Block, Marc kch

---POW<a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/that-grifty-thing-stephen-moore-did-with-herman-cain-and-the-koch-brothers-blessing/">http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/that-grifty-thing-stephen-moore-did-with-herman-cain-and-the-koch-brothers-blessing/</a><div class="layout-constrain--narrow" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 47.2222em; padding-left: 1em; padding-right: 1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h1 class="page-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; font-weight: normal; hyphens: none; line-height: 1; position: relative; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; margin: 1em 0px 0.25em; padding-top: 0.5em;">That Grifty Thing Stephen Moore Did With Herman Cain—and the Koch Brothers’ Blessing</h1><div class="byline" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin-top: 1em;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear;"><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post_author/astan/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;" />By <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post_author/astan/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Adele M. Stan</a> | <span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">April 30, 2019 7:58 pm</div><div class="byline" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin-top: 1em;"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">
</div></div><div class="mce-content-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear;"><div class="layout-constrain--narrow" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 47.2222em; padding-left: 1em; padding-right: 1em; line-height: 1.5;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">In 2010, longtime GOP political operative Mark Block, together with strategist Linda Hansen, approached Herman Cain, then a retired pizza-chain magnate, with an idea for a for-profit enterprise designed to scare employees of privately-held companies into voting for their employers’ favored candidates: Herd them into the break room, give them a seminar about the evils of government, social services and labor unions, and then register them to vote.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">According to Hansen, “when Herman [Cain] first heard the concept here, he said, ‘You’ve come up with the answer to ACORN!’” She was referring, of course, to the now-defunct organizing group that was felled by dirty trickster James O’Keefe, whose Project Veritas receives <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/project-veritas-received-17-million-last-year-from-koch-backed-charity/2017/12/01/143e13ca-d6d3-11e7-9461-ba77d604373d_story.html?utm_term=.5bf6d57e2c9b" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">much of its funding</a>through the network of donors built by the billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch. For gravitas of a certain fashion, Stephen Moore, then on the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal, was pulled in.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">Today, Moore awaits his nomination to the Federal Reserve by President Donald Trump, who really wanted to get the band back together when he mentioned both Moore and Cain as his picks to the central bank. But if Moore passes muster—which is looking less likely by the hour—he’ll have to go on without his sideman, seeing as new sexual harassment allegations against Cain led to a rare rebuke of the president by Republican senators, four of whom said they would not confirm Cain if he were nominated. It remains to be seen whether Moore will survive to confirmation after a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/23/us/politics/stephen-moore-women.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">litany of misogynist comments</a> surfaced in his past writings for National Review.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">[chart from Stephen Moore’s chapter in Prosperity 101™, the textbook for workplace seminars he presented with Herman Cain.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">In 2011, I broke <a href="https://www.typeinvestigations.org/investigation/2011/06/02/workers-learned-fear-unions-wisconsin/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">the story of </a><a href="https://www.typeinvestigations.org/investigation/2011/06/02/workers-learned-fear-unions-wisconsin/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Prosperity 101</a>, as Hansen called her enterprise, for AlterNet and The Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute. Here’s a synopsis of my findings.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">At the time, Block was racking up points with the Kochs as he built the Wisconsin chapter of their flagship group, Americans for Prosperity, into a political powerhouse that would go on to create the momentum that brought former Gov. Scott Walker and current U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson to power. Hansen, meanwhile, was executive director of an umbrella group of right-wing non-profits conceived by Block, the Wisconsin Prosperity Network. (Block and Hansen went on to manage Cain’s presidential campaign, with Block starring in the Cain campaign’s famous <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwawPMSJins" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">“smoking man” ad</a>.)<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">After recruiting Cain as a pitchman, Block and Hansen sought a more establishment sort of frontman to join him on the hustings, someone who would be perceived to have real economic expertise. They found one in Stephen Moore, an editorial writer at the nation’s premiere financial newspaper.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">Moore was already a regular on the Koch-group speaking circuit, appearing regularly at Americans for Prosperity Foundation events—for which he was paid handsomely. At the time I reported the story, Moore confirmed that he had been paid somewhere between $180,000 – $200,000 for (as tallied at the time of my 2011 report) his 24 appearances at Americans for Prosperity events.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">Long before Donald Trump paraphrased it, Moore was uttering a refrain that was music to his benefactors’ ears: Global warming, he said, “was the greatest hoax of the last 100 years.”<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">Although both Hansen and Moore contended at the time of my report that Moore was not compensated for his appearances at their Prosperity 101 workplace seminars, it bears noting that Hansen was permitted to trade on the Americans for Prosperity name with her for-profit business, and was given a breakout session at an Americans for Prosperity Foundation conference to sell it. And Moore likely wanted to please his paymasters–both the Kochs and Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corporation owns the Wall Street Journal. (News Corp. outlets frequently march in lockstep with the political enterprises of the Kochs.)<p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">It worked like this: For a fee, Moore or Cain would come to a workplace you owned to put on a “voluntary” employee seminar on what was ostensibly good for workers economically—which coincidentally happened to be what was far better for very rich people who didn’t want to pay taxes, observe environmental protections or engage in collective bargaining. I found that all of the businesses involved were privately-owned companies whose principals belonged to the Koch donor network.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">The most notorious among them was Menards, a chain of home-improvement stores based in the Midwest, whose owner, John Menard, is known for abusing his workers and putting toxic waste, including chromium and arsenic, from his businesses out for pickup with his own household trash. That little trick earned him a $1.7 million fine. (More about the horrors of Menards <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20170306033213/http:/www.alternet.org/story/151184/notorious_wisconsin_retailer_backs_afp-linked_anti-union_program/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">here</a>.)<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">But even if you lay aside the grifting, the misogyny and his contempt for government—and please don’t!—Moore’s <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/stephen-moore-trumps-wildly-unqualified-federal-reserve-board-pick-faces-a-steep-learning-curve" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">lack</a> <a href="https://chicago.suntimes.com/opinion/stephen-moore-federal-reserve-armpit-america-trump/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">of</a> <a href="http://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/04/trump-fed-nominee-stephen-moore-not-expert-monetary-policy.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">expertise</a> in, well <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/stephen-moore-fed-reserve-trump-nominee-829182/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">anything</a>, but especially economics, along with his propensity to just make stuff up (a Trump man through and through), should be disqualification enough.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">Here’s an excerpt from my <a href="https://www.typeinvestigations.org/investigation/2011/06/02/workers-learned-fear-unions-wisconsin/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">2011 report</a>, highlighting Moore’s contribution to the “Prosperity 101™” textbook:<blockquote style="background: rgb(239, 243, 243); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; hyphens: none; padding: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0.75em 2em;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px; line-height: 1.5;">In “The Keys to Prosperity,” Moore’s chapter in the <em style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">Prosperity 101™ textbook, he offers up a series of charts, some of them indecipherable, including a pie chart called “Where Your Federal Tax Dollar Goes.” (It’s apparently derived from an earlier presentation Moore made at an AFP Foundation event, the same charts can be found <a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/18892219/Steve-Moores-Keys-to-Prosperity-" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">here</a>; scroll to slide no. 16 for this one.) Citing such official sources as the Internal Revenue Service, the Government Accountability Office, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, it features eight slices labeled “Flushed Down a Toilet, ”Pissed Away,“ ”Down a Rat Hole,“ ”Sleaze,“ ”Corruption,“ ”Given to ‘Supporters,’“ ”Tossed Down the Drain,“ and ”Postage Stamps.“ (The latter, Moore baselessly contends, accounts for 6 percent of your tax dollars — which is, incidentally, six times the <a href="http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=1258" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">allotment for non-military foreign aid</a>.)</blockquote><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">So, there’s your Stephen Moore, economist, right there. We know what happened to Herman Cain. Linda Hansen, meanwhile, is still selling her “Prosperity 101<strong style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">™” books on Amazon. And Mark Block? According to Carole Cadwalladr, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/mar/17/data-war-whistleblower-christopher-wylie-faceook-nix-bannon-trump" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">writing for The Guardian</a>, he’s the guy who introduced Steve Bannon to SCL Group, which became Cambridge Analytica, thanks to a major investment by Bannon patron Robert Mercer, who installed Bannon as executive vice president. After a beta test pushing the United Kingdom’s Brexit referendum, Cambridge Analytica, armed with a cache of ill-gotten Facebook data, surreptitiously entered the 2016 presidential campaign. And the rest is history.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">The band may not be quite back together, but its former members are all singing the same song.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;"> <div class="at-below-post addthis_tool" data-url="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/that-grifty-thing-stephen-moore-did-with-herman-cain-and-the-koch-brothers-blessing/" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; line-height: 1.5;" /></div></div><div class="layout-constrain--narrow" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 47.2222em; padding-left: 1em; padding-right: 1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="tags" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; border-top: 5px solid rgb(239, 243, 243); margin-bottom: 2em; padding-top: 1em;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">Tags: <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/charles-koch/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Charles koch</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/david-koch/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">David Koch</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/herman-cain/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Herman Cain</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/koch-brothers/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Koch brothers</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/linda-hansen/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Linda Hansen</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/mark-block/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Mark Block</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/rupert-murdoch/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Rupert Murdoch</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/stephen-moore/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Stephen Moore</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/organizations/americans-for-prosperity/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Americans for Prosperity</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/organizations/americans-for-prosperity-foundation/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Americans for Prosperity Foundation</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/organizations/prosperity-101/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Prosperity 101</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/organizations/wall-street-journal/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Wall Street Journal</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/organizations/wisconsin-prosperity-network/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Wisconsin Prosperity Network</a><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"></div></div><div>=</div><div><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/in-11th-hour-power-grab-republicans-in-wisconsin-and-michigan-use-koch-playbook-to-subvert-the-will-of-voters">http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/in-11th-hour-power-grab-republicans-in-wisconsin-and-michigan-use-koch-playbook-to-subvert-the-will-of-voters</a></div><div>
</div><div>In Wisconsin and Michigan, Republicans in their respective state legislatures </div><div>are aiming to clip the wings of newly elected Democratic governors by curtailing executive-branch power with legislation </div><div>advanced in lame-duck sessions controlled by GOP majorities.</div><div>
</div><div class="mce-content-body" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear;"><div class="layout-constrain--narrow" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 47.2222em; padding-left: 1em; padding-right: 1em; line-height: 1.5;"><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">It’s no coincidence that the list of proposed or enacted changes to executive power furthers the agenda long advanced by entities tied to billionaire brothers Charles and David Koch, who set out more than a decade ago to build state-level power through politicians willing to march to their beat.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">Just before dawn this morning, Wisconsin legislators <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/in-11th-hour-power-grab-republicans-in-wisconsin-and-michigan-use-koch-playbook-to-subvert-the-will-of-voters/%22https://madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/republican-lawmakers-approve-amended-lame-duck-bills-after-capitol-all/article_6051c782-b63b-5318-876c-55fec6d61ce3.html%E2%80%9D" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">concluded an all-nighter</a> by passing bills that will shorten the period allowed for early voting (which proved advantageous to Democrats in last month’s elections) and allow lawmakers to intervene in defense of court challenges to legal statutes by hiring their own special counsel rather than leaving such measures to the attorney general, the position won by Democrat Josh Kaul.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">The Wisconsin State Journal <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/in-11th-hour-power-grab-republicans-in-wisconsin-and-michigan-use-koch-playbook-to-subvert-the-will-of-voters/%22https://madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/republican-lawmakers-approve-amended-lame-duck-bills-after-capitol-all/article_6051c782-b63b-5318-876c-55fec6d61ce3.html%E2%80%9D" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">wrote of the early-voting measure</a>:<blockquote style="background: rgb(239, 243, 243); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; hyphens: none; padding: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0.75em 2em;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px; line-height: 1.5;">That would curtail the current date window for early voting in large cities such as Madison or Milwaukee — shortly after record early voting totals, especially in those large cities, helped Democrats win every statewide race in the November election.</blockquote><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">The Wisconsin legislature also barred the incoming attorney general from withdrawing a lawsuit currently in progress against the federal government, through which the state seeks to nullify the Affordable Care Act, and enacted work requirements for people who receive Medicaid.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">In addition, the legislature enacted a scheme to protect the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, which Governor-elect Tony Evers said he wanted to dissolve. The WEDC has drawn <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/12/4/18123784/gop-legislature-wisconsin-michigan-power-grab-lame-duck" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">scrutiny for the deal</a> it cut with the Taiwanese manufacturer Foxconn—$3 billion in incentives to offset the building of a $10 billion plant.