Wisconsin Dead-Last for Middle Class; Outrage Grows over Dark Money

Wisconsin is worst among 50 states as middle class shrinks

"Wisconsin ranks worst among the 50 states in terms of a shrinking middle class, with real median household incomes here falling 14.7 percent since 2000, according to a new report," notes Mike Ivey in the Capital Times.

The Pew Report Ivey cites reports a declining Wisconsin economy made worse under Scott Walker as the Wisconsin brain drain—children fleeing the state looking for work—continues. (Murray, WTMJ; Mills, WPR)

"Youthoside," one Wisconsin grandparent tells me as younger generations appear to be targeted by Walker's policies for not voting for him. "Walker is killing our children's future for the benefit of special interests who fund his political campaigns."

The report of Wisconsin's shrinking middle class comes as Michael Isikoff's piece on John Menard Jr.'s $1.5 million dark money contribution to Walker's frontgroup, Wisconsin Club for Growth, was revealed this week.

Scott Walker's budget proposal provokes astonishment about where Walker's radical proposals attacking workers, education and the environment are coming from as Walker runs for president (Opoien, Captial Times). The answer is a few special interests looking out for themselves from whom Walker takes orders.

Walker's proposed radical demolishing of education and environmental protection are coming from billionaires' secret money directing Walker what to do.

"George Meyer, a former secretary of natural resources under Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson, said the hardware baron [John Menard Jr. president of Menard Inc.] made no secret of his views on environmental enforcement. 'He told me he just didn’t believe in environmental regulations,' said Meyer. “He was upfront about it.'" (Democurmudgeon) quoting Michael Isikoff who broke the Menard dark money story.

Walker Statement on Pay to Play

Here's what Scott Walker had to say about John Menard Jr.'s secret contribution: "I haven't engaged in any of that and there's going to be lots of stories going forward," Walker said before walking away as an aide told reporters that he would not take questions. (AP, New York Times)

"When somebody says it’s not about the money, it’s about the money," warned the great journalist, H.L. Mencken, the Sage of Baltimore. Mencken's dose of common sense from the early 20th century fits Walker perfectly, the slippery man from Wisconsin who can't think on his feet.

Walker's confused statement on Menard's dark money contribution is similar to Walker's statement after the second John Doe II probe was reported in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in October 2013: "We expected that with a new Democrat candidate for governor in the race that there would be stories like this along the way," said Walker referring to Dan Bice's 2013 piece reporting law enforcement's probe of Walker and dark money, (Mal Contends) a probe Walker's allies are trying to kill at the Wisconsin Supreme Court. (Kilgore, Washington Monthly)

Boycotting Menard Inc. 

Menard Inc. is headquartered in Eau Claire, Wisconsin employing some 35,000 employees across the nation. (Reed Elsevier Inc.). Menard Inc is a privately and closely held S corporation, a subchapter S partnership (IRS), allowing profits to flow through to the partners without the corporation being taxed as a business entity. (Applebaum, New York Times)

Across Wisconsin, there is anger and a growing commitment to boycott Menard Inc., aka Menards.

"The corporations that show no civic responsibility and hide their actions from the press and public deserve no loyalty. Over the years I have shopped at the Menards Store and spent a bundle on home repair items. It stops today!," said writes a multi-generation Wisconsin family man. "If you are a corporation owner and truly believe in your political position, why not show it, why hide it from public view? On the other hand, if we, your customers, don't agree with your position is it not also correct that we show our displeasure?"

As John Menard Jr. prospers, other Wisconsin residents' grandchildren won't be living in Wisconsin long after they graduate from college.

One hopes the Republicans don't get their way and destroy Medicare and Social Security or the GOP's decimation of the older generations' earned benefits are going to resemble their grandchildrens'.

Isikoff: Scott Walker Got Secret $1.5 Million, Dark Money Contribution

Michael Isikoff's story on a massive contribution to a Scott Walker-aligned dark money operation is breaking hard.

This is Scott Walker, taking dark money from the One Percent and ripping off the 99 percent.

The recipient is Wisconsin Club for Growth, a GOP-front group to which Scott Walker helped direct money.

Both Walker and Wisconsin Club for Growth remain the subject of a John Doe probe which Republicans are trying to kill.

The contributor is John Menard Jr., the richest billionaire from Wisconsin looking for more.

