Scott Krug Using Wisc Taxpayer Money for Fundraiser

Updated - Wisconsin State Rep. Scott Krug (R-Nekoosa) listed his district office phone for a campaign finance fundraiser Friday, Sept. 2, using taxpayer dollars.

Reads a press report publicizing the Scott Walker-attended reception for Krug.

Reception in Honor of Rep. Scott Krug with Gov. Scott Walker
9/2/2016
12 p.m.

Heartland Farms,
907 3rd Ave.,
Hancock.

12 p.m. - 1 p.m.
Suggested Contribution: $50

Host Levels:
Platinum: $1000
Gold: $500
Silver: $250

Please RSVP by calling (715) 459-2267 

The (715) 459-2267 phone number is listed as the district phone number for Krug at the Wisconsin Assembly District 72 website.

Last year, in response to a Republican-attempted rewriting of Wisconsin's open record and open government laws, Krug said his commitment to open government is demonstrated by using his personal phone listed on the district 72 assembly site.

To read Krug, using his cell phone for fundraising, personal, and district business is a testament to open government.

Perhaps, Krug will share the phone records of 715 459-2267 as another testament to his commitment to transparency.

See image below at bottom:

Citizen to State Rep. Scott Krug: YOU SOLD US OUT

Long Lake in Wisconsin - Used to be a lot of water
Kate Golden, Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism

By Patt Pisellini (of central Wisconsin)

Scott [Rep. Scott Krug (R-Nekoosa)],

I have tried - really tried - to believe you. As our local representative, I have always given you the benefit of the doubt, hoping your motives were concerned with protecting your constituents. But, your performance on bill AB 874 leaves little doubt that you care very little about us.

First, your method of contacting me, by hacking Criste's (Greening's) email list, is unconscionable. It demonstrates a total lack of concern for private communications.

From your opening paragraph, you have shown total disrespect for the intelligence of your constituents. Intimating this bill would have gone forward out of committee regardless of your vote, is ridiculous. 

Second, the fact you offer elaborate scientific studies of watersheds, is nothing more than smoke and mirrors. There is scientific research already available. The vegetable growers have been conducting research for years. They know exactly what the performance of each watershed is. They just choose not to share it with the general public because it might force them to admit their agricultural practices need to be altered.

I watched your entire performance on the floor. Suggesting we drill more HCWs (High Capacity Wells) to fill up dried-up lakes, such as Long Lake, to study the hydrology is ludicrous. There are 5 monitoring wells already in place around Long Lake, that could, and should, have been used to study the hydrology over the past few years, but NOTHING has been done with them. We don't need to study the hydrology; all we need to do is take a drive around the perimeter of Long Lake, and the other Channel Lakes, and look at the proliferation of HCWs.

Your letter is a ploy to justify your actions, in hopes of getting back into our good graces.  Unfortunately, it is disingenuous, and lacks any substance. YOU SOLD US OUT - period. You have lost our trust, and do not deserve our respect.  I agree with Criste, I intend to support your opponent, and to actively campaign to oust you from office.

Rep. Krug Votes Against His Own Proposal … After He Voted for It

State Rep. Scott Krug (R-Nekoosa) cannot decide what lie to tell his constituents as he works to deplete and poison his own constituents' waters.

So Krug last night decided to vote against his own bill.

Notes Assistant Democratic Leader Katrina Shankland (D-Stevens Point) in a press releases: 

MADISON – Last night on the Assembly floor, in a highly unusual action, Rep. Scott Krug (R-Nekoosa) voted against final passage of his own substitute amendment to Assembly Bill 874, which grants indefinite water rights to some large water users at the expense of the average citizen.

This comes on the heels of Rep. Krug casting the deciding vote in favor of Assembly Bill 874 just two days prior in the Assembly Committee on Environment and Forestry, and voting in favor of adoption of his substitute amendment on the Assembly floor last night.

“In all my years, I have never, ever, seen someone write their own amendment, vote for it in committee, and then vote against it on the Assembly floor. These are the kinds of twisted, political games that people are just fed up with,” commented Assembly Democratic Leader Peter Barca (D-Kenosha).  “Does he really think he can have a vote in both pockets, mislead his constituents, and get away with it?”  