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">And if Evers should wish to ban firearms from the state capitol building, he’s now barred from doing that, too.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who <a href="https://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2018/dec/03/wisconsin-republican-legislative-leaders/wisconsin-republicans-gave-gop-governor-more-power/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">decried a lame-duck session</a> convened by Democratic legislators in 2010—just before his inauguration and the seating of a newly elected Republican majority—appears poised to sign off on whatever the Koch-allied legislature rams through in its closing days.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">In Michigan, the three top spots in the executive branch—governor, secretary of state and attorney general—were <a href="https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2018/11/29/bill-would-allow-legislators-intercede-any-court-case-involving-state/2150818002/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">won by Democratic women</a>. There, <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/12/4/18123784/gop-legislature-wisconsin-michigan-power-grab-lame-duck" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">according to Vox</a>, the Republican-led legislature is seeking to reserve for itself the right to “intervene in any legal battles involving state laws that the attorney general may be reluctant to defend.” One bill advanced in the legislature’s upper chamber would move enforcement of the state’s campaign finance law from the secretary of state’s office to a to-be-created commission, and will see a vote next week.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">Last night, meanwhile, <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/419859-michigan-legislature-guts-minimum-wage-paid-sick-leave-measures" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Michigan lawmakers reneged</a> on a deal they made with the voters when they enacted, earlier this year, increases in the minimum wage and a paid-family leave law. That earlier legislation, which would have raised the minimum wage to $12 an hour by 2022 and allowed employees of large companies to earn paid family leave by a formula that capped at 72 hours of paid leave per year, was enacted in response to proposed ballot measures for those requirements. Once the legislature enacted those measures, organizers withdrew the ballot measures. Now they’ve been gutted in the lame duck.<h5 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; font-weight: normal; hyphens: none; line-height: 1.1; position: relative; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">The significance of Michigan and Wisconsin</h5><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">The loss of those two key Midwestern governorships to Democrats was a surprising and stinging rebuke to the Kochs, whose flagship Americans for Prosperity organization spent millions in a failed effort to re-elect Wisconsin’s Walker, who lost the governor’s mansion to Tony Evers by <a href="https://www.cnn.com/election/2018/results/wisconsin/governor" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">less than a percentage point</a>, and spent millions more in negative ads against Democrat Gretchen Whitmer, who bested Republican Bill Schuette in Michigan’s gubernatorial contest. According to the Grand Rapids-based <a href="https://www.mlive.com/news/index.ssf/2018/10/heres_how_much_money_the_gover.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">MLive website</a>, as of October 26, Americans for Prosperity had spent $3.9 million in ads against Whitmer, and that “groups associated with the Republican Governors Association,” to which both David Koch and Koch Industries have donated millions in recent years, spent $4.3 million in ads that boosted Schuette and disparaged Whitmer. By October 31, the Wisconsin State Journal reported, Americans for Prosperity had also spent $5.8 million on ads against Evers and Kaul, the Wisconsin Democrats, and ads in favor of GOP candidates for legislative positions in that state.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">If any one politician is a product of the Koch machine, it’s Scott Walker, who was brought into the Americans for Prosperity fold when he was <a href="https://www.alternet.org/story/149965/wisconsin_is_a_battleground_against_the_billionaire_kochs%27_plan_to_break_labor%27s_back" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">a mere county executive</a> in Milwaukee. Once in the Wisconsin governor’s mansion, which he won in 2010, Walker set about effecting the Kochs’ <a href="https://www.theinvestigativefund.org/investigation/2011/06/02/workers-learned-fear-unions-wisconsin/" target="blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-auth="NotApplicable" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">number one goal</a>: the kneecapping of public-sector unions in order to starve them of resources they had successfully deployed in the past to turn out the vote for progressive candidates.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">Initially, Wisconsin was something of a pilot project for the Kochs; it was the place where they tested the model for gaining state power via Americans For Prosperity, which was <a href="https://www.theinvestigativefund.org/investigation/2011/06/02/workers-learned-fear-unions-wisconsin/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">conceived as a counterweight</a> to door-knocking power of the unions, as well as a policy-promoting organization that would ply the Kochs’ anti-regulatory, climate-science-rejecting, tax-cutting ethos to politicians eager for a little help on the ground in winning campaigns.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">Wisconsin, they knew, held a place of awe in the history of the U.S. labor movement; it is the state where the public-sector unions were born. Break the unions there, and you could send the fear of God into the heart of every labor activist and union member. So they set about doing just that.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">And Michigan, one of the last remaining strongholds of private-sector manufacturing unions, would be next on the list.<h5 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; font-weight: normal; hyphens: none; line-height: 1.1; position: relative; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">The Wisconsin pilot project</h5><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">In 2005, Americans for Prosperity established its beachhead, employing a known dirty-trickster, Mark Block, to head the Wisconsin AFP chapter. Block had been banned from participating in Wisconsin politics for three years, due to his flouting of campaign laws when he ran a successful 2001 state Supreme Court campaign for a local judge. The minute his sentence was fulfilled, AFP hired Block to set up its Dairy State shop. (More on Block’s shady acts <a href="https://www.alternet.org/story/151231/gop_hopeful_herman_cain%3A_david_koch%27s_stalking_horse" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">here</a>.)<p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">At a 2010 Tea Party rally in Sheboygan, <a href="http://prospect.org/article/scott-walkers-shady-deals-win-him-campaign-cash-billionaires" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Block said his goal</a> was to grow the state’s AFP membership to equal that of the Wisconsin Education Association, the state’s largest teachers union.The agenda? Unfettered energy expansion, rollbacks of environmental regulations, “entitlement reform,” opposition to any government-subsidized health care, redistribution of public education dollars to private entities, lower taxes (of course)—and the diminishment of labor unions.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">Block shepherded AFP’s efforts on behalf of Scott Walker’s first gubernatorial bid that year, and was implicated in a <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Mark_Block#Caging_Scheme_with_Americans_for_Prosperity" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">vote-caging scheme</a> in Milwaukee. Block’s AFP organizing also helped Ron Johnson defeat incumbent U.S. Senator Russell Feingold, and elect two new freshmen congressmen: Reid Ribble and Sean Duffy. Future House Speaker Paul Ryan, his congressional career long celebrated by AFP, also benefited.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">Within weeks of taking office, Walker <a href="https://www.alternet.org/story/149965/wisconsin_is_a_battleground_against_the_billionaire_kochs'plan_to_break_labor's_back" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">took aim at Wisconsin’s public-sector labor unions</a> with a bill that gutted collective bargaining rights, sparking 18 days of protest at the state capitol building in Madison as legislators rammed it through and thousands of protesters chanted and disrupted. Americans for Prosperity bused in modest numbers of counter-protesters. Walker prevailed.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">In 2011, Block went on to run the Herman Cain presidential campaign and got caught doing some <a href="https://www.alternet.org/story/151182/wall_street_journal_honcho_shills_for_secret_worker%27education%27_program_linked_to_koch_group" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">grifty</a> <a href="http://archive.jsonline.com/watchdog/noquarter/state-firms-cash-to-herman-cain-may-breach-federal-campaign-tax-laws-132898423.html/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">things</a>. But Walker and the legislators who allied with him continued to enjoy AFP’s support.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">One of those legislators is Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, whose former policy director, Eric Bott, currently runs the Americans for Prosperity Wisconsin chapter. It was Fitzgerald who pushed today’s lame-duck bills through, complaining to the <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/in-11th-hour-power-grab-republicans-in-wisconsin-and-michigan-use-koch-playbook-to-subvert-the-will-of-voters/%22https://madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/republican-lawmakers-approve-amended-lame-duck-bills-after-capitol-all/article_6051c782-b63b-5318-876c-55fec6d61ce3.html%E2%80%9D" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Wisconsin State Journal</a> that “he did not understand the outrage from the public and Democrats, and emphasized repeatedly that the measures were ‘inside baseball.’”<h5 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; font-weight: normal; hyphens: none; line-height: 1.1; position: relative; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">The Michigan model</h5><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">The Koch brothers and Michigan’s Republican Gov. Rick Snyder haven’t always seen eye to eye, but, once elected, Snyder apparently felt he owed the Kochs a debt. After all, they played a significant role in Snyder’s election to the governor’s mansion in 2010. According to MSNBC’s Ned Resnikoff, David Koch donated nearly $1 million the Republican Governors Association Michigan PAC that year, which spent heavily for Snyder’s election.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">So, under pressure from Americans For Prosperity, Snyder flipped on his previous opposition to the anti-union measures known by the Orwellian label “right to work” laws, and signed a law passed in the Republican legislature that was designed to thin the ranks of unions.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">The law echoed, <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/post/in-11th-hour-power-grab-republicans-in-wisconsin-and-michigan-use-koch-playbook-to-subvert-the-will-of-voters/%22https://billmoyers.com/2012/12/11/how-michigans-right-to-work-law-came-to-be/%E2%80%9D" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">almost word for word</a>, model legislation promoted by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a policy organization that receives substantial funding from the Koch brothers and their company.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">Also pushing for the right-to-work law were entities funded by Michigan’s influential DeVos family, the right-wing, evangelical Amway dynasty whose members also take part in the Koch donor network.<h5 style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; font-weight: normal; hyphens: none; line-height: 1.1; position: relative; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><b style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">Not going quietly</h5><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">Given their patrons’ investment of tens of millions of dollars in their political careers, Republican lawmakers in these two states—the Koch brothers’ shiniest trophies for nearly a decade—were not about to quietly cede control of the states’ top offices to the will of the voters.<p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">It’s a tactic that legislatures seated by wealthy, Koch-connected plutocrats rolled out two years ago <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/12/5/18125544/north-carolina-power-grab-wisconsin-michigan-lame-duck" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">in North Carolina</a>, when Democrat Roy Cooper unseated the incumbent Republican governor, Pat McCrory. <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/12/5/18125544/north-carolina-power-grab-wisconsin-michigan-lame-duck" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">According to</a> Vox’s Tara Golshan:<blockquote style="background: rgb(239, 243, 243); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; hyphens: none; padding: 1.5em; margin: 0px 0.75em 2em;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px; line-height: 1.5;">Cooper has been fighting these changes in the courts ever since, to varying degrees of success. The supermajority of Republicans has rendered him “very ineffective,” said Bob Phillips, the executive director of Common Cause North Carolina, a voting rights and campaign finance group in the state.</blockquote><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">In North Carolina, the reigning plutocrat is Art Pope, heir to a dime-store fortune, who at one time served as chairman of the board of Americans for Prosperity. He and his family foundations are part of the Koch donor network.<p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; line-height: 1.5;">The strategy is based on raw power. The will of the voters means little if it gets in the way of wielding that power. And if one’s last exercise of that power depends on breaking the infrastructure of government so as to deprive one’s opponent of access to it, then so be it. It’s almost epic: a little salting of the fields, so to speak.</div></div><div class="layout-constrain--narrow" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; max-width: 47.2222em; padding-left: 1em; padding-right: 1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="tags" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; border-top: 5px solid rgb(239, 243, 243); margin-bottom: 2em; padding-top: 1em;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear;">Tags: <a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/charles-koch/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Charles koch</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/david-koch/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">David Koch</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/eric-bott/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Eric Bott</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/gretchen-whitmer/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Gretchen Whitmer</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/josh-kaul/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Josh Kaul</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/mark-block/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Mark Block</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/richard-devos/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Richard DeVos</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/rick-snyder/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Rick Snyder</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/scott-fitzerald/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Scott Fitzerald</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/scott-walker/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Scott Walker</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/people/tony-evers/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Tony Evers</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/organizations/alec/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">ALEC</a><a href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/organizations/americans-for-prosperity/" style="box-sizing: border-box; transition-duration: 0.2s; transition-property: background-color, border-color, box-shadow, color, opacity, text-shadow, transform, -webkit-transform; transition-timing-function: linear; background-color: transparent; outline-offset: 0.111111em; text-decoration-line: none;">Americans for Prosperity</a></div></div><div>
</div><div></div><div>ref 2011 cain</div><div>
</div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/story/151231/gop_hopeful_herman_cain%3A_david_koch%27s_stalking_horse">https://www.alternet.org/story/151231/gop_hopeful_herman_cain%3A_david_koch%27s_stalking_horse</a></div><div>
