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Open in TheBrain

Pocan, M Rep

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promoted to primary 5/14 on right side of many issues, blew whistle on alec, targetted by dirty tricks

wisconsin trad liberal but gop/TP takeover

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rww}:

February 1, 2024

Democrat launches the most aggressive official inquiry ever into The Family and the National Prayer breakfast.

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https://www.alternet.org/2021/09/dark-money/

ME

The dark money group No Labels recently praised Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) for her efforts to block President Joe Biden's infrastructure bill; a pushback that goes against what her own political party is fighting for.

According to The Intercept, a leaked email from Margaret White details the group's continued optimism regarding lawmakers' ability to separate the bipartisan infrastructure bill from the reconciliation package which includes a large portion of Biden's political agenda. In fact, they are even optimistic that the bill could still be killed in its entirety.

"It is now clear that the reconciliation package will be delinked in time from the infrastructure bill and will be less than $3.5 trillion (if it passes at all), in theory making support from House Republicans for the infrastructure bill more likely," the email reads.

White continued with praise of Sinema for her efforts to fight the passing of the bill on their behalf. However, she did note that her group had not accumulated enough votes to pass the piece of legislation on Monday. The delay is due to progressives who have made it clear that they will not support the effort until the reconciliation bill is in Biden's hands.

“The biggest warning sign is on the left, where the Progressive Caucus leadership continues to object to the delinkage and claims they have the votes to kill the infrastructure bill, leading them to suggest Speaker Pelosi should cancel the vote or risk embarrassment," White wrote. “In the post-Brexit, post-Trump, free-agent, populist era in which we live now, don't assume that Speaker Pelosi and President Biden can definitely deliver the votes on the left."

In the wake of their opposition to the bill, some Democratic lawmakers have pushed back against the dark money group. "This only reinforces that No Labels is not only No Values but now also No Clue," saidRep. Mark Pocan (D-Wisc.).

Despite the ongoing bipartisan pushback, Biden and the majority of Democratic lawmakers agree the bill is a necessity. On Wednesday, September 22, multiple Democratic groups visited the White House to meet with the president. Pocan, who also attended the meetings, weighed in and urged Democrats to back the bill.

“The best way to help the American people is by passing the President's Build Back Better Agenda, which includes the Build Back Better Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure agreement," said Pocan.

He added, “The President agreed and reiterated his position that we need to pass both to move America forward. The debates we're having are not about progressives versus moderates, but it's a fight between the special interests who don't want to pay their fair share and making sure we build back better for the American people."

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OMG more evil?

https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/holy-crap-this-is-insane-citing-coronavirus-pandemic-epa-indefinitely-suspends-environmental-rules/

no lnx

‘Holy crap this is insane’: Citing coronavirus pandemic, EPA indefinitely suspends environmental rules

Royalty-free stock photo ID: 1417570841 Washington, DC/USA - June 3, 2019: Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler speaks at the National Press Club.]

Written by Common Dreams March 28, 2020

“The EPA uses this global pandemic to create loopholes for destroying the environment. This is a schoolbook example for what we need to start looking out for.”

The Environmental Protection Agency, headed by former coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler, announced on Thursday a sweeping and indefinite suspension of environmental rules amid the worsening coronavirus pandemic, a move green groups warned gives the fossil fuel industry a “green light to pollute with impunity.”

Under the new policy (pdf), which the EPA insisted is temporary while providing no timeframe, big polluters will effectively be trusted to regulate themselves and will not be punished for failing to comply with reporting rules and other requirements. The order—applied retroactively beginning March 13, 2020—requests that companies “act responsibly” to avoid violations.

“Outrageous. Suspending all environmental regulations indefinitely? This has nothing to do with coronavirus. This has everything to do with protecting Big Business.”

—Rep. Mark Pocan

“EPA is committed to protecting human health and the environment, but recognizes challenges resulting from efforts to protect workers and the public from COVID-19 may directly impact the ability of regulated facilities to meet all federal regulatory requirements,” Wheeler said in a statement. “This temporary policy is designed to provide enforcement discretion under the current, extraordinary conditions, while ensuring facility operations continue to protect human health and the environment.”

Critics, such as youth climate leader Greta Thunberg, accused the Trump administration of exploiting the coronavirus crisis to advance its longstanding goal of drastically rolling back environmental protections.

“The EPA uses this global pandemic to create loopholes for destroying the environment,” tweeted Thunberg. “This is a schoolbook example for what we need to start looking out for.”

Cynthia Giles, former head of the EPA’s Office of Enforcement under the Obama administration, told The Hill that the new policy is “essentially a nationwide waiver of environmental rules for the indefinite future.”

“It tells companies across the country that they will not face enforcement even if they emit unlawful air and water pollution in violation of environmental laws, so long as they claim that those failures are in some way ’caused’ by the virus pandemic,”said Giles. “And it allows them an out on monitoring too, so we may never know how bad the violating pollution was.”

