lorri pickens
<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see block for afp CFG WI koch cabal</font><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">keeps showing up in new 7/18 john doe docs
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</font></div><div><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mary-bottari/koch-tied-group-pushes-ne_b_6263462.html"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mary-bottari/koch-tied-group-pushes-ne_b_6263462.html</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div class="content-list-component mt-paragraph text" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: 630px; min-width: initial; width: 630px; line-height: 1.5em; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Just weeks after Wisconsin’s controversial Governor Scott Walker was elected to a second term, a group with ties to the billionaire Koch brothers has launched a new effort to destroy unions.</b></font></p></div><center style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 27px;" /></center><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 27px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);" /><div class="content-list-component mt-paragraph text" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: 630px; min-width: initial; width: 630px; line-height: 1.5em; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2011, Wisconsin passed Act 10, a complex bill that forced public sector unions to re-certify annually, made it harder for unions to collect dues, and eliminated the incentive of people to join unions by severely limiting issues on the bargaining table. The bill was designed to destroy public sector unions, a powerful force in Democratic politics in the state, and subsequently union membership dropped dramatically.</font></p></div><div class="content-list-component mt-paragraph text" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: 630px; min-width: initial; width: 630px; line-height: 1.5em; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Now out-of-state special interests and the Wisconsin GOP will use that drop in membership <a href="http://www.thewheelerreport.com/wheeler_docs/files/1201wrtw.PDF" target="blank" data-beacon="{" p="p" mnid="mnid" entry_text="entry_text" lnid="lnid" citation="citation" mpid="mpid" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgb(46, 112, 97);">to argue</a> that private sector workers deserve the same “choice.” The poison pill for private sector unions is likely be a <a href="http://alecexposed.org/w/images/c/c8/1R10-Right_to_Work_Act_Exposed.pdf" target="blank" data-beacon="{" p="p" mnid="mnid" entry_text="entry_text" lnid="lnid" citation="citation" mpid="mpid" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgb(46, 112, 97);">model bill</a> from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) with the Orwellian name of “right to work.”</font></p></div><div class="content-list-component mt-paragraph text" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: 630px; min-width: initial; width: 630px; line-height: 1.5em; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 27px;"><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The A Team: Americans for Prosperity, ALEC and ACCE</font></strong></p></div><div class="content-list-component mt-paragraph text" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: 630px; min-width: initial; width: 630px; line-height: 1.5em; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So-called “right to work” laws allow non-union members to enjoy the benefits of union representation, like higher wages, improved working conditions and a voice in the workplace, but without paying the costs of that representation<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">. Supporters of the measures say they want to give workers the “freedom” not to join a union, but<a href="http://www.epi.org/publication/right-to-work-research/" target="blank" data-beacon="{" p="p" mnid="mnid" entry_text="entry_text" lnid="lnid" citation="citation" mpid="mpid" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgb(46, 112, 97);">studies have shown</a> that wages are lower for both union and non-union members in states with right to work laws, workers are less likely to have health insurance and more likely to have dangerous work places.</span></font></p></div><div class="content-list-component mt-paragraph text" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: 630px; min-width: initial; width: 630px; line-height: 1.5em; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Funding from the billionaire industrialists Charles and David Koch has found its way to a multitude of think tanks, advocacy organizations and legal centers, like the<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=National_Right_to_Work_Committee" target="blank" data-beacon="{" p="p" mnid="mnid" entry_text="entry_text" lnid="lnid" citation="citation" mpid="mpid" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgb(46, 112, 97);">National Right to Work Committee</a>, </span>dedicated to destroying organized labor, the most powerful voice for average Americans in the workplace.