</div><div>For Mark Block, chief of staff for GOP presidential candidate Herman Cain, it's been a good couple of weeks. In fact, it's been a good couple of years -- years Block spent at the helm of the Wisconsin chapter of Americans for Prosperity, where he helped win election for the likes of Gov. Scott Walker and Sen. Ron Johnson.</div>When, after those and other successful efforts, Block left AFP in December to run the quixotic presidential campaign of a former fast-food magnate, political wags were scratching their heads. But to those at the top of the Americans for Prosperity heap, Block's charge to run Cain's campaign may just be his most important job yet. For if Cain does well enough in the GOP primaries to win more than a handful of delegates to the Republican National Convention next year, he could hold significant sway over the party platform, forcing the nominated candidate to run on the Koch agenda.Despite the guffaws that greeted Cain's entry into the presidential arena, Block's candidate is ascendant in the polls, even gleaning a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/05/us/politics/05cain.html?pagewanted=1&r=2&hpw" style="text-decoration-line: none;">flattering profile</a>this week in the New York Times, a newspaper that people on Block's side of the fence sometimes refer to as Pravda (the defunct state-run paper of the Soviet Union). With his pugilistic sound bites, business background, neo-libertarian pronouncements, and anomalous status as African American amid the ranks of the Tea Partiers, Cain has captured media attention. Most recently, Cain made waves when Think Progress <a href="https://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/06/06/238067/cain-says-he-would-be-ok-with-appointing-gay-cabinet-members-because-they-wouldnt-impose-sharia-law/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">quoted him</a> telling an audience in Iowa, where the religious right holds sway in the Republican presidential caucuses, that he wouldn't hesitate to appoint an openly gay person to his cabinet "because they're not going to try to put sharia law in our laws."<interaction data-token="5b96855f8198b4e625350260" data-context="true" data-tags="" data-fallback="true" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></interaction>What goes unremarked in such profiles is Cain's connection to the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, the organization founded (with its sibling organization, Americans for Prosperity) by David Koch, and chaired by Koch himself. Until he signed on as Cain's campaign manager last December, Block was state director for the Wisconsin chapter of Americans for Prosperity.Not only is Cain a frequent speaker at AFP Foundation events, he was also, by his own account, tapped by Block to be one of the faces of Prosperity 101, a workplace seminar program, designed for employers to present to their employees at "voluntary" workplace gatherings where they are told that the legislative initiatives typically embraced by Democrats -- health-care reform, energy reform, higher taxes for the wealthiest Americans -- could so hurt their employers as to force layoffs. The program was set in motion during the lead-up to the 2010 elections. (AlterNet, working in collaboration with the Investigative Fund at the Nation Institute, published an <a href="https://www.alternet.org/teaparty/151182/wall_street_journal_honcho_shills_for_secret_worker%27education%27_program_linked_to_koch_group/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">exposé</a> on Prosperity 101 last week.)Not long after Block sold Cain on Prosperity 101, Block was on a roll. At a February 2010 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNQvRIUaFOs&feature=related" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Tea Party rally in Sheboygan</a> (video), Block told the audience that he wouldn't be satisfied until membership in the Wisconsin AFP chapter equaled the membership of the state teachers union, the Wisconsin Education Association Council. Indeed, the membership numbers for his AFP chapter were moving upward, and the 2010 midterm elections were looking competitive for a number of candidates who had earned the favor of Americans for Prosperity: gubernatorial contender Scott Walker, U.S. Senate candidate Ron Johnson, and House of Representatives hopefuls Sean Duffy and Reid Ribble. All of these candidates went on to win their races, with Johnson, despite a notable absence of charisma, defeating long-time Sen. Russell Feingold, and Scott Walker going into the annals of Wisconsin history for having ignited 18 days of protest at the state capitol in Madison when he pushed a virulently anti-union bill through the state legislature in the guise of "budget repair."Dirty PoolBlock is, without a doubt, a hard worker, but he's known not to rely solely on the rewards of an honest day's labor. As Walker's gubernatorial campaign unfolded, Block was revealed to be one of the powers behind a <a href="https://www.onewisconsinnow.org/press/one-wisconsin-now-exposes-voter-suppression-plans-between-republican-party-of-wisconsin-americans-fo.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">scheme to suppress the vote</a> in two Milwaukee congressional districts with the help of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, then chaired by Reince Priebus (who went on to become chairman of the Republican National Committee).In late 2010, the liberal advocacy group, <a href="https://www.onewisconsinnow.org/press/one-wisconsin-now-exposes-voter-suppression-plans-between-republican-party-of-wisconsin-americans-fo.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">One Wisconsin Now</a>, caught a Tea Party organizer on tape discussing Block's role in a <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/155688/inside-wisconsin-rights-voter-suppression-scheme" style="text-decoration-line: none;">vote-caging scheme</a>apparently designed to suppress voter turnout in two Milwaukee districts that are heavily populated by college students and African Americans.Vote-caging is a technique whereby registered voters are sent letters marked "do not forward" so letters that are undeliverable at the residence to which they're addressed bounce back to the sender. The returned letters are then used by the sender to challenge the votes of those individuals at her or his polling place, meaning that person can only vote on a provisional ballot. The letters were sent by Block's Americans for Prosperity chapter, many to dormitory addresses in August -- a time when students would likely be between dorm assignments.At first, Block denied any involvement in the scheme, until Tim Dake of the Tea Party group, Grandsons of Liberty, <a href="https://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/103398539.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;">told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel</a> that he had personally spoken to Block about it. Block then conceded that AFP had done the mailing, but said they had abandoned the effort when too few letters were returned.The 2010 vote-caging scheme hardly marks Block's first game of dirty politics. In fact, his first day at Americans for Prosperity marked the expiration of a three<strike>four</strike>-year ban on political campaign involvement imposed on him by a Wisconsin court for his illegal activity in a 2001 election.Then, Block's triumph as campaign manager for Judge Jon Wilcox's successful run for state Supreme Court was tempered by a $15,000 fine for illegally using an outside group, the Wisconsin Citizens for Voter Participation, to conduct campaign activities.The Wisconsin Prosperity NetworkIn right-wing circles, one will hear talk, from time to time, of the "Colorado model" -- the means by which liberals and progressives began to turn Colorado from a red state to a blue state in 2004. The model involves wealthy donors who fund "independent expenditure" television ads against the positions of an opposing candidate, and the building of an infrastructure of progressive organizations that facilitates coalition organizing. In 2008, Wisconsin progressives embarked on a similar course, delivering their swing state for Barack Obama.Not to be outdone, the Wisconsin chapter of Americans for Prosperity hatched its own alliance in 2009 called the Wisconsin Prosperity Network, which came to life as a sort of coalition-in-a-box. With an estimated start-up pot of $6.4 million, the initial plan called for the instant creation of 14 new entities that would work together with the Wisconsin chapter of Americans for Prosperity.When a leaked PowerPoint presentation found its way into the hands of the Wisconsin State Journal, Block conceded to reporter Mark Pitsch that he was the network's "main organizer." Among the new entities created for the network is the MacIver Institute, a right-wing think tank, on whose board sits Scott Jensen, a former state assembly speaker now facing trial for using taxpayer funds for personal expenses.A major proponent of Scott Walker's union-busting bill, the Wisconsin Prosperity Network sponsored, with Americans for Prosperity, a "Stand With Walker" campaign during the days of protests earlier this year -- busing in Tea Partiers to rallies, and launching <a href="https://www.americansforprosperity.org/stand-with-walker-tv-ad" style="text-decoration-line: none;">TV advertisements</a>, Web sites and <a href="https://www.americansforprosperity.org/walker/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">petitions</a>.During the protests, MacIver was exposed for misrepresenting one of its allies as a progressive activist, releasing a video in which a purported protester said a labor-allied doctor was writing fraudulent sick-day excuses for protesting workers. That "protester," <a href="https://www.alternet.org/story/151231/%E2%80%9D//crooksandliars.com/node/44176/print%E2%80%9D" style="text-decoration-line: none;">according to karoli</a>, a blogger at the liberal Web site Crooks and Liars, turned out to be video producer Christian Hartsock, who made his name working with James O'Keefe on the discredited video that was used to fatally smear the community organizing group, ACORN.The Answer to ACORNAt last year's RightOnline conference, an event sponsored by the Americans for Prosperity Foundation, Wisconsin Prosperity Network executive director Linda Hansen unveiled before a roomful of activists at a Las Vegas hotel her latest project, Prosperity 101, the employer-sponsored workplace seminar program that advances the Koch agenda to nervous workers. On hand for the presentation was Herman Cain, along with Wall Street Journal Web columnist John Fund, whose colleague, editorial board member Stephen Moore, is, with Cain, a spokesperson for the program."A key component of Prosperity 101 is working with employers to help them encourage voter registration among their employees," Hansen explained to the crowd. "So when Herman [Cain] first heard the concept here, he said, 'You've come up with the answer to ACORN!'"Cain, during his presentation, piped up, "when [Hansen] first came to me with Mark Block to explain the concept, I said, ‘This is fantastic!'"When I tried to learn more about the Prosperity 101 program -- which is used by two of the top 50 privately held corporations in the U.S.: Menard Inc. and Reinhart FoodService, a division of Reyes Holdings -- my emails to Hansen went unanswered. When I told a member of the Americans for Prosperity staff that I couldn't get through to Hansen, she suggested I talk to Mark Block, who did not return my call or respond to my email.As chance would have it, I ran into Block last February in the lobby of the Marriott Wardman Park in Washington, D.C., site of the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, at which Cain delivered a well-received speech. When I asked him for a few words about Prosperity 101, Block told me I'd have to talk with the people who were organizing it. When I said I had been directed to him by Americans for Prosperity, he looked down at his BlackBerry and walked away.A Stalking Horse?Go to the issues page of the Herman Cain for President Web site, and you'll find an agenda not unlike that of Americans for Prosperity -- in fact, almost exactly like that of Americans for Prosperity (save for military might, and "faith and family," items on which AFP does not appear to take a position). At the centerpiece of Cain's platform, according to the New York Times, is a 23-percent flat consumption tax, which Cain would implement in place of the federal income tax. Here's a <a href="https://www.americansforprosperity.org/052711-62-tax-rate-problem" style="text-decoration-line: none;">page from the Illinois AFP chapter</a> site that opines for just such a flat-tax scheme as advanced by the Wall Street Journal's Stephen Moore, Cain's partner in the AFP-linked Prosperity 101 employee-indoctrination program.Later this week, Cain is scheduled to speak at an <a href="https://americansforprosperity.org/060111-rggi-run-rally-wednesday-june-8-nyc" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none;">AFP event in New York</a>, where he is expected to inveigh against the carbon-trading scheme known as cap-and-trade that is part of the Obama energy plan and one of AFP's pet peeves. (Koch Industries' core business is in the gas and oil sector.)When Cain's presidential candidacy was launched, it's likely that his AFP-linked backers never expected he would win the GOP presidential nomination, but that he would make an effective messenger for pushing the party further to the Koch positions. As it looks now, Cain could do even better than that, given the weak GOP presidential field. With each contest in primary season, contenders win delegates to the national convention, where the party platform is laid. Cain will likely do well in New Hampshire -- he could even win the state, as Patrick J. Buchanan did with his populist rhetoric in 1996. And with that win, and strong showings in a few other states, the Buchananites won control of the GOP platform, causing the nominee, Bob Dole, to run on a platform he could hardly stomach.That may have lost the GOP the election, but it distilled the party into an even more right-wing body by the time it was George W. Bush's turn to bear the party standard. When the history of the 2016 presidential campaign is written, the role of Herman Cain and his consigliare, Mark Block, may prove to have been, to borrow a word from Cain -- "impactful."CORRECTION: The original version of this story mistakenly attributed the acquisition of the leaked PowerPoint outlining the Wisconsin Prosperity Network plan to One Wisconsin Now. The PowerPoint was actually originally obtained by the Wisconsin State Journal.<div></div><div>ref 2 2015 2x?</div><div>
</div><div><a href="http://prospect.org/article/scott-walkers-shady-deals-win-him-campaign-cash-billionaires">http://prospect.org/article/scott-walkers-shady-deals-win-him-campaign-cash-billionaires</a></div><div>
</div><div>If the Koch brothers have their way, the next president will be a guy they all but created—and one whose propensity for alliances and questionable deals with robber barons and at least one dirty political player mark a quality only an oligarch could love.</div><div>
</div><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><div style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">When Walker, after winning Wisconsin’s 2010 gubernatorial election, burst on the national scene in 2011 with his jihad against the state’s public-sector unions, he seemed to come out of nowhere. But he had been groomed for years by powerful anti-labor forces, rising from the state assembly under the tutelage of Michael Grebe, president of the Bradley Foundation, a major backer of right-wing, anti-labor politicians and policies. Grebe also served as Walker’s campaign chairman.In Sunday’s New York Times, reporters Patrick Healy and Monica Davey <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/08/us/politics/behind-scott-walker-a-longstanding-conservative-alliance-against-unions.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; transition: color 0s ease 0s, all 0.15s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 0.8;">detail the role of the Bradley Foundation</a>, part of the right-wing, dark-money funding network in which billionaires Charles and David Koch play key roles as organizers and donors, in Walker’s rise to national stature.“At the risk of being immodest, I probably lent some credibility to his campaign early on,” Grebe <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/08/us/politics/behind-scott-walker-a-longstanding-conservative-alliance-against-unions.html" style="font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; transition: color 0s ease 0s, all 0.15s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 0.8;">told the Times</a> reporters. It was Grebe, the Times reports, who first spotted Walker when the latter was a student at Marquette University (from which he never graduated).<div class="pullquote-large pullquote-right" style="font-weight: 700; margin: 22px 0px 20px 20px; padding: 0px 30px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 22px; vertical-align: baseline; float: right; width: 255.984px; text-align: center;">If you want to take the measure of the Wisconsin governor as he prepares a run for the Republican presidential nomination, Block’s contribution to Walker’s stardom is instructive.</div>Mentioned in passing in the Times piece is Mark Block, the <a href="http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/685582/6_things_to_know_about%22smoking_man%22_in_herman_cain%27s_weird_new_ad(dude_was_banned_from_electoral_politics)/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; transition: color 0s ease 0s, all 0.15s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 0.8;">dirty political operative</a> who built the Wisconsin chapter of the Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity (AFP), a group integral to Walker’s good fortune. <span class="pullquote-right" style="font-weight: inherit; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 40%; margin-left: 0px !important; float: none !important;">If you want to take the measure of the Wisconsin governor as he prepares a run for the Republican presidential nomination, Block’s contribution to Walker’s stardom is instructive.When Block was tasked with building a new AFP chapter in the Dairy State, he did so with the expressed goal of challenging the teachers unions. As I <a href="http://www.alternet.org/story/151231/gop_hopeful_herman_cain%3A_david_koch%27s_stalking_horse" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; transition: color 0s ease 0s, all 0.15s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 0.8;">reported for AlterNet</a> in 2011, Block told participants in a February 2010 Sheboygan <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kNQvRIUaFOs&feature=related" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; transition: color 0s ease 0s, all 0.15s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 0.8;">Tea Party rally</a> (video) that he wouldn't be satisfied until membership in the Wisconsin AFP chapter equaled the membership of the state teachers union, the Wisconsin Education Association Council.During the time that Block was building one of AFP’s most important chapters, he was also implicated in a <a href="http://www.alternet.org/teaparty/149617/priebus%27_republican_national_committee%3A_a_wholly_owned_subsidiary_of_koch%27s_americans_for_prosperity/" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; transition: color 0s ease 0s, all 0.15s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 0.8;">voter-caging scheme</a> in Milwaukee that targeted university students and residents of African-American neighborhoods for ballot challenges during the 2010 election, the one that landed Scott Walker, then the executive of Milwaukee County, the governor’s mansion. Also implicated in the scheme was Reince Priebus, then chairman of the state Republican Party, who was <a href="http://www.alternet.org/story/149617/priebus%27_republican_national_committee%3A_a_wholly_owned_subsidiary_of_koch%27s_americans_for_prosperity" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; transition: color 0s ease 0s, all 0.15s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 0.8;">rewarded with the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee</a>.