Apr 20, 2018

Corruption—Wisconsin Speaker Robin Vos' Overseas Trip Draws Howls

Wisconsin Republicans are for sale, but face voters in the
Blue Wave election-2018. Scott Walker and Republicans
call citizens like residents above from the 2011 protests,
"thugs." Are these people really thugs.

Republican Con and Graft Loom in Election Year


Madison, Wisconsin — Wisconsin Republicans have become so enthralled by their work for special interests, they've convinced themselves they're entitled to money and free vacations for services rendered.

A FBI probe looms over Wisconsin Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos for the same free European vacation that caused the resignation and current federal criminal probe of former Ohio Republican Speaker Cliff Rosenberger, (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel).

Feds are looking at criminal corruption, likely misconduct in public office.

Corruption and misconduct are what Wisconsin Republicans do, it's how they operate today.

You can bet the Republicans at the Wisconsin Department of Justice will do nothing here as the state DoJ is little more than a Republican adjunct.

The public interest is routinely betrayed in Wisconsin as Gov. Scott Walker and Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and the other Repulbican fraudsters have become the embodiment of the fraud triangle, a criminal scheme outlined as follows:

Republican Fraud Triangle

Perceived financial need
Perceived opportunity
Entitlement
-----------
Theft and deception

Voters, elections, clean government, local democracy, these traditional commitments are discarded as possible as Republicans obstruct voters, block elections and work to destroy any institution, any process not colluding with the Republican Con.

Witness Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos.

Robin Vos took a free overseas trip in August 2017 to Europe paid for by Republican contributors and a Republican campaign group, GOPAC, working to elect Republicans and only Republicans.

Now, I'm betting it's beyond the means of most Wisconsinites to pack up and do Europe, but Vos and his wife, (she pockets $235,000 a year for the Jobs First Coalition that elects Republicans and only Republicans), get the Republican gang to pick up the bill. Nice.

Republican dark-money forces funnel $100,000s into state legislative races led by the school privatization and shadowy Jobs First Coalition are run out of a P.O. Box in Brookfield, Wisconsin, a "shell group tied to American Federation for Children's Scott Jensen, the former Speaker of the Wisconsin Assembly who was brought down by his own campaign finance scandal," (PRWatch), (Wisconsin Democracy Coalition), (Wisconsin Community).

In exchange for favorable treatment in the Wisconsin State Assembly, Robin Vos accepted his lavish get-away, but in all of his August-vacation pleasantness, Wisconsin citizens are left out of the transaction.

The slight against Wisconsin is done purposefully, Robin Vos, Scott Walker and this sleazy bunch are engaged in private transactions and legislative business is no longer the purview of the people of Wisconsin.

Stay tuned. It's an election year.

From One Wisconsin Now

The Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives is under investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and has resigned his position, in part, because of his acceptance of a trip to London, England paid for by a conservative political organization in association with a payday loan lender. Meanwhile in Wisconsin, his traveling companion Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has alleged his participation in the same trip was on the ethical up and up. One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross said Vos’ fantastical claim raises even more questions that must be answered about his already shady relationship with the payday loan industry.

“Winston Churchill said, ‘You must look at the facts, because they look at you.’ This looks like a dirty deal and we’re looking at you, Robin Vos,” commented One Wisconsin Now Executive Director Scot Ross. “The Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives is under federal investigation and resigning over this trip while in Wisconsin his travelling companion Robin Vos is filibustering with stories about his dinner companions,”

According to media reports, the trip in question was paid for by the conservative GOPAC education fund and included lobbyists for a payday loan company that does business in Wisconsin. Principals in the business and their family members have donated generously to Vos’ Assembly Republicans, especially in races critical to keeping Republicans, and Vos, in charge of the chamber.

For his part, Vos has shown his gratitude to the industry for their financial support by seeking to limit regulation of payday lenders and make it easier for them to do business in Wisconsin.

Among the unanswered questions creating a darkening ethical cloud hanging over Vos are:

Who paid the travel expenses for Vos’ fiancee? Vos has told the media that the travel expenses of his then fiancee and now wife who accompanied him on his European junket were not paid by GOPAC. But, Vos has refused to identify who picked up the tab or to deny that her travel expenses were paid by a party or parties associated with the payday loan industry.

How much has the payday loan industry contributed to the Jobs First Coalition? The Jobs First Coalition is a conservative dark money group that has spent almost exclusively to boost the campaigns of Republicans running for the State Assembly. Between 2014 and 2016 the group has raised $3.5 million and employs Vos’ wife as a fundraiser, paying her $235,000 for her labor.

If no business was discussed, why were there multiple lobbyists for the payday loan industry on the trip? Vos alleges that two payday loan industry lobbyists, whose job is to advocate for the industry that pays them to lobby, did not discuss business over their multi-day European junket with top legislators from the states of Ohio and Wisconsin, states where their client has operations.
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