</font></p></div><div class="content-list-component mt-paragraph text" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: 630px; min-width: initial; width: 630px; line-height: 1.5em; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>On December 1, a new 501(c)(4) “social welfare” organization calling itself “Wisconsin Right to Work,</b>” popped up in Wisconsin promising to “aggressively promote sound public policies and individual freedoms from a grassroots citizen engagement organization.” The language is familiar to those who read press releases cranked out by David Koch’s <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Americans_for_Prosperity" target="blank" data-beacon="{" p="p" mnid="mnid" entry_text="entry_text" lnid="lnid" citation="citation" mpid="mpid" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgb(46, 112, 97);">Americans for Prosperity </a>(AFP) group, so it is no surprise that new group is led by<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Lorri Pickens, who has worked for the Koch brothers for years, most recently as AFP’s Director of State Operations in Washington, D.C. Pickens was previously associate state director for AFP’s Wisconsin chapter from 2005 until 2009. </span>The group is organized as a 501 (c) 4 “social welfare” organization designed to disguise its funders. The group’s website was <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/files/freedomtowork_domain_registration.png" target="blank" data-beacon="{" p="p" mnid="mnid" entry_text="entry_text" lnid="lnid" citation="citation" mpid="mpid" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgb(46, 112, 97);">registered</a> by Kurt Luidhart of the Indiana-based “<b>Prosper Group,</b>” a GOP digital media firm that Walker’s campaign hired in 2014 to run their online fundraising. Luidhart <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/files/luidhart_walker_tweet.png" target="blank" data-beacon="{" p="p" mnid="mnid" entry_text="entry_text" lnid="lnid" citation="citation" mpid="mpid" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgb(46, 112, 97);">attended</a> Walker’s election night party, and has <a href="http://prospergroupcorp.com/blog/june-22-2009/americans-prosperity-patients-united-now-campaign" target="blank" data-beacon="{" p="p" mnid="mnid" entry_text="entry_text" lnid="lnid" citation="citation" mpid="mpid" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgb(46, 112, 97);">previously done contract work</a> with AFP.</font></p></div><div class="content-list-component mt-paragraph text" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: 630px; min-width: initial; width: 630px; line-height: 1.5em; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Kochs and AFP have spent millions in recent years in support of Wisconsin’s GOP leadership. AFP was very active in providing astroturf or phony grassroots support for right to work <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/12/11903/michigan-passes-right-work-containing-verbatim-language-alec-model-bill" target="blank" data-beacon="{" p="p" mnid="mnid" entry_text="entry_text" lnid="lnid" citation="citation" mpid="mpid" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgb(46, 112, 97);">when the state of Michigan took it up</a>, verbatim from the ALEC bill, in 2012.</font></p></div><div class="content-list-component mt-paragraph text" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: 630px; min-width: initial; width: 630px; line-height: 1.5em; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Although AFP says it is not behind the Wisconsin push, the legislation has long been a priority for the Kochs, whose funding network bankrolls AFP as well as<b> ALEC and the <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">American City and County Exchange (ACCE</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">) </span>the new ALEC-style entity for city and county level politicians.</font></p></div><div class="content-list-component mt-paragraph text" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: 630px; min-width: initial; width: 630px; line-height: 1.5em; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ALEC and ACCE are meeting in Washington this week for the annual “State and Nation” policy summit. <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2014/11/12666/alec-buoyed-election-results-lays-blueprint-2015" target="blank" data-beacon="{" p="p" mnid="mnid" entry_text="entry_text" lnid="lnid" citation="citation" mpid="mpid" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgb(46, 112, 97);">CMD recently reported</a> that the top of the agenda items at this week’s meeting is state preemption of local ordinances to raise the wage and a new proposal fresh off the drawing board at the <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Koch-funded <a href="http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2014/08/local-governments-can-increase-job-growth-and-choices-by-passing-right-to-work-laws" target="blank" data-beacon="{" p="p" mnid="mnid" entry_text="entry_text" lnid="lnid" citation="citation" mpid="mpid" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgb(46, 112, 97);">Heritage Foundation</a>for local right to work laws.</span></font></p></div><div class="content-list-component mt-paragraph text" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: 630px; min-width: initial; width: 630px; line-height: 1.5em; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 27px;"><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Wisconsin ALEC Members Enthused</font></strong></p></div><div class="content-list-component mt-paragraph text" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: 630px; min-width: initial; width: 630px; line-height: 1.5em; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While Walker repeatedly during the campaign that had no interest in further divisive union-busting measures, Wisconsin’s two most powerful legislative leaders, both members of ALEC, quickly followed the announcement with words of support.