vukmir rep

<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">VUKMIR BUSTED FOR LETTING LOBBYIST WRITE BILL, AG BOGUS STATE CONST IMMUNITY TO FOIA; beat by Baldwin</font></font><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">busted, blows premise (501c?)
</font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="n fn"><span class="full-name"><span class="given-name" style="font-weight: normal;" /></span></span></font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://truthout.org/articles/documents-from-open-records-lawsuit-further-undermine-claims-that-alec-is-legislator-driven/">https://truthout.org/articles/documents-from-open-records-lawsuit-further-undermine-claims-that-alec-is-legislator-driven/</a><b>
</b></font></font></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="5">new documents released as a result of the Center for Media and

Democracy’s open records lawsuit against American Legislative Exchange

Council (ALEC) vice-chair Senator Leah Vukmir provide more evidence that

lobbyists and special interest groups are calling the shots within

ALEC, undermining that group’s latest PR spin that it is a

“legislator-driven” organization.</font>

</font></font></font></p><p /><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The previously-undisclosed records from ALEC’s Spring 2013 meeting show a Florida-based <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/State_Policy_Network">State Policy Network</a>

lobbying group instructing Senator Vukmir and other legislators to

introduce a “model” resolution for legislators to thwart Medicaid

expansion in their state, and even writing an entire “script” for

legislators to parrot in the ALEC task force meeting — contradicting

ALEC’s claims to reporters last year that only legislators propose model

policy, and demonstrating that such claims are merely a talking point.</font></span></font></font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font></font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CMD long suspected Vukmir had records pertaining to the Medicaid

resolution, and her initial failure to disclose them helped prompt CMD’s

lawsuit. It also motivated CMD to continue pursuing the case even after

Senator Vukmir tried to claim immunity from any suit to enforce the

open records law. </font></b></font></font></p><div class="truth-23fea2ea795fa096673bacf221803473 truth-post-content-high" id="truth-23fea2ea795fa096673bacf221803473"><div class="truth-post-content-high" id="truth-1267782927"><div class="callout inline-callout callout--subscribe callout--light" id="truth-255392" data-callout-id="255392" data-callout-theme="light" data-callout-placement="Post Content - High" data-callout-title="Never miss another story"><div class="gf_browser_gecko gform_wrapper gform_wrapper_original_id_1 subscribe-form_wrapper input-group_wrapper gform_legacy_markup_wrapper" id="gform_wrapper_1980052621">

                        </div>

</div></div></div>

<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Throughout last year Senator Vukmir repeatedly <a href="https://www.thewheelerreport.com/wheeler_docs/files/0918vukmir.pdf">claimed</a>

in statements to the press that she had “produced all records subject

to [the] open records request” that gave rise to CMD’s case. However, as

part of the settlement (where Vukmir agreed to pay $2,500 in damages),

she not only released records pertaining to the Medicaid resolution, but

also more than 100 pages of other documents that had been withheld. </font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Read the documents <a href="https://www.prwatch.org/files/vukmir_docs_cmd_apr3.pdf">here</a>.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong>“Lobbying Group Pulling Legislators’ Strings”</strong></font>

<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At ALEC’s Spring Task Force Summit a year ago, Vukmir and other board

members voted to approve a policy that only legislators — and not

lobbyists — can introduce model bills or resolutions, part of ALEC’s

effort to re-brand itself as a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dana-milbank-alec-stands-its-ground/2013/12/04/ad593320-5d2c-11e3-bc56-c6ca94801fac_story.html">“legislator-driven organization.”</a></font></span>

<b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But at the same meeting, Vukmir and other legislators agreed to

introduce a model resolution under the direction of a lobbying group. </font></b>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In advance of the Task Force Summit, Christie Herrera, vice-president

of policy at the Florida-based SPN affiliate Foundation for Government

Accountability, <a href="https://www.prwatch.org/files/herrera_vukmir.pdf">asked Vukmir</a>

to sponsor a resolution opposing Medicaid expansion. She sent Vukmir a

draft of the resolution, but acknowledged “it may be tweaked a bit,

based on SPN member suggestions.” </font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Herrera then <a href="https://www.prwatch.org/files/herrera_emails.pdf">wrote to Vukmir and other legislators</a> thanking them for sponsoring the resolution, and providing specific instructions about what to say.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Each of you will need to introduce the bill,” Herrera wrote. “As

such I have written opening remarks that are also attached to this

e-mail.”</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The remarks were more than mere talking points. Herrera wrote an

entire script for legislators to parrot. She wrote that “ALEC had a

(ridiculous) concern that the task force debate would be ‘one-sided,’ so

I have focused each of your remarks on addressing at least one

pro-expansion talking point” — yet all the remarks ultimately urged the

corporate lobbyists and legislators in attendance to adopt the

resolution.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Herrera told Oklahoma Senator Kim David to say, “I have spoken to

many constituents about whether our state should expand Medicaid.” She

told Arizona Senator Nancy Barto to claim that in her state, “we’ve

already experimented with Medicaid expansion, to disastrous results.”

Herrera told Missouri Representative Sue Allen to repeat the line, “My

cosponsors and I hope that this resolution can serve as a template for

other lawmakers who choose to oppose Medicaid expansion with a formal

resolution.”</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Vukmir did not plan to attend the task force meeting where the

resolution was considered, but other records show her sending a text

message asking how it went. Herrera responded: “Passed unanimously.

Great job Madame Sponsor!”</font>

<b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Even the Wisconsin State Journal said that the docs <a href="https://host.madison.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/documents-released-in-open-records-lawsuit-show-lobbying-group-pulling/article_1e33edf4-857d-507c-92c7-ec6948c5fc02.html">show</a> the “lobbying group pulling legislators strings.”</font></b>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong>Additional Evidence of ALEC Bill Tracking</strong></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.prwatch.org/files/policy_report_stfs_2013.pdf">Other records</a>

describe task force leaders reporting to the ALEC board about the

introduction and passage of ALEC model legislation in state legislatures

— despite ALEC’s recent claims that it doesn’t track its model bills as

they are adopted in states across the country.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ALEC <a href="https://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-04-30/did-the-american-legislative-exchange-council-give-me-the-full-story">told Bloomberg News in 2012</a>

that they don’t track the introduction and adoption of ALEC model

bills. Last year, when Brookings Institute fellow Molly Jackman was <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/research/articles/2013/12/06-american-legislative-exchange-council-jackman">researching ALEC</a>, its staff <a href="https://twitter.com/MollyJackman/status/427888688203173888">told her</a>

ALEC doesn’t track its legislation. ALEC and its staff took to twitter

in late 2013 to repeat the claim, publicly, that “we don’t track our

model policies.” </font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As CMD’s Nick Surgey <a href="https://www.prwatch.org/news/2014/01/12372/ALEC_Denials_of_Bill_Tracking">wrote in January</a>,

ALEC’s public denials about its obvious bill tracking activities may

signal an IRS investigation into the group. Bill tracking adds to the

evidence that ALEC is engaged in lobbying, which ALEC is supposed to

keep to a minimum to preserve its 501(c)(3) charitable status</span>; ALEC has

repeatedly told the IRS that it engages in zero lobbying. CMD, Common

Cause, Voters Legislative Transparency Project, and Clergy Voice have

filed complaints with the IRS challenging ALEC’s charitable status for,

among other things, engaging in excessive lobbying.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Herrera, the Foundation for Government Accountability vice-president

of policy who gave Vukmir the anti-Medicaid expansion resolution,

previously worked as director of ALEC’s Health and Human Services task

force, where she <a href="https://www.prwatch.org/files/FCHCA_email.pdf">urged the introduction</a> of <a href="https://www.democraticdiva.com/2011/08/12/alec-is-like-a-lobbyist-godzilla-on-steroids-but-they-dont-have-to-register-as-lobbyists-in-az/">ALEC legislation</a> in states like Wisconsin and <a href="https://youtu.be/qmcfocz9ld4?t=1m39s">acknowledged lobbying</a> in states across the country to support legislation to repeal or block the Affordable Care Act. </font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong>Accusations Are Not “Unfounded” if True</strong></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Senator Vukmir’s release of the records last week was the culmination of an 11 month legal battle. </span>CMD <a href="https://www.prwatch.org/news/2013/06/12140/cmd-files-open-records-suit-against-alec-board-member-sen-leah-vukmir">filed suit</a>

against Vukmir in May of 2013 after suspecting that she had not

released all records pertaining to ALEC’s Spring meeting. CMD’s Research

Director, Nick Surgey, had sought Vukmir’s text messages related to

ALEC’s spring meeting. In response, the state Senator divulged one set

of text messages with Herrera discussing the sponsorship of the

resolution — yet claimed she had no emails or other records pertaining

to the meeting. Because of that exchange and because Vukmir is on the

National Board of ALEC and attended the meeting, CMD was convinced that

she had withheld records responsive to our request.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Senator Vukmir <a href="https://www.thewheelerreport.com/wheeler_docs/files/0918vukmir.pdf">publicly insisted</a> that she had no records in her possession, and then tried to throw up every possible roadblock to CMD’s lawsuit: her staff <a href="https://host.madison.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/process-server-says-senator-s-aide-chased-and-pushed-him/article_a0e198fc-b6d1-524d-ab21-d848f1a2d352.html">berated and chased a process server</a>

who tried serving her with court documents</b>,<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> and then, with the backing

of Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen’s office, she made an unprecedented

claim that she was <a href="https://www.prwatch.org/news/2013/09/12242/wisconsin-attorney-general-seeks-vitiate-open-records-law-protect-alec%E2%80%99s-national">entirely immune from lawsuit</a>,

based on a novel reading of the Wisconsin Constitution</span>. If her legal

theory were upheld, it would undermine the public records law, because

legislators could never be held accountable for their failure to comply

with their open records responsibilities. </font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">After extensive briefing on the subject of the state constitution’s legislative privilege, hundreds of hours of legal work, and <a href="https://www.prwatch.org/news/2013/09/12250/wisconsin-media-defends-state-open-records-law">significant media attention</a>, <b>it turns out that CMD was right: Senator Vukmir had failed to disclose over a hundred pages of public records.</b></font>

<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Despite the settlement and award of damages to CMD for Vukmir’s

failure to disclose the documents earlier,<b> ALEC spokesman Bill Meierling</b>

told the press the suit was a “yearlong witch hunt based on unfounded

accusations.”</font></span>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>However, as the evidence demonstrates, ALEC’s spin again rings false.

Accusations aren’t “unfounded” if they turn out to be true, and filing a

lawsuit to enforce and defend state open government laws is hardly a

“witch hunt.</b>”</font></p>

<hr /><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Read the documents <a href="https://www.prwatch.org/files/vukmir_docs_cmd_apr3.pdf">here</a>.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></p><p><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></font></font></font></font></p><p><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">dems:</font></font></font></font></p><p><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">Leah Vukmir: I'm "Proud" Of Taking ALEC Money And Advancing ALEC's Agenda

Sep 25, 2018
For Immediate Release
Monday, September 24, 2018
Contact: Brad Bainum, bradb@wisdems.org

Leah Vukmir: I‘m “Proud” Of Taking ALEC Money And Advancing ALEC’s Agenda

In a new interview, Vukmir says she proudly worked for ALEC at the expense of Wisconsin working families

MADISON —<b> In a new interview, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Leah Vukmir responded to a HuffPost report that she on at least 24 occasions championed legislation inspired by model bills drafted by the corporate special interest group ALEC</b>, telling Capitol City Sunday‘s Emilee Fannon that she is <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“proud” of her work to advance the agenda set forth by ALEC’s corporate members</span>.

    “I‘m proud to have been a part of [ALEC] — I was a national chairman.”  

In exchange for Vukmir‘s work for ALEC, Vukmir collected nearl<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">y $40,000 in campaign contributions from ALEC corporate members — a brazen quid pro quo that benefited Vukmir and her corporate backers at the expense of Wisconsin families.</span>

Also this weekend, <b>Vukmir again recommitted to repealing the Affordable Care Act and gutting federal protections for Wisconsinites with pre-existing conditions</b>, if she’s elected, saying, “I will use my background as a nurse to once and for all replace Obamacare.” 2.4 million Wisconsinites have pre-existing conditions.

WATCH Vukmir defend her record of working for ALEC:
</font></font></font></font></p><p><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></font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">huffpo
</font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Top ALEC Leader Has A U.S. Senate Seat In Her Sights
Leah Vukmir helped lead the business-friendly American Legislative Exchange Council of state legislators. Now she’s the Wisconsin GOP’s nominee for Senate.
Kevin Robillard

Sep 17, 2018,
Wisconsin GOP state Sen. Leah Vukmir, now her party's nominee against Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, was once ALEC's national chairwoman.

Hundreds of Republican state legislators are already members of the American Legislative Exchange Council, a Koch network-backed conservative nonprofit that has played a major role in pushing laws restricting voting rights, rolling back regulations, pushing ‘Stand Your Ground’ laws, privatizing prisons and sabotaging Obamacare over the past decade.

But one of the group’s top leaders might soon reach a higher level: The U.S. Senate.

<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Wisconsin state Sen. Leah Vukmir, who is the GOP nominee to challenge Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin in November, isn’t running from her ties to ALEC ― as the group is known for short ― on the campaign trail. Her ties to the group run too deep: She’s been a member since 2004 and a board member since 2013. She also served as the group’s national chairwoman in 2016 and won an award for “legislator of the year” in 2009.</span>

A HuffPost review of Vukmir’s legislative record since 2011 found she had introduced, co-sponsored or authored 24 different pieces of legislation that seem to draw directly from ALEC model policies. The bills allowed nursing homes to conceal records of neglect and abuse, barred labor requirements for public works projects, waded into wars over free speech on college campuses and required legislative approval to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.

And in return, Vukmir has collected about $40,000 worth of donations to her federal and state campaigns from ALEC or its corporate partners, including a $1,000 check from ALEC’s CEO in 2017.