"In the past two years, Menard’s company has been awarded up to $1.8 million in special tax credits from a state economic development corporation that Walker chairs, according to state records," notes Isikoff.

Scott Walker Criminality Seen in Black and White

Penokee Hills in northern Wisconsin -
Gogebic Taconite LLC shelled out money
to Wisconsin GOP candidates and the GOP
to gain permission to rip a massive
open pit mine in this pristine region.

Gogebic Taconite LLC (GTac) wants to build the largest open iron ore pit mine in North America, ripping a 1,000-foot pit in the center in the lush Penokee Hills in far-northern Wisconsin in Iron and Ashland counties, and Scott Walker illegally coordinated with at least one group to help GTac inflict this environmental catastrophe onto this region that would "fill in pristine streams and ponds with mine waste" (Kaufman, NYT).

Scott Walker and the Republican Party allies want the GTac mine to proceed for the money, their money--their monetary gain.

Wisconsin law enforcement documents released by court
show Scott Walker illegally sought millions of
dollars in campaign financing
[see Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel].

"According to documents released [August 22, 2014]in a John Doe probe, Wisconsin Club for Growth bank records indicate that Gogebic Taconite LLC gave $700,000 to [R.J.] Johnson's [of the Scott Walker campaign] group in 2011-12. Shortly after the recall elections, Republican lawmakers and Walker approved legislation that will make it easier for Gogebic to construct an iron-ore mine in northern Wisconsin." (John Doe documents released Friday also show a secret $700,000 donation from Gogebic to a pro-Gov. Scott Walker group (Marley, Bice and Bergquist, Milwaukee-Journal-Sentinel)). ...

"The Governor is encouraging all to invest in the Wisconsin Club for Growth," said an April 28, 2011, email from Kate Doner, a Walker campaign consultant, to R.J. Johnson, an adviser to Walker's campaign and the advocacy group. "Wisconsin Club for Growth can accept corporate and personal donations without limitations and no donors disclosure."

In the email, Doner wrote to Johnson that Walker wanted Wisconsin Club for Growth exclusively to coordinate campaign themes. "As the Governor discussed ... he wants all the issue advocacy efforts run thru one group to ensure correct messaging," she wrote.

These documents demonstrate the prosecution's theory of illegal campaign finance coordination committed by the Walker campaign and by Walker himself. This is the smoking gun.

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel has been all over this story from the beginning as probes by Wisconsin Constitutional law enforcement officers looking into possible criminality have caused panic in Wisconsin GOP circles. See Wisconsin John Doe I (2010-2013) DA: Scott Walker's stonewalling and stalling caused John Doe probe (Bice); and John Doe II: Secret probe spreads to five Wisconsin counties - Possible violations during recall elections among issues (Bice).

Scott Walker refuses to engage any facts or released documents, leaving spokespersons to state: Scott Walker is not a target—a non sequitur since no one is a target in a Wisconsin John Doe probe that is empowered by Wisconsin stature to determine if and by whom (the nature and the extant) crimes may have been committed.

I asked a well-informed law enforcement jurist if anyone ever becomes a "target" in Wisconsin John Doe probes. "Sure, [the jurist said], if that someone is charged with a crime."

Then the criminal justice system begins, and the John Doe probe closes.

Being subpoenaed in a John Doe probe is indicative of nothing, other than the fact that a John Doe investigative team, overseen by a judge, wants sworn testimony or evidence that assists an investigative team into looking at possible criminality.

In the John Doe II case, Scott Walker appears to be at the center of possible criminality in illegally coordinating contributions in violation of Wisconsin campaign finance law.

So, a corrupt federal judge and member of the Federalist Society, Rudolph Randa, halted the John Doe probe in May 2014 (Marley, Bice, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel) in a stunning move, ordering the destruction of all evidence gathered to shield Scott Walker and his campaign funding team from being exposed in an election year. Randa's destruction-of-evidence order was stayed by a Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit's panel's order of May 7, 2014.

"We hereby stay the return-and-destroy portions of [Judge Randa's] injunction and order defendants not to disclose or use the information they have gathered, and that is within the scope of the injunction, pending further order of this court," reads the opinion and order (footnote omitted).

The Seventh Circuit's panel is composed of Diane Wood, William J. Bauer, and Frank Easterbrook.