</font></p></div><div class="content-list-component mt-paragraph text" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: 630px; min-width: initial; width: 630px; line-height: 1.5em; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald told the <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Wisconsin State Journal</em>: “Sen. Fitzgerald has previously expressed his openness to a discussion of making right-to-work legislation a priority for the upcoming legislative session.” Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, the former ALEC state chair for Wisconsin, said earlier this year that right to work was not on the agenda for 2015, but celebrated the arrival of the group. “I have long been a supporter of right-to-work and drafted a proposal in the past,” Vos <a href="http://journaltimes.com/news/local/right-to-work-group-launches-after-governor-legislators-say-issue/article_79fb0d9c-4f86-513f-95ae-53b53c4aa014.html" target="blank" data-beacon="{" p="p" mnid="mnid" entry_text="entry_text" lnid="lnid" citation="citation" mpid="mpid" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgb(46, 112, 97);">told</a> the <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Racine Journal Times</em>. “I look forward to a healthy discussion as the case is made for the benefits of being a right-to-work state.”</font></p></div><div class="content-list-component mt-paragraph text" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: 630px; min-width: initial; width: 630px; line-height: 1.5em; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The day after Wisconsin Right to Work launched, ALEC member Rep. Chris Kapenga <a href="http://fox11online.com/2014/12/02/legislator-to-introduce-right-to-work-legislation/" target="blank" data-beacon="{" p="p" mnid="mnid" entry_text="entry_text" lnid="lnid" citation="citation" mpid="mpid" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgb(46, 112, 97);">announced</a> that he would be introducing a right to work bill in 2015.</font></p></div><div class="content-list-component mt-paragraph text" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: 630px; min-width: initial; width: 630px; line-height: 1.5em; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 27px;"><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Pickens Is Longtime Wisconsin Activist</font></strong></p></div><div class="content-list-component mt-paragraph text" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: 630px; min-width: initial; width: 630px; line-height: 1.5em; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Lorri Pickens,</span> <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">the Executive Director of the Wisconsin Right to Life Group, has long been active in Wisconsin politics. She was implicated in the 1997 campaign finance coordination probe that resulted in the harshest penalty ever levied for election violations in the state, and which established the legal precedent for the ongoing<a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2014/05/12473/reporters-guide-john-doe-investigation" target="blank" data-beacon="{" p="p" mnid="mnid" entry_text="entry_text" lnid="lnid" citation="citation" mpid="mpid" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgb(46, 112, 97);">Walker criminal investigation</a>.</span></font></p></div><div class="content-list-component mt-paragraph text" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: 630px; min-width: initial; width: 630px; line-height: 1.5em; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 1997, Pickens was an <a href="http://www.quest-online.com/NewFiles/Quest_Newsroom_46.html" target="blank" data-beacon="{" p="p" mnid="mnid" entry_text="entry_text" lnid="lnid" citation="citation" mpid="mpid" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgb(46, 112, 97);">officer</a> in the group Wisconsin Coalition for <b>Voter Participation</b>, which illegally coordinated $200,000 worth of “issue ad” mailings with the campaign of <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Supreme Court Justice Jon Wilcox. Her husband Brent Pickens was fined $35,000 and barred from politics for five years. Wilcox’s campaign manager, <b>Mark Block,</b> was fined $10,000 and banned from politics for three years. Pickens was not penalized.</span></font></p></div><div class="content-list-component mt-paragraph text" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: 630px; min-width: initial; width: 630px; line-height: 1.5em; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Block would reemerge years later as the head of AFP-Wisconsin, with Lorri Pickens as associate director. Block later gained national attention in 2012 as Herman Cain’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhm-22Q0PuM" target="blank" data-beacon="{" p="p" mnid="mnid" entry_text="entry_text" lnid="lnid" citation="citation" mpid="mpid" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgb(46, 112, 97);">cigarette-puffing</a> presidential campaign manager.</font></p></div><div class="content-list-component mt-paragraph text" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: 630px; min-width: initial; width: 630px; line-height: 1.5em; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Wisconsin Coalition for Voter Participation prosecution — and the 1999 Court of Appeals case that upheld it — <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2014/05/12475/scottwalker-john-doe-darkmoney-sixthings" target="blank" data-beacon="{" p="p" mnid="mnid" entry_text="entry_text" lnid="lnid" citation="citation" mpid="mpid" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgb(46, 112, 97);">set the stage</a> for the criminal investigation into coordination between Walker’s 2012 campaign and Wisconsin Club for Growth, an “independent” group led by Walker’s top campaign advisor R.J. Johnson and longtime Koch associate <b>Eric O’Keefe. </b>O’Keefe has spent an enormous amount of money fighting the probe in state and federal courts and arguing, with limited success, that the <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Wisconsin Coalition for Voter Participation</em> precedent is no longer valid.