“I’ve been involved in a national organization called ALEC ― American Legislative Exchange Council. I embrace it even though the left likes to call it a big Koch brothers conspiracy organization,” Vukmir said last year during a meeting with a group of College Republicans. At a meeting of the Kenosha County GOP a few months earlier, Vukmir described ALEC as “an organization that stands for everything I’ve ever campaigned on from day one when I campaigned to be a member of the State Assembly.”

Baldwin, the most progressive of the 10 Democrats representing states won by President Donald Trump in 2016, has a steady lead in the contest, according to political prognosticators and public polling. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee have not spent any money in the contest, although groups backed by the Koch network have continued to target Baldwin.

<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">ALEC, which is funded by a slew of major corporations like Pfizer, FedEx and T-Mobile, is best-known for bringing together major companies and Republican state legislators to write “model policies” for state legislatures to adopt. (The group claims to be bipartisan, but its known leadership is almost entirely members of the GOP.) But Vukmir’s ascendancy and her potential election would mark the latest display of how ties to ALEC can help GOP legislators advance their careers.</span>

Baldwin’s allies are planning to make Vukmir’s ties to the nonprofit a central part of their fall campaign, and her campaign has already released two television ads on Vukmir’s ties to the group.

“Wisconsin’s U.S. Senate race is about who will put Wisconsin first, and Leah Vukmir has spent her past 16 years in Madison working for her corporate special interest backers and legislating ALEC’s agenda at the expense of Wisconsin families,” said Brad Bainum, a spokesman for the Wisconsin Democratic Party. “It’s clear that Leah Vukmir is not on Wisconsin’s side.”

Vukmir’s campaign responded by noting Baldwin has also taken donations from executives and companies with ties to ALEC.

“Sen. Baldwin has taken over $20,000 this election cycle from companies or employees with ties to ALEC,” said Jess Ward, Vukmir’s campaign manager. “This is what Wisconsinites hate about swampy Washington politicians like Sen. Baldwin.”

While ALEC has existed since the 1970s, liberal skepticism of the group peaked during the Obama era, as Republicans locked out of power on the federal level turned to the states. Democrats and progressives have blamed ALEC for things like the spread of laws cracking down on illegal immigration and strict voter identification requirements. <b>Republicans including former EPA Administrator Scott Pruit, Arizona Reps. Debbie Lesko and Andy Biggs and Georgia Rep. Doug Collins were members of the group while serving in state legislatures.</b>
</font></font></font></p><p>===</p><p><font color="#000000"><a href="https://www.prwatch.org/news/2018/11/13419/kochs-new-super-pac-loses-six-nine-incumbents-key-targeted-house-races">https://www.prwatch.org/news<b>/2018/11</b>/13419/kochs-new-super-pac-loses-six-nine-incumbents-key-targeted-house-races</a>
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Announced in September <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/10/politics/koch-brothers-launch-new-super-pac-afp-action/index.html" rel="noopener" target="_blank">with great fanfare</a>,

the Koch's new super PAC, Americans for Prosperity Action (AFP Action),

achieved mixed results in the fifteen races it targeted in the 2018

midterm elections.</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Most significant, it lost six House races against incumbents,

constituting a 12-vote swing that was key to the Democrats taking

control of the U.S House.</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">AFP Action, the new super PAC arm of its astroturf operation, <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Americans_for_Prosperity" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Americans for Prosperity</a> (AFP), reported spending between<b> $75,000 and $300,000 in each race.</b></font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Koch's undoubtedly knew that these were key to the Democrats

winning a majority in the House. Most of the money in these races was

spent on TV and digital advertising.</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In Iowa, a state carried by Trump in 2016, both incumbents backed by

AFP Action were knocked off by challengers. Given the considerable

advantage of holding office, more than 90 percent of incumbents are

typically reelected.</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The story was the same in Illinois, Minnesota, Utah, and Virginia:

AFP Action supported incumbents who were defeated by challengers. In

three House races, in Ohio, Texas, and Washington, AFP Action's targeted

Republican incumbents won.</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">AFP Action also spent between $1.5 million and $6 million each on five U.S. Senate and three gubernatorial races.</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font><p><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">AFP Action candidates won in two Senate races, with Koch darling Josh

Hawley beating incumbent Sen. Claire McCaskill in Missouri and

Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn taking down former Gov. Phil Bredesen in

Tennessee.</font></b></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">But AFP Action lost big in Wisconsin where its candidate <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Leah_Vukmir" rel="noopener" target="_blank">Leah Vukmir</a>

--</span> an American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) champion -- got

crushed by over ten percentage points by<b> incumbent Sen. Tammy Baldwin

(D). </b>And AFP Action lost in Montana after incumbent Sen. Jim Tester

squeaked out a victory over challenger<b> Matt Rosendale (R).</b></font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Florida's Senate race between Gov. Rick Scott (R) and Bill Nelson (D) is too close to call.</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font><p><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the governor's race in Wisconsin, a state Trump narrowly won,

Democratic candidate Tony Evers beat incumbent and former Presidential

hopeful, Scott Walker. Altogether AFP Action spent about $6 million in

ads on the two races in Wisconsin, not counting opening offices, hiring

staff, and canvassing, with final figures still to come.</font></b></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">AFP Action also lost the open seat governor's race in Nevada, a state

where it spent near $3 million, supporting Republican <b>Adam Laxalt

</b>against Democrat Steve Sisolak.</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">AFP Action backed the gubernatorial winner in Florida, another open

seat, Ron DeSantis beating Andrew Gillum</span>, although that race may still

end up getting a recount.</font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">AFP spent millions on door-to-door, mail, and digital appeals to its

list and the public, but the full amount cannot be known. In addition,

as the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) <a href="https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2018/11/02/team-koch-steps-up-game-veterans-astroturf-operation-2018-midterms/" rel="noopener" target="_blank">reported</a>,<b>

Concerned Veterans for America Action -- a project of AFP Action --

also aided Rosendale, DeSantis, Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA), and

Rep. Ted Budd (R-NC).</b></font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><p><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></font></font></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">omg</font></font></font></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">date? 2017?</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><div class="content p" itemprop="articleBody" ringside="Ringside" regular="Regular" a="A" b="B" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="box-sizing: border-box; counter-reset: contents 0;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; letter-spacing: -0.0125em; line-height: 1.67;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">MADISON, Wis. — During an interview this morning on <b>Wisconsin </b>Public Radio’s “Joy Cardin Show,” <b>Republican Rep. Jesse Kremer admitted “I agree” with critics who call his Campus Speech Suppression bill unconstitutional</b>.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> His scheme could expel students who exercise their First Amendment rights to criticize racists, sexists and homophobic provocateurs brought on campuses. In addition, the bill could restrict faculty from doing research and discussing research on public policy issues facing the state and the nation.</span></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1.5em auto; letter-spacing: -0.0125em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The Republicans’ Campus Speech Suppression bill is worse than big government, it’s Big Brother,” said Scot Ross, One Wisconsin Now Executive Director. “Jesse Kremer admitted the bill is unconstitutional and has shown this is about the Republican legislature further eroding the voices of students on campus and suppressing faculty from scientific discussion.”</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1.5em auto; letter-spacing: -0.0125em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>After seizing control of state government in 2011, Robin Vos and Republicans passed a series of unconstitutional attacks on student voting </b>by severely limiting the way in which students could access the polls — moves that were thrown out by a federal judge in 2016 in the case <em style="box-sizing: border-box;">One Wisconsin Institute v. Thomsen</em>. Next, the Republicans killed the funding for the United Council of UW Students, because the non-partisan group focused on registering and mobilizing students to exercise their right to vote.</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1.5em auto; letter-spacing: -0.0125em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Kremer, et al, Campus Speech Suppression bill would also restrict the ability of University of Wisconsin faculty and professors to comment on public issues, which One Wisconsin Now called “the kind of speech suppression reserved for dictatorships.”</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1.5em auto; letter-spacing: -0.0125em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Not only would this bill <b>expel</b> students for using their constitutional right to free speech, but also it could inhibit professors from conducting research and releasing research on critical public policy issues,” said Ross. “The Republican authors of this scheme want to turn the University of Wisconsin into island around the state where the U.S. Constitution no longer applies.”</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1.5em auto; letter-spacing: -0.0125em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Several times during the show, Kremer claimed Democratic legislators would be cosponsoring the bill and voting for it if it comes to the floor. Ross said that was preposterous and that any Democratic legislator who supported the bill would likely face enormous backlash.</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1.5em auto; letter-spacing: -0.0125em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Progressives will stand up to any elected official who threatens free speech in Wisconsin,” said Ross. “Kremer and his Republican co-authors are going to cost the taxpayers of Wisconsin a fortune in legal fees and damages if they are power hungry enough to actually try and ram this bill through.”</font></font></font></p></div><footer class="article-footer center" ringside="Ringside" regular="Regular" a="A" b="B" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" style="box-sizing: border-box; position: relative; text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"># # #</font></font></font></div><p class="em" style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1.5em auto; letter-spacing: -0.0125em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One Wisconsin Now is a statewide communications network specializing in effective earned media and online organizing to advance progressive leadership and values.</font></font></font></p></footer></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">---</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://onewisconsinnow.org/press/new-republican-safe-spaces-for-racists-legislation-threatens-students-with-expulsion-for-declaring-hate-speech-not-welcome-on-campuses/">http://onewisconsinnow.org/press/new-republican-safe-spaces-for-racists-legislation-threatens-students-with-expulsion-for-declaring-hate-speech-not-welcome-on-campuses/</a></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><aside class="hidden-sm-down" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><div class="row" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px -16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap;"><div class="col-6" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 16px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; position: relative; width: 480px; flex: 0 0 50%; max-width: 50%;"><div class="left" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><div class="text smal graf bold uppr" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; font-weight: 800; text-transform: uppercase; line-height: 1.5 !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE</font></font></font></div><div class="text smal graf semi uppr" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-transform: uppercase; line-height: 1.5 !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">MAY 3, 2017</font></font></font></div></div></div><div class="col-6" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px 16px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; position: relative; width: 480px; flex: 0 0 50%; max-width: 50%;"><div class="rite" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-align: right !important;"><div class="text smal graf bold uppr" style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; font-weight: 800; text-transform: uppercase; line-height: 1.5 !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">MEDIA CONTACT</font></font></font></div><div class="text smal graf semi" style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: 1.5 !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Mike Browne, Deputy Director</font></span></font></font></div><div class="text smal graf semi" style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: 1.5 !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a class="link" href="mailto:Mike@OneWisconsinNow.org?subject=RE%3A%20New%20Republican%20%E2%80%98Safe%20Spaces%20for%20Racists%E2%80%99%20Legislation%20Threatens%20Students%20With%20Expulsion%20for%20Declaring%20Hate%20Speech%20Not%20Welcome%20on%20Campuses" target="_blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; transition: color 125ms ease 0s; outline: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Mike@OneWisconsinNow.org</font></a></font></font></div><div class="text smal graf semi" style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; line-height: 1.5 !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a class="link" href="tel:6084443483" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none; cursor: pointer; transition: color 125ms ease 0s; outline: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">(608) 444-3483</font></a></font></font></div></div></div></div></aside><div class="divr medm" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; height: 1rem;"><h1 class="text slim larg cenr" style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; letter-spacing: -0.03em; line-height: 1.333;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">New Republican ‘Safe Spaces for Racists’ Legislation Threatens Students With Expulsion for Declaring Hate Speech Not Welcome on Campuses</font></font></font></h1><div class="divr medm" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; height: 1rem;"><div class="row" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px -16px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap;"><div class="col-12 col-md-8 offset-md-2" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 0px 160px; padding: 0px 16px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; position: relative; width: 639.984px; flex: 0 0 66.6667%; max-width: 66.6667%;"><h2 class="text lede emph cenr" style="text-align: left; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: -0.025em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman">U.S. Senate Hopeful Leah Vukmir Out to Prove She Can Make a Bad Idea Even Worse</font></font></font></h2></div></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; letter-spacing: -0.0125em; line-height: 1.67;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">MADISON, Wis. — </span><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Republican efforts to create “safe spaces” for conservative provocateurs to promote racist, sexist, xenophobic and homophobic ideologies on university campuses hit a new low today with a bill authored by State Sen. Leah Vukmir. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">According to the </span><a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8LurBVUNQZfTU4yc1NGYXJWNzg" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; position: relative; padding-left: 2px; padding-right: 2px; border-bottom: 1px dotted;">provisions of the proposal</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> unveiled today, students could be expelled from a state university or technical college for organizing a protest to “dissuade” speakers from appearing on campuses</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. Administrators would also be prohibited from speaking out to support or oppose public policies that affect the University of Wisconsin System or state technical colleges.</span></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1.5em auto; letter-spacing: -0.0125em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“Leah Vukmir</b> is apparently trying to prove that she can take a bad idea and make it even worse,” commented Scot Ross, Executive Director of One Wisconsin Now. “This scheme literally threatens students with expulsion from school for publicly declaring racism has no place on campuses and gags administrators from advocating for their schools.”</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1.5em auto; letter-spacing: -0.0125em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Among the egregious provisions of the bill is the requirement that, “No person may threaten an invited speaker or threaten to <span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600;">organize protests</span> or riots or to incite violence <span style="box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600;">with the purpose to dissuade</span> or intimidate an invited speaker from attending a campus event.” The language is so broad that it could even cover student social media posts or attempts to persuade that are clearly protected by the First Amendment.</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1.5em auto; letter-spacing: -0.0125em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The bill further declares that, “… administrators must remain neutral on public policy controversies.</b>” Controversies regarding the university in recent years have included state funding, campus sexual assault, and campus speech.</font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1.5em auto; letter-spacing: -0.0125em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>For violators of the provisions, the bill mandates that the Board of Regents overseeing the University of Wisconsin and Technical College System Board impose a disciplinary process that includes suspensions or expulsion for students and pay cuts or termination for administrators.</b></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1.5em auto; letter-spacing: -0.0125em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">An earlier proposal being circulated for legislative sponsorship by Rep. Jesse Kremer along with Speaker Robin Vos, Rep Dave Murphy and Sen. Sheila Harsdorf could expel students who exercise their First Amendment rights to criticize racists, sexists and homophobic provocateurs brought on campuses</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. In addition, the bill could restrict faculty from doing research and discussing research on public policy issues facing the state and the nation.</span></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1.5em auto; letter-spacing: -0.0125em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a radio appearance the primary author of the bill, Rep. Kremer, agreed with critics that his<b> proposal, originating from a right wing think tank in Arizona, is likely unconstitutional.[goldwater inst?]</b></font></font></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 1.5em auto; letter-spacing: -0.0125em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Ross </b>concluded, “Banning students from using their First Amendment rights to create safe spaces for racism, sexism, xenophobia and homophobia on campuses is flat out unconstitutional. It should be the legislators promoting these ridiculous bills who are threatened with expulsion.”...</font></font></font></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></div></div></div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">==</font></font></font></p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">

