Wisconsin

==

see WISC 2 and wi tag

4/15 capt edit fail in www

Wisc has long leftist history (sewer socialism(?) Bob Lafollette; son, then tailgunner joe McCarthy

interesting that alec and cfg big

Tool:<a href="https://lobbying.wi.gov/Mobile/Home/2011REG/Welcome">https://lobbying.wi.gov/Mobile/Home/2011REG/Welcome</a>States falling behind this blue wall generally included those the Democrats had carried since <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/US_Presidential_election,1992" class="mw-redirect" title="US Presidential election, 1992" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128);">the 1992 election</a>,<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_wall(politics)#cite_note-3" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[3]</a><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_wall(politics)#cite_note-4" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">[4]</a> and included (in order of decreasing population): <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California" title="California" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128);">California</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York(state)" class="mw-redirect" title="New York (state)" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128);">New York</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illinois" title="Illinois" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128);">Illinois</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania" title="Pennsylvania" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128);">Pennsylvania</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michigan" title="Michigan" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128);">Michigan</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Jersey" title="New Jersey" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128);">New Jersey</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington(state)" title="Washington (state)" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128);">Washington</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts" title="Massachusetts" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128);">Massachusetts</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maryland" title="Maryland" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128);">Maryland</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisconsin" title="Wisconsin" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128);">Wisconsin</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota" title="Minnesota" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128);">Minnesota</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oregon" title="Oregon" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128);">Oregon</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connecticut" title="Connecticut" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128);">Connecticut</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaii" title="Hawaii" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128);">Hawaii</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maine" title="Maine" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128);">Maine</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhode_Island" title="Rhode Island" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128);">Rhode Island</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delaware" title="Delaware" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128);">Delaware</a>, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermont" title="Vermont" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128);">Vermont</a>, as well as the District of Columbia. The last time any of these states cast their votes for the Republican candidate before 2016 was when <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_H.W.Bush" title="George H. W. Bush" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128);">George H. W. Bush</a> beat <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Dukakis" title="Michael Dukakis" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128);">Michael Dukakis</a> in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,1988" title="United States presidential election, 1988" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128);">1988</a>, and several of them go back to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_Reagan" title="Ronald Reagan" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128);">Ronald Reagan</a>'s landslide in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,1984" title="United States presidential election, 1984" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128);">1984</a>. One of these states, Minnesota, has not been carried by a Republican presidential candidate since <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,1972" title="United States presidential election, 1972" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128);">1972</a>. (The District of Columbia has voted for the Democratic candidate in every election since it was admitted to the electoral college for the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,1964" title="United States presidential election, 1964" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128);">1964 election</a>.)In <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,2016" title="United States presidential election, 2016" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128);">the 2016 election</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump" title="Donald Trump" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128);">Donald Trump</a> made major inroads into the wall, winning in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maine%27s_2nd_congressional_district" title="Maine's 2nd congressional district" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128);">Maine's 2nd congressional district</a>, giving him victory despite not winning certain <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swing_state" title="Swing state" style="background-image: none; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128);">swing states</a> such as Nevada, Colorado, New Hampshire and Virginia.==

<a href="http://www.propublica.org/article/in-wisconsin-dark-money-got-a-mining-company-what-it-wanted" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; line-height: 1; color: rgb(34, 98, 204); text-decoration: none; background: transparent;"><strong style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; line-height: 1; background: transparent;">In Wisconsin, Dark Money Got a Mining Company What It Wanted</a><strong style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; line-height: 1; background: transparent;">, ProPublica, October 2014

When a Florida company proposed building an iron mine in Wisconsin, it touted the hundreds of jobs the project would generate. But the company wanted something in return — a change in Wisconsin law to speed up the process for getting a mining permit. A court filing accidentally made public in August revealed that the company had given $700,000 to a dark money group that poured money into a critical state senate race in 2012. The targeted senator lost her race, and the company got the law it wanted.

==

fed ct upholds voter ID?

<a href="http://www.prwatch.org/node/12603">http://www.prwatch.org/node/12603</a>

==

walker/ john doe suit:

10/14

A federal appellate court has shut down Judge Rudolph Randa's decision halting the criminal probe into Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker and allied groups, rejecting Randa's interpretation of campaign finance law and declaring the investigation best resolved by state courts.

The investigation remains halted by a state court decision from <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2014/01/12371/undermine-wisconsin-elections" target="blank" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">January</a>, and the probe's future now rests with Wisconsin appellate courts. However, some justices on the Wisconsin Supreme Court <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2014/02/12389/new-challenge-john-doe-raises-questions-judicial-ethics" target="blank" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">could have a conflict of interest</a>: the four-justice Republican majority was elected by millions in spending from the same groups under investigation in the coordination probe, calling into question whether they can be impartial.

<h2 style=" border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.25;">"Imprudent," "Unnecessary" Ruling Reversed on Federalism Grounds</h2>

Wednesday's <a href="http://electionlawblog.org/wp-content/uploads/7th-john-doe.pdf" target="_blank" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">decision</a> from the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals ordered Judge Randa to throw out the federal lawsuit filed by Wisconsin Club for Growth and its director Eric O'Keefe, declaring that Randa never should have taken the case in the first place. The unanimous decision was authored by Judge Frank Easterbrook, a Ronald Reagan appointee and prominent conservative jurist.

Judge Easterbrook, writing for the three-judge panel, held that <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2014/05/12469/randa-kills-wisconsin-campaign-finance-law" target="blank" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">Randa's May 6 ruling</a> halting the investigation was "imprudent," "unnecessary," and "an abuse of discretion." Randa <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2014/05/12489/federal-judge-who-halted-walker-dark-money-criminal-probe-attends-koch-judicial" target="blank" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">regularly attended judicial junkets</a> funded by the Koch and Bradley foundations, financial interests tied to the groups under investigation, the Center for Media and Democracy discovered earlier this year.

Randa acted improperly when he interfered with an ongoing state criminal investigation, being conducted under state law, and overseen by state courts, Easterbrook wrote. Randa ran afoul of the federal Anti-Injunction Act barring federal courts from enjoining state proceedings, as well as judicial principles of federalism and comity, the 7th Circuit panel held.

“State courts are free to conduct their own litigation, without ongoing supervision by federal judges, let alone threats by federal judges to hold state judges in contempt,” Easterbrook wrote.

<h2 style=" border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.25;">Randa's Holding on Campaign Finance Overturned</h2>

Perhaps the most closely-watched aspect of the case was how the 7th Circuit would treat Randa's <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2014/05/12475/scottwalker-john-doe-darkmoney-sixthings" target="_blank" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">far-out ruling </a>on regulation of money in politics.

Prosecutors had been investigating whether Walker and his campaign were part of what they called a "criminal scheme" to evade Wisconsin disclosure requirements and contribution limits, by coordinating activities with nonprofit groups like WiCFG (which accept secret, unlimited donations) during the 2011 and 2012 recall elections. WiCFG and the Walker campaign argued that any coordination only involved electoral "issue ads" that stop short of telling viewers to vote for or against a candidate, which they claimed are beyond the reach of Wisconsin law.

In his May 6 decision, Judge Randa sided with WiCFG's arguments, holding not only that "issue ad" coordination does not violate state law, but that it is protected First Amendment activity.

Randa's ruling gave ammunition to Walker and his supporters in the state. Walker <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2014/06/12519/scott-walker-says-dark-money-probe-over-hes-wrong" target="blank" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">declared that Randa's ruling</a> showed that "there is nothing wrong with what we did." Allies of Governor Walker, like Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty director Rick Esenberg, <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/an-undue-burden-on-political-speech-b99297245z1-264267981.html" target="blank" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">argued that </a>the 1999 Wisconsin court of appeals decision in Wisconsin Coalition for Voter Participation and a 2008 Government Accountability Board advisory opinion -- which both stated that "issue ads" coordinated with candidates would be counted as campaign contributions, subject to disclosure and contribution limits -- <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/gov-scott-walkers-battle-against-zombie-laws-b99297582z1-264434011.html" target="_blank" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">had been rendered unenforceable</a> by the U.S. Supreme Court and the 7th Circuit.

Easterbrook solidly rejected those claims.

"Until the district court’s opinion in this case, neither a state nor a federal court had held that Wisconsin’s (or any other state’s) regulation of coordinated fundraising and issue advocacy violates the First Amendment," Easterbrook wrote, with a nod towards the Wisconsin Coalition for Voter Participation precedent.

Because of this, the appellate court rejected Randa's assertion that the bipartisan group of prosecutors acted in "bad faith," and pursued the investigation only as a means or harassment and retaliation. Prosecutors are entitled to immunity for enforcing a legitimate (and constitutional) interpretation of Wisconsin law, Easterbrook wrote.

"No opinion issued by the Supreme Court, or by any court of appeals, establishes . . . that the First Amendment forbids regulation of coordination between campaign committees and issue-advocacy groups—let alone that the First Amendment forbids even an inquiry into that topic."

As the Center for Media and Democracy explained in a <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/gov-scott-walker-allies-knew-prevailing-interpretation-of-state-law-b99307863z1-267404011.html" target="_blank" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial</a>, even if Walker and WiCFG thought that campaign finance law was evolving on regulation of "issue ads" or coordination, this did not mean they could ignore prevailing interpretations of state law. Easterbrook echoed this sentiment.

"Although the Court’s views about the proper limits of campaign finance regulation continue to change," he wrote, "as the Supreme Court’s doctrine stands it is not possible to treat as 'bad faith' a criminal investigation that reflects Buckley’s interpretation of the First Amendment," referencing the landmark campaign finance decision Buckley v. Valeo.

<h2 style=" border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.25;">Walker Circumventing Campaign Finance Laws?</h2>

Easterbrook noted that rules against coordination are a constitutional means of preventing circumvention of campaign finance laws (a <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2014/05/12475/scottwalker-john-doe-darkmoney-sixthings" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">point</a> that CMD has <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/opinion/gov-scott-walker-allies-knew-prevailing-interpretation-of-state-law-b99307863z1-267404011.html" target="blank" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">repeatedly</a> <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2014/01/12371/undermine-wisconsin-elections" target="blank" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">emphasized</a>.)