Judge Randa is a frequent attendee of privately-funded all-expenses paid trips for judges at Koch-backed judicial junkets (Fischer, Center for Media and Democracy). Randa has also made corrupt rulings protecting the Archdiocese of Milwaukee from survivors of molestation and rape, shielding $10s of millions from bankruptcy proceedings, (Goodstein, NYT) after the archdiocese sought to shield their assets when Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan (now Bishop of New York) was Milwaukee's archbishop.

The Seventh Circuit's panel has set a September 9 hearing date for oral arguments after which Randa's incredible ruling is expected to be overruled, and the Club for Growth will then ask for a hearing (en banc) before the full Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit members or appeal directly to the U.S. Supreme Court asking for a continued injunction of the Wisconsin Consitional law enforcement official doing their jobs [see Question and Answer on John Doe Probe in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, (Patrick Marley) for more background].

The case is Eric O'Keefe and Wisconsin Club for Growth Inc. v. John T. Chisholm, Bruce J. Landgraf and David Robles et al.

---

A reader asked who represents the area targeted by the GTac mine in the Wisconsin legislature.

The answer is: In the Wisconsin State Senate, an election is being held this November featuring state Rep. Janet Bewley (D-Ashland) and Dane Deutsch (a typical rightwing Republican Party nominee from Rice Lake who refuses to take a public position on the proposed GTac mine) for the 25th Senate District [to fill the seat of the retiring State Sen. Bob Jauch (D-Poplar) who complained that special interests and lack of transparency now define the Wisconsin Legislature under Republican control, so naturally Jauch is taking his pension and quitting, instead of fighting right in the middle of the battle against GTac].

In the State Assembly, an election is being held to fill the seat for Assembly District 74 held by State Rep. Janet Bewley (D-Ashland) who is running for Jauch's seat. The race features Beth Meyers (D-Town of Russell, Bayfield County Board Supervisor), and a shady character named Jamey L. Francis, Republican City Councilman from Hurley, Wisconsin, and chair of the Iron County Republican Party.

Be very afraid, the sparsely populated Iron County is rife with political and judicial corruption. More on this Jamey Francis to come.

"League of Women Vultures," Says Koch brothers-funded Wisconsin Club for Growth

Updated - The GOP project of obstructing Americans voters in disfavor with the Republican Party has for years come with the GOP attack on campaign finance laws meant to halt corruption in government.

It was no surprise to read that African-Americans, Latinos, students, Jews and gays are hit with bigoted jokes and disparaging comments behind closed Republican doors.

Such voters tend to vote non-Republican, thus are illegitimate to the contemporary Republican powers that be, a group that now openly boasts about its distaste for non-whites.

The League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, founded by the suffragists who fought for 75 years to win the right to vote for women, are known as "Vultures" by the Wisconsin Club for Growth which funds GOP candidates.

Vultures. [Wisconsin Club for Growth source code reads: "<meta property="og:title" content="League of Women Vultures"/>."

The text of an e-mail sent by Melanie G. Ramey of the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin illustrates the disdain Scott Walker and his allies have for those committed to universal suffrage and a government of the people.

By Melanie G. Ramey

We don’t often write about other organizations, particularly when we disagree with many of their positions. However, that has not stopped the Club for Growth from writing about us a number of times. An organization with ties to the Koch brothers, Club for Growth (CFG) is currently under investigation for possible campaign finance violations. It sent out an ugly April 2 email with the not-very-original subject line “League of Women Vultures.” Really.

The email took issue with a League of Women Voters® of Wisconsin statement objecting to Governor Walker’s signing of a law banning evening and weekend hours for early voting.

The CFG email reads: “Demonstrating that it doesn’t know or doesn’t care what it’s saying, the League of Women Voters said, “If lawmakers truly want to be fair for voters across the state, they will scrap this regressive law as soon as possible.””

Their snide comment notwithstanding, CFG did quote exactly what the League said. We know that by treating all municipalities equally the new law does not treat all voters equally. Each municipality is allowed one early voting site, regardless of its population. It’s hard to ensure “one person, one vote” when, for example, Milwaukee election officials will have only 9 seconds to process each early ballot under the new restrictions.

This week the Governor signed more bad election bills into law. One will allow election observers to stand as close as three feet from the table in our polling places, where they will be hovering over the voting process, compromising voters’ privacy and adding to the stress of our local election officials.

Another new law will make it virtually impossible for many qualified citizens to register to vote, including students and anyone else who does not have a document such as a Wisconsin driver’s license or bank statement with their own name and current address.