</font></p></div><div class="content-list-component mt-paragraph text" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: 630px; min-width: initial; width: 630px; line-height: 1.5em; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Notably, Pickens worked for O’Keefe’s Sam Adams Alliance</b> between 2009 and 2010. The Walker probe is currently stalled pending a decision from Wisconsin appellate courts.</font></p></div><div class="content-list-component mt-paragraph text" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: 630px; min-width: initial; width: 630px; line-height: 1.5em; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 27px;"><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Walker Spoke Candidly to Billionaire Funder About Plans to “Divide and Conquer” Public from Private Sector Unions</font></strong></p></div><div class="content-list-component mt-paragraph text" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: 630px; min-width: initial; width: 630px; line-height: 1.5em; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Walker has publicly claimed that he has no intention of extending his anti-union effort to the private sector, even stating in 2012 that “private sector unions are our partners in job creation.” Yet, Walker has sung a different tune when speaking to funders in private. Just days after Walker was first sworn-in as governor, he spoke frankly about his plans to <b><a href="http://www.thenation.com/blog/167840/scott-walker-promised-500k-donor-he-would-divide-and-conquer-unions#" target="blank" data-beacon="{" p="p" mnid="mnid" entry_text="entry_text" lnid="lnid" citation="citation" mpid="mpid" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgb(46, 112, 97);">“divide and conquer”</a> Wisconsin unions in a taped conversation with billionaire GOP financier Diane Hendricks, </b>which became public more than a year later. Hendricks gave Walker $500,000 for his 2012 recall effort, and gave $1 million to the Republican Party of Wisconsin in 2014.</font></p></div><div class="content-list-component mt-paragraph text" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: 630px; min-width: initial; width: 630px; line-height: 1.5em; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 27px;" /></div><div class="content-list-component mt-paragraph text" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: 630px; min-width: initial; width: 630px; line-height: 1.5em; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Any chance we’ll ever get to be a completely red state and work on these unions?,” Hendricks asks in the January 2011 video.</font></p></div><div class="content-list-component mt-paragraph text" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: 630px; min-width: initial; width: 630px; line-height: 1.5em; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Oh, yeah!” says Walker.</font></p></div><div class="content-list-component mt-paragraph text" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: 630px; min-width: initial; width: 630px; line-height: 1.5em; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“And become a right-to-work [state]?,” Hendricks asks.</font></p></div><div class="content-list-component mt-paragraph text" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: 630px; min-width: initial; width: 630px; line-height: 1.5em; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Walker replies: “Well, we’re going to start in a couple weeks with our budget adjustment bill. The first step is we’re going to deal with collective bargaining for all public employee unions, because you use divide and conquer.... That opens the door once we do that.”</font></p></div><div class="content-list-component mt-paragraph text" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: 630px; min-width: initial; width: 630px; line-height: 1.5em; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Some Wisconsin ALEC members have been floating the idea of right to work since <b>Republicans took control of the legislature in 2010.</b></font></p></div><div class="content-list-component mt-paragraph text" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: 630px; min-width: initial; width: 630px; line-height: 1.5em; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In a December 2010 roundtable discussion, Majority Leader Senator Scott Fitzgerald, a former ALEC state chairman, was asked by Jeff Mayers of WisPolitics about making Wisconsin a right to work state.</font></p></div><div class="content-list-component mt-paragraph text" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: 630px; min-width: initial; width: 630px; line-height: 1.5em; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Fitzgerald replied: “I just attended an American Legislative Exchange Council meeting and I was surprised about how much momentum there was in and around that discussion, nothing like I have seen before.”</font></p></div><div class="content-list-component mt-paragraph text" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: 630px; min-width: initial; width: 630px; line-height: 1.5em; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 27px;"><strong style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Here We Go Again”</font></strong></p></div><div class="content-list-component mt-paragraph text" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: 630px; min-width: initial; width: 630px; line-height: 1.5em; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Many in the state feel under assault by out-of-state special interests. “Here we go again” was a common refrain.