"If campaigns tell potential contributors to divert money to nominally independent groups that have agreed to do the campaigns’ bidding, these contribution limits become porous, and the requirement that politicians’ campaign committees disclose the donors and amounts becomes useless," Easterbrook wrote.

This statement has particular relevance to the Walker investigation. Documents released late last month showed the governor <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2014/08/12577/walker-solicits-funds-outside-group-win-recalls" target="_blank" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">soliciting funds</a> for WiCFG from out-of-state millionaires, billionaires, and corporations, with the promise that donations to WiCFG "are not disclosed," and not subject to contribution limits, according to a set of fundraising talking points prepared for Walker.

The 7th Circuit acknowledged that the "Supreme Court has yet to determine what 'coordination' means," and did not take a position on whether WiCFG and Walker broke state law, declaring that this is an issue best resolved at the state level.

This isn't the first time that the 7th Circuit reversed Randa in a politically-charged case.

In 2006, Randa oversaw the <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/29354039.html" target="blank" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none; line-height: 20.7999992370605px;">wrongful conviction</a> of state purchasing supervisor Georgia Thompson for allegedly steering state travel contracts towards a firm linked with Wisconsin's then-Governor Jim Doyle, a Democrat. The conviction came just before the gubernatorial elections, and Republicans spent $4 million on ads tying Thompson's "corruption" to Doyle, who was reelected. Within hours after the 7th Circuit heard Thompson's appeal in 2007, they immediately ordered her release, with Judge Diane Wood calling the evidence used to convict her "<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/16/opinion/16mon4.html" target="blank" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">beyond thin</a>."

The U.S. Attorney who prosecuted Thompson, Steven Biskupic, is now Walker's campaign attorney, and his wife is Randa's judicial assistant.

<h2 style=" border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.25;">Conflict of Interest at Wisconsin Supreme Court</h2>

The future of the investigation now rests with Wisconsin courts -- where things will really get interesting.

The probe currently remains halted at the state level, after a state court judge quashed subpoenas issued to WiCFG and the Walker campaign in <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2014/01/12371/undermine-wisconsin-elections" target="blank" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">January</a>. However, that same judge then <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2014/05/12475/scottwalker-john-doe-darkmoney-sixthings" target="blank" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">stayed his own order</a>, acknowledging long-standing Wisconsin precedent on coordinated issue advocacy and calling the prosecutors’ theory an “arguable interpretation” of the statutes.

The Wisconsin Court of Appeals was then asked to resolve the dispute between dueling interpretations of Wisconsin campaign finance law; they have been sitting on the case for seven months. A separate petition was filed with the Wisconsin Supreme Court asking that they take the case directly, since it will eventually come before those seven justices, but they have not acted on the petition.

Four of the seven members of the Wisconsin Supreme Court have a potential <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2014/02/12389/new-challenge-john-doe-raises-questions-judicial-ethics" target="_blank" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">conflict of interest in hearing the case</a>. At least two of the groups under investigation in the probe, Wisconsin Club for Growth and Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, played a key role in electing the four justices in the conservative majority, in most cases spending more than the candidates themselves.

In every single one of the elections for the court's four Republican justices -- Justices David Prosser, Annette Ziegler, Michael Gableman, and Patience Roggensack -- spending by WiCFG, its surrogates, and WMC amounted to almost all of the independent support for the candidate. Together, the two groups have spent $7.88 million since 2007 helping elect the court's four-justice conservative majority, and have been among the top spenders in judicial elections.

According to data from the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, WiCFG spent at least $1,615,860 on the last four Supreme Court races, and groups it funds has spent $836,000 more. WMC has spent at least $5.43 million electing the court's conservative majority. In three out of the four Supreme Court races since 2007 where WMC has been active, it has spent more than the candidate it supported.

Any ruling by the Wisconsin Supreme Court would directly affect the same groups that helped put four of the justices on the bench.

Although the Wisconsin Supreme Court has grown notorious for its lax recusal practices, the level of spending by the groups in this case -- and their direct stake in the outcome -- could demand recusal under the U.S. Constitution, following the 2009 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Caperton v. Massey. In that case, the U.S. Supreme Court held that a West Virginia Supreme Court justice should have recused himself from a decision involving a major campaign contributor, when the election was decided by less than 50,000 votes and the donor had a disproportionate influence on the election's outcome.

"This could be a landmark case for applying the Caperton standards," Matthew Menendez, counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice, told the Center for Media and Democracy earlier this year.

<h2 style=" border: 0px; margin: 1em 0px 0.5em; padding: 0px; font-size: 1.5em; line-height: 1.25;">Groups Under Investigation Had Significant and Disproportionate Influence on Supreme Court Elections</h2>

In 2011, Justice Prosser won reelection by just 7,000 votes. WMC, the powerful state chapter of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, spent around $1 million helping reelect Prosser. A new front group, Citizens for a Strong America, <a href="http://prwatch.org/news/2011/04/10534/group-called-citizens-strong-america-operates-out-ups-mail-drop-runs-expensive-ad" target="_blank" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">came out of nowhere</a> and spent $836,000 backing Prosser and attacking his opponent; it was entirely funded by Wisconsin Club for Growth that year. Wisconsin Club for Growth itself spent $415,860 supporting Prosser. Prosser's campaign spent only $700,000. Together those groups spent three times as much combined as the Prosser campaign.

Justice Gableman won his <a href="http://www.wisdc.org/pro08-103914.php" target="_blank" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">2008 election</a> by around 20,000 votes. WMC spent $1.76 million getting Gableman elected. Wisconsin Club for Growth spent over $500,000 to elect Gableman. Another phony issue ad group, Coalition for America's Families, which received funding from Wisconsin Club for Growth and shared a board member, spent $480,000 supporting Gableman that year. The Gableman campaign spent only $411,000 -- meaning that WMC alone spent four times as much as the justice's own campaign.

<a href="http://www.wisdc.org/pro07-103567.php" target="_blank" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">In 2007</a>, WMC spent an eye-popping $2.2 million to put Justice Ziegler on the court. Wisconsin Club for Growth added $400,000. Together they nearly doubled the $1.4 million spent by the Ziegler campaign.

In <a href="http://www.wisdc.org/pro13-103267.php" target="_blank" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">last year's Supreme Court race</a>, WMC spent $470,000 supporting Justice Roggensack, and Wisconsin Club for Growth spent $300,000, together outspending the justice's own campaign.

A justice who was not a beneficiary of WCFG or Citizens for a Strong America spending, Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/justice-bradley-steps-aside-from-john-doe-challenges-b99229495z1-251104541.html" target="_blank" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">recused herself</a> in a separate challenge to the John Doe in March, on grounds that her son practices with one of the attorneys in the case.

Justice Bradley's letter announcing the recusal, though, appeared to be a subtle call to other justices to join her: despite Bradley's reasons for recusing herself having nothing to do with election spending, she quoted from Caperton v. Massey, writing, "The inquiry [requiring recusal] centers on the contribution's relative size in comparison to the total amount of money contributed to the campaign, the total amount spent in the election, and the apparent effect such contribution had on the outcome of the election."

“This court has been subject to extensive criticism for its recusal rules and practices,” Bradley wrote. “Weak recusal rules and lapses in recusal practices undermine the public trust and confidence in a fair and impartial judiciary."

The justices have not yet stated whether they will take the case.

</div>

<li class="field-item even" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px !important; padding: 0px; list-style: none; display: inline-block; font-size: 0.92em;"><a href="http://www.prwatch.org/topics/campaign-finance" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">Campaign Finance</a></li>

</li><li style=" list-style: none;">

</li><li class="field-item odd" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px !important; padding: 0px; list-style: none; display: inline-block; font-size: 0.92em;"><a href="http://www.prwatch.org/topics/politics" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">Politics</a></li>

</ul>

</li><li style=" list-style: none;">

</li><li class="field-item even" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px 5px 0px 0px !important; padding: 0px; list-style: none; display: inline-block; font-size: 0.92em;"><a href="http://www.prwatch.org/topics/wisconsin-protests" style=" border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none;">Wisconsin Protests</a></li>

</ul>

</div>

<span style=" color: rgb(66, 66, 66); font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22.3999996185303px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; display: inline !important; float: none; background-color: rgb(238, 238, 238);">- See more at: http://www.prwatch.org/node/12609#sthash.JA6IKHZm.dpuf

early TP hist/koch:

<h2 style=" font-weight: normal; margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); font-size: 19px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">State and Local Involvement</h2>

Another off-shoot of Americans for Prosperity is "The Prosperity Network." The state chapters and their leaders and activities are hard to track, as is where the chapters get their money. Looking at the Wisconsin Prosperity Network chapter is a good illustration of how the Network works on a state and local level.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Prosperity#cite_note-90" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[90]</a>

Information is surprisingly scant for an organization with so many high-profile members and funders. As of March 2011, there is no Web site (it looks as if it was taken down) and the only contact information found is the email address: info@wisconsinprosperity network.com.

Mark Pitsch, a reporter at the Wisconsin State Journal, wrote an in-depth article in May 2009 about the then newly-formed Wisconsin Prosperity Network. In the article, Pitsch describes the group as, "dubbed the Wisconsin Prosperity Network, the effort calls for an annual budget of $6.4 million and the creation of 14 new organizations, according to a draft outline of the network obtained by the State Journal."<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Prosperity#cite_note-91" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[91]</a> The draft shows that these groups, existing outside of the Republican National or State Parties, recruits local and state candidates, mobilizes voters, uses lawsuits to advance conservative issues in court, researches public policy issues and fights perceived media bias towards the left.

</div>

Not all of the 14 groups are known, but one of the first ones to be established was the MacIver Institute, a right-wing think tank named after Republican operative John MacIver. Also, Fight Back Wisconsin and Refocus Wisconsin (a part of The Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, Inc., of which James R. Klauser is Chairman, as well as a major supporter of WPN) are both listed on the Americans for Prosperity - Wisconsin Web site.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Prosperity#cite_note-92" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[92]</a>

<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/First_Freedoms_Foundation" title="First Freedoms Foundation" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">First Freedoms Foundation</a> is another group on the AFP-Wisconsin Web site that has a similar Board Member as reported by the Wisconsin State Journal article, "New Wisconsin Prosperity Network group would push GOP causes."