</font></font><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">gotta be koch $</font></font></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">===</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="" segoe="Segoe" ui="UI" calibri="Calibri" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap" background-color="background-color" rgba="rgba">After vicious GOP primary, ALEC's "Iron Lady" Leah Vukmir will take on </span><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/TammyBaldwin?src=hash" data-query-source="hashtag_click" class="PrettyLink hashtag customisable" dir="ltr" rel="tag" data-scribe="element:hashtag" style="background-color: rgba(160, 200, 220, 0.12); text-decoration-line: none; outline: 0px;" segoe="Segoe" ui="UI" calibri="Calibri" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap"><span class="PrettyLink-prefix">#</span><span class="PrettyLink-value">TammyBaldwin</span></a><span style="" segoe="Segoe" ui="UI" calibri="Calibri" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" white-space="white-space" pre-wrap="pre-wrap" background-color="background-color" rgba="rgba"> in the U.S. Senate Race in Wisconsin reports CMD's </span></font></p>

<h1 class="print-title"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></h1><div><a href="https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2019/03/06/former-wisconsin-legislator-leah-vukmir-joins-national-taxpayers-union/3077497002/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2019/03/06/former-wisconsin-legislator-leah-vukmir-joins-national-taxpayers-union/3077497002/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">usatoday jrnl sentinel</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">r<span style="background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);">epublican Leah Vukmir has kept a relatively low public profile since losing to Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin in November.</span></font></div><p class="speakable-p-2 p-text" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But that's about to change.</font></p><p class="p-text" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Vukmir, a former state legislator from Brookfield, will join the National Taxpayers Union as vice president of state affairs, the conservative group announced Wednesday.</font></p><p class="p-text" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“We have been searching for a way to expand the capabilities of our state-level advocacy efforts, and Leah has proven herself over the course of her career to be an effective champion for taxpayers,” Pete Sepp, NTU president, said in a statement. “It’s thrilling to have a legislative veteran like Leah Vukmir on our team, and we look forward to her building our influence in statehouses around the country.”</font></p><p class="p-text" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);"><span class="exclude-from-newsgate"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: 700; margin-right: 3px;">RELATED: </span><a data-track-label="inline|intext|n/a" href="https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/elections/2018/10/15/study-contrasts-tammy-baldwin-and-leah-vukmir-battle-u-s-senate-wisconsin/1600743002/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">A study in contrasts: Tammy Baldwin and Leah Vukmir battle for U.S. Senate in Wisconsin</a></font></span></p><p class="p-text" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);"><span class="exclude-from-newsgate"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: 700; margin-right: 3px;">RELATED: </span><a data-track-label="inline|intext|n/a" href="https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/elections/2018/11/06/wisconsin-us-senate-election-results-tammy-baldwin-vs-leah-vukmir/1862038002/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Democrat Tammy Baldwin wins U.S. Senate re-election over Republican Leah Vukmir</a></font></span></p><p class="p-text" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Vukmir was a member of the Wisconsin Assembly from 2002 to 2010 and was in the state Senate from 2011 to 2018, carving out a reputation as a fiscal conservative and abortion foe. </font></p><p class="p-text" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">She also rose to prominence nationally in roles with the American Legislative Exchange Council, which works with corporations and conservatives to write model legislation that can be introduced in state legislatures throughout the country.</font></p><p class="p-text" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Last year, Vukmir won the GOP nomination for U.S. Senate after a spirited primary with businessman Kevin Nicholson. She lost in the general election to Baldwin as Democrats swept statewide races.</font></p><p class="p-text" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In her new role, Vukmir will "meet with state legislators and policymakers to promote pro-taxpayer policy" and will be involved in policy advocacy on budget and tax issues, according to a release from the National Taxpayers Union.</font></p><cta-atoms-container-inline style="display: block; margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);"><p class="p-text" style="margin: 0px 0px 15px 60px; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-stretch: normal; line-height: 22px; background-color: rgb(250, 250, 250);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“I’m excited to join the National Taxpayers Union team,” Vukmir said in a statement. "Advocating for taxpayers was a top priority of mine as a state lawmaker and as a grassroots activist, and I look forward to amplifying their voices at statehouses across America."</font></p><div style=""><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> =</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">pow vote suppress (student)</font></p><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/right-wing/voter-id-suppressed-vote-exactly-wisconsin-republicans-predicted"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/right-wing/voter-id-suppressed-vote-exactly-wisconsin-republicans-predicted</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">mary b cmd</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A</span><a href="https://elections.wisc.edu/news/voter-id-study/" target="blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none;"> new study</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> of registered voters in Dane and Milwaukee Counties who did not vote in the 2016 presidential election found that approximately 17,000-23,000 eligible voters in those counties were prevented or deterred from voting by</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Wisconsin’s voter ID law. </span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Due to financial constraints, the social scientists were only able to do a study of two of Wisconsin’s 72 counties, but the authors say that extrapolating statewide as many as 45,000 people stayed home because of the law.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Donald Trump won the state of Wisconsin <a href="https://www.wisn.com/article/recount-complete-donald-trump-wins-wisconsin/8492414" style="text-decoration-line: none;">by only 22,000 votes</a>, the first GOP presidential victory in the state since Ronald Regan in 1984. The shocking upset garnered national attention and helped deliver the electoral college to Trump as the popular vote went to Clinton.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">The study, conducted by Ken Mayer and Michael G. DeCrescenzo, at the University of Wisconsin Department of Political Science, provides definitive evidence that <a href="https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/2011/proposals/ab7" style="text-decoration-line: none;">the controversial voter ID bill</a>, passed in 2011 and held up in the courts until 2016, worked precisely as Wisconsin Republicans intended — to make it more difficult for targeted voters to cast their ballots.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Although voter preferences were not included in the study, the survey documents that the burdens of voter ID fell disproportionately on low-income and minority populations considered likely to support Democrats. Among low-income registrants (household income under $25,000), 21.1% were deterred, compared to 7.2% for those whose household income was over $25,000. 8.3% of white registrants were deterred, compared to 27.5% of African Americans.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Roughly 80% of registrants who were deterred from voting by the law, and 77% of those actually prevented from voting, cast ballots in the 2012 election.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> The number of voters negatively impacted is far greater than the number of “fraud” cases the law was designed to stop. When the law </span><a href="https://archive.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/federal-judge-strikes-down-wisconsins-voter-id-law-b99258822z1-257200321.html/" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none;">was challenged in federal court</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> and initially ruled a violation of the Voting Rights Act, the state failed to present a single case of voter impersonation that the law would have prevented.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The results prompted the county clerks from Milwaukee and Madison to issue strongly worded statements and a call for a suspension of the voter ID law. “I was shocked by the numbers and am furious to see that Jim Crow laws are  alive and well,” said Milwaukee County Clerk George Christenson.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The photo ID law must be suspended until changes can be made to restore every voter’s access to the ballot box,” said Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell whose office commissioned the study.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“What I am concerned about here is winning”</font></strong></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While most Republican stuck to the official talking  points that the photo ID law was all about preventing nonexistent “voter fraud,” some forgot the script.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On the night of Wisconsin’s 2016 presidential primary, Republican Congressman Glenn Grothman (R-WI) flatly <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=13&v=Ta0W8_qn0Aw" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">stated in an interview with WTMJ’s Charles Benson</a> that Wisconsin’s photo ID law would help the GOP win Wisconsin in the November 2016 election.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When asked about the fact that Wisconsin has consistently voted for Democrats in recent presidential elections, Grothman assured Bensen that Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton was a “weak candidate,” then added “and now we have photo ID, and I think photo ID is gonna make a little bit of a difference as well.”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rep. Grothman was a State Senator in 2011 when Wisconsin debated and passed its voter ID law, so he was privy to the back room conversations and dealings on the issue.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Those back room conversation came to light five years later when the bill was implemented and people immediately started having problems. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Former GOP staffer turned coffee shop owner, Todd Albaugh, was frustrated when one of his employees could not vote in the 2016 spring elections and decided to blow the whistle.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“I was in a closed Senate Republican Caucus when the final round of multiple Voter ID bills were being discussed. A handful of GOP Senators were giddy about the ramifications and literally singled out the prospects of suppressing minority and college voters. Think about that for minute. Elected officials panning and happy to help deny a fellow American’s constitutional right to vote in order to increase their own chances to hang onto power.”Albaugh, who once worked for Wisconsin Senator Dale Shultz (R-Richland Center), stated in a social media post:</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">“A vigorous debate on the ideas wasn’t good enough,” said Albaugh “they had to take the coward’s way out and come up with a plan to suppress the vote under the guise of ‘voter fraud.'”</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Later on the witness stand in a lawsuit brought by One Wisconsin Now challenging the voter ID law, Albaugh described the tension in closed door caucus as provisions in the bill were being debated.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">As described by the </span><a href="https://archive.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/challenge-to-wisconsin-voter-id-law-begins-in-federal-court-b99726100z1-379657961.html/" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none;"><em>Milwaukee Journal Sentinel</em></a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Albaugh testified that Committee Chair Sen. Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin) made the case for passing the <b>bill, which made it much harder for students, the elderly and the poor to vote:</b></span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“She got up out of her chair and hit her fist or her finger on the table and said, ‘Hey, we’ve got to think about what this would mean for the neighborhoods around Milwaukee and the <b>college campuses,</b>” Allbaugh said.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Grothman said, ‘What I’m concerned about here is winning, and that’s what really matters here. … We better get this done quickly while we have the opportunity,'” Allbaugh said.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Allbaugh named two other senators — </span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Leah Vukmir </b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">and Randy Hopper — as being gleeful over passing the bill.</span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“They were politically frothing at the mouth,” he said of <b>Vukmir</b> and Hopper, who lost a recall election a few months after the voter ID law passed.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ALEC Members Toe the Koch Party Line</font></strong></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">All four of the legislators named by Albaugh were at the time members of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC)</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. <b>Leah Vukmir, described as “frothing at the mouth” over the bill, served for years as an officer of ALEC, was ALEC’s national chairman in 2016, and was given ALEC’s “Iron Woman” Award in 2017.</b></span></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Koch-funded American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) drafted and approved a “model” “<a href="https://www.alecexposed.org/w/images/d/d9/7G16-VOTER_ID_ACT_Exposed.pdf" target="blank" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Voter ID Act</a>” in August of 2009. The wave of bills that followed were constructed differently by different GOP legislatures, but have a common purpose to disenfranchise constituencies that are more likely to vote Democratic.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ALEC has attempted to distance itself from this ugly history of voter suppression (it did away with its “Public Safety and Elections Task Force” and no longer touts voter ID as a “model bill”) after sustained campaigning by the online civil rights group <a href="https://www.colorofchange.org/" style="text-decoration-line: none;">Color of Change</a> and others, but ALEC has done nothing to get voter ID policies repealed in the states where its members pushed for and passed the bill.</font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The partisan motivation behind the Voter ID Act comports with vision of ALEC’s founder, the late Paul Weyrich of Wisconsin, who in 1980 told a group of religious fundamentalists: “I don’t want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of people, they never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.”</font></p></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style=""><a href="https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/08/15/wisconsin-gop-just-nominated-alecs-iron-lady-take-tammy-baldwin"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/08/15/wisconsin-gop-just-nominated-alecs-iron-lady-take-tammy-baldwin</font></a></div><div style=""><p style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Kochs have exercised a lot of influence in Wisconsin, working with Governor Scott Walker to crush wages, bust unions, gut school spending, and promote vouchers. But the Kochs may have had their biggest victory of all handed to them last night by another billionaire couple.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Koch loyalist and Wisconsin State Senator Leah Vukmir won the Wisconsin GOP primary for U.S. Senate by a whopping 50-42 percent, beating veteran, “Send in a Marine,” Kevin Nicholson who vastly outspent her. Vukmir will be taking on the Kochs’ top target, U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin, in the fall.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According OpenSecrets.org, o<b>utside groups and the three candidates spent an astonishing $36.9 million so far in the state’s most expensive primary in history.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Much of this money was spent by billionaires Liz and <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Richard_Uihlein" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Richard Uihlein</a></b>, owners of the ULINE packaging firm based in Pleasant Prairie Wisconsin, in support of their hand-picked retainer Kevin Nicholson. Nicholson, deemed a “dream” candidate by Politico, is a decorated combat veteran with a photogenic family and impressive degrees from Harvard and Dartmouth. The only problem? His stint as the head of College Democrats of America.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Vukmir’s chief pitch to Republicans was–well–that she was one. Her theme was a simple: “We need to send a proven, consistent conservative to beat Tammy Baldwin this fall!” suggesting that Nicholson is neither proven, consistent nor conservative. <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/races/summary?cycle=2018&id=WIS1" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Vukmir spent </a>about $ 1.5 million in the race, and the Wisconsin Next PAC supporting her spent $2.5 million. (That group received $1.5 million from Diane Hendricks, chairman of Beloit-based ABC Supply Company, as well as $1.1 million from Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce.)</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In contrast, Nicholson spent $3 million, and his billionaire benefactors the <a href="https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2018/08/09/uihlein-backed-groups-spend-nearly-11-million-nicholson/947121002/" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Uihleins spent more than $11 million</a> via their Super PAC “Solutions for Wisconsin” and other groups, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For the disciplined foot soldiers of the Wisconsin GOP, a Democrat turned Republican was a bridge too far, and it is somewhat astonishing that it took $11 million dollars for Uihlein to figure it out. It is almost unheard of for an established, experienced donor to spend that kind of money on an unproven commodity, but apparently the Uihleins thought that Vukmir was a terrible candidate to take on Baldwin.</font></p><h3 style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ALEC’s “Iron Lady” Advances</font></h3><p style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Although the Kochs’ Americans for Prosperity formally stayed out of the race, not endorsing either Vukmir or Nicholson in deference to the Uihleins, who have contributed to other Koch electoral efforts, the billionaire brothers’ presence was felt. Various Koch front groups, most importantly Concerned Veterans of America, spent millions on air pounding Baldwin. More was spent against Baldwin by Koch front groups than any other Senate candidate, according to Baldwin’s team</span>.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Vukmir herself has taken a leadership role in Koch world. </b>She served on the A<a href="https://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">merican Legislative Exchange Council</a> (ALEC) board of directors for years, serving as ALEC’s National Chair in 2016. She sponsored a dozen or so ALEC bills in Wisconsin, including bills to crush wages and advance vouchers. Her efforts advancing the ALEC agenda garnered her ALEC’s “Iron Lady” award in 2017. (Learn more at <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Leah_Vukmir" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">SourceWatch</a>).</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Former <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Americans_for_Prosperity" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Americans for Prosperity</a> Chief Executive Officer Luke Hilgemann and Chief Operating Officer Sean Lansing were hired to run the Vukmir campaign, even after they <a href="https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2018/04/11/wisconsin-gop-retreat-disarray-paul-ryan-raised-white-flag/" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">spectacularly failed</a> to elect Michael Screnock for the Wisconsin Supreme Court.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Plus, Vukmir had the tacit backing of the Walker machine. <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Diane_Hendricks" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Diane Hendricks</a>, </b>another Koch-network billionaire donor, was one of Vukmir’s biggest backers. She is the same billionaire who was caught on tape demanding that Walker pass ALEC’s “right-to-work” bill to create a red state in 2011, prompting Walker to explain his plan to “divide and conquer” Wisconsin workers. Although Walker formally did not endorse in the primary, his wife did, his son Alex worked for Vukmir, and kingmaker <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Michael_W.Grebe" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Michael Grebe</a>, the long-time CEO of the <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Lynde_and_Harry_Bradley_Foundation" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Bradley Foundation</a> and Walker’s campaign chairman, endorsed Vukmir, along with dark money man <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Eric_O%27Keefe" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Eric O’Keefe</a>.</font></p><h3 style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Breitbart and Uihlein Draw Blood</font></h3><p style="box-sizing: inherit;" /><div class="clearfix" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Uihlein’s hard-hitting ads and attacks by Breitbart News raised doubts about Vukmir that may linger.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Early in the campaign, Vukmir interviewed for the endorsement of Steve Bannon’s Great America PAC, but was turned down</span>. While both Nicholson and Vukmir ardently embraced Trump and the Trump agenda during the primary, <b>Breitbart News was instrumental in undercutting Vukmir, </b>surfacing a <a href="https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/08/07/exclusive-polling-shows-vukmir-dive-wisconsin-video-emerges-calling-trump-offensive-everyone/" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">damaging video</a> of her being critical of Trump and audio where she called calling his supporters “Trumpkins.” Breitbart gleefully pointed out the damage it did to her in the polls. <a href="https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/07/27/vukmir-meltdown-toyota-driving-wisconsin-candidate-contradicts-own-staff-says-bogus-ford-claim-a-typo-attacks-breitbart-for-reporting/" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Breitbart also called her out</a>for driving a Toyota and for masking the Toyota logo in campaign commercials after she said in a fundraising appeal that she drove an American-made Ford.