The little guys beat big media, exposing WisGOP voter suppression

Quite a few interesting stories in Wisconsin this last illustrating how new media and grasroots organizations can beat the big boys - including some leftie Cheddarsphere success.

The first goes to the Root River Siren, with her excellent expose of the Romney campaign and Wisconsin GOP's training of poll watchers, which not only gave out false information to the toolboxes looking to suppress the vote of the "others" (for example, saying voter ID was needed in many instances when it wasn't, and that felons who had completed their parole were stil ineligible), but also suggested tactics such as hiding affiliation with the GOP (claiming to be a "concerned citizen" instead), and to photograph and harrass any group arriving in a van to vote.

Well this sleazy story got around and hit the mainstream when Think Progress printed it yesterday going over the wrong information the Romney campaign was giving out, and by last night, the Obama Campaign was asking Wisconsin A-G J.B. Van Hollen to look into the matter, demanding that Wisconsinites have their right to vote protected. And all starting from a little blog post from a woman in Racine.

There was another event this week showing how Wisconsin's right-wing machine will dredge any depth to try to win elections, and it took behind-the-scenes work by non-mainstream media to shine a light on this. Milwaukee's Bradley Foundation and its right-wing backers were found out to be the ones behind the racist "voter fraud is a felony" billboards that disproportionately went up in minority neighborhoods throughout the Milwaukee area. Scot Ross and the gang at One Wisconsin Now joined with Milwaukee community groups to first call on Clear Channel Outdoor to reveal who paid for the billboards This led the person who put up the billboards to blink, and take down that racist tripe instead of having the guts to stand behind what they put up.

That was cool enough, but this week things got a lot better. The Grio worked with OWN to check some records, and outed the the Einhorn Family Foundation as the people who paid for the billboard, and traced the group's money back to the Bradley Foundation and its web of right-wing propaganda outfits.

Organizations receiving financing from Bradley include American Majority, a tea party affiliated group started in 2008 to train candidates for state and federal office, and which has received nearly $700,000 from Bradley since 2010, the Wisconsin Institute for Liberty, a conservative legal organization funded with a $500,000 from Bradley, and True the Vote, which has claimed it plans to recruit 1 million “poll watchers” to challenge voters’ eligibility and be on guard for alleged “voter fraud” at polling places nationwide.... hmmmm, sounds familiar, don't it?

In 2010, the Einhorn Family Foundation received $10,000 from the foundation “to support a public education project” under the Bradley Foundation’s “civic growth and prosperity” giving category.

The foundation is led by Steve Einhorn, who along with his wife, gave Gov. Scott Walker $25,000 during the recall campaign. [Ed. Note] This guy has given Walker nearly $50,000 since 2005.

And now, here's the part that just cracks me up.

One Wisconsin Now came across the foundation’s name by comparing a list of the top Milwaukee private foundations with a list of major donors to Walker’s recall campaign. Ironically, the identity of the private purchaser became clearer after a Milwaukee conservative radio host, Charlie Sykes, mentioned that he had been in contact with the billboard advertiser, because of Sykes’ own strong ties to the Bradley Foundation and his past work for the organization

Bradley Frontman

 

Yep, that's correct. Scot Ross unmasked the wuss who put up these racist billboards because of statements from the Wisconsin GOP's mouthpiece, Charles J. Sykes. Absolutely hilarious.

But it doesn't stop there. Now the Grio/OWN report inspired the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel's Dan Bice to follow up with Bradley Foundation CEO and Walker campaign chair Michael Grebe, and got Grebe to admit that the Bradley boys gave Einhorn $10,000 to put up the racist billboards in 2010. Of course, Grebe claims his work with Walker's campaign had nothing to do with putting up the money from his day job toward billboards intended to help Walker's chances of being elected.

Yes Mike, and the Kochs' AFP group acts independently of Scotty as well. It's only out of mutual respect that Scotty was slated to appear with the Kochs at a $1,000-a-plate New York City GOP fundraiser tonight.

Well, Walker was supposed to appear in NYC this week, until Superstorm Sandy struck and washed away not only the fundraiser, but pretty much any small chance Mitt Romney had of winning (KARMA STRIKES). Not that Obama probably wasn't going to win anyway, but now people see what a real leader in the White House acts like in a time of crisis. And it sure ain't Romney or a pathetic Republican party whose campaigns set up faulty voter suppression trainings in Racine, and hide behind dark-money oligarch organizations to try to intimidate voters.