AFP has also worked to take over schools boards in North Carolina, Colorado, and Wisconsin.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Prosperity#cite_note-93" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[93]</a>

<h3 style=" margin: 0px 0px 0.3em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-style: none; font-size: 17px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Local and State Leaders</h3>

The leaders of Wisconsin Prosperity Network are difficult to find, but Pitsch obtained a list that is in his article. The following are known members of WPN:<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Prosperity#cite_note-94" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[94]</a>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">James Klauster - Klauster is a GOP power broker and top aide to former Gov. Tommy Thompson. He is also a Chairman on the The Wisconsin Policy Research Institute Inc. board and Senior Vice President at Wisconsin Energy Corp. He was a consultant from 1992 to 1996 for the Republican National Committee and Republican Governors Association, a General Chairman of the Thompson for Governor Committee, Co-Chairman of the Bush for President-Wisconsin committee in 2000 and as Chairman in 2004.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Prosperity#cite_note-95" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[95]</a> Klauser and his wife Shirley have given $96,683.45 to Wisconsin politicians since 1992.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Prosperity#cite_note-96" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[96]</a></li>

</ul>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Michael_Grebe" title="Michael Grebe" class="mw-redirect" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background: none;">Michael Grebe</a> - Grebe is the Bradley Foundation President and Chairman of the Republican Party of Washington.He also served on the Commission on Judicial Elections and Ethics board in 1997. Grebe is also the former boss of Barack Obama at <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.foley.com/" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); padding-right: 13px; background: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAVElEQVR42n3PgQkAIAhEUXdqJ3dqJ3e6IoTPUSQcgj4EQ5IlUiLE0Jil3PECXhcHGBhZ8kg4hwxAu3MZeCGeyFnAXp4hqNQPnt7QL0nADpD6wHccLvnAKksq8iiaAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC) 100% 50% no-repeat;">Foley & Lardner LLP</a>. He also chaired Scott Walker's electoral campaigns. Grebe and his wife Margaret have given $120,850 to Wisconsin politicians since 1992.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Prosperity#cite_note-97" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[97]</a></li>

</ul>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Fred Luber – Luber is a businessman and the founder and chairman of Super Steel Corp. He also is a MacIver Institute Chair, was a Scott Walker Campaign Finance Co-Chair and founder of the Anne And Fred Luber Foundation. He also served on the Commission on Judicial Elections and Ethics board in 1997. Luber and his wife Anne has given $114,973 to Wisconsin politicians since 1992.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Prosperity#cite_note-98" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[98]</a></li>

</ul>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Mark_Block" title="Mark Block" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); background-image: none; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">Mark Block</a> – Former President of Americans for Prosperity Wisconsin chapter, Main organizer of Wisconsin Prosperity Network, on the Board of Directors of the MacIver Institute and the First Freedoms Foundation. In 2008, Block was appointed a member of the Wisconsin Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. He was also a consultant and fundraiser in the past with Mark Block and Associates, and did fundraising and consulting for Presidential candidates like George W. Bush and Governors like Tommy Thompson and Wisconsin Supreme Court Justices Janine Geske and Jon Wilcox. The Wilcox campaign that Block managed holds the record for the highest paid election law penalties in Wisconsin history. Block settled the case brought against him in 2001 by the State Elections Board for illegal campaign activity - illegally raising $200,000 with a front group pretending to operate independently from a political party. Block paid $15,000 in fines and had to stay away from Wisconsin political campaigns for three years; The leader of the front group paid $35,000 and was banned from Wisconsin politics for five years; And Jon Wilcox paid $10,000 in fines.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Prosperity#cite_note-99" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[99]</a> Block was also involved in a "voter caging" controversy in Wisconsin during the 2010 elections.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Prosperity#cite_note-100" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[100]</a> The Center for Media and Democracy filed a letter with the Internal Revenue Service, requesting that it investigate Block's Prosperity USA, a nonprofit organization that spent money on Herman Cain's presidential campaign.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Prosperity#cite_note-101" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[101]</a> Block has given $5,643.19 to Wisconsin politicians since 1992.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Prosperity#cite_note-102" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[102]</a></li>

</ul>

<li style=" margin-bottom: 0.1em;">Scott Jensen – Jensen is the former Chief of Staff for Tommy Tompson between 1990 to 1992. He was voted into the Wisconsin State Assembly from 1991 - 2006. Jensen was the former Assembly Speaker from 1995 - 2002. He is also an advisor on the American Federation for Children Government Team.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Prosperity#cite_note-103" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[103]</a><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Prosperity#cite_note-104" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[104]</a> Jensen was convicted of three felonies and a misdemeanor in 2002, facing prison time for "misconduct in public office on accusations of using state resources and state workers to campaign for Assembly Republicans in 1998 and 2000 elections."<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Prosperity#cite_note-105" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[105]</a> In 2010, Jensen reached a plea deal after his original sentence was overturned for a technicality.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Prosperity#cite_note-106" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[106]</a> <a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/waukesha/112195794.html" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(102, 51, 102); padding-right: 13px; background: url(data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAVElEQVR42n3PgQkAIAhEUXdqJ3dqJ3e6IoTPUSQcgj4EQ5IlUiLE0Jil3PECXhcHGBhZ8kg4hwxAu3MZeCGeyFnAXp4hqNQPnt7QL0nADpD6wHccLvnAKksq8iiaAAAAAElFTkSuQmCC) 100% 50% no-repeat;">The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel</a> reported that "Jensen resolved the criminal case against him involving misconduct in office charges by agreeing Monday to pay a $5,000 civil forfeiture and reimbursing the state $67,174 in legal fees initially borne by taxpayers, according to a plea deal."<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Prosperity#cite_note-107" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[107]</a> Jensen has given $3,090 to Wisconsin politicians since 1992.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Prosperity#cite_note-108" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[108]</a></li>

</ul>

<h3 style=" margin: 0px 0px 0.3em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-style: none; font-size: 17px; line-height: 19.200000762939453px; background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);">Complaints About AFP's Activities</h3>

On February 23, 2012, Wisconsin Democrats filed a complaint with the Government Accountability Board and the Internal Revenue Service about AFP's activities in the state. The complaint was issued in response to comments made by David Koch in an interview with the the Palm Beach Post. Koch acknowledged his efforts to aid Scott Walker's campaign to win the likely recall election he will be facing this spring, stating that "We've spent a lot of money in Wisconsin. We're going to spend a lot more." As a 501(c)(3), AFP is not allowed to engage in "activities which constitute participation or intervention in a political campaign on behalf of or in opposition to a candidate," so Koch's comments suggest that AFP's activities may be unlawful.<a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Prosperity#cite_note-109" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[109]</a> Democratic Party Chairman Mike Tate also called on television stations airing AFP ads to immediately remove the ads from their broadcasts. <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Prosperity#cite_note-110" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(11, 0, 128); white-space: nowrap; background: none;">[110]</a>

<h2 style=" margin: 0px 0px 0.6em; overflow: hidden; padding-top: 0.5em; padding-bottom: 0.17em; border-bottom-width: 1px; border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-color: rgb(170, 170, 170); background: none rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Prosperity#Americans_for_Prosperity_and_the_Tea_Party">http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Prosperity#Americans_for_Prosperity_and_the_Tea_Party</a></h2>

==

With your support, the Center for Media and Democracy has gone head to head with our Republican Attorney General and prevailed in our open records lawsuit against ALEC's vice-chair, Wisconsin Senator Leah Vukmir.

For months, Sen. Vukmir insisted that she had no records in her possession and made an unprecedented claim of immunity from lawsuit -- but after a year of litigation, we finally received over 100 pages of emails pertaining to ALEC's Spring 2013 meeting. As part of the settlement, Sen. Vukmir was saddled with $2,500 in damages.

Even the conservative Wisconsin State Journal <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=u0qBW8lfvP2lswYZuj6glcJYht6aatLC" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(0, 102, 204); line-height: 1.2em; outline: none;">said</a> that the docs show the "lobbying group pulling legislators strings."

The newly-released records show a Florida State Policy Network "think tank" instructing legislators to introduce model policy -- undermining ALEC's claim that only legislators propose model bills.

The SPN group even drafted an entire script for multiple legislators to parrot when proposing the resolution suggesting that expanding health care to more American citizens would be disastrous (!).

Sen. Vukmir, a former nurse, agreed to work on behalf of this SPN group to sponsor a resolution rejecting Medicaid expansion, which would deprive health coverage to millions of Americans. (<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://org.salsalabs.com/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=0aAtCinpWXD2h5k5zgnUUMJYht6aatLC" style=" text-decoration: none; color: rgb(0, 102, 204); line-height: 1.2em; outline: none;">Read it here</a>).

An ALEC spokesman says CMD is engaging in a “witch hunt” and “the notion that legislators are puppets is an indictment of the United States and our Constitution as a whole."

We think he has that backwards. It is ALEC legislators who should be considering their obligations under the Constitution to represent their constituents, rather than ALEC corporations and “stink tank” lobbyists.

Note: promoted to primary despite not being particlarly involved in climate change, but b/c he and wisc have been lab for Koch funded move to right, and Wiscv was where important early labor rights established.  Wisconsin is key in ideological fight, why?

Now that the Republicans have opened the MacIver Institute, yet another GOP front group to go with the Wisconsin Public Research Institute, <a href="http://www.madison.com/wsj/mad/top/440545" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 86, 169); outline: none; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.59375px; background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);">the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance</a>, Wisconsin Institute for Leadership,<a href="http://www.wmcwatch.org/" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 86, 169); outline: none; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.59375px; background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);">Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce</a>, <a href="http://www.onewisconsinnow.org/press/189/taxpayers-alliance-head-speaking-at-massive-show-of-force-for-lower-taxes-another-example-of-organizations-ideological-agenda-2252009" style=" text-decoration: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 86, 169); outline: none; font-family: Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21.59375px; background-color: rgb(249, 249, 249);">Americans for Prosperity</a>, Coalition for America’s Families, Club for Growth, All Children Matter, Americans for Tax Reform, Wisconsin Family Council and School Choice Wisconsin (whew), One Wisconsin Now thought it might be good for the media to have information on exactly who the leaders of this Republican operation are.