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>One of Uihlein’s final ads used the same video to attack Vukmir for her derisive comments about Trump. </b>“He offends everyone; he offends women; he offends men; he offends little people; he offends fat people,” said Vukmir in March 2016. The ad, which can be <a href="https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/08/12/ad_says_republican_senate_candidate_leah_vukmir_sounds_like_hillary_when_she_said_trump_was_offensive.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">seen here</a>, concludes, “She sounds like Hillary. If you think you can expect Leah Vukmir to support President Trump, the joke’s on you.” Vukmir’s hypocrisy will be remembered by Trump fans in the state.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Uihlein is one of <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Club_for_Growth" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Club for Growth</a>‘s biggest backers, so it was no surprise that he used that national vehicle to go after Vukmir as well. Ironically, a recent Club for Growth ad featured a <a href="https://www.prwatch.org/news/2013/06/12140/cmd-files-open-records-suit-against-alec-board-member-sen-leah-vukmir" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">lawsuit brought by the Center for Media and Democracy</a> (CMD) in 2013 when Vukmir refused to turn over public records related to the bills she agreed to author for lobbyists at ALEC. Vukmir was the Treasurer of ALEC at the time.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">After Senator Vukmir’s staffers <a href="https://madison.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/process-server-says-senator-s-aide-chased-and-pushed-him/article_a0e198fc-b6d1-524d-ab21-d848f1a2d352.html" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">made headlines</a> by chasing a process server and pushing him to the ground, Vukmir not only denied having any materials related to CMD’s open records request, she garnered the support of the Republican Attorney General and put forward the argument that she was not subject to the Wisconsin open records law while the legislature was in session</span>. If she had succeeded with this unprecedented claim, she would have gutted Wisconsin’s exceptional open records law, treasured by both Democrats and Republicans.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>CMD prevailed in its lawsuit</b>, obtaining hundreds of pages of responsive emails and documents withheld by Vukmir, <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Leah_Vukmir/" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">available here</a>. The previously undisclosed records from ALEC’s Spring 2013 meeting show a Florida-based lobbying group instructing Vukmir and others to introduce a “model” resolution to thwart Medicaid expansion in their states. Vukmir is a former nurse. The lobbyist <a href="https://www.prwatch.org/news/2014/04/12441/documents-open-records-lawsuit-undermine-alecs-claim-alec" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">even wrote an entire ‘script’ for legislators to parrot</a>–contradicting claims by ALEC that the organization was “legislator driven” and only legislators propose model policy. The judge threw the book at Vukmir, applying an unprecedented fine of $2,500 in punitive damages. The suit overall cost taxpayers $15,000.</font></p><h3 style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Nurse Ratchet” to Face Baldwin</font></h3><p style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Uihleins appear worried about Vukmir’s ability to tackle Baldwin,</span> who is best known for her advocacy for health care for all and her long-standing opposition to free trade deals. Vukmir, in contrast, has backed every ALEC measure to lower wages in the state and block the expansion of health care coverage nationally, and has failed to take a stand against Trump as he calls for a boycott of Harley Davidson as it battles the effects of Trump’s tariff wars. No wonder Vukmir was dubbed “<a href="https://www.milwaukeemag.com/lady-leah-vukmir-full/" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">Nurse Ratchet</a>” by her Republican colleagues, after the cold, heartless fictional character made famous in the film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The contrast between the Baldwin and Vukmir, when we are talking about women coming out to vote in record numbers this year, couldn’t be clearer,” said Madison attorney Lester Pines.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Vukmir’s ads attacking Baldwin are so over the top they have drawn criticism from Republicans as well as Democrats.</b> For instance, the Vukmir campaign released an attack ad in May suggesting that <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Baldwin was on “Team Terrorist” for not supporting Trump’s nominee for CIA Director, Gina Haspel</span>. When asked to comment on Vukmir’s ad, Republican Senator Ron Johnson said, “I wouldn’t do that” and the “Right Wisconsin” media outlet called Vukmir’s ad “an irresponsible campaign blunder.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Since winning election in 2012, Baldwin has raised $23 million for her 2018 reelection bid, far more than her GOP rivals. Her <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/members-of-congress/summary/tammy-baldwin?cid=N00004367" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">biggest givers</a> are retirees, women, and University of Wisconsin employees. She will also garner big money support from Emily’s List, the League of Conservation Voters, and other Democratic groups.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Now, however, Vukmir will have the full support of the Kochs’<b> Americans for Prosperity</b> group and their many resources in the state. AFP wasted no time in pushing out an <a href="https://americansforprosperity.org/afp-wisconsin-backs-leah-vukmir-for-u-s-senate/" style="box-sizing: inherit; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration-line: none;">enthusiastic endorsement</a> on election night and an unprecedented ad barrage will no doubt soon follow.</font></p></div><div style=""><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2018/10/19/scott-walker-has-a-history-of-signing-plagiarized-alec-bills" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;">https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2018/10/19/scott-walker-has-a-history-of-signing-plagiarized-alec-bills</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">david a</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who has advocated for and signed binding legislation lifted without attribution from the corporate lobby shop known as the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), is now blaming his opponent, Tony Evers, for copying paragraphs in the Department of Public Instruction’s <a href="https://dpi.wi.gov/sites/default/files/imce/policy-budget/pdf/2019-21_Biennial_BudgetRequest_Sept17_2018_FINAL311.pdf" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">213-page budget proposal</a> from other sources and failing to properly attribute them</span>.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The story was first reported by <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">Politico</em>, which made no attempt to examine Walker’s history of signing copy-cat legislation.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In the 2011-2012 session, Walker signed into law 19 bills or budget provisions with ALEC content. </b>The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) wrote a report detailing this plagiarism called “<a href="https://www.alecexposed.org/w/images/c/cd/ALEC_Exposed_in_Wisconsin.pdf" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">ALEC Exposed Wisconsin: The Hijacking of a State</a>.” Since then, many more ALEC bills have become law.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2015, Walker signed ALEC’s anti-union “right to work” bill into law. CMD was forced to do a side-by-side comparison, which you can access <a href="https://www.prwatch.org/news/2015/02/12743/wisconsin-introduces-verbatim-alec-right-work-bill" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">here</a>, to illustrate to the Wisconsin media that the bill was a word-for-word copy of the ALEC “model” bill.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>While ALEC’s strong influence in the state, through Walker and ALEC board member Leah Vukmir,</b> and the copy-cat bills never got the attention it deserved from state media, Dan Kaufman of the <em style="box-sizing: inherit;">New York Times</em> took up the issue and made it a <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/14/magazine/scott-walker-and-the-fate-of-the-union.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">cover story</a> for the New York Times Magazine, detailing how the bills were popping up simultaneously in state after state.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These anti-union measures and the later effort to repeal <a href="https://www.prwatch.org/news/2015/03/12780/alec-nfib-push-prevailing-wage-repeal" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">prevailing wage laws</a> were not organic to Wisconsin, but extremist measures that had long been promoted by the Koch brothers and ALEC as a way to bust unions and weaken the Democratic Party in Wisconsin and nationwide.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; box-sizing: inherit; padding: 0px; word-spacing: 3.6px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>This is the <a href="https://www.prwatch.org/news/2014/09/12606/wi-alec-plagiarists-criticize-burke-copying-jobs-plan" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out 0s;">second time</a> that Walker has politicized a plagiarism claim to slam his opponent in a race.</b></font></p></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style=""><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); clear: both; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong>Senate Candidate Leah Vukmir Racked up Legal Bills for Taxpayers</strong>
<strong>Milwaukee Journal Sentinel</strong></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); clear: both; margin: 0px 0px 1.25em;"><a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://default.salsalabs.org/Tb5b39ede-0124-41c4-b5e5-ae57ea261e50/ac94ac0d-31ce-11e7-960b-0a8abee05f34" style="overflow-wrap: break-word;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Read more >></font></a></p></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2018/05/14/unprecedented-outside-spending-floods-wisconsin-attack-us-senator-tammy-baldwin">https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2018/05/14/unprecedented-outside-spending-floods-wisconsin-attack-us-senator-tammy-baldwin</a></font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>2018 campaign cash is already flooding into races across the country. But nowhere is more awash in money than Wisconsin, where Tammy Baldwin’s U.S. Senate race <a href="http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/local/govt-and-politics/unprecedented-outside-spending-hits-tammy-baldwin-boosts-kevin-nicholson-in/article_b57981aa-1f25-5d9c-95d9-1ec727e70d9c.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">has already seen</a> more than twice the amount of the next closest contest.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The spending is “unprecedented”</b> for a U.S. Senate campaign at this stage, says Andrew Mayersohn, a researcher for the Center for Responsive Politics.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As of April 23, 2018, more than $10 million had been spent by conservative groups buying ads opposing Baldwin or supporting one of her two main Republican rivals, management consultant Kevin Nicholson and<b> longtime ALEC legislator and State Senator Leah Vukmir. </b></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In contrast, </span><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/races/outside-spending?cycle=2018&id=WIS1&spec=N" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">just over $1 million</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> has been spent supporting Baldwin or attacking her opponents. The PACs and dark money “issue ad” groups trying to unseat Baldwin are connected to some of the most powerful right-wing donors in the country, including Richard Uihlein, Robert Mercer and the billionaire industrialist Koch brothers.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These billionaire backers of the far right are working hard to take down Tammy Baldwin, a pro-labor, pro-environment, pro-universal health care progressive. Below, the Center for Media and Democracy details some of the biggest spenders in the race.</font></p><h2 style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 10px; text-transform: uppercase; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">RICHARD UIHLEIN’S AMERICA’S PAC AND RESTORATION PAC</font></h2><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The biggest outside spender in the Wisconsin senate race to date is industrial supply magnate <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Richard_Uihlein" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">Richard Uihlein</a>, owner of the shipping supply firm Uihlein Corp. Uihlein single-handedly turned little-known veteran Kevin Nicholson into a major threat to Baldwin’s seat. Uihlein’s “Restoration PAC,” a federal Super PAC, has spent $541,374 against Baldwin and $2,502,268 supporting Nicholson. Uihlein has bankrolled Restoration PAC with <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacgave2.php?cycle=2018&cmte=C00571588" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">$4,225,000</a> as of February 2018.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;"><font style="" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">His “</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">America’s PAC”</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> has spent $2,621,565 supporting Nicholson, as well as $703,500 opposing Baldwin. Between September 2017 and February 2018, Uihlein has given America’s PAC </span><a href="http://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/pacgave2.php?cycle=2018&cmte=C00559906" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="background: 0px 0px; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">$2.65 million</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But all that money doesn’t translate into common sense. In an embarrassing gaffe, America’s PAC <a href="https://www.thetelegraph.com/news/article/Radio-ad-comparing-Nicholson-to-Missouri-governor-12875264.php" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">sent a radio ad to 20 Wisconsin stations</a> favorably comparing Nicholson with embattled Missouri Governor Eric Greitens. Greitens is facing a criminal trial for initiating an affair with his hairdresser by strapping her arms to exercise hoops, blindfolding her, stripping her and taking a photo to make sure that she wouldn’t tell anyone. What do Greitens and Nicholson have in common? Both are veterans and both were Democrats who are now running for office on the Republican line.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This isn’t the first time that America’s PAC ads have gone awry. In 2014, America’s PAC sponsored ads in Ohio, which observers such as the Black Commentator news site <a href="http://blackcommentator.com/105/105_cover.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">described</a> as “highly obnoxious” for their attempt to portray Democrats as destroying African-American communities through support for pro-choice policies. In 2006, <a href="http://articles.southbendtribune.com/2006-10-03/news/26964263_1_ads-black-voters-rate-among-black-women" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">radio ads</a> prepared by America’s PAC gave “the clear message that black voters need to join the Republican cause if they want to enjoy the same success as whites.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">America’s PAC is attacking Baldwin for the death of several veterans at a Veterans Administration (VA) hospital because she allegedly ignored a whistleblower’s warning about “overmedicated veterans.” Politifact <a href="http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/statements/2017/may/05/americas-pac/super-pac-attack-blaming-tammy-baldwin-deaths-3-ve/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">rated this</a> claim “False” and reported that the whistleblower’s warning could not be tied to the three deaths in question.</font></p><h2 style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 10px; text-transform: uppercase; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ROBERT MERCER BEHIND JOHN BOLTON SUPER PAC</font></span></h2><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">The John Bolton Super PAC, run by the same John Bolton who is now the National Security Advisor of the United States, has spent <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/pacs/indexpend.php?cmte=C00542464&cycle=2018&txt=" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">$560,570</a>supporting Nicholson. The PAC <a href="https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2018/mar/19/bolton-pac-launches-new-ad-to-benefit-nicholson-fo/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">plans to</a> spend $1 million to help Nicholson defeat Vukmir in the primary.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Super PAC has been largely funded by hedge fund manager <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Robert_Mercer" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">Robert Mercer</a>, one of the “blow it all up” billionaire backers behind Trump and one of the first investors in the controversial “psy-ops” organization <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Cambridge_Analytica" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">Cambridge Analytica</a>. Good governance groups Democracy 21 and Citizens for Ethics and Responsibility in Washington (CREW) filed a <a href="http://www.democracy21.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/CREW-D21-Cambridge-Analytica-Complaint.pdf" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">complaint</a> against the John Bolton Super PAC in March 2018, claiming that the PAC’s work with Cambridge Analytica and SCL Industries violated election laws prohibiting foreign nationals from “directly or indirectly” participating in American political campaigns.</font></p><h2 style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 10px; text-transform: uppercase; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">KOCH FRONT GROUP: CONCERNED VETERANS FOR AMERICA</font></h2><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The billionaire <a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Koch_Brothers" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">Koch brothers</a> are the also donating heavily to an array of PACs attacking Baldwin. Concerned Veterans for America (CVA)</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> is a Koch front group based in Arlington, Virginia. CVA purports to be a grassroots group of vets who want to reform the VA. But the phony front group is the only known “veterans” group pushing for the privatization of the of the VA, which provides comprehensive health care services to the nation’s nine million veterans. After being fired via Twitter in March, Trump’s Secretary of Veterans Affairs David Shulkin warned in an op-ed in the </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/28/opinion/shulkin-veterans-affairs-privatization.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;">New York Times</em></a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> that the VA is entangled in a “brutal power struggle” over privatization.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As of March 8, 2018, CVA had spent <a href="https://www.wpr.org/concerned-veterans-america-drops-another-1-6m-baldwin" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">$3.1 million</a> against Baldwin, including ads on the same false claims made by America’s PAC that she was responsible for deaths at a VA hospital. In addition, CVA’s Executive Director Dan Caldwell flew to Wisconsin to participate as a panelist in the first GOP primary debate between Vukmir and Nicholson. The debate was sponsored by none other than the <a href="https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2018/04/26/kevin-nicholson-leah-vukmir-clash-first-republican-u-s-senate-debate/556425002/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">Kochs’ astroturf organization, Americans for Prosperity.</a> The candidates predictably embraced every Koch policy as they vied for the billionaires’ endorsement and money, but the debate did allow Vukmir to savage Nicholson as a former Democrat.</font></p><h2 style="box-sizing: inherit; line-height: 1.2; margin: 0px 0px 10px; text-transform: uppercase; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="box-sizing: inherit;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">KOCH’S FREEDOM PARTNERS</font></span></h2><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Freedom_Partners" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">Freedom Partners</a> is the Kochs’ non-profit 501(c)(6) dark money “trade group” funded by the Kochs and staffed with Koch operatives. As of April 28, 2018, Freedom Partners has spent more than $1.6 million <a href="https://freedompartners.org/press/wisconsin-deserves-better-freedom-partners-launches-1-6-million-ad-campaign-calling-senator-baldwin-protecting-rigged-system/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">on attack ads</a> accusing Baldwin of “rigging the system” by voting for higher taxes (which paid for programs such as the Affordable Care Act).</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">After a seemingly grassroots Tea Party uprising against the 2010 Affordable Care Act, it was later revealed that the Kochs played a major role bankrolling the many right-wing groups involved. When asked about why the Kochs were campaigning against health care, Americans for Prosperity President Tim Phillips told the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/21/us/politics/koch-group-seeks-lasting-voice-for-small-government.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit; background: 0px 0px; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;"><em style="box-sizing: inherit;">New York Times</em></a> that the plan was to discredit the government (or as he put it, the “social welfare boondoggle”) in preparation for the fight over climate change.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 0px;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Stay tuned, this interesting race is likely to get a lot more interesting. Leah Vukmir won the GOP straw poll at the Republican state convention this weekend with 72 percent of the vote. This is after Vukmir began <a href="https://www.rollcall.com/news/politics/baldwin-challenger-vukmir-puts-team-terrorist" target="_blank" rel="noopener" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">tweeting out photos</a> of Baldwin and Khalid Sheikh Muhammad, the planner of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, calling them<b>“Team Terrorist.”</b> The crude move, allegedly protesting Baldwin’s silence on the Gina Haspel CIA nomination, was denounced as an “irresponsible campaign blunder” by far-right news outlets and “embarrassing” by Nicholson. Baldwin had been waiting to meet with Haspel, who had cancelled a <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/gop-senate-candidate-says-tammy-baldwin-is-on-team-terrorists-because-of-her-position-on-trump-cia-pick_us_5af35edce4b0859d11d0159d" style="background-image: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; box-sizing: inherit; transition: all 500ms ease-in-out; text-decoration-line: none;">scheduled meeting.</a></font></p></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><p style=""><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> ===</font>