</font></p></div><div class="content-list-component mt-paragraph text" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; max-width: 630px; min-width: initial; width: 630px; line-height: 1.5em; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; line-height: 27px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kevin Gundlach is the head of the South Central Federation of Labor, which represents private sector unions in the southern part of the state. “All year round, we knock on doors in South Central Wisconsin and we ask people what is on their minds. Never have I heard anyone say ‘we need right to work’. People are worried about low wages, health care, benefits and making ends meet in this economy. Right to work will take us in the opposite direction from where people want to go.”</font></p></div><div class="tag-cloud" data-beacon="{" p="p" mnid="mnid" more="more" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 30px 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 16px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><h2 style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 8px 10px 8px 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5rem; visibility: visible; display: inline-block; color: rgb(153, 153, 153);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">More:</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></h2> <a class="tag" data-beacon="{" p="p" mpid="mpid" href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/Scott%20Walker/" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgb(46, 112, 97); position: relative; padding: 7px; margin: 5px 5px 5px 0px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 5px; display: inline-block; background: rgb(242, 242, 242);">Scott Walker</a> <a class="tag" data-beacon="{" p="p" mpid="mpid" href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/Koch%20Brothers/" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgb(46, 112, 97); position: relative; padding: 7px; margin: 5px 5px 5px 0px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 5px; display: inline-block; background: rgb(242, 242, 242);">Koch Brothers</a> <a class="tag" data-beacon="{" p="p" mpid="mpid" href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/right%20to%20work/" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgb(46, 112, 97); position: relative; padding: 7px; margin: 5px 5px 5px 0px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 5px; display: inline-block; background: rgb(242, 242, 242);">Right To Work</a> <a class="tag" data-beacon="{" p="p" mpid="mpid" href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/american%20legislative%20exchange%20council/" style="box-sizing: inherit; color: rgb(46, 112, 97); position: relative; padding: 7px; margin: 5px 5px 5px 0px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 5px; display: inline-block; background: rgb(242, 242, 242);">American Legislative Exchange Council</a></div></div><div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></font></p><p><a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2016/04/13081/alec-right-work-law-tossed-out-wisconsin"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">http://www.prwatch.org/news/2016/04/13081/alec-right-work-law-tossed-out-wisconsin</font></a></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; line-height: 24px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">WI Dane County Circuit Court Judge William Faust struck down the state’s private-sector “right-to-work” law late today. </b></font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; line-height: 24px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In February 2015, Governor Walker and the Wisconsin legislature pushed through a private-sector right-to-work bill over the objections of thousands of workers and 450 Wisconsin construction firms who rallied against the bill. Workers in right to work states <a href="http://both%20union%20and%20nonunion%20workers%20in%20rtw%20states%20have%20lower%20wages%20and%20fewer%20benefits%2C%20on%20average%2C%20than%20comparable%20workers%20in%20other%20states./" style="text-decoration: none;">have significantly lower wages</a> and fewer benefits. The battle over "right to work" and the future of Wisconsin's workforce was the subject of a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/14/magazine/scott-walker-and-the-fate-of-the-union.html" style="text-decoration: none;"><em>New York Times</em> magazine cover story.</a> </font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; line-height: 24px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b><a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2015/02/12743/wisconsin-introduces-verbatim-alec-right-work-bill" style="text-decoration: none;">CMD quickly exposed the bill</a> as a verbatim American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) measure </b>authored by ALEC member legislators, including ALEC's National Chair and Wisconsin State Senator Leah Vukmir. </font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; line-height: 24px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Wisconsin AFL-CIO, Machinists Local Lodge 1061 in Milwaukee and United Steelworkers District 2 in Menasha filed the lawsuit challenging the measure. The groups argued that the law was an unconstitutional seizure of union property because it required private-sector unions to extend benefits to workers who don't pay dues.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; line-height: 24px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In his <a href="http://legalinsurrection.com/2016/04/state-court-judge-throws-out-wisconsin-right-to-work-law/" style="text-decoration: none;">ruling today</a>, Judge Faust found that the unions had “a legally protectable property interest in the services they perform for their members and non-members.”</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; line-height: 24px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