<span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.538em; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">At first, <a href="http://www.alternet.org/story/151231/gop_hopeful_herman_cain%3A_david_koch%27s_stalking_horse" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; transition: color 0s ease 0s, all 0.15s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 0.8;">Block denied</a> using the auspices of Americans for Prosperity to mail out the 500 letters to targeted voters that would be used as the means to challenge their votes. But when Tim Dake, leader of the Tea Party group Grandsons of Liberty that was involved in the activist part of the scheme, <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/103398539.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; transition: color 0s ease 0s, all 0.15s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 0.8;">pointed the finger</a> at Koch’s man in Wisconsin, Block relented and admitted his and AFP’s involvement.<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/08/us/politics/behind-scott-walker-a-longstanding-conservative-alliance-against-unions.html" style="font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; transition: color 0s ease 0s, all 0.15s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 0.8;">According to the Times</a>, in 2010 AFP received $520,000 from the Bradley Foundation—under the direction, one assumes, of its president and Walker campaign chair, Michael Grebe, and AFP national returned the favor, spending some $3.7 million on ads supporting the governor when Walker opponents launched a ballot measure to recall his election after he led the rammed-through passage of Act 10, the law that ended collective bargaining rights for most public employees in the state, and prompted progressive activists to occupy the state Capitol building for weeks in Madison. In response, AFP launched a “Stand With Walker” bus tour campaign.Around the time of Walker’s gubernatorial campaign, Block was involved in another entity, this one contrived for his own personal gain, <a href="http://www.alternet.org/story/151182/wall_street_journal_honcho_shills_for_secret_worker%27education%27_program_linked_to_koch_group?paging=off" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; transition: color 0s ease 0s, all 0.15s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 0.8;">called Prosperity 101</a>, which was billed as an optional educational program for employees of the companies who brought his outfit in to “educate” them on economics and the dangers allegedly posed by labor unions. At the end of the sessions, participants are encouraged to register to vote, on the spot. An early client of the program was Menards, the third-largest home-improvement store chain in the nation, which is based in Eau Claire. Founder John Menard is a prominent right-wing donor.(Block later got into some trouble for <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/noquarter/activities-of-former-cain-operative-scrutinized-nc4pt5q-145029735.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; transition: color 0s ease 0s, all 0.15s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 0.8;">using the resources of Prosperity 101</a> inappropriately for the Herman Cain presidential campaign, which Block managed. That wasn’t the first time Block had run afoul of the law: he was banned from participating in Wisconsin politics for three years after some hinky campaign solicitations on behalf of a state judge whose campaign he ran.)Then there’s the <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/walker-wanted-funds-sent-to-wisconsin-club-for-growth-b99336519z1-272364371.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; transition: color 0s ease 0s, all 0.15s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 0.8;">murky campaign activities</a> of Walker’s own campaign during the recall election, the subject of a “John Doe” investigation by the Milwaukee County district attorney of allegations of illegal coordination between non-profit advocacy groups and the gubernatorial campaign. The <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/walker-wanted-funds-sent-to-wisconsin-club-for-growth-b99336519z1-272364371.html" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; transition: color 0s ease 0s, all 0.15s ease 0s; text-decoration-line: none; opacity: 0.8;">Journal Sentinel reported</a> that Walker appeared to have asked prominent donors to contribute to the Wisconsin Club for Growth, a dark-money and bundling group that supports his anti-labor efforts. The prosecutors’ work has been on-again, off-again, as they face legal challenges to an effort whose details are cloaked in secrecy. Prosecutors have said that Walker himself is not a target, but it appears that former members of his campaign staff are.David Koch, according to news reports, deemed Scott Walker his candidate of choice at a recent gathering of donors. And well he should, considering how well his Wisconsin toady has performed on his behalf.But should Koch see a Walker nomination, reporters will have a field day turning over all the rocks to inspect the writhing ecosystem underlying Walker’s success. The question is whether any exposure of the forces behind Wisconsin’s governor will make a whit of difference.</div></div>A previous version of this article mistakenly stated that the home improvement store chain Menards was based in Racine, and that Scott Walker had attended the University of Wisconsin. Menards is headquartered in Eau Claire, and Walker was a student at Marquette University when he was first spotted by Michael Grebe. The article has been corrected.=ref grifty 2011<a href="http://archive.jsonline.com/watchdog/noquarter/state-firms-cash-to-herman-cain-may-breach-federal-campaign-tax-laws-132898423.html/">http://archive.jsonline.com/watchdog/noquarter/state-firms-cash-to-herman-cain-may-breach-federal-campaign-tax-laws-132898423.html/</a>Herman Cain's two top campaign aides ran a private Wisconsin-based corporation that helped the GOP presidential candidate get his fledgling campaign off the ground by originally footing the bill for tens of thousands of dollars in expenses for such items as iPads, chartered flights and travel to Iowa and Las Vegas - something that might breach federal tax and campaign law, according to sources and documents.<p style="font-family: Tinos, Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px auto 18px 291px; padding-bottom: 0px; max-width: 600px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Internal <a href="http://bit.ly/vKLllo" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(38, 72, 150); text-decoration-line: none;">financial records</a> obtained by No Quarter show that Prosperity USA said it was owed about $40,000 by the Cain campaign for a variety of items in February and March. Cain began taking donations for his presidential bid on Jan. 1.Prosperity USA was owned and run by Wisconsin political operatives Mark Block and Linda Hansen, Cain's current chief of staff and deputy chief of staff, respectively.<p style="font-family: Tinos, Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px auto 18px 291px; padding-bottom: 0px; max-width: 600px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The authenticity of the records was verified by two individuals close to the firm.<p style="font-family: Tinos, Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px auto 18px 291px; padding-bottom: 0px; max-width: 600px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">It is not known if Cain's election fund eventually paid back Prosperity USA, which now appears defunct. The candidate's federal election filings make no mention of the debt, and the figures in the documents don't match payments made by the candidate's campaign.In addition to picking up these expenses at least initially, Prosperity USA also paid as much as $100,000 to the Congress of Racial Equality, a conservative black organization, shortly before Cain was a featured speaker at the group's annual Martin Luther King Jr. dinner in mid-January.<p style="font-family: Tinos, Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px auto 18px 291px; padding-bottom: 0px; max-width: 600px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Cain, who has surged to a top-tier presidential candidate in the past month, apparently was not paid for the appearance. The personal financial disclosure forms for the former CEO of Godfather's Pizza list no honorariums for speeches.<p style="font-family: Tinos, Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px auto 18px 291px; padding-bottom: 0px; max-width: 600px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Election law experts say the transactions raise a host of questions for the private organization, which <a href="http://bit.ly/vLhLUz" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(38, 72, 150); text-decoration-line: none;">billed itself</a> as a tax-exempt nonprofit, and the Cain team.<p style="font-family: Tinos, Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px auto 18px 291px; padding-bottom: 0px; max-width: 600px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"If the records accurately reflect what occurred, this is way out of bounds," said a Washington, D.C.-based election lawyer who advises many Republican candidates and conservative groups on campaign issues. The lawyer asked not to be identified because of those affiliations.<p style="font-family: Tinos, Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px auto 18px 291px; padding-bottom: 0px; max-width: 600px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Michael Maistelman, a Wisconsin campaign attorney, agreed.<p style="font-family: Tinos, Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px auto 18px 291px; padding-bottom: 0px; max-width: 600px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"The number of questionable and possibly illegal transactions conducted on behalf of Herman Cain is staggering," said Maistelman, a Democrat who has represented politicians from both parties on campaign issues.<p style="font-family: Tinos, Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px auto 18px 291px; padding-bottom: 0px; max-width: 600px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Block and Hansen have not returned numerous calls in recent days.<p style="font-family: Tinos, Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px auto 18px 291px; padding-bottom: 0px; max-width: 600px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Late Friday, Block sent an email saying: "Will be able to respond to you, but need to schedule time to review questions. Obviously in the midst of a Presidential campaign I cannot drop everything."For decades, Block worked behind the scenes for several conservative candidates and causes in Wisconsin. He is best known in the state for his role as campaign manager for former state Supreme Court Justice Jon Wilcox in 1997. Accused of election law violations, Block settled the case by agreeing to pay a $15,000 fine and to stay out of Wisconsin politics for three years.<p style="font-family: Tinos, Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px auto 18px 291px; padding-bottom: 0px; max-width: 600px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">More recently, Block, 57, ran the state chapter of Americans for Prosperity, a nonprofit cofounded by the conservative Koch brothers that helped organize the tea party movement in Wisconsin and elsewhere.It was through Americans for Prosperity that Block met Cain and <a href="http://bit.ly/qGHPLS" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(38, 72, 150); text-decoration-line: none;">encouraged him to run</a> for national office. Block's role with the Cain campaign became a point of national interest in the past week when a bizarre online <a href="http://bit.ly/uwH4yL" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(38, 72, 150); text-decoration-line: none;">campaign ad</a> featuring the chain-smoking Wisconsin operative went viral.<p style="font-family: Tinos, Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px auto 18px 291px; padding-bottom: 0px; max-width: 600px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In recent years, Block spun off a handful of organizations from Americans for Prosperity, most of them incorporating "prosperity" in the name. Officials with Americans for Prosperity emphasize that these other groups were legally separate from their organization.<p style="font-family: Tinos, Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px auto 18px 291px; padding-bottom: 0px; max-width: 600px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The largest group founded by Block was called Wisconsin Prosperity Network, which was <a href="http://www.capdale.com/files/News/6f24def7-f140-401c-ae38-55c8732a682f/Presentation/NewsAttachment/c87751a6-c1f6-4bb6-8cb4-581dfcd65c2c/TP-Wisc_Prosperit_Network.pdf" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(38, 72, 150); text-decoration-line: none;">supposed to be</a> an umbrella organization that would spend more than $6 million a year underwriting a dozen or so other conservative groups in the hopes of turning the state red.In the 2008 <a href="http://bit.ly/uBRNe7" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(38, 72, 150); text-decoration-line: none;">incorporation papers</a>, Block is listed as the president of Wisconsin Prosperity Network, which was set up as a tax-exempt nonprofit group. That means the charitable organization cannot have direct political involvement. Hansen was the group's executive director.<p style="font-family: Tinos, Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px auto 18px 291px; padding-bottom: 0px; max-width: 600px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Last year, Block started up Prosperity USA, another tax-exempt charitable group for which Block appeared to be the sole board member. Again, Hansen handled the day-to-day operations.<p style="font-family: Tinos, Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px auto 18px 291px; padding-bottom: 0px; max-width: 600px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Insiders familiar with the groups say the two groups were closely linked and raised hundreds of thousands of dollars from prominent conservatives around the state. One supporter, who asked that his name not be used because he still supports Cain and other conservatives, said he and many others were deeply upset with the groups - and Hansen, in particular - for failing to use the money for its intended purposes.<p style="font-family: Tinos, Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px auto 18px 291px; padding-bottom: 0px; max-width: 600px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Internal financial records show both organizations were operating in the black during the first half of 2010.But by early this year, expenses were far outpacing income at the two entities. Balance sheets showed Wisconsin Prosperity Network was more than $62,000 in the hole by early February; Prosperity USA was in even worse shape, with its liabilities exceeding its assets by $110,000.<p style="font-family: Tinos, Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px auto 18px 291px; padding-bottom: 0px; max-width: 600px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In fact, the records indicate Prosperity USA's biggest asset was nearly $40,000 that it was owed by "FOH," a reference to Friends of Herman Cain, the name of Cain's presidential operation.<p style="font-family: Tinos, Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px auto 18px 291px; padding-bottom: 0px; max-width: 600px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A more detailed checking account says the Cain campaign owed nearly $15,000 for an "Atlanta invoice," about $17,000 for chartered flight service and $5,000 for travel and meetings in Iowa, Las Vegas, Houston, Dallas and Louisiana. The document says the Cain campaign had been billed $3,700 for iPads purchased on Jan. 4.<p style="font-family: Tinos, Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px auto 18px 291px; padding-bottom: 0px; max-width: 600px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A series of small-ticket items for travel and expenses by Block are listed as "not billed to FOH but due from them."The national election expert who works with GOP candidates said it would be a violation of the tax code for Prosperity USA to advance money to the Cain campaign for these items. She said there also are strict federal election regulations on reporting debts and incurring travel obligations.<p style="font-family: Tinos, Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px auto 18px 291px; padding-bottom: 0px; max-width: 600px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"I just don't see how they can justify this," she said. "It's a total mess."<p style="font-family: Tinos, Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px auto 18px 291px; padding-bottom: 0px; max-width: 600px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The records suggest that Prosperity USA had been underwriting travel for Cain even before he announced his plans to run for president.<p style="font-family: Tinos, Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px auto 18px 291px; padding-bottom: 0px; max-width: 600px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">For instance, one document says the group was to be paid $5,000 for the costs associated with Cain's speech in September 2010 to the conservative Right Nation rally in Chicago, an event that the records say Cain attended at the request of Americans for Prosperity. The Cain campaign later <a href="http://bit.ly/u9EgAR" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(38, 72, 150); text-decoration-line: none;">used a segment</a> from that speech in a campaign ad.Along with these expenses, the internal records note Prosperity USA paid for such items as Block's trip to Washington, D.C., to meet with billionaire philanthropist David Koch. Singer Krista Branch, who recorded "I Am America," the unofficial anthem of the tea party movement, was supposed to be paid $3,000 by the Wisconsin group.<p style="font-family: Tinos, Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px auto 18px 291px; padding-bottom: 0px; max-width: 600px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Cain has <a href="http://nyti.ms/vvucyQ" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(38, 72, 150); text-decoration-line: none;">adopted</a> the tune as his campaign song. Branch's husband, Michael, who wrote the song, <a href="http://bit.ly/sADwN9" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(38, 72, 150); text-decoration-line: none;">has been paid</a> $11,250 in his role as the Cain campaign's Tennessee director and $7,360 as a fundraising consultant.