<a href="https://theintercept.com/2018/03/14/campus-free-speech-bds-israel-boycott/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://theintercept.com/2018/03/14/campus-free-speech-bds-israel-boycott/</font></a>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style=" box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: 0.1em; box-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px 1px 0px, rgb(17, 17, 17) 0px 4px 0px; text-transform: uppercase;">POLITICIANS AROUND THE</span> <span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">country are seizing upon highly publicized episodes of conservatives faced with harassment and heckling on college campuses by responding with a wave of legislation supposedly aimed at preserving free speech rights for campus speakers. But that commitment, while draped in the mantle of a principled defense of the First Amendment, does not always extend to speakers who <b>criticize Israel</b> and its policies.</span></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This renewed concern about free speech comes after a number of high-profile incidents in which students interrupted conservative speakers, and in a few cases, even used violence at protests. At a <a href="https://theintercept.com/2017/10/27/elizabeth-warren-says-campus-free-speech-means-no-censorship-or-violence/" style=" box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">hearing</a> on campus free speech in October, U.S. senators expressed bipartisan support for the First Amendment on college campuses, but lawmakers around the country are <b>demanding free speech with one hand, and passing laws that punish boycotts of Israel with the other.</b></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">One of the most prominent examples comes from Wisconsin, where Republican state Sen. Leah Vukmir has used the issue of campus free speech to launch a campaign for U.S. Senate this year, challenging the incumbent, Democratic Sen. Tammy Baldwin</span>.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Vukmir is the original sponsor of “<a href="http://legis.wisconsin.gov/senate/05/vukmir/news/532017-leah-vukmir-adam-jarchow-author-strong-proposal-to-protect-free-speech-at-university-of-wisconsin-and-technical-college-system/" style=" box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">free speech</a>” legislation that calls for a strict disciplinary system for those who infringe on others’ free speech rights on college campuses in her state. “Students, professors, and administrators are using intimidation tactics to silence those they disagree with,” Vukmir said, after unveiling her legislation last May.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>She went on to <a href="https://www.alec.org/article/senator-leah-vukmir-announces-alec-center-to-protect-free-speech/" style=" box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">launch a campaign</a> with the help of the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC,</b> for lawmakers in other states to duplicate her campus free speech efforts. “Senator Vukmir is a champion of free speech issues,” reads a press release from ALEC, which awarded Vukmir its “<a href="https://www.alec.org/press-release/state-senator-leah-vukmir-receives-prestigious-iron-lady-award/" style=" box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Iron Lady Award</a>” for taking tough stands as a legislator.</font>

<font style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">But Vukmir, a strong <a href="https://www.facebook.com/leahvukmir/photos/pb.115904408610088.-2207520000.1497683165./683883251812198/?type=3" style=" box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">supporter</a> of Israel, is apparently selective in her championing of free speech.</font>

<font style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Just months after sponsoring the free speech legislation last year, Vukmir <a href="http://legis.wisconsin.gov/senate/05/vukmir/media/1104/17-4442_1.pdf" style=" box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">sponsored</a> a so-called anti-BDS law in Wisconsin, prohibiting the state from entering into contracts with businesses that choose to express themselves by engaging in a boycott to protest Israeli occupation of the West Bank. <b>Gov. Scott Walker <a href="https://palestinelegal.org/news/2017/11/1/scott-walker-bds-eo" style=" box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">signed</a> an executive order establishing the anti-BDS policy in October.</b></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">BDS refers to the Palestinian-led boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement that advocates for economic pressure to force Israel to end its occupation of the Palestinian territories. BDS campaigns have gained traction across the United States in recent years, particularly on college campuses. Palestine Legal, a nonprofit advocacy group, <a href="https://palestinelegal.org/legislation/" style=" box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">notes</a> that boycotts have long played a significant role in U.S. history, and that the “Supreme Court has held that boycotts to effect political, social, and economic change are protected by the First Amendment of the Constitution.”</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But pro-Israel advocacy organizations, <a href="https://www.aipac.org/learn/legislative-agenda/agenda-display?agendaid=%7BB499D12C-C5ED-4CA6-93CF-61266D842328%7D" style=" box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">including</a> the America Israel Public Affairs Committee, known by its acronym AIPAC, have spearheaded an aggressive campaign to encourage lawmakers to stifle BDS activism. Twenty-four states have now <a href="https://palestinelegal.org/righttoboycott" style=" box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">passed legislation</a> designed to penalize or prohibit BDS activity.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style=" letter-spacing: 0.01em;">Rather than focus on the suppression of pro-Palestinian activism, legislators have almost singularly focused on a string of high-profile attacks on right-wing speakers on college campuses. One example is Milo Yiannopoulos, an “alt-right” provocateur who has </span><a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/josephbernstein/heres-how-breitbart-and-milo-smuggled-white-nationalism" style=" letter-spacing: 0.01em; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">collaborated</a><span style=" letter-spacing: 0.01em;">with white supremacist figures. He was a relatively obscure figure until left-wing activists </span><a href="https://theintercept.com/2017/08/25/video-how-white-nationalism-became-normal-online/" style=" letter-spacing: 0.01em; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">protested violently</a><span style=" letter-spacing: 0.01em;"> when he came to the University of California, Berkeley campus, elevating him as a national figure. At the October Senate hearing, Allison Stanger, a Middlebury College professor, testified about her experience moderating a talk with American Enterprise Institute scholar Charles Murray, whose book, “The Bell Curve,” on IQ as a determinant of socioeconomic status has been criticized as being racist. The protesters disrupted the speaking engagement, <span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">assaulting Stanger and leaving her </span></span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/13/opinion/understanding-the-angry-mob-that-gave-me-a-concussion.html" style=" letter-spacing: 0.01em; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">hospitalized</a><span style=" letter-spacing: 0.01em;">.</span>These laws have been used to suppress the speech of a wide range of people and businesses. <span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In Kansas, a <a href="https://theintercept.com/2017/10/13/kansas-israel-boycott-bds-mennonite-church/" style=" box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">star teacher was denied payment</a> to train other teachers because she was following her church’s guidance and boycotting Israel. (A federal court <a href="https://theintercept.com/2018/01/31/kansas-bds-law-free-speech/" style=" box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">struck down</a> the Kansas law following that controversy.) In Texas, a town seeking contractors to rebuild after a devastating hurricane mistakenly <a href="https://theintercept.com/2017/10/19/to-get-hurricane-rebuilding-money-in-texas-contractors-must-promise-they-wont-boycott-israel/" style=" box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">used an anti-BDS clause</a> to prevent the hiring of anyone who also boycotted Israel.</span></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style=" box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: 0.1em; box-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px 1px 0px, rgb(17, 17, 17) 0px 4px 0px; text-transform: uppercase;">ACROSS THE COUNTRY</span>, politicians are hoping to harness the outrage over such incidents into political benefit, supposedly in the name of securing free speech.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Texas Republican state Sen. Van Taylor last week won the GOP nomination to run for Texas’s 3rd Congressional District, which encompasses parts of Dallas. Last year, Taylor voted in favor of <a href="http://www.legis.state.tx.us/BillLookup/Actions.aspx?LegSess=85R&Bill=SB1151" style=" box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">SB1151</a>, a bill designed to discourage campus censorship. The vote occurred within weeks of another Taylor-supported bill, <a href="http://www.legis.state.tx.us/BillLookup/Actions.aspx?LegSess=85R&Bill=HB89" style=" box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">HB89</a>, which prevents the state of Texas from entering into contracts with businesses engaged in BDS activism.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ohio Republican state Rep. Robert Sprague, running for state treasurer, is the sponsor of bills to both <a href="https://www.legislature.ohio.gov/legislation/legislation-summary?id=GA132-HB-363" style=" box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">promote</a> campus free speech and to <a href="https://www.legislature.ohio.gov/legislation/legislation-summary?id=GA131-HB-476" style=" box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">penalize</a>companies that express support for BDS.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In Georgia, Republican state senator Josh McKoon is one of a number of Republicans <a href="http://www.wtvm.com/story/35828342/republican-joshua-mckoon-to-run-for-georgia-secretary-of-state" style=" box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">vying</a> for the office of secretary of state. He was one of the co-sponsors of <a href="http://www.legis.ga.gov/legislation/en-US/Display/20172018/SB/339" style=" box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">Senate Bill 339</a>, which, like the Wisconsin bill, takes aim at students who interrupt university speakers. McKoon is also the man behind the failed perennial push for a religious freedom bill, known as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/congress-should-amend-the-abused-religious-freedom-restoration-act/2015/06/25/ee6aaa46-19d8-11e5-ab92-c75ae6ab94b5_story.html" style=" box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">RFRA</a>, that critics fear would essentially license businesses to discriminate.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a <a href="http://www.macon.com/news/politics-government/article65939362.html#storylink=cpy" style=" box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">2016 interview</a>, McKoon justified the religious freedom bill by citing the example of a wedding singer who would be asked by a same-sex couple to perform at their ceremony. “If that person is approached by a same-sex couple that says, ‘We want to hire you to do this,’”and [the singer] says, ‘No, I believe that wedding is a sacramental union that involves God, one man, and one woman, and this is contrary to my belief,’ are we going to say, as a matter of policy, the government is going to compel that person to participate in the order of service against their sincerely held religious beliefs? I don’t think that anybody would suggest that we shouldn’t make room for people who have different beliefs or different ideas,” he said.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But McKoon also was a <a href="http://www.legis.ga.gov/legislation/en-US/Display/20152016/SB/327" style=" box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">sponsor of SB 327</a>, which, when it passed in 2016, outlawed state contracts with any individual or business who boycotts businesses based in Israel or even in the illegal settlements Israel operates in Palestinian territory. The bill does exactly what McKoon claims to be against: It tries to compel people to take actions against their own beliefs.</font>