“When members pay their dues and non-members their fair share fees, all would say the union is building a treasury that it holds as property. When it expends those funds to perform services, as it must, no one would dispute that that money is the union’s property. Plaintiffs will be obligated to spend treasury—their property—on services for which they cannot legally request compensation. This is enough to establish that unions do have a legally protectable property interest at stake,” read the ruling, in part. </font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; line-height: 24px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Right-to-work goes against the Wisconsin principles of fairness and democracy and hurts all of Wisconsin by eroding the strength of our middle class. Right to Work has always been unjust, now it’s proven unconstitutional,” said Phil Neuenfeldt, President of Wisconsin AFL-CIO, late on Friday. </font></p><h2 style="line-height: 2em; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Classic Koch-ALEC Power Play</font></h2><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; line-height: 24px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Madison-based Center for Media and Democracy reported at the time that the passage of right-to-work in Wisconsin was a classic Koch-ALEC power play. </font></p><div class="clearfix" style="line-height: 24px;"><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; line-height: 24px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A short time before ALEC member Rep. Chris Kapenga dropped the bill, </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Koch operative <font color="#ff0000">Lorri Pickens </font></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">announced a new 501(c)(3) "charitable" organization called "Wisconsin Right to Work.</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">" While the group claimed to be "a grassroots citizen engagement organization," it consisted of a P.O. Box and a website registered by </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Kurt Luidhart, an Indiana resident whose media firm had run online fundraising for Walker's campaign. Luidhart, like Pickens, had worked with the Koch frontgroup <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Americans_for_Prosperity" style="text-decoration: none;">Americans for Prosperity</a>.</span></font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; line-height: 24px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">There were so few businesses and citizens in favor of right to work that it was pushed through the legislature with help from a traveling team of out-of-state Koch allies, including an <b>ALEC "scholar" Richard Vedder </b>who rolled out a misleading cookie-cutter study on the alleged benefits of the bill.</font><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> “Expert” James Sherk, with the Koch-funded Heritage Foundation, also flew out to testify. Sherk's effort to devise a local right-to-work strategy and peddle it though ALEC was featured on the front page of the <em><b>New York Times</b></em> in 2015 in an article entitled <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/19/us/politics/foes-of-unions-try-their-luck-in-county-laws.html?r=0" style="text-decoration: none;">"Foes of Unions Try Their Luck at the County Level."</a></font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; line-height: 24px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Greg Mourad from the National Right to Work Committee also flew in. Mourad’s group received $1 million from the Koch brothers' "secret bank" <b>Freedom Partners </b>in 2012. State Senator Chris Larson grilled the Koch crew in the Senator Labor Committee, which abruptly <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/right-to-work-fight-kicks-into-high-gear-with-hearing-rally-b99450797z1-293841141.html" style="text-decoration: none;">cut off testimony and abruptly ended its hearing</a> fearing demonstrators.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; line-height: 24px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Americans for Prosperity popped up <a href="https://americansforprosperity.org/afp-wisconsin-announces-statewide-ad-buy-supporting-right-to-work/" style="text-decoration: none;">its usual TV commercials</a> in support of the bill and Governor Scott Walker, who called right-to-work "a distraction" during the 2014 campaign, then rapidly reversed course to support it shortly after the election. </font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; line-height: 24px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In the meantime, the real grassroots, <a href="http://www.wisconsincontractorcoalition.com/supporters/" style="text-decoration: none;">the actual 450 Wisconsin construction firms</a> that formed a coalition to fight this interference into private sector contracts, were sidelined and ignored.