Holy crap this is insane: The Trump administration just waived enforcement of the EPA’s environmental rules during the coronavirus pandemic for the indefinite future. Obama’s EPA enforcement chief strongly condemned it as an abdication of duty https://t.co/5JLDjeZb5K pic.twitter.com/mTgoiCDyxP

— Stephen Wolf (@PoliticsWolf) March 27, 2020

The EPA’s order, for which the oil industry aggressively lobbied, represents the latest effort by the Trump administration to use the coronavirus pandemic to advance right-wing policies that would likely not be permitted—or would at least face greater scrutiny—under normal circumstances.

As Common Dreams reported last week, the White House is advancing an assault on public-sector unions, xenophobic border policies, and other objectives amid the coronavirus pandemic, which has officially infected more than 85,000 people in the United States as of Friday morning.

“Outrageous,” tweeted Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, in response to the EPA’s new policy. “Suspending all environmental regulations indefinitely? This has nothing to do with coronavirus. This has everything to do with protecting Big Business.”

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https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/watch-betsy-devos-cornered-by-congressman-for-lacking-basic-information-about-the-us-education-system-you-dont-know-the-answer/

no lnx

Betsy DeVos cornered by congressman for lacking basic information about the US education system: ‘You don’t know the answer?’

Written by David Badash / The New Civil Rights Movement February 27, 2020

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos testified before a House Appropriations subcommittee Thursday and was repeatedly unable to answer basic questions, got snippy with Democratic lawmakers, and falsely claimed research cited by top Democrats was wrong and had been “debunked.”

(The numbers behind that research came from DeVos herself, according to this piece in the Washington Post.)

In an exchange with Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI), DeVos got heated, refuted his claims, and yet was unable to give a correct answer.

“Everything you’re citing is debunked, ridiculous, so I don’t accept the premise of your question,” DeVos, putting the word “question” in air quotes, told Pocan.

Congressman Pocan was referring to reports that show more than 40 percent of charter schools funded in full or in part by the federal government “collected the grants and then either did not open, or have opened and shut down,” as the report’s author wrote in The Washington Post.

Pocan responded by correctly saying the reports have “actually not” been debunked.

Minutes later Pocan revisited the 40 percent failure rate of charter schools, to DeVos’ anger.

“That is not true, that has been a totally debunked report,” she declared, waving her finger. “It’s nothing but propaganda by an individual who has an in for charter schools.”

“So what percent of charter schools are failing?” Pocan asked.

DeVos’ mouth opened and her jaw dropped but she did not speak for several seconds.

“Do you have an idea?” Pocan pressed.

“I don’t have a state – national,” DeVos, flustered, replied.

“You’re the Secretary of Education and you don’t have this? You ‘know’ this report’s wrong, but you don’t –” Pocan said before being cut off.

“Charter schools are chartered by states, they are not chartered by the federal government,” DeVos said, smiling, as if she won a debate. She had not. She had, however, ignored that the report shows 40.5% of charter schools received some if not all of their funding from the federal government.

“You know that number’s not right but you don’t have a correct number,” Pocan responded.

“What I know is parents and families are choosing to send their children to charter schools,” said DeVos.

“So you don’t know the answer?” Pocan again asked.

“Parents and children are going to charter schools by choice,” DeVos repeated, showing she has little interest in anything but continuing to fund charter schools, regardless of the cost to taxpayers or the cost to students who don’t receive a good education, and the cost to public school students who lose funding every day a student attends a charter school instead of a public school.

That, too, is somewhat false. After three years of an anti-public schools Secretary of Education, parents are learning that charter schools “make up an outsized share of the number of public schools persistently graduating less than half of their students.”

Americans are “turning against” charter schools reveals another Washington Post report.

Watch this exchange between Devos and Pocan:

Aaron Rupar

@atrupar

.@repmarkpocan: 40% of charter schools that you're giving grant to are closing down

BETSY DeVOS: That's a totally debunked report. It's just propaganda

POCAN: So what percent of charters are failing? Do you have an idea?

DeVOS: ¯_(?)_/¯

P: You're the secretary of education!

Embedded video

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see trms on autism

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) let Education Secretary Betsy DeVos have it during the second day of Appropriation Committee hearings dealing with the budget cuts coming out of President Donald Trump’s administration. However, his questions revealed that the Trump White House was behind the cuts to the Special Olympics.

During the questioning Thursday morning, Durbin asked DeVos about her $18 million cuts to the Special Olympics and even more substantial cuts to special needs programs around the country.

“Madam Secretary, there’s been some press reports about your testimony yesterday related to the Special Olympics,” Durbin began. “Did you personally approve the elimination of the $18 million from your budget to help the Special Olympics?”

“Well, Senator, as you know, [the] budget process within the administration is a collaborative one and it’s been my responsibility to present the budget here on behalf of the administration, the president’s budget. As I said then, and I’ll say again, this — we had to make tough choices around the budget priorities and we elected to hold harmless Title I and IDEA funding and funding for English language learners, knowing that that’s really going to reach the greatest number of students.”