In an email to The Intercept, McKoon said he saw no contradiction between supporting RFRA and potentially punishing individuals who would boycott Israel under a religion obligation.</span>For example, the Kansas teacher who was <a href="https://theintercept.com/2017/10/13/kansas-israel-boycott-bds-mennonite-church/" style=" box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">barred</a> from a state contract because of her support for BDS was inspired to engage in boycotts because of her membership in the Mennonite Church USA. Last year, the church <a href="http://religionnews.com/2017/07/06/mennonite-church-to-divest-in-protest-of-israeli-policies/" style=" box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">voted</a> to divest from some U.S. companies that do business in Israel’s occupied territories.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“With respect to your question, if RFRA were to pass, the state law regarding contracts with Israel and a business which does business with Georgia claimed their boycott of Israel had a religious basis, then the balancing test would be applied,” he wrote, going on to explain the legal balancing test a court would have to do if the law were to be challenged. “First the Court would have to determine if the interest in preserving our relationship with Israel was a compelling state interest. Then if the Court was satisfied that it was a compelling state interest they would have to determine if some sort of religious accommodation would be warranted to make the policy the least restrictive policy. I don’t pretend to know how the Court would resolve a hypothetical lawsuit after RFRA passed, which is the point of the whole RFRA debate.  It isn’t a religious exemption bill as some have tried to claim, but rather a balancing test under which sometimes the government prevails and sometimes the individual prevails.”</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He added: “I don’t see a conflict between desiring a strict scrutiny standard for free exercise claims against state and local government and public policy to preserve our historic relationship with the State of Israel.”</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In other words, McKoon argued that the state may have an interest in maintaining a relationship with Israel that supersedes an individual’s religious freedom and free speech rights, or it may not, but he wants the courts to settle the debate.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In Iowa, the state legislature in 2016 <a href="https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2016/05/10/branstad-signs-israel-anti-boycott-bill/84175736/" style=" box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">voted</a> to bar state funds from being invested in companies boycotting Israel. On February 28 of this year, the state Senate <a href="http://www.thegazette.com/subject/news/education/gop-senators-pass-campus-free-speech-bill-20180301" style=" box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">passed</a> its own campus free speech bill, with all Republicans in favor, and all Democrats plus the chamber’s one independent opposed. All of the Republicans who were serving in 2016 and are still serving backed both the anti-BDS and campus free speech bill.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The hypocrisy, while more pronounced by Republicans on the state level, is shared by both parties.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In Congress, a bipartisan group of lawmakers have sponsored a series of <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-resolution/307/cosponsors" style=" box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">resolutions</a> and <a href="https://oversight.house.gov/hearing/challenges-freedom-speech-college-campuses/" style=" box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">hearings</a> to highlight the threat to free speech on college campuses, while many of the same members have sponsored efforts go even further than state-level anti-BDS laws, pushing to <a href="https://www.aclu.org/blog/free-speech/rights-protesters/new-israel-anti-boycott-act-still-unconstitutional" style=" box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">impose</a> criminal and civil penalties on organizations that engage in BDS activism.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Senate legislation criminalizing boycott speech against Israel is championed by Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md. In the House, the lead <a href="https://rokita.house.gov/press-release/rokita-supports-our-allies" style=" box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">co-sponsor</a>is Rep. Todd Rokita, R-Ind., who simultaneously <a href="http://thefederalist.com/2017/05/04/lawmakers-introduce-bipartisan-resolution-end-campus-free-speech-zones/" style=" box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">sponsors</a> the bill championing free expression on college campuses.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The anti-BDS laws have the potential to result in censorship of student speakers, the very issue that has supposedly inspired the wave of campus free speech laws.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As a result of Arizona’s HB2617, an anti-BDS state law passed in 2016, students at Arizona State University<span style=" box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 700;"> </span>had to change their plans for an upcoming event on Palestine. They invited Hatem Bazian, chair of American Muslims for Palestine, to speak about BDS at the April 3 event, but the university’s speaker agreement included a “No Boycott of Israel” clause, based on the state’s anti-BDS law. Bazian could not comply with that provision and thus, was effectively barred from speaking at the university, according to a <a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.azd.1083556/gov.uscourts.azd.1083556.1.0.pdf" style=" box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">lawsuit</a> filed on March 1 by the CAIR Legal Defense Fund.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bret Hovell, a spokesperson for the university, told The Intercept that the school does not believe the anti-BDS law should apply in this case, and that student groups are free to use a contract that does not include the clause. “It was a simple mistake that the ASU form containing the certification [of not boycotting Israel] was used,” he said. The Arizona Attorney General’s Office did not respond to a request for comment on its view of whether the law applies.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Not every politician who champions free speech is a hypocrite. Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren attended the October Senate hearing on campus free speech and <a href="https://theintercept.com/2017/10/27/elizabeth-warren-says-campus-free-speech-means-no-censorship-or-violence/" style=" box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">condemned</a> both censorship and violence as a response to controversial speakers. But she <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/u-s-senator-elizabeth-warren-opposes-anti-bds-bill-1.5441182" style=" box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; text-decoration-line: none;">also told a town hall</a> last year that she opposes anti-BDS legislation, arguing that it infringes on free speec</font>

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<div style=""><a href="https://www.alternet.org/right-wing/voter-id-suppressed-vote-exactly-wisconsin-republicans-predicted"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/right-wing/voter-id-suppressed-vote-exactly-wisconsin-republicans-predicted</font></a></div>

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<p style=" margin: 0px 0px 22px; line-height: 32px !important;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A</span><a href="https://elections.wisc.edu/news/voter-id-study/" target="_blank" style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none;"> new study</a><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> of registered voters in Dane and Milwaukee Counties who did not vote in the 2016 presidential election found that approximately 17,000-23,000 eligible voters in those counties were prevented or deterred from voting by Wisconsin’s voter ID law.</span><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> </span></b><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Due to financial constraints, the social scientists were only able to do a study of two of Wisconsin’s 72 counties, but the authors say that extrapolating statewide as many as 45,000 people stayed home because of the law.</span></font>

<font style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">Donald Trump won the state of Wisconsin <a href="https://www.wisn.com/article/recount-complete-donald-trump-wins-wisconsin/8492414" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">by only 22,000 votes</a>, the first GOP presidential victory in the state since Ronald Regan in 1984. The shocking upset garnered national attention and helped deliver the electoral college to Trump as the popular vote went to Clinton.</font>

<font style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">The study, conducted by Ken Mayer and Michael G. DeCrescenzo, at the University of Wisconsin Department of Political Science, provides definitive evidence that <a href="https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/2011/proposals/ab7" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">the controversial voter ID bill</a>, passed in 2011 and held up in the courts until 2016, worked precisely as Wisconsin Republicans intended — to make it more difficult for targeted voters to cast their ballots.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Although voter preferences were not included in the study, the survey documents that the burdens of voter ID fell disproportionately on low-income and minority populations considered likely to support Democrats. Among low-income registrants (household income under $25,000), 21.1% were deterred, compared to 7.2% for those whose household income was over $25,000. 8.3% of white registrants were deterred, compared to 27.5% of African Americans.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Roughly 80% of registrants who were deterred from voting by the law, and 77% of those actually prevented from voting, cast ballots in the 2012 election. The number of voters negatively impacted is far greater than the number of “fraud” cases the law was designed to stop. When the law <a href="https://archive.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/federal-judge-strikes-down-wisconsins-voter-id-law-b99258822z1-257200321.html/" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">was challenged in federal court</a> and initially ruled a violation of the Voting Rights Act, the state failed to present a single case of voter impersonation that the law would have prevented.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The results prompted the county clerks from Milwaukee and Madison to issue strongly worded statements and a call for a suspension of the voter ID law. “I was shocked by the numbers and am furious to see that Jim Crow laws are  alive and well,” said Milwaukee County Clerk George Christenson.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The photo ID law must be suspended until changes can be made to restore every voter’s access to the ballot box,” said Dane County Clerk Scott McDonell whose office commissioned the study.</font>

<strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“What I am concerned about here is winning”</font></strong>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While most Republican stuck to the official talking  points that the photo ID law was all about preventing nonexistent “voter fraud,” some forgot the script.</font>

<font style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">On the night of Wisconsin’s 2016 presidential primary, Republican Congressman Glenn Grothman (R-WI) flatly <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=13&v=Ta0W8_qn0Aw" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">stated in an interview with WTMJ’s Charles Benson</a> that Wisconsin’s photo ID law would help the GOP win Wisconsin in the November 2016 election.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When asked about the fact that Wisconsin has consistently voted for Democrats in recent presidential elections, Grothman assured Bensen that Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton was a “weak candidate,” then added “and now we have photo ID, and I think photo ID is gonna make a little bit of a difference as well.”</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Rep. Grothman was a State Senator in 2011 when Wisconsin debated and passed its voter ID law, so he was privy to the back room conversations and dealings on the issue.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Those back room conversation came to light five years later when the bill was implemented and people immediately started having problems. Former GOP staffer turned coffee shop owner,<b> Todd Albaugh,</b> was frustrated when one of his employees could not vote in the 2016 spring elections and decided to blow the whistle.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“I was in a closed Senate Republican Caucus when the final round of multiple Voter ID bills were being discussed. A handful of GOP Senators were giddy about the ramifications and literally singled out the prospects of suppressing minority and college voters. Think about that for minute. Elected officials panning and happy to help deny a fellow American’s constitutional right to vote in order to increase their own chances to hang onto power.”</span><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Albaugh, who once worked for Wisconsin Senator Dale Shultz (R-Richland Center),</span><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> stated in a social media post:</span></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“A vigorous debate on the ideas wasn’t good enough,” said<b> Albaugh</b> “they had to take the coward’s way out and come up with a plan to suppress the vote under the guise of ‘voter fraud.'”</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Later on the witness stand in a lawsuit brought by One Wisconsin Now challenging the voter ID law, Albaugh described the tension in closed door caucus as provisions in the bill were being debated.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As described by the <a href="https://archive.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/challenge-to-wisconsin-voter-id-law-begins-in-federal-court-b99726100z1-379657961.html/" style=" text-decoration-line: none;"><em>Milwaukee Journal Sentinel</em></a>, Albaugh testified that<b> Committee Chair Sen. Mary Lazich (R-New Berlin) made the case for passing the bill, </b>which made it <b>much harder for students, the elderly and the poor to vote:</b></font>

<font style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">“She got up out of her chair and hit her fist or her finger on the table and said, ‘Hey, we’ve got to think about what this would mean for the neighborhoods around Milwaukee and the college campuses,” Allbaugh said.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Grothman said, ‘What I’m concerned about here is winning, and that’s what really matters here. … We better get this done quickly while we have the opportunity,'” Allbaugh said.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Allbaugh named two other senators — </span><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Leah Vukmir </span><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">and Randy Hopper — as being gleeful over passing the bill.</span></b></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“They were politically frothing at the mouth,” he said of Vukmir and Hopper, who lost a recall election a few months after the voter ID law passed.</font>

<strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">ALEC </span><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Members Toe the Koch Party Line</span></font></strong>