Dan Bice has done a great job in following up on these stories after they have broken, and adding on important details (like Grebe owning up to having Bradley money pay for the racist billboards), but where's the pre-emptive work from people in the know from the biggest guys on the block? But the real question is why did it take great acts of reporting by non-traditional media and grassroots organizations to out these disgusting acts? Is traditional media (particularly you, Journal Communications) so owned by corporate, right-wing interests that it refuses to tell on the crooks, out of fear of reprisal from their bosses, or the prospect of lacking access from the politicians?

This is part of the reason why I write at this place as much as I do (in addition to it being an awesome way to blow off steam). I'm nowhere near as successful as the Root River Siren or Scot Ross or Scott Wittkopf exposing WEDC, or the folks at PR Watch (who not only have been reporting on these stories, but also made WisGOP legislators reveal emails that revealed their work with ALEC over the last year), but if enough of us say what we know and connect dots, real news can be uncovered. Since the mainstream media has been taking a dive this campaign season in order to grab huge amounts of political ads, it becomes the non-traditional media and organizations that are filling the void in Wisconsin.

And if this week is any indication, this type of work just might crush the disgraceful WisGOP machine that has sullied our state's good name and clean government reputation.

Registered voters ARE likely voters- which means Dems are winning Wisconsin

Been frustrated by some recent news media who are trying to insinuate that the presidential race is somehow tied or that Mitt Romney may even be leading President Obama. These media members are ignoring obvious evidence that proves otherwise, both nationwide, and in Wisconsin. And the biggest failures of the media deal with believing "likely voter" polls over "registered voter" polls, as history shows that registered voters ARE the real likely voters, and should be trusted.

The most recent Marquette Law School poll and media reaction to it illustrate this. This poll said Obama led Romney by 1 among likely voters and Tommy Thompson led Tammy Baldwin by 1 among likely voters. And that was what the media reported as well. But hidden beneath the headlines was the same poll when expanded to registered voters, and it told a very different story.

October Marquette Law poll, registered voters, Wisconsin

Obama 49, Romney 45
Baldwin 46, Thompson 44

Why the disparity? Because Prof. Charles Franklin and company screened out nearly 13% of the voters in the Obama-Romney race, and nearly 14% of registered voters for Baldwin-Thompson, saying they were not "likely voters". And among those in the screened-out group expressing a preference, Obama leads 69%-31% over Romney, and Baldwin leads Tommy 60%-40%. The assumption is that those people are not likely to vote, but past history says that is not true in Wisconsin.

I went to the GAB site in Wisconsin, as they have lists of registered voters, and it can be compared to turnout. while the registered voter numbers only go back to 2008, we can still use those figures as a starting point. And in 2008, the stats were as follows:

2008- Registered voters 3,473,834, total voters 2,996,869 -
13.8% of registered voters did not vote.

So that seems to indicate Franklin is doing an accurate screen. Except for a couple of problems - how many of those "registered non-voters" died and were never replaced? It's probably likely that at least 2% of them have passed on. And then also realize that 2008 was a largely uncontested presidential race in Wisconsin (rightfully so, Obama won by 14%), with much fewer ads and national "battleground state" interest than this year, and no Senate race to drive up interest either.

As the turnout rates show, the closely contested race in 2004 had higher turnout vs. 2008 - 72.9% vs. 69.2% of voting age population (different stat than registered voters voting, but you get the idea). So that's another 2-3% of the "registered non-voter" group you can expect will make it to the polls. So if you even decide to be charitable, and assume 10% of registered voters don't vote, the advantage shifts to Baldwin and Obama, as they grab more of the casual voters.

Nate Silver had a great article on this when discussing nationwide polls a few months back (worth mentioning because Obama gains somewhere between 3-5 points vs. Romney among RVs as opposed to LVs), and says registered voters are often closer to reality.

...It is probably not realistic to expect large shifts in the numbers in presidential election years. In those years, 83 percent to 90 percent of Americans who say they are registered to vote claim to have actually voted. Those numbers may be a pinch high since voters can exaggerate their propensity to vote, as well as their propensity to be registered. But the actual figure is probably about 80 percent.

With these relatively strong participation rates, polling firms should generally not be removing all that many registered voters from their pool when they draw up their sample of likely voters, so the partisan advantage for one or another candidate isn’t likely to change all that much.