Durbin interrupted to ask his question again, if she was the one who personally approved the significant cuts to special education.

“I think a yes or no will do,” Durbin said.

“No, I didn’t personally get involved in that,” DeVos admitted. It poses the question who was responsible for the Trump budget for the departments and if it was the Education Department or someone at the White House who chose to force special ed students to search for private alternatives.

“Whoever came up with that idea at OMB gets a Special Olympic medal for insensitivity,” Durbin blasted.

Durbin suggested that if the department wants to save money that they can give to the special ed programs they could bar student loans for those attending to for-profit colleges. He noted that those students are significantly more likely to default on their loans than at legitimate higher education institutions.

Trump celebrated Down Syndrome Day this week with guests at the White House.

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But emphasize that the Udall amendment (SJR19) is not adequate. It is defective for these reasons:  (pick your reasons from the above). An adequate amendment would say clearly and boldly that Corporations Are Not People, and that Money Is Not Speech.

:{:{:{Such an amendment has already been proposed: The “We The People Amendment”, HJR29, introduced by Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI). Please introduce this proposal into the Senate, add your name as a co-sponsor and promote it among your colleagues. (HJR29 is supported by Alliance for Democracy and our ally, Move to Amend)}:

Because SJR19 has also been introduced in the House (HJR119), call your US Representative as well with the same message.   }:}:

On February 14, the We the People Amendment was introduced in Congressby Representative Rick Nolan (MN) and co-sponsored by Representative Mark Pocan (WI). This amendment is the only one that fully overrules the Citizens United decision by clearly stating thatcorporations are not entitled to inherent rights under the Constitution and that money is not a form of protected political speech.

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Two freshmen seek end to corporate personhood

By Jake Harper Feb 11 2013 2:42 p.m. 

Two new members of Congress, Reps. Rick Nolan, DFL-Minn., and Mark Pocan, D-Wis., will introduce a resolution on Tuesday aimed at reducing corporate influence in politics through an amendment to the U.S. Constitution. 

According to Nolan, the amendment would establish that "corporations are not people, and money is not speech." In a press conference Monday, he announced the plan along with representatives from Move to Amend (MTA), a coalition that seeks to eliminate corporate personhood rights. The organization officially launched Jan. 21, 2010, the day that the Supreme Court handed down the Citizens United decision that opened the floodgates for unprecedented election spending. Nolan won his race last year with generous financial support from unions, as did Pocan.

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Congressmen Pocan and Ellison Introduce "Right to Vote" Constitutional Amendment

by Brendan Fischer [1] — May 14, 2013 - 7:52am

Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) and Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN)"The right of voting for representatives is the primary right by which other rights are protected," wrote Thomas Paine in 1795.

Yet contrary to popular belief, there is no affirmative right to vote in the U.S. Constitution. This gap in our founding document has provided an opening for the wave of voter suppression measures that swept the country in recent years, and before that, the poll taxes and Jim Crow restrictions that disenfranchised millions. This week, two Congressmen -- both from states at the epicenter of today's voting rights struggles -- are seeking to fix that.

“The right to vote is too important to be left unprotected,” said Rep. Mark Pocan of Wisconsin, who is co-sponsoring an amendment to the U.S. Constitution guaranteeing the right to vote.

“Even though the right to vote is the most-mentioned right in the Constitution," added Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison, the bill's other sponsor, "legislatures across the country have been trying to deny that right to millions of Americans, including in my home state of Minnesota. It’s time we made it clear once and for all: every citizen in the United States has a fundamental right to vote.”

U.S. Constitution Does Not Protect Voting Rights

Under the U.S. Constitution, the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments ensure the vote cannot be denied on the basis of race, the Nineteenth prohibits discrimination based on gender, the Twenty-fourth outlaws the poll tax, and the Twenty-sixth Amendment extends voting to age 18. When the U.S. Constitution was ratified, the franchise was limited to white, property-owning men, and these amendments have edged the document closer to its democratic aspirations.

But beyond those amendments -- and a few federal statutes, like the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which might be neutered [6] by the Supreme Court this term -- the right to vote is mostly a matter of state law. And states in recent years have hardly been careful about protecting access to the ballot box.

After Republicans gained new statehouse majorities in the 2010 elections, a majority of states introduced proposals to enact restrictions on the right to vote. According to [7] the Brennan Center for Justice, 25 laws and 2 executive actions passed in 19 states between 2011 and 2012 to impose strict ID restrictions, or shorten early voting, or limit registration drives, among other measures. More restrictive bills have been proposed in 2013 [8].