<p style="font-family: Tinos, Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px auto 18px 291px; padding-bottom: 0px; max-width: 600px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">More intriguing, the records show Prosperity USA received $150,000 in loans from individuals who could not be identified.Sources familiar with the group say Hansen paid much of the loan money earlier this year to the Congress of Racial Equality, a former civil rights organization that now promotes conservative causes. In mid-January, Cain was a <a href="http://bit.ly/gJWWop" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(38, 72, 150); text-decoration-line: none;">featured speaker</a> at the group's annual awards dinner, which was hosted by controversial conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart.The Congress of Racial Equality is headed by Niger Innis, who did not return calls last week. He and his father, Roy Innis, made several appearances at Wisconsin tea party events in the past.Several board members for Prosperity USA and Wisconsin Prosperity Network resigned from the organization when they learned after the fact that Hansen had borrowed this money and donated much of it to the conservative group, according to insiders.<p style="font-family: Tinos, Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px auto 18px 291px; padding-bottom: 0px; max-width: 600px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In the summer, the attorney for the two groups, Michael Dean, resigned as the registered agent for Wisconsin Prosperity Network in a <a href="http://bit.ly/uBRNe7" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(38, 72, 150); text-decoration-line: none;">letter</a> filed with the state Department of Financial Institutions. Sources say he also contacted the Internal Revenue Service regarding the group's application for tax-exempt status.<p style="font-family: Tinos, Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px auto 18px 291px; padding-bottom: 0px; max-width: 600px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Reached at home last week, Dean declined to comment.<p style="font-family: Tinos, Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px auto 18px 291px; padding-bottom: 0px; max-width: 600px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Even though there is little or no evidence that the Wisconsin Prosperity Network is still functioning, the group is one of the listed litigants in a case currently before the state Supreme Court.<p style="font-family: Tinos, Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px auto 18px 291px; padding-bottom: 0px; max-width: 600px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The trail of red ink left by Block and Hansen, however, extends beyond the private entities they founded.<p style="font-family: Tinos, Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px auto 18px 291px; padding-bottom: 0px; max-width: 600px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Several conservatives say the state chapter of Americans for Prosperity was left with a stack of unpaid invoices totaling tens of thousands of dollars when Block officially left the organization at the start of the year.<p style="font-family: Tinos, Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px auto 18px 291px; padding-bottom: 0px; max-width: 600px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Matt Seaholm, who replaced Block as the director of the state chapter, declined to discuss the group's finances.<p style="font-family: Tinos, Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px auto 18px 291px; padding-bottom: 0px; max-width: 600px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"I'll leave that to the national office," Seaholm said.<p style="font-family: Tinos, Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px auto 18px 291px; padding-bottom: 0px; max-width: 600px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A spokesman for Americans for Prosperity in Virginia did not return calls Friday.<p style="font-family: Tinos, Georgia, serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 28px; margin: 0px auto 18px 291px; padding-bottom: 0px; max-width: 600px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Contact Daniel Bice at (414) 224-2135 or <a style="font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; font-family: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: rgb(38, 72, 150);">dbice@journalsentinel.com</a>. <div>
</div><div>=</div><div><a href="https://www.prwatch.org/news/2015/01/12706/wi-gop-moves-vendetta-amendment-against-chief-justice-abrahamson">https://www.prwatch.org/news/2015/01/12706/wi-gop-moves-vendetta-amendment-against-chief-justice-abrahamson</a></div><div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">As  the Assembly Judiciary Committee hearing got underway yesterday, several TV crews, including the local FOX affiliate, were in attendance.What garnered all the news interest? The Committee’s discussion on a bill making it a Class I felony to surreptitiously film under someone’s skirt. Rep. Larson (R-Colfax) assured the women of Wisconsin that the bill also makes it illegal to fly drones under skirts.But when it came time discuss another form of “defrocking” – albeit a less lurid one – the TV crews wrapped up and left. <a href="http://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/2015/proposals/ajr1" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Assembly Joint Resolution 1</a> is a proposed constitutional amendment that would change the way the Chief Justice in the Wisconsin Supreme Court is appointed. Under Wisconsin's Constitution the title is given to the longest serving member, but under the GOP's proposed new system it would be decided by a vote among the justices every two years.Presented to the Committee by Rob Hutton (R-Brookfield) with lofty words about fairness and democracy, the amendment is, in fact, part of a coordinated GOP attack on current Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson. <a href="https://www.prwatch.org/news/2015/01/12700/wi-gop-targets-respected-chief-justice-abrahamson" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Also in the works</a> is a bill by Rep. Dean Knudson (R-Hudson) that would force Abrahamson into retirement, overturning the will of the voters who put her into office.The two-pronged attack on a sitting justice who was duly elected to a 10-year term by the voters in 2009 is unprecedented in Wisconsin history. Never before has the GOP sought to cancel an election or amend the constitution to undermine the authority of one woman.The reason, as CMD’s Mary Bottari put it in <a href="https://www.prwatch.org/news/2015/01/12700/wi-gop-targets-respected-chief-justice-abrahamson" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">a recent PR Watch article</a>, is that the court has now been handed three cases challenging the “John Doe” <a href="https://www.prwatch.org/news/2014/05/12473/reporters-guide-john-doe-investigation" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">criminal investigation</a> of potential illegal campaign coordination between the campaign of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and “independent” expenditure groups like Wisconsin Club for Growth. Abrahamson is a brilliant jurist and leader of the liberal wing of the court. If there is one person the GOP does not want perusing the sealed John Doe files, it is her.After beating the bushes, the GOP could only find one former judge to testify in favor of this partisan attack on the independence of the judiciary. Their choice? None other than former State Supreme Court Justice Jon Wilcox, whose campaign was fined $10,000 fine for illegal campaign coordination in 1997; his campaign manager <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Mark_Block" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Mark Block</a> was fined $15,000 and <a href="https://www.prwatch.org/news/2014/05/12475/scottwalker-john-doe-darkmoney-sixthings" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">barred from politics for three years</a>. This case is the leading precedent establishing that the type of coordination alleged in the John Doe is barred.<div class="clearfix" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Justice Wilcox assured the Judiciary Committee that “it’s not a partisan issue … this isn’t based on one person.”But many members of the committee weren’t buying it. There were serious concerns from Dana Wachs (D-Eau Claire) that the Legislature was strong-arming the judiciary and interfering with the system of checks and balances. What about Abrahamson’s due process rights?But the most trenchant critique came from Rep. Gary Hebl (D-Sun Prairie): “This is not a vendetta against the Current Chief, is that true?” After Wilcox assured the committee that it was not, Hebl pounced again: “This is not the attitude that’s been expressed by many. But to make absolutely clear that it’s not political, would you then agree to an amendment that won’t go into effect until the end of the current Chief’s tenure?”A visibly flustered Wilcox tried to skirt the question. In the end, he had to explain that he saw no problems with it. At least not on principle. But the constitutional amendment under consideration would strip Chief Justice Abrahamson of her title within a few weeks if placed on the April 7 ballot and ratified by the voters as planned.It has been said that free speech and public debate are the lifeblood of democracy, but the hearing notice was sent out less than 48 hours before the meeting took place, and it so happened that it took place while the Supreme Court was in session. Few members of the public were aware that the majority party had plans to change the constitution to target one of the most respected and renowned Chief Justices in U.S. history.“This is totally inappropriate. The chair should arrange another public hearing, and give at least one week’s notice. We need to give our citizens time,” Rep. Hebl complained to deaf ears.As the hearing broke up, the sounds of the Solidarity Singers echoed through the cavernous Capitol building. It marked the <a href="http://captimes.tumblr.com/post/107517788007/1000th-solidarity-sing-along-at-the-state-capitol" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">1,000th Sing Along</a> in protest of the extreme Walker agenda; perhaps the singers will soon be joined by a public that takes notice that the Wisconsin GOP is now intent on using the Wisconsin Constitution as a weapon against the Chief Justice – upending Wisconsin’s founding principles of an independent judiciary at a time when a check on the absolute power of the majority is needed the most.</div></div></div></div>--4/1Once again, the biggest spender in Wisconsin's Supreme Court race isn't one of the candidates. It's a little-know dark money group, which is keeping its funders secret from Wisconsinites. Plus, thanks to a recent law change, the supposedly "independent" group is now allowed to coordinate directly with its favored candidate without disclosing that coordination to the public.The secret money group, Wisconsin Alliance for Reform (WAR), was registered by Lorri Pickens, a Koch network operative with ties to the largest-ever campaign finance violation in Wisconsin history.- See more at: http://www.prwatch.org/news/2016/03/13073/war-wisconsin-voters-big-money-streams-wisconsin-supreme-court-race-no-disclosure#sthash.IyIC4Qkp.dpufAs of March 29, WAR has spent an <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/analysis/buying-time-2016-wisconsin" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">estimated</a> $1.4 million on television and radio ads attacking Judge JoAnne Kloppenburg, who challenges Justice Rebecca Bradley in the April 5 election. Bradley was recently appointed to the court by Governor Scott Walker after the death of Justice N. Patrick Crooks in September 2015.WAR's total spending so far appears to be greater than the spending of the candidates combined, <a href="https://www.brennancenter.org/analysis/buying-time-2016-wisconsin" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">according</a> to a Brennan Center analysis.Coincidentally, two other groups that have spent millions in previous Supreme Court races, WCFG and Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC), have yet to report any spending on the current race. The <a href="http://www.wisdc.org/pr032916a.php" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Wisconsin Democracy Campaign</a> is not the only group that suspects these groups are bankrolling WAR as a means of keeping their controversial names and practices out of the headlines.The misleading WAR ads try to paint Kloppenburg as soft on crime. One ad <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naal7VkspbU" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">claiming</a> that Kloppenburg let a sex offender off "on a technicality" <a href="http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2016/mar/23/wisconsin-alliance-reform/groups-tv-ad-criticizing-joanne-kloppenburg-leaves/" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">was ruled</a> "Mostly False" by Politifact. WAR <a href="http://fox6now.com/2016/03/16/third-party-ad-attacking-joanne-kloppenburg-for-protecting-criminals-is-misleading/" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">claimed</a> on March 16 that it would stop running another misleading ad on child sexual abuse after one of the families involved in the case complained that it was "political slander," but as of March 30 the ad was still running on TV and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlgB2-m-RZE" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">available</a> online.At the last minute, the liberal secret money group, <a href="http://www.wisdc.org/gwc2016" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Greater Wisconsin Committee</a>, dropped its own ad <a href="http://www.wisdc.org/gwc2016" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">spending at least $400,000</a> attacking Bradley for <a href="http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/govt-and-politics/critics-slam-wisconsin-supreme-court-justice-rebecca-bradley-for-birth/article_c6d985d8-ac44-5d7e-9667-c4fdef074f3e.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">2006 column</a> arguing that pharmacists should be allowed to deny people birth control and for for anti-gay columns she penned as a college student.<h2 style="line-height: 2em; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">WAR Advances Dark Money Agenda in WI</h2>WAR's website was registered in April 2015 by Lorri Pickens, a <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/files/lorri_pickens_linkedin.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">former associate director of state operations</a> for David Koch's Americans for Prosperity (AFP) astroturf organization.A well-connected right-wing operative with a long history in Wisconsin, Pickens <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/11/11791/lucy-burns-institute-publishers-ballotpedia-judgepedia-and-wikifoia-and-her-right" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">has previously worked</a> with the Sam Adams Alliance and the Lucy Burns Institute institutions tied to WCFG Director Eric O'Keefe and his wife, Leslie Graves. She also worked <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/files/lorri_pickens_linkedin.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">as a</a> <a href="https://lobbying.wi.gov/Who/PrincipalInformation/2007REG/PrintAuthorizedLobbyists/2480?prnName=Wisconsin%20Family%20Action%20Inc&print=Tru" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">lobbyist for</a> the anti-LGBT and anti-abortion Wisconsin Family Action. She <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/29194374.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">was also</a> a field coordinator for the campaign to ban same-sex marriage in Wisconsin in 2006.CMD <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2015/10/12951/kochs-wisconsin-money-government" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">first reported</a> on WAR in October 2015, when the newly-formed group began running radio ads to support a bill to cripple the state elections board. AFP also lobbied in favor of that bill.At the time there was trio of bills undermining Wisconsin anti-corruption laws and clean government tradition. The bills: 1) destroyed the non-partisan board governing campaigns and elections in Wisconsin, putting in place partisan appointees; 2) allowed for unlimited undisclosed money in Wisconsin campaigns by permitting for the first time direct coordination between candidates and so-called issue ad groups; and, 3) exempted politicians from ever being investigated by prosecutors for violations of campaign finance law under the state's unique "John Doe" process, which Wisconsin had traditionally used in lieu of a grand jury.AFP, Wisconsin Family Action, and Wisconsin Right to Life <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2015/10/12951/kochs-wisconsin-money-government" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">were</a> the only institutions registered as lobbying in support of the bills undermining Wisconsin's anti-corruption laws, although not every group lobbied for each bill.<h2 style="line-height: 2em; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Prior Pickens Group Violated Elections Law in 1997 Supreme Court Race</h2>Using secret money groups to influence campaigns and elections is nothing new for Pickens.In 1997, Pickens <a href="http://www.quest-online.com/NewFiles/Quest_Newsroom_46.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">was an officer </a>for an "independent" group that received the largest penalty ever levied for election violations in the state of Wisconsin. The case involved a new spending group called the Wisconsin Coalition for Voter Participation (WCVP). Investigators found that WCVP <a href="http://www.quest-online.com/NewFiles/Quest_Newsroom_46.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">illegally coordinated</a> with the campaign of state Supreme Court Justice Jon Wilcox on campaign mailers. While Pickens herself was not prosecuted, her husband Brent, who set up WCVP, was fined $15,000 and banned from politics for five years. <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Mark_Block" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">Marc Block</a>, who simultaneously served as Wilcox's campaign chair and headed WCVP, was fined $10,000 and banned from politics for three years. In total, some $60,000 in fines were levied. Block later took his talents to the Koch's <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/11/11114/cmds-quick-guide-mark-block-blocktopus" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">AFP group</a> and the campaign of Herman Cain <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/11/11114/cmds-quick-guide-mark-block-blocktopus" target="_blank" style="text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">where he ran into more trouble.</a><h2 style="line-height: 2em; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Groups Implicated in the John Doe Investigation of Dark Money</h2>Pickens did not seem to learn much from the 1997 experience....- See more at: http://www.prwatch.org/news/2016/03/13073/war-wisconsin-voters-big-money-streams-wisconsin-supreme-court-race-no-disclosure#sthash.IyIC4Qkp.dpuf==