Media should know this, but because they need to keep eyeballs on their TV screens and onto their websites, they conveniently ignore this so they can keep an impression of a "dead-even" race. After all, it keeps the ad money coming in, and that's what's more important than a quality product for these guys, apparently.

The Republicans do know this, and know they'll lose on November 6, unless they find a way to keep these casual registered voters from voting. So, enter garbage like voter ID, racist billboards on non-existent voter fraud (later taken down when the cowards were called out and asked to reveal themselves) , and other voter suppression methods. Among these are having bimbo GOP beauty queens give wrong information on voter laws to racist old white people in Racine, who will then use this misinformation to try to disqualify voters on Election Day.

When you put together the advantage Democrats have with registered voters with the GOP's desire to restrict the vote, you see how lazy it is for media to accept "likely voter" polls over a more expansive "registered voter" one. And that's why I still feel pretty confident that Democrats win next week, barring some major event that shakes things up. Because both sides know that if casual voters turn out, the Dems' chances of winning keep going up.

U.S. still growing, Wisconsin still lagging

Had a person note on Facebook that "Dems were saying before the recall election that Wisconsin's economy was bad, but now they're saying that the U.S. economy is great. And Republicans are saying the exact opposite. Neither makes sense." Well, actually that's not true, as 3 reports in the last week show that the U.S. economy continues to grow, and may in fact have picked up speed in the recently-ended 3rd Quarter, while Wisconsin lags near the recession level.

The first example is in the jobs market. As has been mentioned several times in the last few weeks, U.S. unemployment dropped below 8% for the first time in Obama's term in September, and that the U.S. has gained private sector jobs for each of the last 31 months. Well, Wisconsin hasn't been quite so lucky, and while the state posted modest job gains in September, it was the first time since March that the state had 2 straight months of job growth. And with the news that the U.S. is looking at upwards revisions of 453,000 private sector jobs and 386,000 total jobs for 2012, the Walker jobs gap is now near 90,000 jobs in only 20 months.

And this is also reflected in Wisconsin losing its low-unemployment advantage. When Walker took office in 2011, Wisconsin's unemployment rate was 1.4% below the U.S. rate. In the 20 months since, 2/3 of that advantage is now gone, and Wisconsin's unemployment has gone up in 2012 while the U.S.'s has gone down.

Unemployment rates, Wisconsin vs. U.S.
Jan. 2011- Wis. 7.7%, U.S. 9.1%
Jan. 2012- Wis. 6.9%, U.S. 8.3% (both -0.8%)
Sept 2012- Wis. 7.3%, U.S. 7.8% (Wis. +0.4%, U.S. -0.5%)

Another way Wisconsin is lagging is in the housing market. A big economic headline this week was an 11 percent increase year-over-year in existing home sales prices, the seventh month in a row that prices have gone up for homes. But again, Wisconsin is not joining in the recovery, as the Wisconsin Association of Realtors shows median home sales prices in Wisconsin were only up 0.2% compared to September 2011, and are basically flat year-to-date.

Hmmm, you think cutting take-home pay for public employees and defunding public schools might have something to do with the stagnant Wisconsin home market? It is especially noteworthy that some of the most Baggerific places in Wisconsin are the ones suffering the home price decreases. Check out the changes in the SEWRPC counties surrounding Milwaukee- only Ozaukee saw an increase.

Median home sales price changes, Sept. 2011-Sept. 2012
Ozaukee +19.0%
Waukesha 0.0%
Washington -3.7%
Racine -5.7%
Kenosha -15.7%
Walworth -18.2%

Oh, but they saved $18 on their school taxes. Hope THAT was worth it.

And in the big picture economy, Wisconsin also lags. The Philly Fed Coincident index came out today, and it showed that we're barely keeping our heads above water in Wisconsin, with us turnng a sickly shade of green more befitting the Confederate states than the healthier shade that covers most of the Midwest (and Michigan is only declining after major increases earlier this year).

And it's not just a recent thing. Look at the growth rates over the last year for Wisconsin compared to the rest of our neighbors, and the country at large. Wisconsin has the worst economy in the Midwest and the U.S. has grown at a rate 3 1/2 times faster than we have.

Coincident index change, Sept. 2011-Sept. 2012

Ohio +5.64%
Ind. +4.98%
Ill. +3.06%
Mich +2.97%
U.S. +2.82%
Minn +2.59%
Iowa +1.94%
Wis. +0.80%

So to answer my friend's question- Yes, the Dems are correct. The national economy has grown over the last year, with that growth seeming to pick up a bit, while Wisconsin has flatlined and fallen behind. And yes, I absolutely lay this at the feet of Scott Walker and the Republican Wisconsin legislature. Keep both of these things in mind as you head to the polls over the next 12 days.

