Please spread the word!  Saturday March 5th, 2011 from 10AM-5PM @ Fountain Park on North 8th Street in Sheboygan.

A peaceful protest for collective bargaining in support of our educators and public workers.

Multimillionaire Johnson Raises Campaign Cash from DC Lobbyists and Corporate Special Interests

MADISON —U.S. Senate candidate Ron Johnson is scheduled to raise campaign cash in Washington DC this Wednesday. Johnson, a multimillionaire plastics CEO, has not only bankrolled his campaign with his family fortune, he has raised money from Washington D.C. lobbyists that represent corporate special interests.

“Ron Johnson is standing with Washington DC lobbyists and corporate special interests,” said Mike Tate, Chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. “There can be no doubt who Johnson will be a voice for in Washington — not the people of Wisconsin. Johnson will represent the DC lobbyists and corporate special interests that already have too much power and influence in Washington. He is their friend and he will be their friend in the U.S. Senate.”

This week’s fund-raising trip will be held at the National Republican Senatorial Committee and hosted by Arizona Senator Jon Kyl, who has served in Congress since 1986 and is the son of a former U.S. Representative.

Senator Feingold was recently ranked by Washingtonian Magazine as the number one enemy of lobbyists in Washington. The magazine wrote of Feingold, “Still the body’s chief anti-lobbying crusader.”

Washington DC lobbyists representing BP, Wall Street and Big Pharma have already given Johnson campaign cash.

Ron Johnson’s DC Lobbyists:

Roy Coffee - Principal at Coffee & Associates ($500): Coffee specialized in lobbying for foreign companies seeking to overturn sanctions against Iran during the Bush Era. Coffee was deputy campaign manager on former President George W. Bush’s first campaign for governor in Texas and later moved to Washington DC and was considered Bush’s “eyes and ears” in K Street and the lobbying world, according to Roll Call. Coffee and an associate were the subject of the article because of their bizarre connections to some of Washington’s dirtiest lobbying scandals:  “Roy Coffee and David DiStefano, have been connected to a foreign company’s attempt to work around U.S. sanctions against Iran and sell airplane parts to that nation – an attempt that centered on U.S. Rep. Bob Ney, an Ohio Republican accused in lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s recent plea agreement of accepting bribes. The two lobbyists were hired in 2003 by a pair of businessmen with résumés out of a James Bond movie. One, a Syrian gambler nicknamed “The Fat Man,” made his fortune in Middle East arms deals. The other, a felon, was banned from East Coast racetracks in the 1980s for his connections to organized crime and has a Tennessee rap sheet for trying to defraud Elvis Presley.”

Daniel Meyer – Senior Vice President at The Duberstein Group Inc. ($500) Meyer’s shop was paid $100,000 this year to lobby for BP as the Big Oil company has attempted to fight added oversight after the worst oil spill in U.S. history. Meyer is one of the lobbyists working on the BP account. He is a former chief of staff to then-Speaker Newt Gingrich.

Steven J. Hart – Chairman and CEO of Williams & Jensen PLLC ($500): Hart’s firm lobbies for insurance firms, big pharma, and the financial industry (including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac). Hart also lobbies for Enbridge, the oil company that recently spilled oil into a river leading to Lake Michigan. According to his bio, “Mr. Hart has been named one of Washington’s top lobbyists by Washingtonian magazine and The Hill and one of the top fund-raisers by National Journal.”

Aleix Jarvis – Director of Fierce Isakowitz & Blalock ($1,000): Jarvis, a fund-raising bundler for McCain, was scrutinized in 2008 because he lobbied on behalf of the European Aeronautic Defense & Space Company (EADS).  EADS received a controversial air force tanker deal after McCain had advocated for a change to the contracting requirements that made it disadvantageous to EADS.

Eric M. Ueland – Vice President at The Duberstein Group Inc. ($500): Ueland served as chief of staff to former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist.  He left Capitol Hill to lobby for automobile, financial, retail, health, telecom, and aerospace clients, including, GM, Goldman Sachs, and BP.