R REED and AFP in recall:

In Virginia, Reed said, "...we ran the Faith and Freedom program, and we contacted every social conservative and fiscal conservative voter an average of seven times -- we mailed 'em, we phoned 'em, we knocked on their door, we e-mailed them," Reed said. "What percentage of the electorate was conservative in 2009? Forty-one percent, according to exit polls. So the electorate went from 33 percent conservative to 41 percent conservative."

McDonnell's pollster, Glen Bolger, had projected a 10-point lead for his candidate, according to Reed, but McDonnell actually won by 18. Where did those other eight points come from? Subtract 33 from 41 and you'll find your answer, Reed said.

This year, consequently, Virginia is hardly a state Obama can take for granted. There, Reed said, FFC is building a file of 350,000 conservative households that will account for some 600,000 voters. In Florida, where Reed said Obama's 2008 margin of victory was 200,000 votes, Reed has set his sights on some 225,000 social conservatives who are not currently registered to vote, but who will be, if he has anything to say about it.

In the Wisconsin recall, Reed continued, FFC's 600,000 voter contacts ranged in form from mobile media, e-mail and snail-mail to old-fashioned door-knocking and the method that became the hallmark of the Christian Coalition under Reed's leadership during its heyday: the church-distributed voter guide. FFC doled out 100,000 of them, he said.

"So there were voters in Wisconsin who were getting e-mail from us, they were getting a text message from us, when they went to church on Sunday, our voter guide was in their church bulletin, and on Monday they got a knock on their door," Reed said. "Okay?"

After the session, I asked Reed why, if the unions are as good at turning out their base as everyone believes they are, did their Democratic allies lose the recall race.

"I think they did their job," he said. "We just did our job better...they worked to get their vote out, we worked even harder to get our vote out...But in '08, they got their vote out and we didn't get our vote out, and Obama won by a landslide. And that's what happens when you don't get your vote out."

Doing 'Better' With a Bit of Help

But Reed had more than a little help in doing his job "better," as he said. First, he was able to deploy sophisticated mobile marketing technology that the other side apparently didn't have. Second, he was able to sync his efforts to those of an old friend, Tim Phillips, president of Americans for Prosperity (the astroturf group founded by the Koch brothers) and Reed's former business partner at Century Strategies. (In fact, Reed's public unveiling of his Faith and Freedom Coalition took place at an <a href="http://www.alternet.org/news/142068/utilizing_public_airwaves,_media_mogul_murdoch_is_big_muscle_behind_fraudulent_astro_turfers/?page=entire">Atlanta rally</a>, co-sponsored by AFP, staged in opposition to healthcare reform during the 2009 summer of town-hall rage.