Think Wisconsin has a budget surplus? HAH!

Last week, Scott Walker tried another installment of his game of "sneak a PR event out, and hope no one remembers things or notices details." This time it was timed along with the state's annual financial report which came out on October 15, which on its face showed a $342 million budget surplus for Walker's first fiscal year and allowed for a transfer into the state's "rainy day" fund of just under $109 million. Walker and his DOA staff predictably used the news to claim his policies were working, and just as predictably, they're covering up that the news isn't close to as good as Walker's folks are making it out to be.

In fact, the budget "surplus" is based on accounting gimmicks, unnecessary cuts, and by tealing federal money intended to help people. If you take a look inside the Annual Fiscal Report's pages, you'll see where these games are played, and how it hides what looks to be an even bigger deficit looming in the near future.

The first tip-off comes on Page 12, where it shows revenues being basically the same vs. what was in the FY2012 budget- the actual numbers came in $18 million above the budget, or barely more than 0.1%. It also illustrates a Walker budgeting failure, as they counted on $118 million in departmental revenues that never showed up(things like fees and tuition and other non-tax revenues that help departments).

So how do you pull a $342 million surplus out of that? $113.6 million in additional, unbudgeted lapses, which turned out to be totally unnecessary given the budgetary circumstances. And even then, that only allowed the FY2012 to come in with a surplus $50 million more than what was in the regular budget, since the approved budget built in a FY 2012 surplus of $291.5 million.

But wait, there's more! Go ahead to Page 15 and Page 24, and you see an interesting line item:

INTER-FUND TRANSFERS 237,441(,000)

These are transfers from other sources that went into the General Fund and added funds to the revenue side, and led to the "surplus". One of the spots is in the Medicaid fund, which Jon Peacock at the Wisconsin Budget Project exposed last week, where he noted the Walker Administration used federal Medicaid incentives to add to the surplus instead of using the money for treatment programs like....Medicaid. The scheme was shown last February in an LFB document explaining where the state's lapses were coming from, and the Walker Administration plans to do the same thing over the next 12 months.

On December 28, 2011, DHS announced that 23 states, including Wisconsin, would receive FFY 2010-11 CHIPRA performance bonus awards. Wisconsin's performance bonus payment for this year is $24,541,778. This amount was based on a FFY 2010-11 monthly average number of unduplicated qualifying children of 467,963.

The MA budget established for the 2011-13 biennium under Act 32 did not assume that the state would receive any CHIPRA bonus payments for FFYs 2010-11 through FFY 2012-13 to offset the state's share of MA program costs. The administration's intent is to use the CHIPRA bonus funding to replace $24.5 million of GPR funding currently budgeted for MA benefits costs in 2011-12, and lapse $24.5 million from the GPR MA appropriation to partially satisfy agency lapse requirements for 2011-12. Of the $24.5 million the administration expects to lapse to the general fund in 2011-12, $18,561,982 is part of the DOA-allocated lapse plan that is currently before the Committee. The remaining amount ($5,938,018) has been allocated to meet agency specific lapse requirements in Act 32 [the state budget].

The state may qualify for additional bonus payments in FFY 2011-12 and 2012-13. DHS anticipates using any FFY 2011-12 performance bonus award to satisfy 2012-13 lapse requirements authorized in Act 32.

Now, if the Walker folks had all needs covered in Medicaid, maybe this could be OK. But this is not the case, as Walker's DHS has continued to cut the amount paid to BadgerCare Plus providers, putting the program in major turmoil.

Three of the four organizations that manage Wisconsin’s BadgerCare Plus say they’re losing money on the state Medicaid program, and two of those are at least considering pulling out.

The state has cut its payment rate by 11 percent over the past two years as it struggles to balance its budget, and the state Department of Health Services says it’s working to develop rates for next year to make sure adequate options are available.

Nonetheless, UnitedHealthCare is dropping its contract with the state within weeks, and Molina Healthcare Inc. has warned that it may need to do the same, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. Both say they’re losing millions of dollars on the program because the state isn’t paying nearly enough to cover the claims filed by its BadgerCare Plus patients.

Think using that $24.5 million bonus payment could have helped solve this problem and made the providers happy?