Wisconsin's Constitution Includes Express Voting Protections

Pocan's state, Wisconsin, passed one of the strictest voter ID laws in the country in 2011 after Governor Scott Walker and a GOP-dominated legislature took power. The law threatened to disenfranchise more than 300,000 voters who did not have the required forms of ID, primarily people of color, students, and the elderly. (Like many of the restrictive voter ID laws proposed since 2011, the bill tracked a "model" Voter ID Act [9] from the American Legislative Exchange Council [10]). But just months after Wisconsin's law was enacted, a state court struck down the law based on the Wisconsin Constitution's protections for voting rights [11].

"Every United States citizen age 18 or older who is a resident of an election district in this state is a qualified elector of that district," the Wisconsin Constitution reads.

Four years earlier, in 2008, the U.S. Supreme Court found [12] that Indiana's relatively similar voter ID law did not violate the U.S. Constitution -- which unlike the Wisconsin Constitution, does not expressly safeguard the right to vote.

Pocan and Ellison are seeking to ensure that citizens across the country can share the voting rights protections that have (so far) been enjoyed by Wisconsin residents.

Pocan: "Our country is at its strongest when everyone participates"

The Pocan/Ellison proposal, if approved by Congress and ratified by two-thirds of state legislatures, would affirmatively guarantee the right to vote, prohibiting not only restrictive ID measures, but also new limits on early voting, and measures to crack down on registration drives or same day registration, and other voter suppression efforts.

The proposed amendment language is simple, yet broad:

SECTION 1: Every citizen of the United States, who is of legal voting age, shall have the fundamental right to vote in any public election held in the jurisdiction in which the citizen resides.

SECTION 2: Congress shall have the power to enforce and implement this article by appropriate legislation.

“At a time when there are far too many efforts to disenfranchise Americans, a voting rights amendment would positively affirm our founding principle that our country is at its strongest when everyone participates," Pocan said Monday at a press conference in the Wisconsin Capital.

"As the world’s leading democracy, we must demand of ourselves what we demand of others—a guaranteed right to vote for all.”

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The Center for Media and Democracy, publishers of PRwatch.org, has endorsed this proposed amendment.

Center for Media and Democracy • 520 University Avenue, Suite 260 • Madison, Wisconsin 53703

Phone: 608-260-9713 • Fax: 608-260-9714

Source URL: http://www.prwatch.org/news/2013/05/12110/congressmen-pocan-and-ellison-introduce-right-vote-constitutional-amendment

Links:

[1] http://www.prwatch.org/users/35275/brendan-fischer

[2] http://www.prwatch.org/topics/democracy

[3] http://www.prwatch.org/topics/politics

[4] http://www.prwatch.org/projects/wisconsin-protests

[5] http://www.addtoany.com/share_save?linkurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.prwatch.org%2Fnews%2F2013%2F05%2F12110%2Fcongressmen-pocan-and-ellison-introduce-right-vote-constitutional-amendment&linkname=Congressmen%20Pocan%20and%20Ellison%20Introduce%20%22Right%20to%20Vote%22%20Constitutional%20Amendment%20

[6] http://www.thenation.com/article/172685/why-are-conservatives-trying-destroy-voting-rights-act

[7] http://www.brennancenter.org/analysis/election-2012-voting-laws-roundup

[8] http://www.brennancenter.org/analysis/election-2013-voting-laws-roundup#_ftn1

[9] https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CDIQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Falecexposed.org%2Fw%2Fimages%2Fd%2Fd9%2F7G16-VOTER_ID_ACT_Exposed.pdf&ei=Ibt_UY6RIeeTyQHYxIDQDA&usg=AFQjCNH7CLoS7U2DTYBTgib2c04V_ML_Kg&sig2=ebBYgO0obnl26s7FTjkmAQ&bvm=bv.45645796,d.aWc

[10] http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed

[11] http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/03/11350/second-judge-strikes-down-wis-alec-inspired-voter-id-law

[12] http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/07pdf/07-21.pdf

WI Rep. Mark Pocan Questions ALEC’s Non Profit Status

by Harriet Rowan [1] — April 23, 2012 - 8:13pm

Share this [4]

Representative Mark Pocan is a Democratic legislator from Wisconsin and a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council [5] (ALEC). He joined the organization in order to get an insider's perspective on how the organization worked. He blogged [6] about his experience at ALEC's 2011 meeting in New Orleans for the Progressive Magazine.

WI Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Madison)Pocan sent a letter [7] to Representative Dave Frizzell, the Chairman of ALEC's public board, expressing his concerns about ALEC's 501(c)(3) non-profit status. "As you know, organizations cannot conduct more than 20% of its work as political lobbying to qualify for this non-profit tax-deductible status. Having attended multiple ALEC conventions, it is clear to me that ALEC's primary role IS as a lobbying advocacy organization."

Pocan's letter comes hard on the heels of the Sunday *New York Times* story [8] illustrating instances in which ALEC was successful in altering state legislation and today's announcement [9] by the good government group Common Cause that it was filing 4,000 pages of materials with the IRS documenting ALEC's "massive underreporting of lobbying" and "misuse of charity laws."