<font style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">All four of the legislators named by Albaugh were at the time members of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Leah Vukmir, described as “frothing at the mouth” over the bill, served for years as an officer of ALEC, was ALEC’s national chairman in 2016, and was given ALEC’s “Iron Woman” Award in 2017.</font>

<font style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Koch-funded American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) drafted and approved a “model” “<a href="https://www.alecexposed.org/w/images/d/d9/7G16-VOTER_ID_ACT_Exposed.pdf" target="_blank" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">Voter ID Act</a>” in August of 2009. The wave of bills that followed were constructed differently by different GOP legislatures, but have a common purpose to disenfranchise constituencies that are more likely to vote Democratic.</font>

<font style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">ALEC has attempted to distance itself from this ugly history of voter suppression (it did away with its “Public Safety and Elections Task Force” and no longer touts voter ID as a “model bill”) after sustained campaigning by the online civil rights group <a href="https://www.colorofchange.org/" style=" text-decoration-line: none;">Color of Change</a> and others, but ALEC has done nothing to get voter ID policies repealed in the states where its members pushed for and passed the bill.</font>

<font style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">The partisan motivation behind the Voter ID Act comports with vision of ALEC’s founder, the late Paul Weyrich of Wisconsin, who in 1980 told a group of religious fundamentalists: “I don’t want everybody to vote. Elections are not won by a majority of people, they never have been from the beginning of our country and they are not now. As a matter of fact, our leverage in the elections quite candidly goes up as the voting populace goes down.”</font></p>

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<div style=""><a href="http://onewisconsinnow.org/press/new-republican-safe-spaces-for-racists-legislation-threatens-students-with-expulsion-for-declaring-hate-speech-not-welcome-on-campuses/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">http://onewisconsinnow.org/press/new-republican-safe-spaces-for-racists-legislation-threatens-students-with-expulsion-for-declaring-hate-speech-not-welcome-on-campuses/</font></a></div>

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<p style=" box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; letter-spacing: -0.0125em; line-height: 1.67; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">ADISON, Wis. — <b>Republican efforts to create “safe spaces” for conservative provocateurs to promote racist, sexist, xenophobic and homophobic ideologies on university campuses hit a new low today with a bill authored by State Sen. Leah Vukmir. According to the <a href="https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B8LurBVUNQZfTU4yc1NGYXJWNzg" style=" box-sizing: border-box; background-color: transparent; text-decoration-line: none; position: relative; padding-left: 2px; padding-right: 2px; border-bottom: 1px dotted;">provisions of the proposal</a> unveiled today, students could be expelled from a state university or technical college for organizing a protest to “dissuade” speakers from appearing on campuses</b>. Administrators would also be prohibited from speaking out to support or oppose public policies that affect the University of Wisconsin System or state technical colleges.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Leah Vukmir is apparently trying to prove that she can take a bad idea and make it even worse,” commented Scot Ross, Executive Director of One Wisconsin Now. “This scheme literally threatens students with expulsion from school for publicly declaring racism has no place on campuses and gags administrators from advocating for their schools.”</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Among the egregious provisions of the bill is the requirement that, “No person may threaten an invited speaker or threaten to <span style=" box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600;">organize protests</span> or riots or to incite violence <span style=" box-sizing: border-box; font-weight: 600;">with the purpose to dissuade</span> or intimidate an invited speaker from attending a campus event.” The language is so broad that it could even cover student social media posts or attempts to persuade that are clearly protected by the First Amendment.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The bill further declares that, “… administrators must remain neutral on public policy controversies.” Controversies regarding the university in recent years have included state funding, campus sexual assault, and campus speech.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For violators of the provisions, the bill mandates that the Board of Regents overseeing the University of Wisconsin and Technical College System Board impose a disciplinary process that includes suspensions or expulsion for students and pay cuts or termination for administrators.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">An earlier proposal being circulated for legislative sponsorship by Rep. Jesse Kremer along with Speaker Robin Vos, Rep Dave Murphy and Sen. Sheila Harsdorf could expel students who exercise their First Amendment rights to criticize racists, sexists and homophobic provocateurs brought on campuses. In addition, the bill could restrict faculty from doing research and discussing research on public policy issues facing the state and the nation.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a radio appearance the primary author of the bill, Rep. Kremer, agreed with critics that his proposal, originating from a right wing think tank in Arizona, is likely unconstitutional.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ross concluded, “Banning students from using their First Amendment rights to create safe spaces for racism, sexism, xenophobia and homophobia on campuses is flat out unconstitutional. It should be the legislators promoting these ridiculous bills who are threatened with expulsion.”</font></p>

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<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Gaylord Nelson served as the founder of Earth Day and is the namesake for both the <a href="http://www.nelson.wisc.edu/">University of Wisconsin-Madison's Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies</a> <span class="print-footnote">[12]</span>, as well as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governor_Nelson_State_Park">Gaylord Nelson State Park</a> <span class="print-footnote">[13]</span>.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tia Nelson, when she testified in front of congress, sat as co-chair of former Wisconsin Democratic Governor Jim Doyle's global warming task force. The task force <span style=" letter-spacing: 0.389999985694885px; line-height: 1.5em;">—</span><span style=" letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20070212235424/http://www.wisgov.state.wi.us/journal_media_detail.asp?locid=19&prid=2504">announced during Doyle's 2007 State of the State address</a> <span class="print-footnote">[14]</span> </span><span style=" letter-spacing: 0.389999985694885px; line-height: 1.5em;">— </span><span style=" letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">published a report in July 2008 titled, “</span><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20081114002623/http://dnr.wi.gov/environmentprotect/gtfgw/documents/Final_Report.pdf">Wisconsin’s Strategy for Reducing Global Warming</a> <span class="print-footnote">[15]</span><span style=" letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">.”</span></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That report was <a href="http://www.wisdc.org/pr090308.php">derided by environmentalists</a> <span class="print-footnote">[16]</span> for coming out in support of <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2009/03/8291/wisconsins-balance-power-campaign-repeal-nuclear-moratorium">lifting the state's nuclear energy moratorium</a> <span class="print-footnote">[17]</span> and <a href="http://www.michaelbest.com/files/upload/Business-Opposition-Letter.pdf">by corporate interests</a> <span class="print-footnote">[18]</span> and climate change deniers like <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/7681">State Policy Network</a> <span class="print-footnote">[19]</span> (<span class="caps">SPN</span>) “<a href="http://stinktanks.org/">stink tank</a> <span class="print-footnote">[20]</span>” members <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Wisconsin_Policy_Research_Institute">Wisconsin Public Research Institute (<span class="caps">WPRI</span>)</a> <span class="print-footnote">[21]</span> and the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/05/state-conservative-groups-assault-education-health-tax">Beacon Hill Institute</a> <span class="print-footnote">[22]</span>, which co-authored a November 2009 report titled, “<a href="http://www.wpri.org/WPRI/Reports/2009/The-Economics-of-Climate-Change-Proposals-in-Wisconsin.htm">The Economics of Climate Change Proposals in Wisconsin</a> <span class="print-footnote">[23]</span>.” </font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/TeleconferenceRecording.mp3">audio of the discussion</a> <span class="print-footnote">[24]</span> preceding the 2-1 vote obtained by DeSmogBlog via an open records request, much of the 17-minute deliberation centered around the <a href="http://www.statetreasury.wisconsin.gov/section.asp?linkid=1380&locid=155"><span class="caps">GOP</span> Wisconsin treasurer Matt Adamczyk</a> <span class="print-footnote">[25]</span> peppering Nelson with questions about her time spent serving on the task force.</font></p>

<h3><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The <span class="caps">ALEC</span> Connection</font></h3>

<p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As DeSmogBlog has previously reported, <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2013/12/09/stink-tanks-historical-records-reveal-state-policy-network-created-alec">State Policy Network was a creation of</a> <span class="print-footnote">[26]</span> the <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/6907">American Legislative Exchange Council (<span class="caps">ALEC</span>)</a> <span class="print-footnote">[27]</span>, according to a <a href="http://desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Special%20Report%20-%20Burgeoning%20Conservative%20Think%20Tanks.pdf">document we found in the Tobacco Archives</a> <span class="print-footnote">[28]</span>. Perhaps it's no surprise, then, that <span class="caps">ALEC</span> — at least indirectly — acts as a character in this story as well.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One of the outspoken critics of the Doyle global warming task force<span style=" letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> back in 2009 was Mike Huebsch, who penned a December 2009 article titled, “</span><a href="http://www.couleeconservatives.com/environment/mike-huebsch-writes-global-warming-legislation-unveiled-after-months-secret-meetings">Global Warming Legislation Unveiled after Months of Secret Meetings</a> <span class="print-footnote">[29]</span><span style=" letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">.” During Republican Governor Scott Walker's first term, </span><span style=" letter-spacing: 0.389999985694885px; line-height: 1.5em;">Huebsch headed up Walker's Department of Administration, and in February he was <a href="http://fox6now.com/2015/02/16/governor-walker-shifting-staff-michael-huebsch-moves-from-doa-to-public-service-commission/">named a commissioner for Wisconsin's Public Service Commission</a> <span class="print-footnote">[30]</span>.  </span></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to documents obtained by the Center for Media and Democracy (<span class="caps">CMD</span>), <span style=" letter-spacing: 0.389999985694885px; line-height: 1.5em;"><a href="http://alecexposed.org/w/images/7/72/ALEC_State_Chairmen_Exposed.pdf">Huebsch served as the former state co-chairman of <span class="caps">ALEC</span></a> <span class="print-footnote">[31]</span> back when he was a state representative. Other documents obtained by Common Cause show Huebsch also was a <a href="http://www.commoncause.org/issues/more-democracy-reforms/alec/whistleblower-complaint/original-complaint/National_ALEC_Exhibit_4_EEA_2010_SNPS.pdf">member of <span class="caps">ALEC</span>'s Energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force</a> <span class="print-footnote">[32]</span>.</span></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“From 2008 to 2010, Huebsch received over $5,000 in 'scholarships' from <span class="caps">ALEC</span> member corporations, and oversaw the distribution of over $78,000 in corporate-funded scholarships to state legislators,” <a href="http://alecexposed.org/w/images/c/cd/ALEC_Exposed_in_Wisconsin.pdf">a <span class="caps">CMD</span> report further details</a> <span class="print-footnote">[33]</span>. </font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Also, before becoming state treasurer, <span style=" letter-spacing: 0.389999985694885px; line-height: 1.5em;"><b>Adamczyk </b></span><a href="http://patch.com/wisconsin/brookfield-wi/brookfield-republican-matt-adamczyk-running-for-state-assembly">worked as a staffer</a> <span class="print-footnote">[34]</span><span style=" letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"> for </span><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Leah_Vukmir">Wisconsin Republican <b>Sen. Leah Vukmir</b></a><b> </b><span class="print-footnote">[35]</span><span style=" letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">, who </span><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Wisconsin_ALEC_Politicians">according to <span class="caps">CMD</span>'s research is an active <span class="caps">ALEC</span> member</a></span> <span class="print-footnote">[36]</span><span style=" letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">.</span></font></p>

<h3><span style=" letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Clean Power Plan </font></span></h3>

<p><font style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" size="4" face="Times New Roman">In an April 8 press release, <a href="http://www.onewisconsinnow.org/about/">Scot Ross</a> <span class="print-footnote">[37]</span>, executive director for<b> <a href="http://www.onewisconsinnow.org/">One Wisconsin Now</a> <span class="print-footnote">[38]</span>, pointed to another important connection at-play: <a href="http://www.doj.state.wi.us/ag/biography">Wisconsin </a> <span class="print-footnote">[39]</span></b><span style=" letter-spacing: 0.389999985694885px; line-height: 1.5em;"><a href="http://www.doj.state.wi.us/ag/biography"><b>Attorney General Brad Schimel</b></a> <span class="print-footnote">[39]</span>, who cast the deciding vote that banned doing any climate change- or global warming-related work while on the job at the Wisconsin </span><span style=" letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Board of Commissioners of Public Lands</span><span style=" letter-spacing: 0.389999985694885px; line-height: 1.5em;">.</span></font>

<span style=" letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“We’ve seen enough of Matt Adamczyk and his antics to not be surprised by his lack of intellectual heft,” said Ross, referring to <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/02/us/wisconsins-treasurer-wants-to-cut-needless-workers-starting-with-himself.html?_r=1">February 2015 New York Times profile of Adamczyk</a> <span class="print-footnote">[40]</span>. “But you have to wonder what’s behind…Schimel’s support for a science denier’s gag order on a state employee.”</font></span>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A possible answer to Ross' question is that it is part-and-parcel of his office's ongoing lawsuit, filed in concert with coal industry giant <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/1187">Murray Energy</a> <span class="print-footnote">[41]</span> (owned by climate change denier <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/14243">Robert “Bob” Murray</a> <span class="print-footnote">[42]</span>), against President Obama's proposed <a href="http://www2.epa.gov/carbon-pollution-standards/clean-power-plan-proposed-rule">Clean Power Plan</a> <span class="print-footnote">[43]</span> regulating coal-fired power plants. </font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On March 25, <span style=" letter-spacing: 0.389999985694885px; line-height: 1.5em;"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Wisconsin%20Motion%20to%20Intervene.pdf">Schimel signed off on a Motion to Intervene </a><span class="print-footnote">[44]</span>in the ongoing lawsuit in the <span class="caps">U.S.</span> Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2014/06/19/3450752/murray-energy-sues-epa-coal/">spearheaded by Murray Energy back in June 2014</a> <span class="print-footnote">[45]</span>.</span></font>