It's shades of this Spring, when the Walker Administration used more than $25 million in federal foreclosure aid to pad the surplus further, instead of using the money to help underwater homeowners and assist in bringing back property values in distressed areas. Between this and the Medicaid bonus money, these 2 moves account for the entire $50 million in above-budget surplus, with nothing gained in return for the vast majority of Wisconsinites. And that doesn't count another $187 million in unanticipated transfers in, nor does it mention the $558 million in debt refinancing that the Walker Administration pulled this year, which will cost taxpayers an exctra $156 million in extra interest costs down the road.

Lastly, this fiscal year isn't off to such a great fiscal start in Wisconsin. This shouldn't surprise you, as the state added a piddling 1,300 private sector jobs for July, August and September combined, and state unemployment rose to 7.3%. The Department of Revenue released its first 3 months of revenue numbers for FY2013 last Friday, the numbers were disappointing.

Income taxes held up, at a 4.9% increase year-over-year, but all other taxes lagged. Sales taxes were up only 0.6% year-over-year. Corporate taxes DOWN 8.7%. Excise taxes down 2.7%, and total taxes only up 2.1%. This is worth noting because the sales, corporate and excise taxes are all below budget, and it'll only take a small leveling off in income taxes for this gap to appear more. The FY2013 already has nearly $600 million in lapses as well as $137 million getting thrown into the Transportation Fund as a gift to the Road Builders for the FY2013 budget. Any revenue gap will quickly make that $342 million "surplus" turn to deficit in the 2-year budget.

So don't be fooled. Even with the Walker Administration's green eyeshade budgeting, which avoids needed services at the expense of better numbers on paper, it still isn't a fiscally responsible budget. And when that becomes apparent early in the next legislative session, watch for the implosion of whatever might be left of the age of Fitzwalkerstan. I just hope there'll be something able to be saved and redeemed by 2014.

Scotty's travels and poses > Scotty working on WEDC

Well, we found out on Friday what the "dramatic steps" would be from our fair gov'ner when it came to fixing the unaccountable and failing WEDC. The dramatic steps included revealing that WEDC is even more of an unaccountable disaster than we ever imagined.

As Democrats continued to knock him for secrecy and mismanagement at the state's job creation agency, Gov. Scott Walker on Friday announced he was hiring a temporary director from the private sector and a private company to search for a permanent chief executive.

Administration officials also disclosed that the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. lost track of $69 million in loans — including $9 million in past-due loans — because no one was assigned to oversee them when the agency was created in 2011.

Officials also said they were auditing all corporation functions and that the agency's chief financial officer, Mike Klonsinski, resigned effective Friday.

Oooh, making the Number 3 guy fall on his sword for the team. That'll....do absolutely nothing. Especially given that he wasn't the guy who dropped the ball in the transition from the Department of Commerce in Summer 2011, when no one was assigned the duty at WEDC of figuring out where the loans went. Oh, and WEDC is paying a WMC Board member $10,000 a month as the temporary CEO, and taxpayers are putting out another $40,000 in a no-bid contract to QTI to do a national search for WEDC's 3rd CEO.

Of course, media wasn't able to ask follow-ups of Walker about this mess, even though he chairs the WEDC Board, because Walker was out of town.

"It's imperative that we have a strong leader [for WEDC]," Walker said, participating in the board meeting via telephone.

And what was Scotty out of town for that he couldn't make this important meeting in person? To attend "job creation" photo ops that included.... tax credits handed out by WEDC.

A year from now, Alta Resources could have as many as 1,700 people working at its downtown Neenah headquarters.

That would be nearly 400 more than the projected 1,310 people the provider of customer care and fulfillment outsourcing services expects to have on-site by the end of this year. Company representatives said it has hired more than 600 people the past six months, aided by $1 million in state credits issued through the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. (That's about $16,666 a job, folks) ...

Jim Bere, co-founder and CEO of Alta, said the additional workers to be added next year are sustainable positions.

“They definitely are,” he said Thursday after remarks made by Gov. Scott Walker, who visited the firm’s Neenah headquarters.

WEDC is under major heat for randomly handing out excessive tax credits without criteria or accountability, but Walker's still out in public propping up this corrupted, failing strategy. And I'm guessing Scotty didn't take questions about how and why this firm was chosen, either. Pathetic.