Just like his last fund-raising trip to DC, the Washington-DC-based professional fund-raising firm, the Bellwether Group, is organizing Johnson’s latest fund-raiser. When Johnson last attended a fund-raiser held by the organization in July, the hosts included Washington D.C. lobbyists who have lobbied the federal government more than 2,500 times on issues for special interests such as the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association, Society of the Plastics Industry, Association of Oil Pipe Lines, the Oxygenated Fuels Association, and others who have an extensive history lobbying on behalf of the health insurance industry.

The Bellwether Group made a reputation raising money for Congressman Tom Feeney, who lost his seat after he became engulfed in the largest Washington D.C. lobbying scandal in history. Feeney accepted a Scottish golf trip from disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and was named one of the most corrupt members of Congress four times by the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

MADISON –The Wisconsin State Journal is reporting that Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen cleared District Attorney Ken Kratz of any criminal wrongdoing after only a cursory ten-day inquiry, in which Kratz was not interviewed.

Van Hollen has cited a “thorough investigation” that revealed no criminal wrongdoing in his decision to not pursue charges against his political ally. Department of Justice reports, however, directly contradict Van Hollen’s claim, showing Kratz was never interviewed by investigators before the Attorney General closed the case.

“J. B. Van Hollen’s investigation of his political ally was a sham and now documents prove that,” said Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chairman Mike Tate. “Is there any doubt now why J.B. Van Hollen is resisting a probe independent of the influence he appears to be wielding in protecting a sexual predator?”

According to the Department of Justice case summary, the Kratz case was first referred to Van Hollen’s office by Kaukauna Police on Friday, Oct. 23, 2009. On Nov.2 – just six business days later – Kratz was notified that no criminal investigation was pending and that the “case was done” as far as Van Hollen’s office was concerned. Van Hollen has subsequently asserted that Kratz “didn’t break any laws.”

“At best this is incompetence by J.B. Van Hollen,” Tate said. “At worst, this is a coverup of sexual predation.”

MADISON - During last night’s gubernatorial debate, Scott Walker trotted out his latest gimmick, declaring he would call an emergency session of the Legislature to focus on jobs.

In fact, Walker had such a chance as Milwaukee County executive, but instead, defunded his own economic development division in the first year of the Recession.

That was after he put a pair of clownish cronies in charge of the division, which they promptly ran into the ground.

Repeated attempts by others to restore the division succeeded earlier this year, but Walker failed to staff the office, or even give it phones.

This followed the state’s removal of the county’s Private Industry Council from Walker’s control, owing to Walker’s total neglect.

Which comes as no surprise after Walker famously mocked bringing jobs to Wisconsin as, “putting lipstick on a pig.”

Walker additionally continued to misrepresent his role in the G.E. Medical center in Wauwatosa, which he actively worked to kill, before other leaders, including Gov. Doyle, stepped in to correct his hostility toward the project. He also continued to take credit for the growth at Mitchell Field, the plans for which preceded his administration and which his repeated attempts to sell off would put at risk.

“Time and again Scott Walker has aggressively neglected jobs-creation and gone out of his way to fight any programs that might actually grow businesses in Wisconsin, and, without any successes of his own, he continues to lie and claim those of others,” Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate said Saturday. “With his outrageous lies last night, Wisconsin saw that you can’t trust Scott Walker to care about any job but his own.”
Background

Political Cronies Making a Mess

Although he promised to eliminate cronyism and nepotism when he first ran for Milwaukee County Executive, Scott Walker in many cases has chosen political friends and supporters for county jobs for which they had insufficient qualifications.  This is especially true with regard to the former Executive Director position of Economic and Community Development.  (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “Walker has rewards in mind for backers,” 5/9/2002)

Both of Walker’s two choices to lead economic development efforts were previously staffers from his political campaigns.  One County Supervisor commented that both Bob Dennik and Tim Russell didn’t have the necessary experience to lead that division.  Dennik particularly came under fire from the County Board over disappointing land sale results that put the county into repeated budgetary problems.  A specific example of this came in October 2008 when only $226,000 of the $7.2 million in budgeted land sales revenue actually had materialized.   (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “Walker plan shifts developments efforts,” 10/3/2008).

