Thursday, April 12, 2018

Robbin' Vos hanging in London with payday loan lobbyists!

I wasn’t expecting to see this article from Patrick Marley and Jason Stein that hit the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel this afternoon. But given that the story involves Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and lobbyists, I’m also not surprised.
The Assembly's top leader was among a national group of lawmakers who took a free trip with lobbyists to London — an August excursion that contributed to the resignation Tuesday of his counterpart in Ohio.

Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) defended taking the free trip and said he followed state ethics laws in accepting it.

Cliff Rosenberger, the speaker of the Ohio House, said this week he was stepping down amid an FBI investigation that is reportedly looking at the four-day trip to England and other issues….

The Aug. 28-31 London trip was paid for by the conservative GOPAC Education Fund, one of a range of groups that help pay for educational conferences for state lawmakers, from the nonpartisan National Conference of State Legislatures to the liberal State Innovation Network and the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council. Though such trips are relatively common, a choice international destination like London isn't the norm.

The “free trip from GOPAC” part is bad enough, but Marley and Stein leave the real juicy connection to the end of the article.
Two out-of-state lobbyists for title lender LoanMax, Steve Dimon and Leslie Gaines, were also on the trip. LoanMax is not registered to lobby in Wisconsin, but the title loan industry has long lobbied in Wisconsin and in the past Vos has sponsored measures to loosen state regulations on the industry.
And that's why I call him ROBBIN’ Vos.


What can I sell off this time?

Oh, and note the timing of that trip – late August, when the Wisconsin state budget was 2 months overdue and the new school year was starting up without districts knowing how much money they’d get from the state. Nice to know what issues Wee Wobbin' found to be a bigger priority with at the time, isn’t it?

After this story, I definitely hope that weasel tries to run for Ryan’s seat in Congress. First, it seems likely that more Swampy deals from Vos’s speakership will be uncovered over the next 7 months, and drag down other Republicans in the Assembly. "Free trips from lobbyists from the payday loan industry" is also the kind of thing that makes a whiner like Vos with already-negative charisma become even more unattractive to casual voters in the rest of the state. That could be a big deal in a race that may well be in toss-up territory in November.

As I mentioned yesterday, clearing Ryan, Walker and Vos out of any role in Wisconsin politics by January 2019 would be a massive gust of fresh air for a state. And God knows we need things to be cleaned up, because Wisconsin has been badly defouled by these dishonest Reagan Youth sleazeballs throughout the 2010s. Let’s make it happen.

12 comments:

  1. As a government employee I'm forbidden from receiving anything from a private entity, I've had vendors who I already do business with offer to buy lunch so they can show me how to better use their product over lunch time, I had to refuse. I guess there are public employees with ethics and public employees without. Figures it'd be Vos, the landlord who ushered through a bill that benefitted landlords.

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    1. And it figures that an amoral crook like Vos would end up becoming powerful in today's GOP. Because it's apparent that these days, "the scum rises to the top" in that party.

      And almost every one of the 64 GOP Assembly members go along in lockstep with what this guy wants when it comes to legislation, which makes them ALL complicit in the crookedness at the Capitol.

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  2. I'm proud to work in the part of government it's still illegal to bribe.

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  3. Was the delay on purpose to give Walker photo opportunities deeper into spring? Call me cynical.

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    1. I like your cynicism, but those delays ended up underfunding schools for this year, causing more referenda, which stepped on the whole meme of "See, schools are fine now!"

      I do note that Vos's then-fiancee Litjens was with Vos on that trip (allegedly not on GOPAC's dime). Cool deal if you can get it.

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  4. An admirer of Winston Churchill? Well, he's just a few more meals and a rapidly receding hairline away from looking like Winston Churchill.
    Wonder how they concluded that this free trip was remotely ethical albeit legal?

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    1. He does have that Churchill look to him. Send him some cheap cigars.

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  5. Gotta wonder if the FBI investigation is trying to get testimony against Vos. Vos and his group of Cons go about their ways with a above the law mentality. For Vos to come out and say he didn’t talk with any of the lawmakers really means he did. So sad that Vos can’t change the federal laws on this. I wonder if the eithics commission is going act on this.

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  6. Couple of huge updates to this story today.

    1. Vos decided NOT to run for Ryan's seat, and you gotta wonder if there were a lot more skeletons ready to tumble out if Vos decided to try for Congress.

    2. Jason Stein followed up on yesterday's article, and noted that Vos and other Wisconsin Republicans have received tens of thousands of dollars from the CEO of the payday loan company that hung out with Vos on the London trip.

    What a lowlife. What a party of lowlifes.

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  7. Watch what they do in November when they lose the Governor and Senate. They will go rogue. You can bet this loan shark place will get their ROI. They will pass laws that prevent the next Gov from appointing his own people. They will relinquish power with great resistance. Shameful.

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    1. You have reiterated yet another reason why those 2 legislative seats need to be filled, because I also have strong suspicions and worries over what Vos, Fitz and Walker would try to cook up in a lame duck session if Dems do win big in November.

      It would be one last chance to grab even more power, and cash in favors.

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