Pocan presented a bill in the Wisconsin Legislature earlier this year called the **ALEC Accountability Act** [10]that would require ALEC to register as a lobbying group and require it to disclose corporate funded scholarships to legislators.

Center for Media and Democracy • 520 University Avenue, Suite 260 • Madison, Wisconsin 53703

Phone: 608-260-9713 • Fax: 608-260-9714

Source URL: http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/04/11476/wi-rep-mark-pocan-questions-alec%E2%80%99s-non-profit-status

Links:

[1] http://www.prwatch.org/users/35305/harriet-rowan

[2] http://www.prwatch.org/topics/corporations

[3] http://www.prwatch.org/projects/alec-exposed

[4] http://www.addtoany.com/share_save?linkurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.prwatch.org%2Fnews%2F2012%2F04%2F11476%2Fwi-rep-mark-pocan-questions-alec%25E2%2580%2599s-non-profit-status&linkname=WI%20Rep.%20Mark%20Pocan%20Questions%20ALEC%E2%80%99s%20Non%20Profit%20Status

[5] http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/American_Legislative_Exchange_Council

[6] http://progressive.org/pocan_alec_watch_new_orleans.html

[7] http://www.pocanforcongress.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=20f7062b751428d17f12a7274&id=d5cd23bde2&e=943ea7568e

[8] http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/us/alec-a-tax-exempt-group-mixes-legislators-and-lobbyists.html

[9] http://www.commoncause.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?=dkLNK1MQIwG&b=4773613&ct=11720653

[10] http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/02/11269/alec-accountability-act-introduced-wisconsin

Crooks and Liars

Thursday November 1, 2012 05:00 pm

Right Wing Smear Formula: Lie Until You're Caught

By karoli

enlarge

There is a formula for right-wing smears. We see it over and over again, some more elaborate than others. They find a way to be aggrieved at the hands of their targeted group, then blow it way out of proportion on the right-wing blogs and faux media until it makes its way to Fox News and the mainstream, like the Breitbart SWATters managed last summer. cf ESCALATOR

This one, out of Wisconsin, is especially egregious. Follow along, because it's convoluted, which is what wingers love to do to confuse everyone. Via PRWatch:

Kyle Wood, described as a “full-time volunteer” for the Republican congressional candidate Chad Lee, last week told the right-wing website the Daily Caller, that he had been physically attacked and choked in his Madison apartment by an unknown assailant for being gay but supporting a Republican running against a gay Democrat. The odd tale, accompanied by staged-looking photos, was picked up by the **Franklin Center**site**Wisconsin Reporter**and**Breitbart blog**. The Dane County GOP weighed in, issuing a statement backing Wood and his bona fides: “Wood is a full-time volunteer working with GOP 2nd District Congressional candidate, Chad Lee. He is brilliant, liked and respected by all who have worked alongside him on Lee’s campaign.”

Sigh. It's always the Breitbots in the center of these things. The story first spewed out of Media Trackers, an organization dedicated to inventing insane stories and calling them truth.

On Monday, October 29, the issue went nuclear when Media Trackers printed a list of “text messages” alleged to have been sent from Phil Frank to Kyle Wood. The messages were bizarre, racist, and threatening. The article and related tweets were meant to create the impression that Frank was not only responsible for the messages, but also for the attack on Wood. Media Trackers tweeted out: "EVIDENCE: @Mark Pocan's husband threatened gay Rep. vol. before brutal beating."

But Media Trackers had only Wood's word that the text came from Frank. Media Trackers’ Brian Sikma explained to The Capital Times that they did not see the phone, or the text messages and could not confirm if Wood even knew Phil Frank’s phone number. “He sent us the transcript of the exchange,” Sikma said. But Sikma did talk to unnamed people who told him Wood was a great guy, raising serious questions about the role of Chad Lee's campaign in the matter.

I'll bet you can write the ending, can't you?

On Monday at 5:00 p.m., news broke that Wood had recanted his statements about being assaulted and choked at his home, according to Madison Police Captain Joe Balles, who also told the Isthmus that the text messages “did not occur.” Because the police are referring the matter to the Madison District Attorney’s office they would not elaborate other than to tell CMD that there was “no validity” to the reports on the text messages.

Wood could now face criminal charges that include obstructing police or filing a false police report, and a libel suit by Phil Frank. But the role of Media Trackers in printing the unproven and libelous allegations bears closer examination, especially since days after the story exploded in its face, the organization has failed to take down its libelous tweets or a photo of Pocan and Frank on the front page of their website.

As I write this, the story has been disappeared from the MediaTrackers site with the following explanation:

A gay Republican volunteer beaten last week in Madison by an unidentified individual is alleging that prior to the attack he received harassment from other gays, including the husband of Democratic congressional candidate Mark Pocan. The alleged harasser, Philip Frank, denies the allegations and denies knowing the victim, Kyle Wood.