The 2008 land sale problem was certainly not the first for Walker’s appointee, Bob Dennik.  In 2007 he was the subject of an open letter by County Supervisor John Weishan calling for Scott Walker to relieve Mr. Dennik of his duties as economic development director.  This complaint centered around a $3,082,775 budget deficit in community development programs.  The Economic and Community Development Division and Dennik as its leader, were responsible for the administration and coordination of those programs. Weishan pointed out that this failure “has great ramifications, not only for the community development programs, but also the 2008 County budget.”  (BizTimes.com, “County economic director should be fired,” 3/30/2007)

Dennik’s apparent defense to the $3 million deficit in his division was summed up by his own comments saying, “Since 2004, I’m the fourth director.  Since I’ve been in this job in May 2005, I’ve gone from an accountant to a fiscal analyst to a budget person.”  (Daily Reporter, “Milwaukee County economic development division has $3 million deficit,” 3/30/2007)

An audit that was ordered by the County Board’s Committee on Finance and Audit, found that this incident was “not the first time in recent years that the Division has reported problems with fiscal management. A deficit of approximately $775,000 was also reported at year-end 2004.  This amount was later revised to $531,000.”  According to the audit, there were three general areas that caused the recurrence of deficits within the Division.  These included the following:

* Limitations in both budgeting and fiscal monitoring procedures that were being used.
* Specific problems related to the recording of carryovers from previous years.
* Decisions about the number and nature of fiscal staff assigned to the Division.

One of the major suggestions in the audit was for the Division to have its own accountant.  This need was certainly reflected in the fact that a full $1.55 million of the $3million deficit was due to budgeting and other fiscal errors.  (Milwaukee County Inter Office Memo from the Director of Audits, “Department of Administrative Services – Economic and Community Development Division 2006 Deficit,” 5/1/2007)

Milwaukee-7 Regional Economic Development Group

Barrett is an original co-founder and is the current co-chair of M7; Walker derided the efforts as putting lipstick on a pig.  (Which the MJS rightly opined at the time:  “It is exceedingly unhelpful when one of the alleged leaders of a promising effort to market the region’s positives begins working at cross-purposes with the group so publicly, so early.” MJS, 10/7/05)

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1683&dat=20051007&id=xFMvAAAAIBAJ&sjid=OUUEAAAAIBAJ&pg=5805,5141244

G.E. Medical center

“The county executive was never at the table negotiating this,” she (former Wauwatosa Theresa M. Estness) said, adding “There was never anyone from the county involved when we were negotiating with GE.”

http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/88742307.html

Mitchell Field

“It has nothing to do with county government,” (aviation consultant Michael Boyd, of Boyd Group International Boyd) said. “It has to do with airline economics.”

http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2010/sep/24/scott-walker/scott-walker-says-milwaukee-airport-fastest-growin/

Rallies with Joe the Plumber at a Tea Party Rally

Madison – Attorney General JB Van Hollen spoke at a Tea Party Rally with Joe the Plumber on Tuesday, Aug. 24 in Rib Mountain.  It follows other appearances by Van Hollen at Tea Party Events.

“The fact is that the Tea Party offers extreme ideas that are out of touch with the common sense approach Wisconsin residents want in their elected officials. If Van Hollen subscribes to the Tea Party philosophy, he is too extreme for Wisconsin. Beyond that, the fact that Van Hollen associates himself with these groups, is very clear proof that Van Hollen is simply and absolutely a dime-a-dozen politician pandering to interest groups, looking for votes rather than doing his job for all the people,” said Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate.

Tate went on to point out that Van Hollen continues to claim his actions aren’t partisan. “It is the oldest and most cynical ploy in a politician’s playbook,” Tate said. “To believe that you can say one thing and do another and that no one will notice. From filing a lawsuit to suppress voting, after his office talked to a Republican political operative to trying to file a lawsuit to stop health care reform, after his office talked to a Republican Political Operative, Van Hollen is abusing his office and the trust of the people of Wisconsin.”