The Governor’s signing statement glossed over the impact of this restrictive new law, stating only that it requires clerks to record the type of document submitted as proof of residence. Either the Governor didn't read the amended bill he signed or he wasn't proud of signing it.

Don’t be fooled. These new laws signed by Governor Walker are extreme. Founded by the suffragists who fought for 75 years to win the right to vote for women, the League of Women Voters® knows suppression when we see it. While our 17 local Leagues will educate and assist voters in complying with the new restrictions, we are also looking into all possible ways to reverse these unfair laws, including legal action.

Club for Growth Is Malignant Bacteria in the Body Politic

Club for Is a Malignant Growth

Brendan Fischer has a nice wrap-up on David Koch, Americans for Prosperity, Republican Governors Association, Wisconsin Club for Growth, Eric O’Keefe et al in the latest probe into a probe looking into possible criminal corruption supervised by  retired Appeals Court Judge Gregory Peterson.

Nothing to see here is the GOP line, for now, though Wisconsin Club for Growth's Eric O’Keefe frack you to Judge Peterson and his subpoena are going to change that pretty soon.

John Doe proceedings are subject to a secrecy order, one presumes a subpoena serviced to O’Keefe is no exception. [O'Keffe, should check out the Hurley, Burish and Stanton, S.C. site at which they cite the secrecy of John Doe probe as an effort to "prevent testimony that may be mistaken or untrue or irrelevant from becoming public." It won't cost O'Keffe any money.]

But there is quite much to see here.

The Capital Times offers a summary of recent development of the man who would be governor, president or felon.

Time Magazine, writer Zeke J. Miller and Scott Walker teamed up for yet another puff piece about Walker's possible run for president [he's not going to run, we contended for years.]From the Cap Times:

Dark Money Funds Underground Movements Fronted by GOP

BloggingBlue's Zach Wisniewski calls Scott Walker a liar, pointing to an interview he did with reporters last week explaining why he dropped out of college. He claimed he did so because he needed to get a job to take care of his children. Problem is, Wisniewski points out, Walker dropped out of Marquette in 1990. His first child was born in 1994.

Blogger James Rowen also points to the same set of facts after reading Walker making the same claims in Time magazine. He posts an editorial that appeared in the student paper, the Marquette Tribune, over the future governor's illegal campaigning for student body president.

Speaking of the governor, Bruce Murphy's Urban Milwaukee column insists that the latest John Doe investigation spells real trouble for Scott Walker. Murphy presents a detailed analysis of Walker's staff's previous campaign violations while county executive and how it all plays into his gubernatorial election financing.

So-called Merit Selection Is GOP Fraud

The Wisconsin State Journal continues its years-long advocacy of 'merit selection' of Wisconsin supreme court justices, to replace direct citizens' election.

The State Journal's idea is deceitful, and the text even in its latest editorial belies the intent to install more GOP justices onto the Court.

Writes the State Journal: "(J)udicial elections are turning Wisconsin’s best judges into the worst of politicians. The candidates routinely take campaign money from the same attorneys and special interest groups that eventually will come before the court, seeking favorable decisions. That creates conflicts of interest and deep distrust in court decisions."

Yes, GOP judicial candidates take campaign money from special interests in obvious conflicts of interests on whose cases the GOP justices rule—that's the "Roggensack Rule," in which the four GOP justices alone "accepted verbatim a rule suggested by Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce and the Wisconsin Realtors Association, which stated that a campaign donation by itself could never require a recusal." (Murphy)

Yet, the State Journal editors refuse to advocate the defeat of the GOP justices.

Ed Fallone has campaigned against the Roggensack Rule, so the State Journal will endorse Fallone, right?

No. The State Journal wants Roggensack and the other three GOP justices and their rubber stamp votes on Scott Walker's agenda. Where's the merit in that?

If the State Journal were really concerned about conflict of interests and money, they would be opposing the four GOP perpetrators on the court.

The State Journal's editorial is composed mostly of criticism of all the special interest money in the race.

Not surprisingly, Scott Walker and the GOP killed public financing for candidates to the state Supreme Court in 2011, a move that nevertheless earned the GOP the State Journal's editorial support.

The State Journal's editorial is entitled the "The no-comment campaign," because the candidates rightfully refuse comment cases in which they are likely to rule ... sometimes.