===

<h1 class="print-title">WI Senate Fast-Tracks Bill To Close Forest to Benefit Out-of-State Mining Firm</h1>

<div class="meta">by <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/users/35310/alex-oberley" title="View user profile." style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Alex Oberley</a> [1] — September 11, 2013 - 8:29am</div>

<ul>

<li class="vocabulary-2">Topics: <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/topics/politics/right-wing" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Right Wing</a> [2], <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/topics/corporations" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Corporations</a> [3], <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/topics/environment" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Environment</a> [4]</li>

</ul>

</div>

<div class="content clearfix"><a class="da2a_button" href="http://www.addtoany.com/share_save?linkurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.prwatch.org%2Fnews%2F2013%2F09%2F12234%2Fwi-senate-fast-tracks-bill-close-forest-benefit-out-state-mining-firm&linkname=WI%20Senate%20Fast-Tracks%20Bill%20To%20Close%20Forest%20to%20Benefit%20Out-of-State%20Mining%20Firm%20" id="da2a_1" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><img brain="false" src="http://www.prwatch.org/sites/all/modules/addtoany/images/share_16_16.png" width="16" height="16" alt="Share/Save" style=" border: 0px;" /> Share this</a> [5]

A controversial out-of-state mining company is closer to gaining control over a 3,600-acre swath of publicly available forest near where it is planning a massive open-pit iron ore mine in Northern Wisconsin. The Florida firm, Gogebic Taconite, has begun test drilling in the area and has already stirred controversy by hiring out-of-state armed security with automatic assault weapons to guard their activities. The Arizona firm was kicked out of the state after the media uncovered they were not licensed here. Now Gogebic Taconite is attempting to shut down whole forests to keep its controversial mining activities from protestors and curious eyes.

<img src="/0abff997-1214-5d13-8af6-ac362ad932e5.jpg"/>Armed guards from AZ Bulletproof Securities in WI (source: The UpTake)The Wisconsin Senate Committee on Workforce Development, Forestry, Mining, and Revenue passed <a href="https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/2013/proposals/sb278" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Senate Bill 278</a> [6], which would give Gogebic Taconite the right to close the forest for up to 18 months, on a party line 3-2 vote in a hurried executive session last week. The bill is headed to the full Senate, when it reconvenes later this month.

<h2>Managed Forests Would Be Closed to Hunting, Fishing, and Winter Recreation

</h2>

The land in contention has been enrolled in the state's <a href="http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/ForestLandowners/openToPublic.html" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Managed Forest Law</a> [7] program. Wisconsin has long encouraged landowners to maintain open and accessible forests with tax breaks. Managed forest land is used by thousands of Wisconsinites across the state, and most specifically in the vast North Woods, for hunting, fishing, hiking, sight-seeing, and cross-country skiing. The bill rushed through the Senate committee last week would turnover public access decisions to the firm.

Another option the firm has is to withdraw the land from the managed forest program, but then the company would lose its tax break, costing it some $477,000 in back taxes and a higher tax rate in the future.

"The bottom line is that they are about to shut off thousands of acres of land that is not being mined any time in the near future," with a goal, "to limit recreational activity and give a special benefit to one company alone," said Democratic Senator Bob Jauch.

Proponents of the bill say it is needed because of a June incident when a small group of protesters confronted company staff, shouting obscenities. The incident led to criminal charges against a Stevens Point woman for theft of a camera. Committee chair Republican Senator Tom Tiffany started the hearing with video of <a href="http://wsau.com/news/articles/2013/jul/16/woman-charged-with-role-in-gogebic-taconite-mine-protester-incident" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">mining protesters</a> [8]. He repeatedly invoked the specter of "eco-terrorism" during the five-hour hearing.

In response to the June 11 incident, the company hired an Arizona-based private security firm, <a href="http://www.bulletproofsecurities.com/" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Bulletproof Securities</a> [9]. Bulletproof employees created a stir when they were spotted in camouflage and masks with automatic assault weapons in hand. The firm was ultimately <a href="http://www.twincities.com/politics/ci_23832639/wisconsin-officials-didnt-check-mine-security-firms-licensure" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">removed from the site</a> [10] for not securing a license to operate in Wisconsin. Bob Seitz, the Gogebic lobbyist, said the firm has spent nearly a half-million dollars on<a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/scott-walkers-aide-others-notified-by-security-firm-of-plans-for-mine-site-b9972362z1-219035771.html" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Bulletproof</a> [11] so far, and was ready to spend much more. If Gogebic Taconite secures permission for further sampling of mineral deposits, the security firm may <a href="http://www.wisconsinwatch.org/2013/07/09/paramilitary-style-guards-are-going-to-stay-mining-company-vows/" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">return</a> [12].

Al Gedicks, a professor emeritus of environmental sociology at UW-La Crosse, testified at the hearing yesterday against the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiX3UBwu2_A" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">further militarization</a> [13]of mining activity and resource extraction. Comparing the presence of Bulletproof Security to "psychological warfare," he says the real target is not 15 protesters but growing resistance from 11 Indian tribes and the local communities.

<h2>Florida Firm Builds Four Mile Pit in the Penokee Range</h2>

Referred to as "<a href="http://www.backpacker.com/october_1999_destinations_wisconsin_penokee_mountains/destinations/606" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">The Alps of Wisconsin</a> [14]," the Penokee Range has long been considered a crown jewel of the state, if not the Midwest. A pristine area with dense forest, rushing streams, and hilly ranges, people visit the area from all over the country.

Gogebic Taconite is <a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20120501185124/http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505244_162-57364890/wis-panel-oks-mining-bill-sends-it-to-assembly" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">based</a> [15] in Florida and is a subsidiary of the Cline Resource and Development Group of West Virginia. Billionaire CEO Chris Cline was heralded as the <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-12/new-king-coal.html" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">"New King Coal"</a> [16] by Bloomberg in 2010. After experiencing great windfalls with mountaintop-removal with West Virginia coal-mining, Cline wants to bring those practices to Wisconsin.

The proposed mine would be the largest in Wisconsin's history, a $1.5 billion open-pit iron ore mine stretching from Ashland to Iron counties. It would be 4½ miles long and one mile wide. Gogebic Taconite has a $20,000-a-year <a href="http://www.northwoodalliance.org/GogebicTaconite/GTAC_Lease_Option.pdf" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">lease option</a> [17] on the mineral rights of approximately 3,600 acres in the Penokee Range. It has leased the land from RGGS Land & Minerals, LaPointe Iron Company, and Chester Co. Limited, all participants in the Managed Forest Law program. Gogebic Taconite claims it will operate for 35 years there.

Among the opponents to the mining are Wisconsin tribes, who have long been concerned about the hazards posed by this dirty extractive industry to the vital <a href="http://www.badriverwatershed.org/index.php/bad-river-watershed" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Bad River watershed</a> [18]. Gogebic Taconite has <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/mining-company-tells-tribe-to-keep-wetlands-expert-away-from-site-b9982420z1-220849461.html" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">threatened</a> [19] the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa with legal action if a wetlands expert came on the mining site. Heavy industrial work such as mining is generally prohibited in wetlands; legislators already rewrote state laws earlier this year to allow mining in these ecologically vulnerable areas.

In March of this year, members of the Lac Courte Oreilles tribe began a <a href="http://www.lco-nsn.gov/mining.php" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">Treaty Harvest and Education Project</a> [20], often referred to as the <a href="http://www.wisconsinwatch.org/2013/08/14/slideshow-inside-the-penokee-harvest-camp" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">harvest camp</a> [21], in the forest near the site of the mine. The camp is both an effort to educate the public about the ecology of the region and part of a legal<a href="http://www.wisconsinwatch.org/2013/07/28/in-penokees-camp-tribes-flex-treaty-muscles-to-block-mine/" target="_blank" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">strategy</a> [22] to assert treaty rights.

“The water is sacred to our people and vitally important to the survival of the all the people in Northern Wisconsin. Tribal members depend on clean, healthy water to meet their physical, social, cultural, economic, and spiritual needs. Any activity, mining or otherwise, that threatens those resources must be the subject of careful and thorough scrutiny, including input from all aspects of Wisconsin, so a proper healthy decision can be made," states Lac Courte Oreilles Chairman Gordon Thayer. 

Senator Tiffany claims the harvest camp will not be affected and they will respect native tribes' sovereignty. Yet on the radio recently he denounced the harvest camp as a "squatters' camp."

<h2>Gogebic Taconite Continues to Write WI Law

</h2>

Senator Tiffany repeatedly made clear during the public hearing this is a "narrowly designed bill," essentially written solely on Gogebic Taconite's behalf. <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/02/11309/wisconsin-gop-attempts-ram-through-special-interest-mining-bill" target="blank" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">CMD has reported previously</a> [23], that the original bill permitting the iron ore mine and exempted Gogebic Taconite from major provisions of Wisconsin's environmental laws, appeared to be written by the company itself, a claim confirmed <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfUX0bkCbyg" target="blank" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">by Senate leadership</a> [24]. Tiffany repeatedly looked at Gogebic Taconite's lobbyist Bob Seitz as questions were raised that he could not answer about the bill.

CMD has reported that "grassroots" support for the mine has come chiefly from out-of-state Republican political organizations including <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2013/01/11956/americans-prosperity-provides-grassroots-controversial-wisconsin-mining-bill" target="blank">David Koch's Americans for Prosperity</a> [25] and <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/02/11309/wisconsin-gop-attempts-ram-through-special-interest-mining-bill" target="blank">Club for Growth.</a> [23]

All Republican members on the Senate Committee on Workforce Development, Forestry, Mining, and Revenue have received<a href="http://www.wisdc.org/pr012813.php" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">significant campaign donations from the mining industry</a> [26]. Mine supporters contributed <a href="http://www.wisdc.org/pr012813.php" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">$15.6 million in total</a> [26] to Scott Walker and the Republican-controlled Legislature, reports the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. Those contributions outweighed environmental groups opposing mining deregulation by a $610 to $1 ratio, with 79 percent of the contributions going to Republicans.