Media Trackers is continuing to follow developments in this story, but due to the ongoing criminal investigation we have chosen to remove the allegations raised by both sides from our website. All information has been given to law enforcement authorities. As information becomes available, we will stay abreast of the case.

Oh, really? See, when your "victim" recants the accusations altogether, it's not an issue of it being under investigation. It's an issue of a right wing setup, sort of like the one Ashley Todd tried to pull in 2008.

Media Trackers is a project of American Majority, which is a project of the Sam Adams Foundation, which is a Koch-funded effort. PRWatch has their genealogy on the article if you want to follow all the tracks.

This is a formula, this kind of smear. Allege criminal wrongdoing and then recant or fall silent after the story blows up. And as PRWatch notes, it's becoming more and more prevalent at all levels. Online and off, in new media and traditional media, across all lines of decency and fairness.

On Wednesday, Media Trackers was peddling more disinformation onU.S. Senate candidate Tammy Baldwin at the same time Sikma was taken apart in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinelby the state's top reporter for falsely claiming that Baldwin had voted against body armor for U.S. troops, a lie that has now been picked up and peddled by the Tommy Thompson campaign.

Sikma slams Wood's lies as "despicable." The same adjective applies to the misnamed Media Trackers.

Despicable and predictable. This is what they do. It's a formula they use to try to destroy careers and lives.

wiki:

Mark Pocan (born August 14, 1964) is an American politician and businessman who has served in the United States House of Representatives, representing Wisconsin's 2nd congressional district, since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously served as a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly from 1999 to 2013, representing the 78th district.[1] He represented parts of downtown Madison and his district includes the Wisconsin State Capitol. In November 2012, Pocan won the general election to replace Tammy Baldwin, a fellow Democrat who was elected to the U.S. Senate, as the next member of Congress from the district.[2]

Contents

Early life, education, and early career

Pocan was born and raised in Kenosha, Wisconsin. He graduated from Harvey Elementary School, Washington Junior High School, and Mary D. Bradford High School in 1982. He attended the University of Wisconsin–Madison, earning a bachelor’s degree in journalism in 1986.

Shortly after graduating, Pocan opened up his own small business, a printing company named Budget Signs & Specialties, which he continues to own and run as of 2012. He is a member of the AFL-CIO, which he joined as a small business owner.[3] His active years at UW-Madison in College Democrats led to his election in 1991 to the Dane County Board of Supervisors where he served Madison’s downtown community for three terms. He left the board in 1996.

Wisconsin Assembly

Pocan at the 2012 Gay Straight Alliance for Safe Schools banquet

Elections

In 1998, Pocan's longtime friend and ally, Tammy Baldwin, gave up her seat in the Wisconsin State Assembly to make a successful run for Congress. Pocan ran to succeed her in the state legislature and won a three-way Democratic primary with 54% of the vote. He faced no Republican opponent in the general election and won with 93% of the vote against an independent. He won re-election in 2000 with 81%--the only time he faced a Republican challenger. He was unopposed for reelection from 2002 to 2010.[4]

After a redistricting by the Republican-controlled legislature, the 78th Assembly District boundaries were changed. Pocan was succeeded in the Assembly by Democrat Brett Hulsey, who had previously represented the 77th District. (As in the 2010 race, the only serious challenge to the Democratic candidate was a Green candidate, Jonathan Dedering; the Republicans did not even field a candidate.)[5]

Tenure

Pocan identifies as a progressive Democrat, and is a member of a number of organizations, including Wisconsin Citizens Action, the American Civil Liberties Union, Fair Wisconsin and Midwest Progressive Elected Officials Network. He has been an active participant in the ongoing debate regarding same-sex marriage in Wisconsin, though the state has approved a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Pocan is also one of the few progressive Democrats to have joined the American Legislative Exchange Council ("ALEC"), a strongly conservative-leaning organization that produces "boilerplate" legislative proposals for state governments. Pocan used his membership to investigate the organization's agenda and sponsors and wrote a series of articles on his experiences with ALEC for the Madison-based magazine The Progressive.[6][when?] On the September 29, 2012 edition of Moyers and Company, Pocan said "ALEC is a corporate dating service for lonely legislators and corporate special interests that eventually the relationship culminates with some special interest legislation and hopefully that lives happily ever after as the ALEC model. Unfortunately what’s excluded from that equation is the public."[7]

During his time as a state legislator, Pocan earned a reputation for moving the Wisconsin political debate to the left. One of the most outspoken progressive members of the state assembly, Pocan focused on difficult issues including corrections reform, the state budget, education funding, and fighting privatization schemes.

For six years Pocan sat on the state’s powerful budget writing Joint Finance Committee, including a term as co-chair. He also took on a leading role among Assembly Democrats, running caucus campaign efforts in 2008 when Dems went from five seats down to successfully retaking the majority for Democrats for the first time in 14 years.