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; line-height: 24px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Wisconsin </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Attorney General Brad Schimel</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> has already said he will appeal the measure, and the issue may be settled by the </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">right-wing Supreme Court which was elected to office with massive expenditures by Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce and Wisconsin Club for Growth, both supporters of the bill. </span></b></font></p><p><span style="line-height: 24px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">- See more at: http://www.prwatch.org/news/<b>2016/04</b>/13081/alec-right-work-law-tossed-out-wisconsin#sthash.JZu1hAYc.dpuf</font></span></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; line-height: 24px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Koch Industries PAC is one of Ryan's top 10 career contributors, <a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.php?cycle=Career&cid=n00004357&type=I" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">according to</a> Open Secrets. It was notable to CMD that Ryan recently did a 180-degree turn on criminal justice reform, shortly after the Kochs signaled their <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2015/12/13002/koch-criminal-justice-reform-trojan-horse" style="text-decoration: none;">support for self-serving criminal justice reform</a>. Ryan has appeared at <a href="http://www.politico.com/story/2013/08/eric-cantor-paul-ryan-koch-brothers-095294" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">several</a> <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/20/us/politics/20koch.html?r=0" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">Koch summits</a>, <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0812/80393_Page3.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">has spoken</a> frequently to the Kochs' Americans for Prosperity group, and <em>Politico's</em> Ken Vogel reported in 2012 that the Kochs <a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0812/80393_Page3.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">may have helped</a> Ryan secure the VP slot on the Romney ticket.</font></p><h2 style="line-height: 2em; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Kochs Go to Bat for U.S. Senator Ron Johnson</font></h2><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; line-height: 24px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In other Koch news, Patrick Marley at the <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/374538301.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;"><em>Milwaukee Journal Sentinel</em></a> reported yesterday the Kochs' <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Americans_for_Prosperity" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">Americans for Prosperity</a> astroturf group would be spending in Russ Feingold's race against incumbent U.S. Senator Ron Johnson.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; line-height: 24px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">They will spend <a href="http://https//www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=30&v=Jn9UsZPXbbw" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">$1 million in four weeks</a> with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jn9UsZPXbbw" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">positive ads</a> trying to raise the profile of Johnson, who is virtually unknown in the state. While Feingold visited every one of Wisconsin's 72 counties every year during his time in the U.S. Senate, Johnson rarely faces the public, <a href="http://www.milwaukeemag.com/2013/09/06/theredphone/" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">preferring</a> to have controlled "telephonic" town hall meetings.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; line-height: 24px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Other dark money groups backed by millionaires and billionaires are prepping to unload on Feingold including <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2015/08/12915/Uihlein-Goes-to-Bat-for-Ron-Johnson-in-Wisconsin-Senate-Race" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">"Restoration PAC,"</a> bankrolled by Wisconsin businessman Richard Uihlein, and "Reform America Fund," bankrolled by toilet magnate Terry Kohler. Uihlein <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/noquarter/uihleins-spend-big-to-help-ron-johnson-defend-senate-seat-from-russ-feingold-b99589973z1-330585321.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">spent</a> some $500,000 on ads supporting Johnson last year.</font></p><div class="clearfix" style="line-height: 24px;"><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; line-height: 24px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Reform America <a href="http://www.fec.gov/fecviewer/CandidateCommitteeDetail.do?candidateCommitteeId=C00581934&tabIndex=1" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">was recently registered by Koch operative Lorri Pickens at the FEC</a>. Kohler has long worked with Scott Walker's campaign guru R.J. Johnson, and was last spotted in an unseemly scandal regarding a <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/watchdogreports/united-sportsmens-group-had-terry-kohler-as-staunch-ally-b9997043z1-223796411.html" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">$500,000 government appropriation</a> for a phony sporting organization packed with Koch insiders.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; line-height: 24px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">This is an unprecedented pattern in Wisconsin politics. Politicians no longer have to travel the state, meet constituents, and earn media if they have millionaires willing to spend on positive ads to boost their poll numbers and attack their opponents.