When asked on the Assembly floor why he voted against his own proposal, which he claimed to have worked on for three and a half years and previously voted for, Rep. Krug said the proposal “fell a little bit short.”   

“The only person that can be blamed for this proposal falling short is Scott Krug. He wrote the proposal that he voted against. Is this really the best he could do for his constituents?” said Assistant Democratic Leader Katrina Shankland (D-Stevens Point).  “In a desperate attempt to protect himself and save face in an election year, he is willing to intentionally mislead our Central Sands community.” 

“The people of the Central Sands have asked for and negotiated in good faith for years for responsible groundwater management policy,” continued Rep. Shankland. “Instead, Rep. Krug fulfilled the Republican party’s and special interests’ bidding by casting the deciding vote in committee, voting for the adoption of his proposal, and then voting against its passage. This continues a clear pattern of Rep. Krug promising his constituents one thing and then doing another. It’s cynical and manipulative politics that he believes will fool people and protect his seat while selling out his constituents’ water interests.”

Walker Sells Out Wisconsin Peoples' Water

"As Flint residents are forced to drink, cook with and even bathe in bottled water, while still paying some of the highest water bills in the county for their poisoned water, we turn to a little-known story about the bottled water industry in Michigan. In 2001 and 2002, the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality issued permits to Nestlé, the largest water bottling company in the world, to pump up to 400 gallons of water per minute from aquifers that feed Lake Michigan," (Goodman, Democracy Now).

Now that Scott Walker and legislative Republicans are set on a course of giving away the people of the state of Wisconsin's water, the water that has not been polluted yet, residents from around the state remain in a state ranging from trauma to disbelief.

Notes a friend from central Wisconsin:

In Rome, Wisconsin in Adams County, in there is a 40-acre piece of property on Alpine Drive and 15th, that is up for sale. It contains a high-capacity well that was never used by the former owner, Jim Hoffman. Jim lost the property through foreclosure. If this bill, (AB 874), goes through, anyone purchasing that piece of property could set up for extraction for bottled water, and no one will be able to do a thing about it. Very few people realize that the well is there.

Wisconsin is a trajectory as the new Flint, Michigan. Whether this stops is up to the people.

Central Wisconsin Legislator Has Residents Seeing Red, Feeling Betrayed

Increasing opposition to a proposed massive CAFO in Wood
County in central Wisconsin spurs State Rep. Scott Krug (R)
to lie he has support of clean water advocates for legislation
he is co-sponsoring in the state assembly. Krug's bill would
facilitate the permitting of high capacity water wells drawing
100,000 gallons of groundwater per day and used by CAFOs
to create pathogen-laden liquid cow manure that is dumped
into the environment.
- Photo by Mary Captain-Braund

Update: WisPolitics notes, "The GOP author, (State Rep. Scott Krug) of a sub amendment for a high-capacity well bill got his proposal adopted and then voted against the bill."
---
State Rep. Scott Krug (R-Nekoosa) has rarely made a promise he has kept.

Krug was elected in 2010 after a solemn promise to serve two terms, and never accept a penny of per diem money. Both were lies. "I'm for real," two terms and I'm out, declared Scott Krug in a campaign plank in 2010.

Now Krug has committed another betrayal on protecting fresh water.

Wisconsin Assembly Bill 874, a dangerous anti-groundwater bill that would facilitate the operation and permitting of high capacity wells drawing over 100,000 gallons of water per day, was passed out of the Assembly Committee on Environment and Forestry yesterday. Krug voted for AB 874 and broke his promise.

Krug serves as Vice-Chair of the Committee. He had promised citizen groups privately in the Central Sands region AB 874 would not advance in a series of emails last year.

"We are under assault by the state legislature. Krug has totally betrayed us," said a Saratoga man fighting the siting of a Concentrated (Confined) Agricultural Feeding Operation (CAFO) in central Wisconsin. CAFOs use massive amounts of water, and vector it back laden with toxins and feces into the environment.