"This legislation has nothing to do with mining or job creation. It is simply a brazen act of selfishness by one out-of-state company whose owner continually demonstrates insensitivity to the neighboring communities and is too cheap to pay his responsible share like any other citizen in the managed forest land," said Senator Jauch.

</div>

<div class="print-footer" style=" text-align: center;">Center for Media and Democracy • 520 University Avenue, Suite 260 • Madison, Wisconsin 53703

Phone: 608-260-9713 • Fax: 608-260-9714</div>

<div class="print-source_url" style=" font-size: small;">Source URL: <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2013/09/12234/wi-senate-fast-tracks-bill-close-forest-benefit-out-state-mining-firm" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">http://www.prwatch.org/news/2013/09/12234/wi-senate-fast-tracks-bill-close-forest-benefit-out-state-mining-firm</a></div>

Links:

[1] http://www.prwatch.org/users/35310/alex-oberley

[2] http://www.prwatch.org/topics/politics/right-wing

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

[4] http://www.prwatch.org/topics/environment

[5] http://www.addtoany.com/share_save?linkurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.prwatch.org%2Fnews%2F2013%2F09%2F12234%2Fwi-senate-fast-tracks-bill-close-forest-benefit-out-state-mining-firm&linkname=WI%20Senate%20Fast-Tracks%20Bill%20To%20Close%20Forest%20to%20Benefit%20Out-of-State%20Mining%20Firm%20

[6] https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/2013/proposals/sb278

[7] http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/ForestLandowners/openToPublic.html

[8] http://wsau.com/news/articles/2013/jul/16/woman-charged-with-role-in-gogebic-taconite-mine-protester-incident

[9] http://www.bulletproofsecurities.com

[10] http://www.twincities.com/politics/ci_23832639/wisconsin-officials-didnt-check-mine-security-firms-licensure

[11] http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/scott-walkers-aide-others-notified-by-security-firm-of-plans-for-mine-site-b9972362z1-219035771.html

[12] http://www.wisconsinwatch.org/2013/07/09/paramilitary-style-guards-are-going-to-stay-mining-company-vows/

[13] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiX3UBwu2_A

[14] http://www.backpacker.com/october_1999_destinations_wisconsin_penokee_mountains/destinations/606

[15] http://web.archive.org/web/20120501185124/http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505244_162-57364890/wis-panel-oks-mining-bill-sends-it-to-assembly

[16] http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-10-12/new-king-coal.html

[17] http://www.northwoodalliance.org/GogebicTaconite/GTAC_Lease_Option.pdf

[18] http://www.badriverwatershed.org/index.php/bad-river-watershed

[19] http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/mining-company-tells-tribe-to-keep-wetlands-expert-away-from-site-b9982420z1-220849461.html

[20] http://www.lco-nsn.gov/mining.php

[21] http://www.wisconsinwatch.org/2013/08/14/slideshow-inside-the-penokee-harvest-camp

[22] http://www.wisconsinwatch.org/2013/07/28/in-penokees-camp-tribes-flex-treaty-muscles-to-block-mine/

[23] http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/02/11309/wisconsin-gop-attempts-ram-through-special-interest-mining-bill

[24] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfUX0bkCbyg

[25] http://www.prwatch.org/news/2013/01/11956/americans-prosperity-provides-grassroots-controversial-wisconsin-mining-bill

[26] http://www.wisdc.org/pr012813.php

</div>

==

<h1 style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">Scott Walker's Sand Grab: Wisconsin Wants a Piece of the Fracking Boom, No Matter Who Gets Hurt</h1>

<h3 style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">by <a href="http://www.newrepublic.com/authors/molly-redden" style=" color: rgb(0, 0, 0); text-decoration: none;">Molly Redden</a> | August 21, 2013</h3>

On the night that he was elected governor of Wisconsin in 2010, a beaming Scott Walker told the hundreds of supporters sandwiched into Waukesha’s little Country Springs Hotel ballroom that his state was “open for business.” It was shorthand for his promise to slash taxes and lay waste to state regulations, all to create a quarter of a million new jobs by the end of his fourth year in office. But halfway through Walker’s term, Wisconsin had added <a href="http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/promises/walk-o-meter/promise/526/create-250000-new-jobs/">only a quarter</a> of the promised jobs, it <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/wisconsin-private-sector-job-creation-ranking-declines-799bcsa-200435291.html">ranked 44th</a> in private-sector job creation, and private-sector wages were falling at <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/business/american-workers-losing-ground-on-wages-b9914759z1-208979131.html">twice the average rate nationally</a>. A non-partisan audit of the <a href="http://inwisconsin.com/">Wisconsin Economic Development Corp.</a>, a job-creation agency Walker started, found it repeatedly <a href="http://www.twincities.com/politics/ci_23147491/blistering-audit-faults-wisconsin-job-creation-agency">broke state laws</a> in its first year. Still, among the detritus of the Republican governor’s job creation efforts, one sector of Wisconsin’s economy has been roaring: the sand-mining industry.

The hydraulic fracturing boom that has transformed the plains of North Dakota into an industrial mecca <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2013/01/16/169511949/a-mysterious-patch-of-light-shows-up-in-the-north-dakota-dark">observable from space</a> is fueled by tiny grains of silica sand from southwestern Wisconsin’s hillsides. In fracking, “frac sand” is used to prop open fissures in the earth, creating an escape route for natural gas. A single well can require 2,000 tons of sand over its lifetime. As fracking sites have proliferated across the nation, silica sand mines and processing facilities have too, with Wisconsin far and away the leading provider of frac sand. Just five years ago, there were fewer than 10 sites in the state; today, the state has greenlit a little more than 100, most of which are operational. Rich Budinger, the president of the Wisconsin Industrial Sand Association, <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/frac-sand-mining-splits-communities-b9962665z1-217312971.html">estimates</a> that the industry has brought 2,000 jobs to the state so far.

Republicans, who control the state Senate and House, want the boom to be even bigger. Their 2013 budget <a href="http://lacrossetribune.com/tomahjournal/news/local/walker-talks-economic-development-in-sparta/article_f72544fa-84ef-11e2-b432-001a4bcf887a.html">set aside $6.4 billion</a> for freight rail and roadway improvements, which Walker said would allow companies to export frac sand in even greater quantities. <a href="http://lacrossetribune.com/tomahjournal/news/local/walker-talks-economic-development-in-sparta/article_f72544fa-84ef-11e2-b432-001a4bcf887a.html">At an event</a> in Sparta, a small city in west-central Wisconsin, he said that improving rail transport makes the shipping of frac sand “a lot more environmentally sound … because you can connect it right there and not put as much burden on county and town roads and things of that nature.”

But public health advocates aren’t so sure about that, worrying instead that the frac sand boom will have broad, lasting environmental consequences for Wisconsin. There is accumulating evidence that mine emissions, when poorly regulated, can be toxic to those who live and work nearby. Frac sand facilities have the potential to ruin groundwater reserves. And local leaders have limited options for regulating the new facilities that are popping up like mushrooms—often because there’s always a town nearby looking to make a buck.

Yet the way things stand, with new facilities opening at breakneck speed, any new regulations await conclusive research on the health and environmental effects. And state environmental regulators have neither the time nor resources to ensure compliance with existing law. “It’s certainly hard to wrap your head around the effects,” said Deb Dix, a spokesperson for the frac sand regulation division of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR). “The industry, it’s just so large, so quickly. We’re trying to get all the answers, but it’s just not happening quickly enough.” When those answers finally arrive, will they be too late?

The hilly, wooded area of southwestern Wisconsin where frac sand mining has exploded goes by the romantic name of the Driftless Area, so called because it was bypassed by the glaciers that ironed flat the rest of the Midwest during the last Ice Age. “It is the most beautiful part of the state,” said Kevin Lien, the director of the Trempealeau County Department of Land Management. It is also, thanks to its unique geology, the best source in the nation for diamond-strong kernels of silica sand: smooth, round grains of almost pure quartz that can be found in lower Wisconsin’s sandstone bluffs.

The rapid industrialization of this corner of rural Wisconsin has sparked inevitable NIMBY clashes between miners and the farmers, retirees, and nth-generation locals who fret about unsightly dig sites and truck traffic. In Trempealeau County, home to a quarter of all new frac sand sites in the state, residents overwhelmed state Senator Kathleen Vinehout’s inbox with exactly those complaints. “It was clanging railroad cars at night, underground blasting that put cracks in the walls of peoples’ kitchens,” she said. “I had emails that said, ‘I don’t know what they’re doing, but there’s sand all over the inside of my house.’”

Yet it’s what Wisconsinites can’t see that scares public health advocates. Blasting, digging, crushing, drying, sorting, and transporting silica sand can cause microscopic flecks of crystalline silica—particles smaller than 2.5 micrometers, or PM2.5, which is about one-twentieth the width of a strand of human hair—to become airborne and, when inhaled by humans, they can become lodged in the deep tissue of the lungs. These particles are associated with an increased risk of a battery of illnesses that Pierce ticked off for me: “Silicosis, bronchitis, tuberculosis, chronic pulmonary diseases—it’s a really nasty, toxic substance.” But it's disputed whether frac sand mining produces these particles in dangerous quantities, and whether the particles pose a threat outside of confined spaces.<a id="footnote-1-reference" class="footnote-reference" href="http://www.newrepublic.com/node/114320/print#footnote-1">1</a> The industry refrain is that it has silica emissions under control—but that they don’t pose a risk to non-workers anyway. “There is no community health issue,” said Marty Lehman, the chair of the board of the Wisconsin Industrial Sand Association. “There has never been a non-occupational issue of an adverse health effect [from silica exposure] reported in the U.S.” Health watchdogs, meanwhile, point out that the Occupational and Safety Hazard Administration has already warned the fracking industry of the dangers associated with using silica frac sand. <a href="http://www.eqb.state.mn.us/documents/23.%20March%20Final%20Silica%20Sand%20report.pdf">A report</a> published this year by the state Environmental Quality Board in Minnesota—where a nascent frac sand mining business is also taking root—concluded: “More study is needed, but there is evidence of potential health risks in areas of elevated silica concentration.”