But hey, Scotty's a traveling man, and he's got appointments to keep. Like showing up at a fund-raiser and rally tomorrow in Missouri with GOP governor candidate Dave Spence. I'm sure it's just a coincidence that this event is one day after the Packers' win in St. Louis. But if it's not a coincidence, it wouldn't be the first time Scotty's pulled that type of stunt, if you remember that Walker took a trip to see the Pack in Super Bowl XLV and made taxpayers shell out for his security detail, and never revealed who paid for his ticket and travel.

So while 30-year-old wonderboy (and lifetime GOP hack) Ryan Murray is allegedly going to work on figuring out where the missing $69 million in taxpayer-funded loans went to, WEDC Board Chair Scott Walker continues to bounce around the country and kiss up to oligarchs as if nothing sketchy is going on with the agency. Guess it tells you where Walker's real priorities are at- and it has nothing to do with actual, you know, WORK AND GOVERNING.

This week in GOP corruption Part 4- Michael, Best & Friedrich

Two stories in the last week illustrated the cronyism that has benefitted Wisconsin law firm Michael, Best & Friedrich (who will be called MBF the rest of this post). Both show the incestuous nature of MBF and the Wisconsin Republican Party.

The first is the revelation that MBF continues to obstruct on the release of emails related to the redistricting Wisconsin went through last year. It turns out there were 34 emails that MBF hid from groups suing the Wisconsin GOP on redistricting.

The report, filed this week as required by a panel of three federal judges, once again reveals that lawyers with Michael Best & Friedrich weren't forthcoming in providing subpoenaed documents...The judges previously charged the law firm some $17,500 for filing frivolous motions to try to block the release of other records.

A related investigation on why the emails weren't released earlier is ongoing, and the plaintiffs in the case said they may seek sanctions against Michael Best & Friedrich. They're also calling for a more detailed review of the law firm's computers, as well as those used by consultants and legislative employees.

"We still think there are significant resources out there that haven't been checked," attorney Doug Poland said. "There is information that remains to be revealed."

The suppressed emails cover the methods Republicans used last year to draw new legislative and congressional maps that will give their party an edge for the next decade.

Now how did MBF get to be the Wisconsin GOP's pet law firm? It always helps to have good connections. The Walker Administration has hired lawyers at firms with direct connections, (such as Ray Taffora, who left the DOJ to sign MBF's contract to do work on Act 10), and along with the Troupis Law Firm MBF has received no-bid legal contracts from Walker and WisGOP that have brought in well over $1 million in taxpayer dollars over the last 21 months.

This week's revelation wasn't the first time MBF hid information on redistricting over the last year. MBF and WisGOP made legislators swear to screcy on the redistricting discussions and even had top aides for both Fitzgeralds work out of the MBF offices in Madison to try to avoid Open Records Laws. Then-Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald concealed the reasons behind the drawing of the district lines for more than a year.

It took the Democrats taking over the Wisconsin Senate this Summer to get the first set of redistricting emails released to the public (and it also took Democrats taking over the Senate to get hearings on WEDC and Logisticare, keep this in mind this November). MBF finally released the redistricting documents this July, and they revealed such classy nuggets as this.

In one email, state Sen. Leah Vukmir, R-Wauwatosa, offered these thoughts about redrawing her district: "Western Wauwatosa — yes (more GOP)," "West Milwaukee — No (forgot to mention this part of current district — VERY Dem" and "Milwaukee — cop wards if needed."

She also wrote in the May 4, 2011, message to Tad Ottman, an aide to then-Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, "This is such a big task. So glad we are in control!"

Ottman worked on the redistricting plan out of the office of law firm Michael Best & Friedrich, which helped write the plan.....

One document released Tuesday detailed how many districts would be safe for Republicans, GOP-leaning, swing districts, safe Democratic, or lean Democratic under at least one version of the redistricting plan. It showed a dramatic increase in likely GOP seats, but Ottman said that chart did not represent the final breakdown.

Also helping to draw up the maps were GOP backers such as convicted criminal Scott Jensen and fellow RW voucher school hustler Zeus Rodriguez. You know who wasn't allowed a voice? The vast majority of Wisconsinites, even though they were paying MBF to do this work.

The MBF/WisGOP family made news in another way in recent days- Jason Thompson, son of flailing Senate candidate Tommy Thompson. Tommy's idiot son currently works at MBF, and why do you think he got that job? (Answer: Probably because being Tommy's boy is a pretty good guarantee to keep the money flowing from taxpayers through WisGOP to MBF). He followed MBF alum (and RNC Chair) Reince Priebus at a GOP fundraiser, telling the old white folks they should send President Obama "back to Kenya."