Krug is a champion of Big Ag in Wisconsin and polluting CAFOs but in a particularly brazen series of moves has has told groups such as Protect Wood County and Our Neighbors that he opposes a proposed massive new CAFO and anti-clean water legislation opposed by citizen groups

"I’m very disappointed that Rep. Krug had the opportunity to kill Assembly Bill 874, but instead he chose to side with the lobbyists and special interests. I’ve heard overwhelmingly from you about your strong opposition to this legislation and appreciate your advocacy on this vital issue for the Central Sands," said State Rep. Katrina Shankland (D-Stevens Point).

Krug's advocacy for AB 874 comes after a raft of anti-clean water bills and other legislation giving away the fresh water of Wisconsin to special interests have been passed by Wisconsin Republicans. Special interests have also enlisted the Republican attorney general to provide legal backing to water depletion initiatives.

The betrayal following other betrayals and broken promises by Krug was feared.

"As feared, Assembly Bill 874 (Gudex bill) was approved in committee and now moves to the Assembly for approval.  It shortcuts the process for high cap well replacement, creates a 'de facto' water right and takes the DNR out of the permitting process when wells are replaced or ownership transferred.  Notice that our Representative Scott Krug was one of those approving it in committee.  So much for protecting groundwater in our district.  Don't forget the over 3,000 high cap wells in our central sands area.  It's up to voters like you and me," writes Don Ystad of Adams County in an email to fresh water advocates.

Writes the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters in a press release:

From the start, the intent of the Death by a Thousand Straws Bill has been clear. Big Ag has lobbied legislators to advance the interests of their thirsty clients at the expense of the state’s valuable groundwater and the many people who rely on it.

Today, in the year 2016, there are people whose drinking water wells are running dry and lakes and rivers are drying up because high capacity wells are over pumping our groundwater supply. Yet, Death by a Thousand Straws moves forward and heads to the floor of the Assembly later this week.

We are very concerned that, despite an outpouring of opposition from thousands of Wisconsinites, including many who are directly impacted by loss of groundwater, legislators chose to listen to special interests rather than their constituents. We have a real groundwater crisis in this state and Death by a Thousand Straws not only refuses to address this problem – it makes it so we can never reach a commonsense, bipartisan solution.

The people of Wisconsin – especially those affected by careless and irresponsible groundwater management – deserve better.

Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters was disappointed to see Representatives Mursau, Krug, Czaja, Kitchens, Swearingen, Edming, and R. Brooks vote in favor of AB 874 during the executive session committee vote. Representatives Mason, Milroy, Hebl, Stuck, Considine, and Allen voted against the bill.

Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters is calling on members of the Assembly to stand in opposition to Death by a Thousand Straws and with their constituents who have taken action thousands of times and urged their decision makers to vote no on this bill.

Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to electing conservation leaders, holding decision makers accountable, and encouraging lawmakers to champion conservation policies that effectively protect Wisconsin’s public health and natural resources.

The lifeblood of civilization, clean water, is now a just another commodity Republicans are giving away to special interests, as they eviscerate protections against polluters.

County Sups Reduce Wood County to Wysockiland

Updated - As Adams County in central Wisconsin sees plummeting property values, the County implements a TIF grant for the proposed Keiser golf resort. (Mal Contends)

The idea is promoting tourism and recreation will offset the economic drag caused by the rapid decline of the paper mill industry in central Wisconsin.

It's a pay-to-play move, but TIF grants do make sense. And so does promoting tourism and recreation. (Madden, Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune)

An ever-present problem is pollution caused by manure runoff.

How about Wood County?

Wood County won't make a move without the okay of Big Ag's James Wysocki whose potato operations already befoul area lakes. Wysocki is a big funder of Scott Walker.

Now, Wysocki proposes a massive Concentrated Agricultural Feeding Operation (CAFO) in central Wisconsin that is driving down property valuations and freezing economic activity.

Even Wisconsin largest daily newspaper with a rightist bent comes out editorially against runoff, pointing out the fact that Scott Walker's budget actually increases runoff, (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel).

"Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation’s (CAFOs) [factory farms] burden our society with an array of negative externalities [costs borne by adjacent communities]. The environmental damages that CAFO’s have caused are nearly impossible to put into a numerical figure that the average individual would be able to grasp and comprehend. The primary detrimental effects that CAFOs produce consist of water pollution, air pollution, animal welfare concerns and the mismanagement of waste," notes Joshua Yelle, native of central Wisconsin, now working in graduate school.

Most of the Wood County Board of Supervisors are 100 percent behind Wysocki and 100 percent against the community opposition to the proposed Wysocki CAFO and current aerial spraying of liquid cow manure, a highly destructive practice. (Hanson, NASA/Harvard University)

The community needs to be discouraged from intruding in public policy. It's so bad that the Wood County Board actively discourages citizen attendance at public meetings. (Mal Contends) (Madden, Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune)

Even as Wysocki operations suck up area aquifers with numerous high-capacity water wells, and area lakes and streams are polluted, Wysocki wants to make the situation worse against widespread community opposition.

Wysocki doesn't care much about community sentiment though, and unfortunately for those living in Wood County neither does the Wood County Board of Supervisors.

This is a crazy public policy commitment: A choice between a massive factory farm-CAFO v. Tourism and recreation is no choice at all.

Where Is Scott Krug?

Where Is Scott Krug? Not even Krug's
caucus trust him to show at joint
appearances with his opponent.

State Rep. Scott Krug (R-Nekoosa) has gone dark, refusing any more appearances with his opponent between now and Election Day.

Krug pretends to buck the Republican Party, but the GOP assembly caucus is his boss, sending money his way and advisors so Krug does not appear the clown at joint forums.

But not even the Republican Caucus trusts Krug anymore.

Word is Krug is forbidden to show anywhere where he would encounter his opponent, Dana Duncan (D-Port Edwards).

The fear is that Krug's opponent, Dana Duncan, is an attorney with the ability to cross-examine Krug and make him look foolish.

Moreover Duncan reportedly gets under Krug's skin and makes him say stupid things, e.g., "(my water committee) stopped meeting when they started campaigning for you."

This comment refers to Krug's recent line at one forum where Krug claimed to be studying a proposed massive CAFO sited in Saratoga because Krug says he is not afraid of his own party and concluded he against this one CAFO, though outside his district Krug is silent on other CAFOs.

Scott Krug Tells Bald-faced Lie on WPR Show

Update: State Rep preparing for 2018 bid for office that he vowed not to hold after 2014

A politician lying?

I know, but not this brazenly. This guy has to be held accountable for this one.

Scott Krug (R-Nekoosa, Wisconsin 72nd assembly district) was taken to task earlier this year by Dan Bice in the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

Here's what Scott Krug said in 2010:

"I'm for real," Krug said during a videotaped League of Women Voters of the Wisconsin Rapids Area forum on Oct. 20, 2010. "My kids are 11, 10, 9, 8, 7. If I went there for more than four years, they'd probably disown me. So even if I don't favor term limits," he continued, "I'm putting a term limit on myself right now for all the audience out there listening. Four years — done. Whoever else wants to come along, more than fine."

That's about as unequivocal as a campaign pledge gets. But then again Scott Krug will do or say anything.

Now Krug is denying this very morning he ever made the promise, though the promise was videotaped and it is linked everywhere.

Here's what Krug said this morning on Wisconsin Public Radio on the Route 51 Show with Glen Moberg (October 23, 2014) at the 28:43 mark:

"You know, the pledge is always taken out of context and I love talking about it because I always said, 'if there is somebody who comes along who can truly represent this district I will walk away gladly.' I don't have to stay here forever. It's something I love doing every day but I don't have to stay for you know six to eight, 10 terms, but you know when I saw my opponent who came out and announced January last year. It was a guy that kind of made (former Wisconsin state representative) Marlin Schneider look like a conservative Republican. I mean this guy is a strong progressive with really extreme views. That's something I'm not going to walk away from. I'm not going to let central Wisconsin go back to the same things it came out of. So, we're going to go for a couple of more terms probably."

What happened to "four years - done?"