But even the title is misleading as Roggensack has made clear her intention to uphold the GOP's Act 10 (passed with unanimous GOP support and no Democratic support) and the GOP's voter obstruction law (again passed with unanimous GOP support and no Democratic support): "Roggensack said that if Fallone is elected he would 'chip away' at the powers of the other two branches of government (currently held by the GOP in secretly gerrymandered districts)," notes Jud Lounsbury.

Chip away. How's that? By overturning unconstitutional laws?

The four GOP justices are corrupt. The State Journal editors know this, and refuse to point out the GOP corruption.

The State Journal had rather adopt a reformist pose and advocate taking away public scrutiny of the third branch of Wisconsin government.

Transparency is not the GOP and State Journal's way.

By the way, Chief Justice Abrahamson's proposal for open deliberation of the Supreme Court was opposed four-to-three with all four GOP justices voting to block transparency to the State Journal's approval.

Fallone opposes secrecy. Roggensack voted for secrecy. Where's the merit in that?

Club for Growth Filling WMC's Decreased Role in Supreme Court Race

Wisconsin Supreme Court - Crooked as a dog's hind leg

Update II: See Report: Madison needs to build over 1,000 rental units each year to keep up with demand (Godar, The Capital Times)

Update: Rule-of-law candidate, Ed Fallone, says he'll reverse conflict-of-interest rule written by the Wisconsin Realtors Association and the business lobbying group. Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce.

Judith 'Judy' Faulkner is the embodiment of the American Dream.

A brilliant woman who worked her ass off at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Faulkner wrote computer code assisting medical professionals in tracking patient information.

Reportedly a woman of wide-ranging interests, the former student in the psychiatry department at UW-Madison constantly innovated her computer software, took it to the private sector and later became the founder and CEO of the giant Epic Systems Corp. of Verona, Wisconsin. [Note: Some two years ago, it was announced that Epic is going to build a huge auditorium on its Verona site. As a result, now, sources tell me the downtown condo market in Madison is finally beginning to flourish, vis a vis just three years ago in 2010. Word is new, prospective Epic employees will simply commute to Verona and live in downtown Madison and the Isthmus, and are driving the market.]

Thank you, Judy Faulkner.

One question Ms. Faulkner encountered in Wisconsin is why the Wisconsin Manufactures and Commerce (WMC) sought to create a corrupt Wisconsin Supreme Court that would rubber-stamp the position of the increasingly right-wing and misogynistic Wisconsin Republican Party.

Why exactly is WMC necessarily an adjunct of the GOP and why is WMC spending some $1.8 million to install Michael Gableman to the Supreme Court like it did in 2008?

For no good cause, Faulkner apparently reasoned.

Faulkner, noting what writer, Peter Gruett described as Wisconsin's "slide toward reactionary social and fiscal policies," decided to pull Epic's business from local vendors and contractors who support WMC's bid to take over Wisconsin government, as reported by WMC Watch. [One also wonders why the Wisconsin Restaurant Association similarly supports reactionary social and fiscal policies; why running a restuarant means a woman's right to choose should no longer exist? But that's another story.]

Now, one of the four corrupt GOP justices, Justice Patience Roggensack, is running for reelection. And the WMC News page is unusually silent on the race.

But the Wisconsin Club For Growth is filling in where WMC begged out.

Reads an e-mail from United Wisconsin:

Wisconsin Club For Growth, the ultra right-wing front group funded through shady channels by wealthy billionaires like the Koch brothers, has nearly tripled their investment in Justice Roggensack's reelection.

This week, the non-partisan Brennan Center for Justice reported that since the primary, the group has spent $300,000 on TV commercials alone! You see, groups like Club For Growth know that to ensure Walker's most extreme policy overreaches get a less-than fair hearing on the court, they need to maintain the status-quo by keeping the Wisconsin Supreme Court stacked with partisan judges like Roggensack.

Prof. Ed Fallone has a tough election in just one month on April 2.

The Brennan Center also notes, "In 2011, special interest groups set a new record, spending just under $3.6 million on television ads in a race that many groups sought to recast as a referendum on Governor Scott Walker. Wisconsin will likely continue to see high spending by outside groups this year."

One hopes that, like Faulkner, voters conclude there is no cause for the Wisconsin Supreme Court to function as a reactionary and corrupt institution.

One imperative is Fallone telling voters of this reality over and over.