So how did MBF respond to one of its own making a racist statement like this? With mealy-mouthed disapproval.

Michael Best & Friedrich, the firm where Jason Thompson works, issued a statement Monday distancing it from the comments, calling them "regrettable."

"Jason has apologized for the comment through the campaign (and to his colleagues at the law firm) and the matter is being dealt with between father and son," the statement said.

Please, the only thing MBF regrets about Jason Thompson's act is that the d-bag was caught on tape saying something that hurts the chances of them having more connections to taxpayer funds through the Thompsons getting a job in D.C.

MBF kept Thompson on the payroll despite the fact that he played a role in Kelly Rindfleisch's arrest and eventual conviction for working on Walker-supported campaigns while pulling down a taxpayer salary, as Capper caught 9 months ago.

One of the things that stands out is that [current State Medicaid Director Brett] Davis appeared to be the candidate of choice for the WISGOP machine. The Republican Party of Waukesha County, one of the reddest counties in the state, sent out mailers which endorsed Davis for Lt. Governor. Davis was also endorsed by the Republican Party of Milwaukee County (home of Darlene Wink, Tim Russell and other names that have been popping up in the Walkergate investigation), Tommy Thompson, WMC and MMAC.

As a point of interest, and to further cement the ties that bind, Davis' campaign treasurer was Jason T. Thompson, son of Tommy Thompson, and currently an attorney at Walker's favorite law firm, Michael Best & Friedich.

Rindfleisch's plea deal got Jason Thompson off the witness stand last week, but that sketchiness mattered little to MBF. They know WisGOP connections like Jason Thompson are an ATM for them, and that's why he'll continue to collect his wingnut welfare at MBF.

It's a sick incestuous circule that envelops MBF and the Republican Party of Wisconsin, and it has cost Wisconsinites millions in taxpayer dollars, along with a large amount of the state's integrity. So the question is- how do you make this costly cronyism stop?

I think the answer's simple- SEND THE MBF LAWYERS TO JAIL for refusing court orders to release information to opposing sides in the redistricting cases. And make MBF pay back all the funds they got from taxpayers for taking on GOP causes over these 21 months of the Fitzwalkerstan era.

Making it not worth their while to work for the corrupt WisGOP is the only way that MBF will stop stealing our money. And we need to make these corrupt connections clear over the next 15 days, to remind folks of the cronyism and lack fo transparency that happens when Republicans are put in charge of anything.

This week in WisGOP corruption pt. 3- WEDC

The ongoing disaster that is the Scott Walker-created Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) continues to get worse. It was revealed this week that WEDC has lost track of 1/6th of the loans the gave to businesses since it started in June 2011 - approximately $8 million in taxpayer dollars. They just can't find where these loans were or how much taxpayers are owed for it, and WEDC's Chief Operating Officer (you know, the 30-year-old whose entire career has been as a GOP hack with no private sector job experience?) told a legislative panel that they just found out about these missing loans THIS WEEK - 16 months after they started.

The failure was discovered as the agency prepared materials for an ongoing legislative audit, [COO Ryan] Murray said, adding that the agency is still investigating how the mistakes were made, why it took so long to discover them and what will happen to those employees who failed to keep tabs on the taxpayer-funded loans.

"Clearly, a ball was dropped here a year ago but the system worked in uncovering it," said Murray, who went on to clarify what he meant. "The system to detect this worked but the system to collect on loans obviously did not."....

Murray said that he had informed Walker, who is also the chairman of the WEDC, late last week about the loan problems and that on Wednesday he had informed the WEDC's board members about it. A spokeswoman for Walker did not respond to a request for comment....

Murray said the WEDC had sent out a letter Wednesday to some of the businesses with past-due loans and would start making more contacts with all of the businesses in the coming days. He said the agency would likely ask the state Department of Justice to sue some of the businesses to recover the money. The state has also retained a law firm specializing in debt collections to assist in the process, he said.

Hmmm, and I'm sure that law firm doing the collections is getting a nice bunch of taxpayer money for that work. Not a bad gig if you got the right connections, eh? Wonder how they landed it.

And this isn't the first time WEDC money has gone missing. Last month we foud out about $8.6 million in WEDC money that was transferred into another account in December 2011 without WEDC Board approval. And who can forget the horrendous misuse of funds from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Not only did WEDC improperly use HUD and CDBG funds, which led to HUD ordering WEDC to take its hands off of CDBG funds and leaving millions of dollars in aid in doubt, WEDC also was exposed of playing favorites when it came to handing out forgivable loans and tax credits. Remember this statement in HUD's letter?