What distance from frac sand operations is considered safe? Lien’s not sure. “Right now, I cannot tell you if you’re safe living one hundred feet from a mine or line of transport, or safe living ten thousand feet from a mine,” he said. “And I can’t tell you you’re not in harm’s way, because we don’t entirely know.” The DNR enforces an annual, regional cap set by the Environmental Protection Agency on the amount of PM2.5 that can enter the atmosphere—12 micrograms per cubic meter. But Crispin Pierce, a professor of environmental public health at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire, fears that in enforcing this cap, the DNR is under-measuring particulate matter. The DNR relies on stationary equipment that may be miles from the nearest mine; Eau Claire’s regional air quality monitor is 14 miles from the nearest major frac sand operation. Pierce, who leads a loose group of researchers trying to determine the exact health risks posed by the industry, has captured his own samples much nearer to the mines—sometimes across the street, sometimes a quarter of a mile away. With the caveat that he can only take “snapshots” of air quality—not long exposure readings—and uses portable detectors rather than the prohibitively expensive, stationary ones certified for EPA enforcement, he says he found emissions far above the EPA’s annual limit. Recently, a sample he took at a Chippewa Falls processing plant owned by EOG Resources registered 41 micrograms. “We have measured increases along train routes, at processing plants, near mines,” he said, “and every time we’ve taken samples, our levels are higher than DNR’s levels—except for areas where there is no sand plant.”

Air quality permit reviews undertaken by the nonprofit Midwest Environmental Advocates have found that the DNR is commonly issuing permits that treat frac sand sites as smaller emissions sources than they are in reality—placing them in a category that doesn’t require mine operators to police their own emissions, and where they receive less state scrutiny. In some cases, the DNR is setting emissions targets for frac sand facilities that don’t take into account the emissions already being generated by a nearby, existing mine. “You look at some of these, and there is no way they can meet their emissions goals,” said Sarah Williams, an attorney with Midwest Environmental Advocates. “And the DNR doesn’t intend to monitor them to see if they do.”

The DNR disputes criticisms that their regulatory oversight is lax. Dix pointed out that a new mine triggers a whole raft of regulations. “We deal with stormwater permits, waste water issues, wetland regulation permits, shoreline zoning issues. There’s a point of too much regulation,” she said. “You can say, ‘Wouldn’t it be nice to be out there at every site once a week?’ It might be nice, but it might be seen as over-regulation.”

In response, environmentalists have accused Walker of stacking the DNR with leaders who refuse to reprimand lawbreakers. (When Walker named his first DNR executive, a former legislator who had been a loud critic of environmental regulation, one Democratic state senator <a href="http://host.madison.com/news/local/environment/cathy-stepp-outspoken-critic-of-dnr-picked-to-head-agency/article_59520726-1440-11e0-b7f3-001cc4c03286.html">said it was</a> “like putting Lindsay Lohan in charge of a rehab center.” Walker’s office did not respond to repeated requests for comment for this article.) Two former DNR heads, appointed by Democrats, <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/former-wisconsin-dnr-secretaries-criticize-current-leadership-a65bsll-150865815.html">have called the situation</a> under current leadership “unprecedented” and “indefensible.” Lien, the land management director, said the environmental protection unit of the Wisconsin Department of Justice to which the DNR frequently refers cases has been incredibly slow to prosecute offenders. DNR reprimands are delayed and the equivalent of “a rap on the fingers,” said Lien. “But If you shot a deer out of season, I can guarantee [the DNR’s] wrath would rain down on you.” Meanwhile, the land use committee in Lien’s department “has adopted the Scott Walker mentality,” he said. “It has warped into an economic growth and development committee.”

It’s no surprise, then, that the Wisconsin legislature has been loathe to scrutinize the frac sand industry. In 2012, Democratic state Senator Jennifer Shilling requested that the Republican-controlled Joint Legislative Council, which can authorize research committees, put together a committee to hear testimony and assemble a report on frac sand mining issues. Her request went nowhere. “Nothing happens in this state without the approval and the support of Republican leadership,” she said.<a id="footnote-2-reference" class="footnote-reference" href="http://www.newrepublic.com/node/114320/print#footnote-2">2</a> And those Republicans have campaign donations to consider. A study compiled by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign found that in the past five years, Republican candidates for state office received <a href="http://lacrossetribune.com/news/natural-gas-boom-fuels-frac-sand-mining-political-spending/article_5ccabc0e-c28f-11e2-b93c-0019bb2963f4.html">more than $710,000</a> from frac sand interests—15 times what Democrats took in. Walker’s share of that money, in 2010 and in his 2012 recall election, was more than half a million.

In the tiny township of Arcadia, where activist Paul Winey lives, there are 12 permitted mines, eight of which are within a five-mile radius of one another. “Neither the town, the county, or the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources seems be concerned about what the cumulative effect of putting these operations side by side is going to be,” Winey said. Thanks in part to his agitation, the latest mine to be permitted in Arcadia, for a company called FTS International, is now the subject of a legal challenge by Midwest Environmental Advocates. They argue that the DNR has capped emissions at a level that FTSI is clearly not going to achieve—and that the DNR is not going to monitor—based on the pollution controls the plant proposes to use.<a id="footnote-3-reference" class="footnote-reference" href="http://www.newrepublic.com/node/114320/print#footnote-3">3</a>

But Williams, the MEA lawyer, says it’s not feasible for her non-profit to investigate every instance where the DNR might have been trigger-happy with its permits. In fact, the reason why advocates are so focused on reshaping the state’s regulations is that there is very little to stop a company from building a mine once it decides to—not the DNR, and not local officials who often want their town to get a piece of the mining boom. “When they came here, the bars, the restaurants, [they were filled] with the people this industry brings,” said Gary Peterson, the village president when an existing mine in his village, Maiden Rock, doubled in size.

The Driftless Area also has a frontier-like fondness for self-determination that has caused many towns to forsake any zoning laws—without which, said Dan Masterpole, the land conservationist  for Chippewa County, “You have a difficult time saying, ‘We’re not ever going to have any frac sand mining.’ A court would throw that right out.” As of summer 2012, a third of all mines permitted in the state were located in zoning-free townships, where companies can locate their mines wherever they’re able to buy land—and by <a href="http://www.minneapolisfed.org/publications_papers/pub_display.cfm?id=4921">offering landowners</a> tens of thousands of dollars per acre plus six-figure royalties, companies are finding plenty of takers. Sometimes these mines are located miles from the nearest house, but sometimes they’re mere feet from an adjacent property. “This industry draws clear lines between neighbors,” Lien said. “In some cases, it’s pitting neighbor against neighbor.”

Township officials are getting more sophisticated at cutting deals with mining companies that safeguard their citizens—particularly after word got out that the town of Howard exacted <a href="http://www.leadertelegram.com/news/front_page/article_da343bda-b9a3-11e0-8030-001cc4c002e0.html">a remarkable agreement</a> from EOG Resources in 2011 to become liable for lost property value and road repairs. But the fact remains that dozens of frac sand mines have been permitted by gatekeepers on county, township, or village boards who had little knowledge of frac sand issues. “At one point in Buffalo County, the board of review was made up of two dairy farmers and a fisherman,” said Vinehout. Parochial officials, she said—some of whom are elected by no more than a few dozen votes—are only as educated about frac sand as they want to be.

On the other end of the spectrum are municipal officials who seek to profit themselves from the boom. The Minneapolis Star Tribune found that officials in <a href="http://www.startribune.com/local/184771921.html">at least three counties</a>—including Trempealeau, which has permitted more frac sand mines than any county in the state—have gone into business with mining companies. Vinehout recalled that in Arcadia, one Board of Supervisors member used his position to impose heavy restrictions on a proposed mine on a neighbor’s land; a month later, his board colleagues approved a mine on his property to be built by the same company. Lien told of a Trempealeau County land use committee member <a href="http://www.startribune.com/local/184771921.html">whose property has been approved</a>, by his fellow committee members, for a frac sand loading site. And although they technically skirt Wisconsin’s bans on quid-pro-quo, frac sand mining companies frequently lavish gifts upon the tiny, penny-wise towns where they operate. “Donations of land for a park, a new firetruck—one of the mines bought elf costumes for the 4H club in town,” Vinehout said.

“We’ve had things like that travel back to us,” Lien said. “‘Your kids in your school district will never have to buy sports equipment again.’” Frac sand companies call this acting like upstanding members of their new communities. Their skeptics call this bribery.

Whether intentional or not, frac sand companies are also creating huge backlogs at the beleaguered local offices that help oversee them by <a href="http://www.startribune.com/local/176069041.html">hiring away regulators</a> for their expertise. But the most devious way that mining companies avoid local impositions is through a process called annexation. Wisconsin counties are divided into townships; in each township, some of the land has been incorporated into small villages, while the rest is the township’s alone. Villages have the power to vote to annex land within a few miles of their borders without the township being able to stop them. After five years’ time, the village collects all of the tax revenue from businesses operating on that land.

In February, <a href="http://www.startribune.com/local/east/189479651.html">as chronicled</a> by the Star Tribune, the village of Blair leadership did exactly that, annexing the largest frac sand mine in Trempealeau County from the Preston Township. Thus, many of the conditions Preston had exacted from the Pennsylvania-based Preferred Sands—like routine air-quality monitoring—loosened or simply evaporated. “Of course,” said Lien, “the land itself doesn’t pick up and move. The people [in Preston] are still affected—they just don’t have a voice.” By 2018, the tens of thousands in tax revenue the plant generates will transfer entirely to Blair, population 1,366.