</font></p><h2 style="line-height: 2em; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Will Undisclosed Dark Money Be the Big Winner in the WI Supreme Court Race?</font></h2><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; line-height: 24px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Finally, Koch money could also be in play in a close Wisconsin Supreme Court race where a dark money group called "Wisconsin Alliance for Reform" <a href="http://www.wisdc.org/wialliancereform2016.php" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">is spending $2.6 million on misleading attack ads</a> on Wisconsin Judge Joanne Kloppenburg, according to an estimate from the nonprofit Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; line-height: 24px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">As CMD uncovered, WAR was also registered by Pickens, who has served as a dark money maven in the state for many decades. Pickens was involved in <a href="http://%20http//www.prwatch.org/news/2016/03/13073/war-wisconsin-voters-big-money-streams-wisconsin-supreme-court-race-no-disclosure" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">another Supreme Court race in 1997</a> that resulted in $60,000 in fines for illegal coordination between the committee of Justice Jon Wilcox and a purportedly independent third party group run by Pickens' husband and Mark Block. Pickens has worked for the Koch's Americans for Prosperity and numerous other groups that pushed for a trio of bills in 2015 that laid to waste Wisconsin's anti-corruption laws. One of the bills allowed unlimited undisclosed dark money into Wisconsin campaigns and elections for the first time.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; line-height: 24px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">While the Kochs and their servants are working hard to keep voters in the dark on election day, disclosure in campaign financing is broadly supported by the American public, including Republicans. In <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/06/02/us/politics/money-in-politics-poll.html" style="text-decoration: none;">a recent poll</a>, 77 percent of Americans want limits on money in politics and 88 percent wanted to "make fundamental changes" or "completely rebuild" the campaign finance system.</font></p><h2 style="line-height: 2em; margin-top: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Koch Fingerprints on Wisconsin Voter Supression</font></h2><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; line-height: 24px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Today also marks for many Wisconsin voters their first encounter with the state's <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/11/11117/koch-funded-alec-agenda-works-deny-voting-rights-brave-new-film-highlights-voter-" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">Koch-backed and ALEC-inspired</a><b> voter ID law </b>which <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2014/09/12614/voter-id-wisconsin" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">threatens to disenfranchise</a> up to 300,000 eligible voters who lack needed ID.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; line-height: 24px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">While the law explicitly requires a public campaign to educate voters about new ID requirements, it is no coincidence that the state legislature <a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/wisconsin-voter-id-law-education-campaign-state-hasnt-funded" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">hasn't appropriated money</a> to run public service ads in this cycle. Democracy advocates will be on the look-out for problems, and voters facing problems can call an emergency hotline: <strong>1-866- OUR-VOTE</strong>.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; line-height: 24px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Despite a <a href="http://prwatch.org/news/2012/06/11569/rampant-voter-fraud-wisconsin-or-martians-are-coming" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">near-total absence</a> of in-person voter fraud, voter ID was passed in 2011 but <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2014/10/12627/wisconsin-alec-inspired-voter-id-put-hold-us-supreme-court" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">immediately drew</a> legal challenges and a court injunction. An all-Republican panel of 7th Circuit justices reinstated voter ID just a few weeks before the November 2014 election. When the full court—whose eleventh seat has been vacant since 2010—heard the case, it <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2014/09/12614/voter-id-wisconsin" target="blank" style="text-decoration: none;">issued</a> a 5-5 decision split along party lines, leaving the panel's ruling intact.</font></p><p style="margin: 1.5em 0px; line-height: 24px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Backed by the same political network that pushed voter ID through in the first place, the Senator who has been <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/obama-nominates-madison-lawyer-for-7th-circuit-vacancy-b99650722z1-365064531.html" target="_blank" style="text-decoration: none;">blocking that 7th Circuit appointment</a> for nearly six years is none other than Ron Johnson.</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="line-height: 19.2px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="line-height: 24px;">- See more at: http://www.prwatch.org/news/2016/04/13076/kochs-make-news-wisconsin-voters-threaten-turn-races-upside-down#sthash.ED7242fY.dpuf</span>
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