Krug likes taking taxpayers' money. That's what happened. But Krug said he needs to save central Wisconsin.

When Krug made his 2010 campaign pledge it was unequivocal.

Bice also points out in another column that Krug said, "My first spending cut is promising not to collect one cent of (legislative) per diem money ever," Krug told the Wisconsin State Journal in 2010.

Krug changed his mind and decided to pocket "tax-free payments in 2013, banking $10,560 for 120 days of work in Madison. That comes on top of his salary of $49,943 per year."

Krug's stated reason this morning: He never said "ever," even though Krug stated precisely the pledge using the word, "ever."

Last Monday the League of Women Voters of the Wisconsin Rapids Area held its candidates' forum. Krug didn't show this time, he said he was too busy.

Scot Krug is not just a pro-CAFO lackey for Big Ag; Krug is a pathological liar.

Big Ag Going Wild on Toxification of Wisconsin Waters to Pols' Silence

CAFO and liquid manure spraying are
killing Wisconsin waters -
Image from the Wisconsin
Initiative on Climate Change Impact

Mary Burke had this to say about directing toxins into Wisconsin lakes, rivers, streams and aquifers: Dead silence.

When it comes to the health of Wisconsin waters and the people of Wisconsin, silence is not golden, it's deadly.

A few weeks back a typical dullard politician, State Rep. Scott Krug (R-Wisconsin Rapids), threatened me with a libel suit for pointing how his corrupt policies [Krug doesn't make a move without an okay from the Party] are destroying the lifeblood of the Central Sands by the vectoring of toxins in liquid cow manure into the region's waters.

Krug backed off of course from his ill-advised threat, as every coward from a lightweight like Krug to a heavyweight like Michael Best and Friedrich's, (LLP) David A. Krass (representing Dairy Business Association (DBA) interests) do when confronted with facts.

Special delivery of liquid cow manure to Wisconsin streams and lakes -
Courtesy of Scott Krug, Scott Walker and the Dairy Business Association
[Notwithstanding Krug's public reversal on the proposed
Wysocki CAFO in mid-August]

The truth is Scott Walker's transformation of the independent Department of Natural Resources into a pollution-friendly arm of the Walker administration is a betrayal of several protections in the Wisconsin Constitution (emphatically so of the Public Trust Doctrine) of our "more than 15,000 inland lakes, 33,000 miles of rivers and streams, 5.3 million acres of wetlands, 471,329 acres of state forests, and a location alongside the Mississippi River, Lake Michigan, and Lake Superior." (Jason J. Czarnezki, Marquette Law Review)

Equally true is that Mary Burke has to this point been silent on Walker's betrayal, despite the widespread belief, likely true, that Ms. Burke is as appalled as the folks in Kewaunee, Wood , Adams and Iron and Ashland counties.

Burke has made a political calculation out of fear of Walker and the DBA, and deceives the Wisconsin people with her silence every bit as Scott Walker does with his convoluted lies.

Other folks in Wisconsin are more candid, and not afraid.

Donald Ystad of Nekoosa and Rome: "A sympathetic county employee, who says we may well win the fight against the proposed Wysocki dairy CAFO, but Adams County should look to the south of Rome, along the Highway 13 corridor, all the way down to Adams-Friendship where a dairy industry gone wild may see their next opportunity. East and south of Dyracuse Mound (Motorcycle Recreation Area) there is nothing but pine forests and scrub, very few people, and the much-sought-after aquifer that underlies the Central Sands. That's something that should scare the heck out of Adams county residents as if they didn't have enough to worry about farther east in Richfield near Highway 51 (I-39). Holy smokes, where does it end?  Is he predicting another Kewaunee, with dairy CAFOs stacked up all the way down to the Dells?  Think about it next time you drive south through Big Flats on Hwy 13 to Adams-Friendship and beyond to the Dells. Then think about the (Walker)administration's desire to further expand dairy business in Wisconsin. I sure hope he's wrong."

For more candor, read on the linked pages:

Don Ystad in the Wisconsin Rapids Daily Tribune
Lee Luft in the Green Bay Press Gazette
Greg Farnham in the RockRiver Times