Certain jobs were considered more valuable to the state, so limits were exceeded, projects received forgivable loans.

Makes you wonder if some of the $8 million in missing loans were from some of those places whose jobs "were considered more valuable to the state," doesn't it?

Scott Wittkopf has been all over this story, and he continues his excellent series on WEDC by showing the pattern of Scott Walker appointees misusing HUD and CDBG funds. It goes all the way back to Walker's days in Milwaukee, and Walkergate crook Tim Russell plays a big role in it. (I'll add emphasis to key places where the WEDC fail pattern repeats)

On March 15 2012, just one month prior to HUD suspending WEDC from administering the block grant program, HUD sent a letter to the new Milwaukee County Director of Health and Human Services Hector Colon (Full March 15 2012 letter here). The letter informed DHHS Director Colon that after a HUD review of additional information supplied by the County, 23 of 29 block grant awards failed to meet federal requirements, and the County could face repayment of over $500,000 in grants. An additional 3 programs required further documentation.

The Milwaukee County program was being administered during that time period by Timothy Russell, at the time Walker’s housing director now facing trial in the John Doe investigation. Another key Milwaukee Walker Administration person in the block grant program was Lisa Jo Marks, director of DHHS under Walker. Marks is now the DOA Housing director in the current Walker Administration.

Lisa Jo Marks was Walker’s Child Support Enforcement Director from 2007 – 2009 before being named interim director of DHHS. Marks replaced Corey Hoze as DHHS director when Hoze left for a job as Associated Bank Vice President of Government Affairs. Hoze also now serves on the WEDC Board of Directors....Marks and Hoze undoubtedly work together in their capacities in DOA and WEDC (respectively) grant programs. Marks has also appeared as a presenter at the ultra-conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute during her Walker Administration tenure.

Badger Democracy has obtained a 2009 HUD spreadsheet from the CDBG program demonstrating continuing administration problems with accountability in the program. The spreadsheet lists 2008 programs for “LMJ and LMH” (low-mid income housing and jobs) which failed to document accomplishments as required under federal law. HUD analysts informed Badger Democracy that two of the three had eventually fulfilled the reporting requirements. One had not. Program number 3254 in the amount of $12,258.52 was made to Wisconsin Community Services in 2008. WCS has received no block grant money since 2008, and to this day has not fulfilled the reporting requirement....

Milwaukee County Community Business Development Partners (CBDP) is a county agency that administers the Disadvantaged Business program, and is a public/private partnership. The CBDP received over $27,000 in federal block grant money in 2011 for “micro-enterprise development.” HUD has determined that this violates the program guidelines, as all clients are in the city of Milwaukee, not the County (non-city). On July 19, 2012, then director of CBDP, Frieda Webb, was arrested by the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Department. Webb stands accused of defrauding the County through falsifying contracts for services not fulfilled and double-billing the county for some classes and services rendered. The FBI has been involved in the investigation. Webb was hired by Scott Walker to serve as the agency’s director.

The article goes on to mention people that Walker appointed to WHEDA also have received CDBG funds and nice contracts on work related to government handouts under Walker. The pattern of cronyism and corruption under Walker and at WEDC is obvious.

Which makes a sign I saw on I-94 all the more absurd. It instructed people to vote Romney/Ryan to "end crony capitalism." It's laughable on many levels, especially given that Romney made millions off of the auto industry bailouts got $1.3 billion in government help for the Salt Lake City Olympics, and worked to get the FDIC to bail out Bain Capital in the early '90s.

But even more silly is that the person (or more likely, the person who rented the land to a Koch outfit who put up the sign) should look closer to home if he or she wants to end corrupt crony capitalism that funnels taxpayer dollars to corporations. Because there is no better example of this abuse than what we've seen in Wisconsin at WEDC in the 16 months since Scott Walker and WisGOP voted to create it.

(LATE EDIT) Should be a fun WEDC Board meeting tomorrow, especially now that Walker is promising to bring up some "dramatic moves" to take care of this misuse of taxpayer funds. Hey moron, most of us would have recognized the potential for problems BEFORE they happened, and not be left reacting to them after the inevitable screw-ups. But when you're an incompetent, corrupt leader like Scott Walker, that's the way things do happen.