Committee assignments

U.S. House of Representatives

Elections

2012

Main article: United States House of Representatives elections in Wisconsin, 2012#District 2

In 2012, Baldwin decided to retire in order to run for the U.S. Senate. Pocan decided to run in the open 2nd congressional district. He won a four candidate Democratic primary with 72% of the vote. He won all 7 counties in the district, including the heavily populated Dane County with 74% of the vote.[8] The 2nd is so heavily Democratic that Pocan's victory in the primary was widely regarded as tantamount to election.[9] On November 6, 2012, Pocan won the general election, defeating Republican Chad Lee 68%-32%.[10][11]

Committee assignments

Personal life

Pocan is openly gay. He credits his political activism in part to an incident soon after he graduated college and opened his printing business. Pocan reports that he was followed by two men after he left a gay bar, and was beaten with a baseball bat while they called him "faggot" and other slurs. This gaybashing incident spurred him to become active in the Madison GLBT community.[12] Pocan is notable for having been the only openly gay member of the state assembly and was one of only three LGBT members of the Wisconsin State Legislature,[3] alongside Sen. Tim Carpenter (D–Milwaukee) and bisexual Rep. JoCasta Zamarripa (D–Milwaukee).

On November 24, 2006, Pocan and his long-term partner, Philip Frank, were legally married in Toronto, Ontario.[13] The marriage is not legally recognized in Wisconsin.

Mark Pocan's brother William Pocan serves as a circuit court judge in Milwaukee County.[14]

Recognition

Pocan has received the following recognitions while in office:

References

  1. ^ 'Wisconsin Blue Book 2011-2012,' Biographical Sketch of Mark Pocan, pg. 71
  2. ^ "Mark Pocan wins Madison-area US House race, keeping Baldwin's vacated seat with Democrats". chron.com. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  3. ^ a(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Pocan#cite_ref-weier_3-0) b(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Pocan#cite_ref-weier_3-1) Weier, Anita (October 28, 2004), "UW Student Challenges Rep. Pocan", The Capital Times, retrieved 2008-03-12
  4. ^ http://www.ourcampaigns.com/CandidateDetail.html?CandidateID=44761
  5. ^ "2012 PRESIDENTIAL AND GENERAL ELECTION: G.A.B. Reporting System: County by County Report: Assembly - 78" Wisconsin Governmental Accountability Board; Report Generated - 11/21/2012 1:57:46 PM; p. 78
  6. ^ http://www.progressive.org/pocan0308.html
  7. ^ http://billmoyers.com/episode/full-show-united-states-of-alec/
  8. ^ http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=725620
  9. ^ Weisberg, Louis. "Pocan wins Democratic Primary, on track to become next out member of Congress" *Wisconsin Gazette* August 14, 2012
  10. ^ http://www.ourcampaigns.com/RaceDetail.html?RaceID=701309
  11. ^ Zinck, Shaun. "Pocan inherits Baldwin's seat". beloitdailynews.com. Beloit Daily News. Retrieved 9 November 2012.
  12. ^ Pocan, Mark. "A Seat at the Table" Our Lives March/April 2012; p. 23
  13. ^ Conklin, Melanie (December 13, 2006), "Gay Legislator's Marriage Is About Being A Couple", Wisconsin State Journal, retrieved 2008-03-12
  14. ^ 'Wisconsin Blue Book 2011-2012,' Wisconsin Circuit Court Judges, pg. 573

External links

http://www.newrepublic.com/blog/plank/105308/meet-mark-pocan-the-original-alec-spy

Meet Mark Pocan, the Original ALEC Spy

BY MOLLY REDDEN

Today is the first day of the American Legislative Exchange Council’s (ALEC) annual meeting. State legislators from around the country will be attending, as will representatives from corporations looking to pitch model legislation.

There will also be spies.

Activists from several progressive groups will sneak into the Salt Lake City conference, (at least, they'll try), in hopes of capturing some of ALEC's model legislation. They will be especially motivated now that mass outrage over Florida’s Stand Your Ground law, an ALEC-modeled statute which many presumed would form the basis of George Zimmerman’s legal defense for shooting Trayvon Martin, has lofted ALEC's profile.

But long before ALEC watching became its own cottage industry, there was Mark Pocan—a Wisconsin state assemblyman who spied on ALEC for more than a decade and frustrated its attempts to advance policy in the Badger State.

For 14 years, Mark Pocan has represented an oblong district encompassing much of downtown Madison. Senate candidate Tammy Baldwin, Pocan’s longtime friend, emerged from this same, very liberal state district. (To wit: Pocan is credited with coining the term“FitzWalkerstan,” referring to Gov. Scott Walker

; today, he is running for the Democratic nomination to succeed Baldwin in Congress.) He is a longtime Wisconsinite—his nasal, upper Midwest accent was immediately noticeable when we spoke by phone—and so he was left nonplussed when, in 2003, a Republican assemblyman proposed a bill to bring bail bondsmen back to Wisconsin.