The Wisconsin chapter of Americans for Prosperity was one of the organization's first state-level entities, and was long run by the hard-working but notoriously <a href="http://www.alternet.org/newsandviews/article/685582/6_things_to_know_about%26quot%3Bsmoking_man%26quot%3B_in_herman_cain%27s_weird_new_ad%28dude_was_banned_from_electoral_politics%29">dirty political operative Mark Block</a>, who left the organization in 2011 to run Herman Cain's presidential campaign. Most of the politicians on Wisconsin's right-wing roster owe all or part of their careers to AFP: U.S. Representatives Reid Ribble and Sean Duffy, elected in the 2010 Tea Party wave, were nurtured under the AFP wing, as was Gov. Scott Walker. Rep. Paul Ryan, chairman of the House Budget Committee, is a favorite speaker at AFP gatherings. Reince Priebus, who chaired the state Republican Party before winning the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee, at the time it was <a href="http://www.alternet.org/teaparty/149617/preibus%27_republican_national_committee:_a_wholly_owned_subsidiary_of_david_koch%27s_americans_for_prosperity?page=1">implicated in a Milwaukee vote-caging scheme</a> executed by AFP in 2010.

When the uprising against Walker's attack on teachers and other public workers began in the state capitol in 2011, AFP launched a "Stand With Walker" campaign that it carried through to the day of the recall vote, organizing rallies and bus tours, and flooding the airwaves with advertisements.

By July of last year, Faith and Freedom Coalition was sending out direct-mail fundraising letters touting its voter canvassing efforts for the Wisconsin recall. In a <a href="http://www.religiondispatches.org/dispatches/sarahposner/4896/ralph_reed%27s_group_goes_after_%22union_thugs%22_in_wisconsin/">letter</a> obtained by Religion Dispatches' Sarah Posner, FFC executive director Gary Marx, who co-founded Century Strategies with Reed, used language that virtually mirrored the AFP messaging on taxes and labor unions:

Please join...the fight with 100 plus FFC activists who will be going door-to-door encouraging the Badger State to vote for candidates who share our values of lower taxes, less government, faith, and who will stand up to union thugs who support Obama's tax and spend solutions.  We need your financial support to make our Wisconsin get-out-the-vote program work.

</blockquote>

A theme common to Walker's campaign and ads from multiple sources was the notion that the recall was somehow anti-democratic, when, in fact, it is about as direct an expression of democracy as one can find. John Nichols, Wisconsinite and labor advocate, writing in the Nation, tells of a <a href="http://www.hsacoalition.org/issue-analysis/watch-the-end-the-recall-madness-ad-from-wi/">ubiquitous ad</a> carrying that message that appeared in the final days of the campaign, paid for by a shadowy super-PAC called the Campaign for American Values. Of the $54,265 in total receipts collected by CAV, per its last FEC filing, $50,000 came from a single donor, <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacgave2.php?cmte=C00506113&cycle=2012">Rebekah Mercer</a>, daughter of hedge -fund manager Robert Mercer, who often makes common cause with David Koch. More than a third of those PAC receipts were <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/expenditures.php?cycle=2012&cmte=C00506113">delivered to Herman Cain Solutions</a>, which is run by Cain (who once famously described himself as Charles and David Koch's "<a href="http://www.alternet.org/teaparty/152979/cain_claims_koch_a_%27brother_from_another_mother%3B%27_meets_with_kingmaker_demint/">brother from another mother</a>") and Mark Block, the former state director for the Americans for Prosperity Wisconsin chapter. You with me?

So, it was hardly surprising that Reed took up the anti-recall line in his brief conversation with me after his strategy session....

<a href="http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/156141">http://www.alternet.org/module/printversion/156141</a>

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11/23 update:

CMD's letter to the IRS garnered national attention. Award winning journalist Michael Isikoff discussed the issue on MSNBC and and Executive Director Lisa Graves appeared on <a rel="nofollow" title="" target="blank" href="http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=P4H8Rv%2FNtIT85LtAXW8%2B%2BeXK8GirtbNH">"The Last Word" with Lawrence O’Donnell</a> and on <a rel="nofollow" title="Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman" target="blank" href="http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=2WUsbR4hkDGHHR1YFuTjs%2BXK8GirtbNH">Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman</a>. The New York Times, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, and Mother Jones, also covered the issue.

---

<a href="http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/news/2011/11/04/8634375-koch-backed-group-confirms-financial-ties-to-cain-campaign-manager">http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/news/2011/11/04/8634375-koch-backed-group-confirms-financial-ties-to-cain-campaign-manager</a>

<h1 class="gl_headline">Koch-backed group confirms financial ties to Cain campaign manager</h1>

<div class="byline">By NBC's Michael Isikoff</div>

A major conservative advocacy group, funded by Koch family oil interests, says it is reviewing its "financial dealings" with a Wisconsin charity headed by Herman Cain's campaign manager, raising fresh questions about the source of tens of thousands of dollars in funds that were used to pay expenses for Cain's presidential campaign.

The <a href="http://www.iwatchnews.org/2011/11/03/7279/koch-related-group-reviewing-financial-transactions-cain-aides-charity">Center for Public Integrity reported late Thursday</a> that Americans for Prosperity, one of the largest and most prominent of conservative political groups, has confirmed unspecified financial transactions with two closely linked Wisconsin non-profits -- Prosperity USA and Wisconsin Prosperity Network -- that were founded by Mark Block, Cain's campaign manager.

One of those groups, Prosperity USA, paid for $37,000 in expenses, including iPads, charter flights and items, for Cain's presidential campaign, according to financial documents disclosed this week by the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel.

Non-profits are barred by law from paying for campaign expenses, and when the allegations  first surfaced this week -- at the same time as the sexual harassment charges against the presidential candidate -- Cain said he would order an investigation of whether there were improper campaign violations.

Cain's campaign lawyer, Steve Bienek, declined to answer questions from NBC about the transactions between the Wisconsin charities headed by Block and the campaign, saying only that the campaign  has retained an outside law firm to review them.

"We take these allegations very seriously," he said.

But the Center for Public Integrity report by Peter Stone raises additional questions as to whether Americans for Prosperity (AFP) funds were used by Block to pay Cain campaign expenses. AFP had "financial dealings with Prosperity USA and/or the Wisconsin Prosperity Network," Levi Russell, the spokesman for AFT is quoted as saying.

(Russell confirmed the transactions to NBC News, but declined to elaborate, and added that the group had no reason to believe there was any wrongdoing on its part.)

Some of those transactions are hinted at in the documents released by the Journal-Sentinel: They show a $5,000 expense in February 2011 for Cain to attend a meeting of a group called RightNation "at request of AFP" and that Block made a trip to Washington to meet with AFP's president Tim Phillips and David Koch."

Koch and his oil industry brother Charles Koch were the founders of Americans for Prosperity, but the group -- like most non-profits -- declines to identify its donors. The group is having a major conference in Washington starting Friday at which Cain and other presidential candidates are scheduled to speak.

</div>

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<a href="http://www.prwatch.org/node/11111">http://www.prwatch.org/node/11111</a>

Madison -- Today, the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/files/%28pdf%29_11-07-11_CMD_Letter_to_IRS_Re_Prosperity_Block.pdf" title="reference on filed a letter requesting" target="blank">filed a letter requesting</a> that the Internal Revenue Service investigate a charity operated by Wisconsin political veteran Mark Block that spent over $40,000 of tax-exempt donations to pay for private jets, travel, and computers for <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Herman_Cain" title="reference on Herman Cain" target="self">Herman Cain</a>'s presidential bid. CMD also requested an examination of other <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Mark_Block" title="reference on Mark Block" target="_self">Mark Block</a>-related groups sharing the same address or other commonalities. Mr. Cain, who has denied knowing who paid for his various travels, is not the target of these requests to the IRS.

These requests follow an October 30 <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/noquarter/state-firms-cash-to-herman-cain-may-breach-federal-campaign-tax-laws-132898423.html" title="reference on story" target="_blank">story</a> by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel's Dan Bice revealing that "Prosperity USA," which was created by Mr. Block, had footed the bill for expenses related to Mr. Cain's bid for the White House. Prosperity USA's financial records show the charity expected to get reimbursed. Tax-exempt charities are prohibited from intervening in the political campaign for any candidate for public office, no matter the post.

Mr. Block founded Prosperity USA in 2010 and acted as its president. He also led the Wisconsin arm of billionaire David Koch's "Americans for Prosperity" (AFP). Mr. Block stepped down from AFP in December to lead Mr. Cain's campaign. In May, the campaign's Political Action Committee (PAC) registered with the Federal Elections Commission, with Mr. Block as treasurer. Prosperity USA anticipated the PAC's existence as far back as February, when it identified Mr. Cain's travel expenses as needing reimbursement from Friends of Herman Cain. That PAC spent over $160,000 on expenses in January against donations of only about $60,000 that month, and had similar gaps between expenses in receipts in the first part of the year when Prosperity USA listed the $41,366 it incurred to be reimbursed by the campaign. (AFP is also listed on the Prosperity USA financial documents, with AFP reimbursing the charity for having paid over $17,947* for Mr. Cain's travel to AFP gatherings.)

"A charity founded by Mr. Block appears to have fronted tens of thousands of dollars to a political campaign that was led by Mr. Block, to be reimbursed by a campaign PAC helmed by Mr. Block. This requires an investigation by the IRS into the charity's activities and expenditures," said Lisa Graves, CMD's Executive Director.

CMD's Fellow Brendan Fischer said "Charities are offered tax-exempt status so they can ostensibly advance some social good, not so they can facilitate donations to political campaigns. We are asking the IRS to investigate the close relationship between Mr. Block, a tax-exempt charity, and the political campaign Mr. Block leads, based on financial documents that have come to light."

Ms. Graves added "The tax-free donations to a 501(c)(3) group should not be treated like a bank or credit card to serve the financial needs or expediency of a candidate's campaign. Unfortunately, Mr. Block has previously been sanctioned after an investigation into blurring the lines between his electoral ventures and nonprofit activity. We also believe the relationships between groups closely connected to Mr. Block and Prosperity USA should be examined."

Mr. Block was previously fined and barred for three years from political campaigns in Wisconsin as a result of an election board investigation into illegal coordination between a campaign he led and a non-profit group. Following that bar, his time at Americans for Prosperity in Wisconsin was marred by other controversies, like allegations of vote caging in the state, although Mr. Block has taken credit for getting Scott Walker and others elected in 2010.

The Center for Media and Democracy is a non-profit investigative reporting and watchdog group in Madison, WI.

=

<h2>Field Guide to "Blocktopus"</h2>

<h3>Friends of Herman Cain</h3>

Friends of Herman Cain (FOH) is a political action committee (PAC), with Mr. Block named as treasurer. The PAC was registered with the Federal Election Commission on May 3, 2011.

Scott Sidney is the PAC's Director of Advance Operations. He previously worked for Americans for Prosperity in Wisconsin, and he has been listed as a representative of Americans for Prosperity-Wisconsin in presentations on organizing "Taxpayer TeaParties" against health insurance reforms as well as stating that he has been a "consultant" to Tea Party groups.

Even though FOH did not officially register until May 2011, it was listed as a creditor on Prosperity USA's financial documents in February 2011. The report lists accounts receivable "Due from FOH" for over $40,000 in Cain's travel expenses and for Apple Computer iPads. The PAC began raising and spending money in January 2011.

The Washington-based watchdog group <a href="http://www.citizensforethics.org/legal-filings/entry/crew-fec-complaint-against-herman-cain-campaign-prosperity-usa" title="reference on Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics" target="_blank">Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics</a>, filed a complaint last week with the Federal Election Commission against FOH, Prosperity USA and Mr. Block in response to the allegations of illegal corporate contributions by Prosperity USA to the Cain campaign.

<h3>Prosperity USA</h3>

Prosperity USA is a nonprofit organization incorporated in Wisconsin on April 9, 2010 under the name "America's Prosperity Network, Inc." According to documents obtained by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, "Mark J. Block" was listed as the corporation's registered agent upon incorporation, and "Michael D. Dean" of Waukesha, Wisconsin, was listed as the incorporator.

On July 31, 2010, the corporation filed an amendment with the state to change its name to "Prosperity USA, Inc." At that time, "Mark. J. Block" was listed as the president of the corporation. The organization's latest filing from July 31, 2010 shows Block to be president of the organization. He is currently <a href="http://www.wdfi.org/apps/CorpSearch/Details.aspx?entityID=A062726&hash=1010117671&searchFunctionID=5ff8f8c2-3aca-48be-926e-3f74a39ae544&type=Simple&q=prosperity+USA" title="reference on listed" target="_blank">listed</a> as its registered agent on the State of Wisconsin Department of Financial Institutions website.