The words “open for business” <a href="http://www.kare11.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=901289">are now emblazoned</a> on all the welcome signs greeting drivers as they cross the Wisconsin state line. Fittingly, the first of these to be installed faced southeastern Minnesota, which has refused to engage with what Minnesota Democrats see as Walker’s race to the bottom. This has had the effect of keeping the frac sand industry small and slow-growing. As of April, Minnesota <a href="http://www.winonadailynews.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_a4a05368-a188-11e2-ac6f-001a4bcf887a.html">had only eight</a> operational frac sand mines. Few doubt that without Minnesota’s <a href="http://minnesota.publicradio.org/display/web/2013/03/19/politics/how-minnesota-and-wisconsins-frac-sand-mining-rules-differ">far stricter environmental regulations</a>, they would have more.

And yet, with frac sand so valuable, companies are <a href="http://www.winonadailynews.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/article_a4a05368-a188-11e2-ac6f-001a4bcf887a.html">increasingly willing</a> to operate in Minnesota. This, in spite of the fact that the state Health Commissioner <a href="http://m.startribune.com/news/?id=190313011">is designing limits</a> on airborne crystalline silica around mines—and pushing municipalities to scrutinize environmental impact, instead of compete with one another. Seeing the frac sand industry operate under a stricter environmental regime just across the border pains Wisconsin state officials like Senator Vinehout. Even the best reporting on frac sand conflicts, she points out, come from across state lines at the Star Tribune. Lien feels the sting of jealousy, too, although he insists, like most of those bullish on regulation whom I spoke to, that he is not anti-mining. “I’m just against the Scott Walker mentality: ‘Our doors [are] open to all business, no matter the cost to the environment.’”

Molly Redden is a New Republic staff writer. Follow her on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/mtredden">@mtredden</a>.

</div>

<p class="source_url" style=" padding: 10px; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px;">Source URL: http://www.newrepublic.com//article/114320/frac-sand-mining-wisconsin-rides-fracking-boom

pioneer voucher:cmd

<span style=" color: rgb(40, 40, 40); font-family: 'Lucida Sans', 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17.600000381469727px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In 1990, Milwaukee was the first city in the nation to implement a school voucher program, under then-governor (and ALEC alum) Tommy Thompson. ALEC <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/files/Heritage_Milwaukee_1990_ALEC.doc.pdf" target="_blank" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(51, 95, 153); font-family: 'Lucida Sans', 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17.600000381469727px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">quickly embraced</a><span style=" color: rgb(40, 40, 40); font-family: 'Lucida Sans', 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17.600000381469727px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">the legislation, and that same year offered model bills based on the Wisconsin plan. For-profit schools in Wisconsin now receive up to $6,442 per voucher student, and by the end of the next school year taxpayers in the state will have transferred an estimated $1.8 billion to for-profit, religious, and online schools. The "pricetag" for students in other states is even higher....

<span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(40, 40, 40); font-family: 'Lucida Sans', 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17.600000381469727px;">In addition to the DeVos family foundations, the Milwaukee-based Bradley Foundation<span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(40, 40, 40); font-family: 'Lucida Sans', 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17.600000381469727px;"> is one of the top school privatization funders in the country, spending over $31 million over the past eleven years promoting "school choice" nationwide, <a href="http://www.onewisconsinnow.org/p-is-for-payoff.pdf" target="_blank" style=" font-family: 'Lucida Sans', 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17.600000381469727px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(51, 95, 153);">according to</a><span style=" background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(40, 40, 40); font-family: 'Lucida Sans', 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 17.600000381469727px;"> One Wisconsin Now; for decades, Bradley has also been a major ALEC funder. The foundation has over $600 million in assets and is headed by Michael Grebe, Scott Walker's campaign co-chair.

Before Milwaukee became the first city in the nation to implement a school voucher program, Bradley<a href="http://cspcs.sanford.duke.edu/sites/default/files/Bradley%20Foundation%20and%20School%20Vouchers.pdf" target="blank" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(51, 95, 153);">bankrolled</a> the groups that laid the groundwork. When the plan was challenged in Wisconsin courts, Bradley<a href="http://cspcs.sanford.duke.edu/sites/default/files/Bradley%20Foundation%20and%20School%20Vouchers.pdf" target="blank" style=" margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; color: rgb(51, 95, 153);">funded</a> its legal defense, which included hiring Kenneth Starr -- later known for pursuing Bill Clinton over Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky -- to represent the state.

===

<h1 class="title">Gov. Walker Vetoes Bail Bonds, Attack on Investigative Journalism</h1>

<div class="meta">by <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/users/35275/brendan-fischer" title="View user profile.">Brendan Fischer</a> — July 1, 2013 - 11:57am</div>

<ul>

<li class="vocabulary-9">Projects: <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/projects/alec-exposed">ALEC Exposed</a>, <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/projects/wisconsin-protests">Wisconsin Protests</a></li>

</ul>

</div>

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Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker has vetoed a budget provision that would have radically changed the state's pre-trial justice system and another that would have kicked an independent journalism outfit off of University of Wisconsin campuses.

<h2>ALEC-Supported Bail Bonding Vetoed</h2>

Since 1979, Wisconsin has been ahead of most U.S. states in banning for-profit bail bonding, joining many nations like Canada and the United Kingdom in recognizing that the practice warps the criminal justice system. Wisconsin's pre-trial release system, unlike 46 other states, is managed by courts and law enforcement rather than for-profit companies.

Republicans tried changing this system by adding a privatized bail bonding provision into the budget at the last minute with zero public input or debate. The proposal prompted outcry from prosecutors, judges and attorneys across the political spectrum, <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/jb-van-hollen-calls-on-scott-walker-to-veto-bail-bonds-budget-item-b9941132z1-212831641.html" target="_blank">including Wisconsin's Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen</a>, a Republican.

Nobody in Wisconsin's criminal justice system was calling for the privatization of pre-trial programs -- and the source of the budget provision may be tied back to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). The American Bail Coalition, the for-profit bail bond industry's national organization and lobbying wing, calls ALEC the industry's <a href="http://pretrial.org/Perspectives/ABC%20October%202010%20Newsletter.pdf" target="blank">"life preserver"</a>. ABC pays for ALEC membership, and a representative sits on the ALEC corporate board, as well as ALEC's <a href="http://www.alec.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Private_Sector_Executive_Committee2" target="blank">Executive Committee</a>. The trade group <a href="http://pretrial.org/Perspectives/ABC%20October%202010%20Newsletter.pdf" target="blank">boasts</a> that "during its two decade involvement with ALEC, ABC has written 12 model bills fortifying the commercial bail industry." The <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/wisconsin-judges-say-bail-bonds-system-would-shortchange-crime-victims-b9933511z1-211705671.html" target="blank">most outspoken supporter</a> of bail bonding in Wisconsin has been the ALEC State Co-Chair for Wisconsin, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos.

Sen. Leah Vukmir, the other ALEC State Co-Chair for Wisconsin and a member of the ALEC Board of Directors, <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/files/Carmichael_email.pdf" target="_blank">met with</a> the President and CEO of the American Bail Coalition, William Carmichael, at an ALEC meeting last month.

The bail industry has long targeted Wisconsin. In 2003, Rep. Scott Suder, a <a href="http://www.alec.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Public_Sector_Executive_Committee2" target="blank">longtime ALEC member,</a> introduced a standalone bill to reinstate commercial bail bonding, <a href="http://www.alec.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Private_Enterprise_Board" target="blank">with backing</a> from ABC, whose chair had <a href="http://maplight.org/wisconsin/contributions?s=1&office_party=Senate%2CAssembly%2CDemocrat%2CRepublican%2CIndependent&election=2000%2C2002%2C2004%2C2006%2C2008%2C2010&string=carmichael&business_sector=any&business_industry=any&out_of_state=wi&source=All" target="blank">donated</a> to Suder's campaign the previous year. Almost exactly two years ago, when the Republican-led legislature was writing the 2011-2012 budget, ALEC State Chair Rep. Robin Vos again <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/06/10799/wisconsin-open-bounty-hunters" target="blank">squeezed a similar last-minute provision into the budget</a>, which was similarly vetoed by Walker.

<h2>Investigative Journalism Center Saved from Eviction</h2>

Walker also vetoed a provision that would have evicted the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism from its offices at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and barred collaboration with university staff.

The Center receives no state funding, but has been housed at the university's journalism school because it offers students valuable training in investigative journalism -- and its hard-hitting investigative pieces have apparently raised the ire of Republican lawmakers. The last-minute eviction notice was slipped into the budget by an unnamed lawmaker, which <a href="http://www.niemanlab.org/2013/06/on-wisconsin-what-happens-when-you-try-to-kick-a-nonprofit-journalism-center-off-campus/" target="blank">many</a> <a href="http://www.niemanlab.org/2013/06/saving-the-wisconsin-idea-how-the-battle-in-madison-threatens-a-century-of-innovation/" target="blank">described</a> as an <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/news/213540981.html" target="blank">attack</a> on journalistic independence and may have been payback for bringing important stories to light, such as <a href="http://www.wisconsinwatch.org/2011/06/25/prosser-allegedly-grabbed-fellow-justice-by-the-neck/" target="blank">reports</a> of Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser choking fellow Justice Ann Walsh Bradley. Even right-wing talker Charlie Sykes <a href="http://www.wisconsinwatch.org/2013/06/06/petty-vindictive-dumb-conservative-host-charlie-sykes-defends-the-center/" target="_blank">criticized</a> the budget provision.

<h2>Kringle is Now the Official State Pastry</h2>

Walker signed the budget Sunday afternoon, leaving intact a $651 million income tax cut that primarily benefits the wealthy and rejects federal funds to expand Medicaid.

He also left untouched at least one non-fiscal item: a budget provision naming the kringle as the official pastry of Wisconsin.

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==

walker with alec on vouchers, and Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker got a boost last week from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) in its annual Rich States, Poor States report. Despite Bureau of Labor Statistics data putting Wisconsin in <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/wisconsin-private-sector-job-creation-ranking-declines-799bcsa-200435291.html" target="_blank">44th place </a>for private-sector job creation, ALEC placed the state as 15th in the country in its ranking of economic outlook, giving Walker -- a former ALEC member -- a boost as he lays the groundwork for a re-election campaign and a possible Presidential bid.