<em style=" letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;">Image Credit: <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Wisconsin%20Motion%20to%20Intervene.pdf"><span class="caps">U.S.</span> Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia</a> <span class="print-footnote">[44]</span></em></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Wisconsin%20Granted%20Motion%20to%20Intervene_0.pdf">Motion to Intervene was granted by the Court</a> <span class="print-footnote">[47]</span> on April 8.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Governor Walker, <span style=" letter-spacing: 0.389999985694885px; line-height: 1.5em;">a <a href="http://host.madison.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/election-matters/scott-walker-s-time-the-governor-is-running-for-president/article_8e01cc24-7062-5b3a-8083-f8fe3f2d9862.html">front-runner candidate</a> <span class="print-footnote">[48]</span> for the 2016 <span class="caps">GOP</span> presidential ticket, also has submitted a <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Walker%20Opposes%20Clean%20Power%20Plan.pdf">public comment opposing the Clean Power Plan</a> <span class="print-footnote">[49]</span>. So too did the <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/PSC%2C%20DNR%20Oppose%20Clean%20Power%20Plan.pdf">Public Service Commission and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources</a> <span class="print-footnote">[50]</span>, the latter of which is now also <a href="http://wisconsinwatch.org/2015/04/wisconsin-dnr-mulls-dissolving-science-bureau/">mulling over dissolving its science bureau</a> <span class="print-footnote">[51]</span>. </span></font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Schimel, upon taking office, <a href="http://www.doj.state.wi.us/media-center/2014-news-releases/november-25-2014">chose Andrew Cook to serve as Deputy Attorney General</a> <span class="print-footnote">[52]</span>. Cook formerly <a href="http://www.hamilton-consulting.com/andrew-cook">served as a lobbyist</a> <span class="print-footnote">[53]</span> for the Madison-based firm <a href="http://www.hamilton-consulting.com/">The Hamilton Consulting Group</a> <span class="print-footnote">[54]</span> and also <a href="https://www.fed-soc.org/experts/detail/andrew-c-cook">headed up the Madison branch</a> <span class="print-footnote">[55]</span> of the <a href="http://desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/5187">Koch Brothers</a> <span class="print-footnote">[56]</span>-tied <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Federalist_Society_for_Law_and_Public_Policy_Studies">Federalist Society</a> <span class="print-footnote">[57]</span>. </font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to lobbying disclosure forms, Cook's former industry clients have included the <a href="https://lobbying.wi.gov/Who/PrincipalInformation/2013REG/Information/5620?tab=Lobbyists">American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (<span class="caps">ACCCE</span>)</a> <span class="print-footnote">[58]</span>, <a href="https://lobbying.wi.gov/Who/PrincipalInformation/2009REG/Information/3681?tab=Lobbyists">Koch Industries</a> <span class="print-footnote">[59]</span>, <a href="https://lobbying.wi.gov/Who/PrincipalInformation/2013REG/Information/5712?tab=Lobbyists">Marathon Petroleum</a> <span class="print-footnote">[60]</span>, <a href="https://lobbying.wi.gov/Who/PrincipalInformation/2013REG/Information/5611?tab=Lobbyists">Xcel Energy</a> <span class="print-footnote">[61]</span>and <a href="https://lobbying.wi.gov/Who/PrincipalInformation/2013REG/Information/5779?tab=Lobbyists">Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce</a> <span class="print-footnote">[62]</span>. Cook also formerly <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/sites/beta.desmogblog.com/files/Andrew%20Cook%20-%20LinkedIn.pdf">worked as a staff attorney</a> <span class="print-footnote">[63]</span> at the Koch-tied <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Pacific_Legal_Foundation">Pacific Legal Foundation</a> <span class="print-footnote">[64]</span>.</font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And as The New York Times revealed in a December 2014 investigation, the <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/10/28/us/1-RAGA-as-a-Money-Machine.html">corporate-funded Republican Attorneys General Association (<span class="caps">RAGA</span>)</a> <span class="print-footnote">[65]</span> has <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/07/us/politics/energy-firms-in-secretive-alliance-with-attorneys-general.html">worked in concert with coal mining and coal utility companies</a> <span class="print-footnote">[66]</span>to stave off Obama's Clean Power Plan. </font>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style=" letter-spacing: 0.389999985694885px; line-height: 1.5em;"><a href="http://wisdc.org/index.php?module=wisdc.websiteforms&cmd=campaigncontributions&office=AG&candidate=104385&year=2014&from=2013-01-01&to=2014-10-20&qty=100&p=12&pac_qty=100"><span class="caps">RAGA</span> (and Koch Industries) was one of Schimel's biggest campaign donors</a> <span class="print-footnote">[67]</span> in his 2014 Attorney General electoral race and </span><a href="http://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/1339571/1-raga.pdf">hosted a fundraiser for him at its summer 2014 meeting</a> <span class="print-footnote">[68]</span><span style=" letter-spacing: 0.389999985694885px; line-height: 1.5em;">, where Schimel also spoke.</span></font>

<span style=" letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“527 reports to the <span class="caps">IRS</span> also showed [<span class="caps">RAGA</span>] gave $300,000 to Wisconsin Manufacturers <span class="amp">&</span> Commerce, the state’s largest business group, which recently began airing television ads in support of <span class="caps">GOP</span>attorney general candidate Brad Schimel,” an October 2014 Wisconsin Democracy Campaign <a href="http://blog.wisdc.org/2014/10/ultrawealthy-pump-38-million-in-90-days.html">blog post explained</a> <span class="print-footnote">[69]</span>.</font></span></p>

<h3><span style=" letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Stop Climate Censorship”</font></span></h3>

<p><span style=" letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A petition published by <a href="http://act.forecastthefacts.org/sign/censorship_wisconsin/?source=twitter">Forecast the Facts has called on Gov. Walker to oppose climate censorship</a> <span class="print-footnote">[70]</span> in Wisconsin. But it appears unlikely to happen, given the pile of money that brought the people implementing the policy to where they are to begin with.</font></span>

<font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The polluters and climate change deniers bought Brad Schimel and the Attorney General's office,” Ross said in an email to DeSmogBlog. “While they may have spent relatively little to buy a cheap politician, the price Wisconsin will pay as result of his actions will be enormous for years to come.”</font>

<em style=" letter-spacing: 0.03em; line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Photo Credit: <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-2526547p1.html">scott conner</a> <span class="print-footnote">[71]</span> | <a href="http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&language=en&ref_site=photo&search_source=search_form&version=llv1&anyorall=all&safesearch=1&use_local_boost=1&search_tracking_id=Q50pScb0t1DYxKagjSoecg&searchterm=gag&show_color_wheel=1&orient=&commercial_ok=&media_type=images&search_cat=&searchtermx=&photographer_name=&people_gender=&people_age=&people_ethnicity=&people_number=&color=&page=1&inline=240954550">Shutterstock</a> <span class="print-footnote">[72]</span></font></em></p>

</div>

<div class="field-item even"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/3833">Climate</a> <span class="print-footnote">[73]</span></font></div>

<div class="field-item odd"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/913">global warming</a> <span class="print-footnote">[74]</span></font></div>

<div class="field-item even"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/20280">Gov. Jim Doyle</a> <span class="print-footnote">[75]</span></font></div>

<div class="field-item odd"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/20281">Gov. Doyle</a> <span class="print-footnote">[76]</span></font></div>

<div class="field-item even"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/20282">Governor Doyle</a> <span class="print-footnote">[77]</span></font></div>

<div class="field-item odd"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/20283">Gov. James Doyle</a> <span class="print-footnote">[78]</span></font></div>

<div class="field-item even"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/20284">James Doyle Global Warming Task Force</a> <span class="print-footnote">[79]</span></font></div>

<div class="field-item odd"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/20285">Wisconsin Global Warming Task Force</a> <span class="print-footnote">[80]</span></font></div>

<div class="field-item even"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/20286">Jim Doyle Global Warming Task Force</a> <span class="print-footnote">[81]</span></font></div>

<div class="field-item odd"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/20287">Governor Walker</a> <span class="print-footnote">[82]</span></font></div>

<div class="field-item even"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/20288">Governor Scott Walker</a> <span class="print-footnote">[83]</span></font></div>

<div class="field-item odd"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/20289">Gov. Walker</a> <span class="print-footnote">[84]</span></font></div>

<div class="field-item even"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/9265">Wisconsin Watch</a> <span class="print-footnote">[85]</span></font></div>

<div class="field-item odd"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/20290">Wisconsin Petro State</a> <span class="print-footnote">[86]</span></font></div>

<div class="field-item even"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/20291">Wisconsin Dairy State</a> <span class="print-footnote">[87]</span></font></div>

<div class="field-item odd"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/20292">State Treasurer Matt Adamczyk</a> <span class="print-footnote">[88]</span></font></div>

<div class="field-item even"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/20293">Wisconsin’s Board of Commissioners of Public Lands</a> <span class="print-footnote">[89]</span></font></div>

<div class="field-item odd"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/20294">Wisconsin’s Board of Commissioners</a> <span class="print-footnote">[90]</span></font></div>

<div class="field-item even"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/20295">Matt Adamczyk</a> <span class="print-footnote">[91]</span></font></div>

<div class="field-item odd"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/14244">Bob Murray</a> <span class="print-footnote">[92]</span></font></div>

<div class="field-item even"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/20296">Doug LaFollette</a> <span class="print-footnote">[93]</span></font></div>

<div class="field-item odd"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/14243">Robert Murray</a> <span class="print-footnote">[42]</span></font></div>

<div class="field-item even"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/20297">Attorney General Brad Schimel</a> <span class="print-footnote">[94]</span></font></div>

<div class="field-item odd"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/939">climate change</a> <span class="print-footnote">[95]</span></font></div>

<div class="field-item even"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/5267">wisconsin</a> <span class="print-footnote">[96]</span></font></div>

<div class="field-item odd"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/20298">Brad Schimel</a> <span class="print-footnote">[97]</span></font></div>

<div class="field-item odd"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/1187">murray energy</a> <span class="print-footnote">[41]</span></font></div>

<div class="field-item odd"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/20300">Obama Clean Power Plan</a> <span class="print-footnote">[100]</span></font></div>

<div class="field-item even"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/19055">Clean Power Plan</a> <span class="print-footnote">[101]</span></font></div>

<div class="field-item odd"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/13016">Obama Climate Action Plan</a> <span class="print-footnote">[102]</span></font></div>

<div class="field-item even"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/6062">climate action plan</a> <span class="print-footnote">[103]</span></font></div>

<div class="field-item odd"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/3062">climate denial</a> <span class="print-footnote">[104]</span></font></div>

<div class="field-item even"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/7453">climate skepticism</a> <span class="print-footnote">[105]</span></font></div>

<div class="field-item odd"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/20301">wisconsin open records act</a> <span class="print-footnote">[106]</span></font></div>

<div class="field-item even"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/20302">tia nelson</a> <span class="print-footnote">[107]</span></font></div>

<div class="field-item odd"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/20303">gaylord nelson</a> <span class="print-footnote">[108]</span></font></div>

<div class="field-item even"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/20304">U.S. Sen. Gaylord Nelson (D-WI)</a> <span class="print-footnote">[109]</span></font></div>

<div class="field-item odd"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/20305">Governor Gaylord Nelson</a> <span class="print-footnote">[110]</span></font></div>

<div class="field-item even"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/20306">Gaylord Nelson State Park</a> <span class="print-footnote">[111]</span></font></div>

<div class="field-item odd"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/20307">Gaylord Nelson Institute</a> <span class="print-footnote">[112]</span></font></div>

<div class="field-item even"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/20308">Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies</a> <span class="print-footnote">[113]</span></font></div>

<div class="field-item odd"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/15935">UW-Madison</a> <span class="print-footnote">[114]</span></font></div>

<div class="field-item even"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/989">university of wisconsin</a> <span class="print-footnote">[115]</span></font></div>

<div class="field-item odd"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/20309">University of Wisconsin-Madison</a> <span class="print-footnote">[116]</span></font></div>

<div class="field-item even"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/20310">One Wisconsin Now</a> <span class="print-footnote">[117]</span></font></div>

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<div class="blogreadmore"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Read more: <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2015/04/10/wisconsin-climate-change-gag-order-industy-tied-broader-attack">Wisconsin Climate Change Gag Order Part of Broader Industry-Tied Attacks on Science</a> <span class="print-footnote">[118]</span></font></div>

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<div class="print-source_url" style="text-align: left;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><strong>Source URL:</strong> <a href="http://www.desmogblog.com/2015/04/10/wisconsin-climate-change-gag-order-industy-tied-broader-attack">http://www.desmogblog.com/2015/04/10/wisconsin-climate-change-gag-order-industy-tied-broader-attack</a></font></div>

<p /><div style="text-align: left;"><strong style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large">Links:</strong></div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div style="text-align: left;"><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"><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"><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">[1] http://bcpl.wisconsin.gov/category.asp?linkcatid=2830&linkid=1442&locid=145</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div style="text-align: left;">[2] http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-08/for-some-wisconsin-state-workers-climate-change-isn-t-something-you-can-talk-about</div><div style="text-align: left;">[3] http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/apr/07/wisconsin-republicans-climate-change</div><div style="text-align: left;">[4] http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2015/04/another-state-agency-just-banned-words-climate-change</div><div style="text-align: left;">[5] http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/wisconsin-ban-climate-change-public-lands</div><div style="text-align: left;">[6] http://www.desmogblog.com/2014/07/08/dairyland-petrostate-wisconsin-oil-rail-routes-published-first-time</div><div style="text-align: left;">[7] 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http://act.forecastthefacts.org/sign/censorship_wisconsin/?source=twitter</div><div style="text-align: left;">[71] http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-2526547p1.html</div><div style="text-align: left;">[72] http://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?lang=en&language=en&ref_site=photo&search_source=search_form&version=llv1&anyorall=all&safesearch=1&use_local_boost=1&search_tracking_id=Q50pScb0t1DYxKagjSoecg&searchterm=gag&show_color_wheel=1&orient=&commercial_ok=&media_type=images&search_cat=&searchtermx=&photographer_name=&people_gender=&people_age=&people_ethnicity=&people_number=&color=&page=1&inline=240954550</div><div style="text-align: left;">[73] http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/3833</div><div style="text-align: left;">[74] http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/913</div><div style="text-align: left;">[75] http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/20280</div><div style="text-align: left;">[76] http://www.desmogblog.com/directory/vocabulary/20281</div><div 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http://www.desmogblog.com/2015/04/10/wisconsin-climate-change-gag-order-industy-tied-broader-attack</div>

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