Prosperity USA's known spending on Mr. Cain's campaign expenses appears to have occurred in January or February of 2011, well after the period Mr. Cain became a "candidate" within the meaning of Code section 501(c)(3), in the view of the Center, and after Mr. Block became his campaign's chief of staff.

The Prosperity USA Coalition <a href="http://www.wdfi.org/apps/CorpSearch/Details.aspx?entityID=P056178&hash=795257981&searchFunctionID=32d2ad6b-87f1-4e94-89fd-c5a6efc241d0&type=Simple&q=prosperity+USA" title="reference on registered" target="_blank">registered</a> with the state on September 30, 2010. Its registered agent resigned on June 23, 2011, and its principal office is listed as Mr. Dean's address, 20975 Swenson Drive, Suite 125, in Waukesha, Wisconsin, which is also the listed address for the First Freedoms Foundation. (It is also the same suite number that has been listed for an exterminator and a Spanish publications business.)

"ProsperityUSA.org" is registered to Mr. Block, and the email contact is ssidney@fightbackwisconsin.org -- apparently Scott Sidney, at a website that was also registered to Mr. Block.

<h4>Wisconsin's Americans for Prosperity</h4>

Wisconsin's Americans for Prosperity (AFP) is the state arm of the national group started by oil billionaire <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=David_Koch" title="reference on David Koch" target="self">David Koch</a> and <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Richard_Fink" title="reference on Richard Fink" target="self">Richard Fink</a> (a member of the board of directors of Koch Industries). North Carolina's <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Art_Pope" title="reference on Art Pope" target="_self">Art Pope</a> also sits on the board of the national organization that Mr. Koch chairs. On December 7, 2010, Mr. Block announced that he would be resigning from AFP on December 31 to join the Cain campaign as Chief of Staff.

AFP is also listed on the Prosperity USA financial documents. Prosperity USA apparently spent between $15,400 and $17,900 on other travel by Cain to AFP events in states across the country earlier this year, with the expectation those expenses would be reimbursed by AFP. Under Accounts Receivable, the financial statement says "From AFP – H. Cain travel – Hill Aircraft" (a private jet service) and then enumerates trips and expenses.

Both Americans for Prosperity and Prosperity USA appear to coordinate closely on other efforts, where the veil between the two groups seems to be thin. For example, Americans for Prosperity promoted a bus tour this spring to counter Wisconsin labor protests with the slogan "Stand with Walker," which directed supporters to the website http://fightbackwisconsin.com. That site says it is a "project of Americans for Prosperity." However, Mr. Block is the administrative contact for this website, as of

November 5, 2011. And, the site is registered to Mr. Block's America's Prosperity Network, which has legally changed its name to "Prosperity USA."

In 2009, Americans for Prosperity used www.fightbackwisconsin.com to register guests for its annual "American Dream Summit" in Wisconsin (which <a href="http://www.americansforprosperity.org/milwaukee-county-executive-scott-walker-emcee-defending-american-dream-summit-award-luncheon" title="reference on featured" target="blank">featured</a> then-Milwaukee County Executive <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Scott_Walker" title="reference on Scott Walker" target="self">Scott Walker</a> as emcee). (Mr. Block has also taken credit for Mr. Walker's election.)

<h4>"FightBack" Groups</h4>

FightBackWisconsin.org, FightBackIowa.org, FightBackMichigan.org, FightBackMinnesota.org, FightBackMissouri.org, FightBackTexas.org are all registered to Mr. Block, as of November 5, 2011. As noted above, FightBackWisconsin.org website was used to help support the administration after Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker introduced his proposal to limit collective bargaining rights for public employees. The website proclaims itself to be a project of Americans for Prosperity. The domain name is also used as part of the email contact for "ProsperityUSA.org" (ssidney@fightbackwisconsin.org), which itself remains registered to Mr. Block.

<h4>Wisconsin Prosperity Network</h4>

The Wisconsin Prosperity Network (WPN) was <a href="http://bloggingblue.com/2009/05/13/the-wisconsin-prosperity-network/" title="reference on launched" target="blank">launched</a> in 2009 by Mr. Block along with a politician who had run afoul of campaign finance law, former Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen. Linda Hansen, who now works as Mr. Block's Deputy Chief of Staff on the Cain campaign, is its Senior Vice President, Executive Director. It is a 501(c)(3) that has told the Wisconsin Supreme Court it "acts, in part, to coordinate the efforts" of organizations like the Wisconsin branch of Americans for Prosperity. Upon its formation in 2009, WPN <a href="http://www.capdale.com/files/News/6f24def7-f140-401c-ae38-55c8732a682f/Presentation/NewsAttachment/c87751a6-c1f6-4bb6-8cb4-581dfcd65c2c/TP-Wisc_Prosperit_Network.pdf" title="reference on announced" target="blank">announced</a> plans to spend $6.4 million per year underwriting 14 organizations to advance the right-wing agenda.

One of the organizations "coordinated" by WPN is the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=MacIver_Institute" title="reference on MacIver Institute" target="self">MacIver Institute</a>, which describes itself as a "think tank," which received at least $300,000 in funding from the Milwaukee-based <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Lynde_and_Harry_Bradley_Foundation" title="reference on Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation" target="self">Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation</a>, and swung into action in Spring 2011 in support of Governor Walker's agenda.

Notably, WPN held a fundraiser for itself featuring Mr. Cain on August 19, 2010 but asked people to "register at http://www.thehermanatorpac.com/eauclaire" while asking people to make checks payable to "Wisconsin Prosperity Network," listing the same address as Mr. Block's ProsperityUSA, "PO Box 510626, New Berlin, WI 53151," which is also the same address that has been listed for Prosperity101.

Like the Prosperity USA Coalition, state filings for Wisconsin Prosperity Network show its registered agent <a href="http://www.wdfi.org/apps/CorpSearch/Details.aspx?entityID=W055045&hash=117581506&searchFunctionID=27aa3fb3-c5f8-4b21-8390-b1be73bc11ea&type=Simple&q=prosperity" title="reference on resigned" target="blank">resigned</a> on June 23, 2011, and its principal office is now listed as Mr. Dean's mailing address. <a href="http://media.jsonline.com/documents/bicecol-wi-prosperity-network.pdf" title="reference on Documents" target="blank">Documents</a> obtained by the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel indicate that the registered agent for WPN had been Michael Dean.

<h4>Prosperity 101</h4>

Prosperity 101 has as its stated mission "To help employees understand how public policy affects the stability of their own jobs by becoming Informed, Involved, Impactful™" and offers handbooks, speakers, and online classes for companies to "instruct" employees about free market policies. Alternet <a href="http://www.alternet.org/investigations/151184/notorious_wisconsin_retailer_backs_afp-linked_anti-union_program/" title="reference on says" target="_blank">says</a> "Prosperity 101 preaches an anti-union, anti-government gospel to workers right in their own workplaces."

Ms. Hansen is credited as "creating" the Prosperity 101 program, and Mr. Block also has played a role in the group, which is a for-profit, Limited Liability Corporation (LLC). Herman Cain is credited with writing parts of the Prosperity 101 handbook, as is the Wall Street Journal's Stephen Moore. Mr. Cain, Ms. Hansen, and Mr. Moore have been deployed as speakers at Prosperity 101 events and are featured on the front page of the Prosperity 101 <a href="http://prosperity101.org/" title="reference on website" target="_blank">website</a> and in Prosperity 101 videos.

The Prosperity 101 program was <a href="http://www.alternet.org/news/151182/wall_street_journal_honcho_shills_for_secret_worker%27education%27_program_linked_to_koch_group/" title="reference on reportedly" target="blank">reportedly</a> presented in at least a dozen workplaces at the height of the 2010 elections, most of them in Wisconsin. <a href="http://www.alternet.org/investigations/151184/notorious_wisconsin_retailer_backs_afp-linked_anti-union_program/" title="reference on Menards hardware store" target="blank">Menards hardware store</a> was one of those businesses, whose owner John Menard was a Walker donor and sits on the board of the powerful business lobby Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC). The gas station and convenience store chain Kwik Trip, another major Walker donor, also <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/100479309.html" title="reference on invited" target="blank">invited</a> Prosperity 101 to "educate" its employees during the election season. Same with Wausau Homes, whose co-owners and the co-founder's wife gave Walker a total of $25,000 during the 2010 election, and which <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/noquarter/117500053.html" title="reference on received" target="_blank">received</a> a major tax break in Walker's budget.

Prosperity 101, unsurprisingly, furthers the "prosperity" meme. A Prosperity 101 product called Job Security Through Business Prosperity™ "covers the Foundations of Prosperity, Policies of Prosperity and Protecting Your Prosperity, which guides the reader to important action steps to protect their economic freedoms and personal prosperity. They are encouraged to become Informed, Involved and Impactful™"

Hansen has said publicly that Prosperity 101 is part of the Wisconsin Prosperity Network.

Although Prosperity 101 is a for-profit LLC, its website "Prosperity101.org" registered under the non-profit "America's Prosperity Network" (now Prosperity USA) by "Mark Block" in December 2009. Its registration and email resolve to an email account with the name "mjbcain@gmail.com," which includes Mr. Block's initials and Mr. Cain's name. The site called "AmericasProsperityNetwork.org" was created on March 29, 2010, with the same registration information and email account as Prosperity101.org.

<h4>First Freedoms Foundation</h4>

First Freedoms Foundation is a non-profit group that claims that it seeks to defend "historic constitutional liberties and principles in Wisconsin." It is also "coordinated" by the Wisconsin Prosperity Network. Mr. Block began showing up on the group's Federal 990 forms in 2007, and is currently <a href="http://firstfreedomsfoundation.org/about-us" title="reference on listed as treasurer" target="_blank">listed as treasurer</a> for the organization. Mr. Deane has been listed as the leader of this group that focuses on issues like opposing rights for same-sex couples in Wisconsin.

<h4>Wisconsin Prosperity Coalition</h4>

The Wisconsin Prosperity Coalition <a href="http://www.wdfi.org/apps/CorpSearch/Details.aspx?entityID=W056975&hash=980083994&searchFunctionID=27aa3fb3-c5f8-4b21-8390-b1be73bc11ea&type=Simple&q=prosperity" title="reference on registered" target="_blank">registered</a> with the state on September 30, 2010. The "Wisconsin Prosperity Network" and the "Wisconsin Prosperity Coalition" sent an alert in favor of Wisconsin "voter ID" legislation in January 2011 that listed the same address as Prosperity USA.

Like Prosperity USA Coalition and Wisconsin Prosperity Network, Wisconsin Prosperity Coalition's registered agent resigned on June 23, 2011, and its principal office is listed as Mr. Dean's address.

<h4>Wisconsin Center for Economic Prosperity</h4>

The Wisconsin Center for Economic Prosperity (WCEP) is a PAC. During 2009 and 2010, AFP held conferences in Wisconsin and invited activists to attend a closing "reception" with "invited candidates for elected office" that was <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/03/10375/cmd-special-report-who-are-headliners-koch-funded-afp-conventions" title="reference on " fully="" sponsored="" and="" by="" target="_blank">"fully sponsored and hosted" by WCEP</a>. This may have been an attempt by AFP to avoid restrictions on non-profit involvement in partisan political activities, such as funding a reception for federal and state candidates. At the time of the conventions, WCEP shared leadership with AFP. Federal filings showed that at least one of WCEP's checking accounts was in the name of Mark Block.

As a PAC, WCEP is supposed to report all expenditures to the federal government, as well as comply with state disclosure rules in state races. But it reported no expenses related to its "sponsorship" of the AFP receptions in 2009 and 2010. Mr. Block's WCEP has not been charged with wrongdoing, but it has received four "failure to file" notices from the Federal Elections Commission.

WCEP is also one of three plaintiffs challenging Wisconsin's "Impartial Justice Act" that provides public financing of Supreme Court elections, a system designed to protect against the politicization of the state's highest court.

<a href="http://www.prwatch.org/node/11114">http://www.prwatch.org/node/11114</a>

</div>