. Every politician bears this burden. All of the “he had no way of knowing” is bs, he and his campaign not only have plenty of ways of knowing, they also have a legal obligation to know. If they didn’t know, that is their failure. But knowing is only part, he will have to PROVE that he exhausted all means if finding out…I don’t see any way he could when the same thing happened in 2005.
I have worked on Dem campaigns in the past. On every one I dealt with there was dozens of volunteers devoted solely to trying to make sure people know they have the right to vote. Please, please show me how that is hindering the democratic process. In order to call ourselves a democracy, we are supposed to reach out to as many people as possible. A successful democracy is one where a high percentage of the population’s eligible voters actually casts a vote. Anyone claiming to believe in democracy on one hand but trying to enforce ineffective voter restrictions on the other is LYING about wanting democracy!
I certinly hope somebody catches up to him soon,too.Scott Walker is a guy that fits that old joke perfectly-,that you know how to tell if he is lying,by the fact his lips are moving!The biggest problem here,is that you have a guy like that in a position of power,the same as several states do right now,and it is no joke.Its very,very dangerous,and several of these type of govenors need to be thrown out quickly as possible,before they do more damage to this country than even what the Repubs are trying to do in Wash.D.C. These new govenors are all working along the same lines-trying quietly to actually take over the country and the citizens of each of their states.The situation could not hardly be more of a danger to our whole way of life!