The bill would have reversed a ban on private bail bondsmen in place since 1979, when the Wisconsin legislature deemed the practice corrupt and predatory on poor individuals. “You’d watch bills like this come in, and you’d scratch your head,” Pocan said. “They didn’t benefit anyone in Wisconsin. Nobody had seemed to ask for them. Where did they come from?” Quickly, he said, he realized that the sponsors of such bills had all been active in ALEC. In the case of the bail bondsmen bill, the sponsor was State Representative Scott Suder, a former ALEC member who had chaired their criminal justice task force; a member of ALEC’s board and a lobbyist for a bondsmen organization stumped for the bill in Wisconsin newspapers.

So, after cutting a $100 check, Pocan became ALEC’s unlikeliest member. For years, he used ALEC’s state legislator web portal todownload and distribute its model legislation to likeminded Wisconsin liberals. (This feature was removed about a year ago). His fellow ALEC members in the assembly, of course, realized what he was up to, but that didn't much affect his efforts. Over the years, Pocan helped his colleagues mount defenses against a Taxpayer Bill of Rights measure, regressive changes to pension law, a voter ID bill, and a tort reform bill that heavily restricted the legal recourse available to consumers injured by a company’s products, by disseminating their ALEC models before they hit the Wisconsin Assembly. Occasionally, he even passed on ALEC’s environment and energy-related legislation to national environmental groups.

His efforts, of course, did not result in the uniform defeat of ALEC’s bills. But an Assembly colleague recalled that by revealing the source of the legislation—unless they were ALEC members,even most Republicans did not realize where the bills had originated—Pocan could often discourage support for ALEC’s special interest measures. His biggest coup came earlier this year, when a bill providing private school vouchersfor special needs students appeared on the docket. The bill was strongly opposed by the state’s most prominent special-needs organizations: It didn't require participating schools to have teachers with special-needs expertise or the physical attributes necessary to do their jobs. Pocan had heard the bill discussed at an ALEC policy summit, and he leveraged that knowledge and ALEC’s unpopularity intoa stinging denunciation of the bill from the assembly floor. The bill failed for the 2012 session.

No longer able to keep tabs on ALEC remotely, Pocan still travels to the occasional ALEC policy summit. In 2008, he went to its conference in Washington, D.C. and wrote a story about it for The Progressive, the liberal Wisconsin-based magazine. Last year, he attended their summit in New Orleans, where popular themes includedfrackingand natural gas bills, and a member of his Congressional campaign notified me that he would, indeed, be in Salt Lake City for this year’s gathering.

But the conferences are of dwindling use to a known quantity like Pocan. While his fellow ALEC-affiliated never tried to obstruct him, ALEC's staff and its sponsors are a different matter. Corporate representatives ensure that he is never invited to the private dinners and sessions where they do some of their choicest lobbying. “That’s where they really wine and dine you,” he said. At last summer's summit, “I was probably the loneliest guy in New Orleans.”

The only private event Pocan ever made it to was a cigar party. Sponsored by several corporations, it literally consisted of prim servers proffering cigars to legislators on silver platters. Within five minutes of Pocan’s getting there, an ALEC staffer hurried up to him, asked for his invitation, and, after he produced it, brusquely asked him to leave.

Kelda Roys doubles down on Pocan attacks, continues to burn bridges

“What do we really know about politician Mark Pocan? … He could have stood up to Walker. But instead Mark Pocan caved in,” warns a rather dire sounding voice in thelatest attack ad from the campaign of Kelda Roys, who’s running to replace Rep. Tammy Baldwin in the 2nd Congressional district. The ad attacks Pocan for voting in favor of a tax credit for companies that create jobs here in Wisconsin, instead of standing up to Gov. Walker, but what the ad doesn’t say is that Kelda Roys has a dirty little secret when it comes to not standing up to Republicans on tax votes.

See, Kelda Roys teamed up with extremist Republican Rep. Joel Kleefisch to cast her vote in favor of legislation that would have pitted communities against each other to compete for businesses while also directly benefiting prominent Republican developer Terrence Wall.

Roys also has another dirty little secret, namely that fundraiser she attended in New York City at the headquarters of a company that assists other companies who want to outsource production of their products to overseas producers. I’m not sure how raising money at a company that helps other companies outsource is in keeping with Roys’ progressive values, because I don’t know many progressives on a more local level who’d gladly take money from folks who support outsourcing.

Roys, who was first elected to the State Assembly in 2008, seemed to have a bright future ahead of herself, but as MAL points out, her Karl Rove-style campaign will only serve to burn even more bridges than she’s already burned.

In response to Kelda Roys’ Karl Rove-style attacks on his record, Mark Pocan’s campaign released a statement announcing his campaign has received the endorsements of Democratic State Sen. Jon Erpenbach and Democratic State Rep. Janice Ringhand, bringing the total number of incumbent Democratic legislators in the 2nd Congressional district who have endorsed Pocan’s campaign to 11 (out of 12 total). Here’s Pocan’s statement announcing the endorsements.