The ALEC report ranks the states by "economic outlook," based on factors including the existence of "right to work" anti-union laws, and the rates at which personal and corporate taxes are levied by the state. Wisconsin gains points in the ALEC assessment for having no inheritance tax, the lowest possible minimum wage, and for having a lower than average number of public employees. But ALEC also docks points because, despite Walkers' infamous attack on the right of public-sector workers to organize in Wisconsin, the state has not passed a private-sector "right to work" law.

The report effectively grades states in line with the very policy positions that ALEC promotes through its "model" legislation, including the privatization of public services, the elimination of regulations, and attacks on workers rights.

<h2>Even the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Knows WI Has a Jobs Problem</h2>

Since Walker took office in 2010, job growth in Wisconsin has taken a nosedive. Wisconsin has consistently lagged behind neighboring states and the nation as a whole in terms of new job creation, a trend that was predicted by <a href="http://www.decisionsonevidence.com/2012/02/six-states-not-keeping-up-with-improving-u-s-economy/" target="_blank">Federal Reserve economists </a>shortly after reviewing Walker's 2011-2012 austerity budget. Walker's steep and controversial budget cuts abruptly moved Wisconsin from positive territory into negative territory as the graph below illustrates.

---

Gov. Scott Walker (R) has <a href="http://www.midwestenergynews.com/2011/01/24/critics-say-realtors-behind-walkers-wind-restrictions/">pushed legislation</a> that would hamper wind developments, and some state lawmakers and local officials have also tried to throw roadblocks in front of the wind industry.

http://grist.org/news/wisconsin-left-way-way-behind-in-wind-energy-boom/

===

<h1 class="print-title">Wisconsin Bill Would Treat Organic Milk, Sharp Cheddar, Brown Eggs as "Junk Food"</h1>

<div class="meta">by <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/users/35294/rebekah-wilce" title="View user profile.">Rebekah Wilce</a> [1] — May 6, 2013 - 11:55am</div>

<ul>

<li class="vocabulary-2">Topics: <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/topics/food">Food</a> [2], <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/topics/politics">Politics</a> [3]</li>

</ul>

</div>

<ul>

<li class="vocabulary-9">Projects: <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/projects/food-rights-network">Food Rights Network</a> [4]</li>

</ul>

</div>

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Wisconsin ranks 44th in the nation for new job creation. Rather than rolling up their sleeves and finding new and innovative ways to help create jobs, the Wisconsin legislature is spending its time telling people needing food assistance what they should be eating. AB 110, which will be up for a vote in the Assembly on Tuesday, May 7, is geared toward limiting "the amount of food stamp benefits that could be spent on <a href="http://host.madison.com/news/state-and-regional/wis-assembly-panel-approves-junk-food-stamp-bill/article_e929a789-fd73-5055-82e3-0cc04cf31572.html" target="_blank">junk food</a> [6]." But some of the fine print of the bill, bizarrely, would ban people from choosing more healthy and less expensive options for their families. The bill is one of many being considered that are unduly punitive of the poor.

<h2>Restricting Access to Organic and Other Whole Foods</h2>

<img src="/be009614-0a9b-5f53-b29e-f40bf7b225dd.png"/>As of March 2013, 858,000 Wisconsinites receive FoodShare benefits. The bill, <a href="http://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/2013/related/proposals/ab110" target="blank">AB 110</a> [7], would limit FoodShare, Wisconsin's food stamp program funded through the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). As the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2013/03/12005/walker-walks-away-john-doe-investigation-pushes-budget-deal-only-alec-could-love" target="blank">has reported</a> [8], Governor Scott Walker has already proposed to require all "able-bodied adults" who receive food stamps (and don't have dependent children) to train or search for work in order to continue receiving those benefits. This even though Walker has failed to create the 250,000 jobs he promised when running for office in 2010.

Now Representative Dean Kaufert (R-Neenah) is sponsoring another bill to further limit FoodShare. Kaufert <a href="http://www.wrn.com/2013/04/kauferts-foodshare-reform-bill-advances-audio/" target="_blank">told</a> [9] the Wisconsin Radio Network that the bill would make it so that a benefit recipient "can't buy six bags of nachos and four cases of soda." WHY ISN'T THIS NANNY STATE?

Specifically, the <a href="http://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/2013/related/amendments/ab110" target="_blank">amended</a> [10] program would allow only a third of an individual's FoodShare benefits to be spent on a full range of food as they currently can be. The remaining two-thirds would be subject to the same restrictions as the federal Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) nutritional program, with some small modifications. (Both programs, of course, bar restaurant food, cigarettes, alcohol, and pet foods.)

WIC is a federal program intended to supplement food stamp benefits for a particularly vulnerable population of women and young children. As such, it has strict -- and at times very odd -- <a href="http://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/publications/P4/P44578.pdf" target="_blank">guidelines</a> [11] to focus these supplemental food dollars on nutritionally dense staple foods.

Wisconsin's AB 110 would mandate that two-thirds of a person's FoodShare benefits could be spent only on foods on the WIC-approved list. Exemptions have been added so recipients can also purchase fish, beef, pork, chicken, and potatoes. Strangely, exemptions were not added so that the "healthy" two-thirds could also be spent on a full range of healthy Wisconsin farm products and fresh food.

The result is that the bulk of your FoodShare dollars can be spent on milk, but not organic milk; on eggs, but only on white eggs by the dozen, not on brown, free-range, or organic eggs; on 100 percent whole wheat bread, but not on gluten-free bread for those with Celiac disease; on slices of American cheese, but not sharp cheddar. FoodShare dollars can be spent on dry beans, but not if they come from a money-saving bulk bin at your local food coop. You can get juice boxes for your children, but only Juicy Juice brand juice boxes.

In order for the state Department of Health Services to implement changes to FoodShare purchasing guidelines, it would need to attain a federal waiver from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). But when Minnesota tried to prohibit purchase of candy or soda in 2004, and New York City tried to ban purchase of certain sugary drinks in 2010, both waiver requests were <a href="http://host.madison.com/news/state-and-regional/wis-assembly-panel-approves-junk-food-stamp-bill/article_e929a789-fd73-5055-82e3-0cc04cf31572.html" target="blank">denied</a> [6]. The USDA <a href="http://www.fns.usda.gov/ora/menu/Published/snap/FILES/ProgramOperations/FSPFoodRestrictions.pdf" target="blank">points out</a> [12] the lack of clear standards to define foods as healthy or unhealthy.

<h2>As Bill Approaches Vote, Public Input Needed</h2>

According to the Associated Press, the Assembly committee heard input from food companies, grocery stores, and food banks. They told Wisconsin lawmakers that restrictions "<a href="http://host.madison.com/news/state-and-regional/wis-assembly-panel-approves-junk-food-stamp-bill/article_e929a789-fd73-5055-82e3-0cc04cf31572.html" target="_blank">would shame recipients</a> [6] and burden businesses with enforcement." Democrats on the committee -- who voted against the measure -- said it "would stigmatize poor people who already have limited options in buying food."

In addition to Rep. Kaufert, AB 110's supporters include Representatives John Nygren (R-Marinette), Kathy Bernier (R-Chippewa Falls), Ed Brooks (R-Reedsburg), Jeff Stone (R-Greendale), Paul Tittl (R-Manitowoc), Garey Bies (R-Sister Bay), Samantha Kerkman (R-Powers Lake), Scott Krug (R-Wisconsin Rapids), Pat Strachota (R-West Bend), Daniel LeMahieu (R-Cascade), Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green), Mike Kuglitsch (R-New Berlin), Michael Schraa (R-Oshkosh), Alvin Ott (R-Forest Junction), Mike Endsley (R-Sheboygan), Jeffrey Mursau (R-Crivitz), and Travis Tranel (R-Cuba City). In the Senate, the bill's supporters include Senators Robert Cowles (R-Shawano), Joe Leibham (R-Sheboygan), Frank Lasee (R-Casco), and Glenn Grothman (R-West Bend).

As Wisconsin Assemblymembers gather to vote on this bill May 7, these elected officials should expect to <a href="http://legis.wisconsin.gov/Pages/waml.aspx" target="_blank">hear from</a> [13] those whose lives and food choices would be directly affected by the bill.

<hr />

NOTE: AB 110 <a href="http://insession.legis.wisconsin.gov/SessionInfo/Proposal/45/872" target="_blank">passed</a> [14] the Wisconsin State Assembly on May 7, 2013.

</div>

<div class="print-footer">Center for Media and Democracy • 520 University Avenue, Suite 260 • Madison, Wisconsin 53703

Phone: 608-260-9713 • Fax: 608-260-9714</div>

<div class="print-source_url">Source URL: <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2013/05/12095/wisconsin-bill-would-treat-organic-milk-sharp-cheddar-brown-eggs-junk-food">http://www.prwatch.org/news/2013/05/12095/wisconsin-bill-would-treat-organic-milk-sharp-cheddar-brown-eggs-junk-food</a></div>

Links:

[1] http://www.prwatch.org/users/35294/rebekah-wilce

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

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

[4] http://www.prwatch.org/projects/food-rights-network

[5] http://www.addtoany.com/share_save?linkurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.prwatch.org%2Fnews%2F2013%2F05%2F12095%2Fwisconsin-bill-would-treat-organic-milk-sharp-cheddar-brown-eggs-junk-food&linkname=Wisconsin%20Bill%20Would%20Treat%20Organic%20Milk%2C%20Sharp%20Cheddar%2C%20Brown%20Eggs%20as%20%22Junk%20Food%22

[6] http://host.madison.com/news/state-and-regional/wis-assembly-panel-approves-junk-food-stamp-bill/article_e929a789-fd73-5055-82e3-0cc04cf31572.html

[7] http://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/2013/related/proposals/ab110

[8] http://www.prwatch.org/news/2013/03/12005/walker-walks-away-john-doe-investigation-pushes-budget-deal-only-alec-could-love

[9] http://www.wrn.com/2013/04/kauferts-foodshare-reform-bill-advances-audio/

[10] http://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/2013/related/amendments/ab110

[11] http://www.dhs.wisconsin.gov/publications/P4/P44578.pdf

[12] http://www.fns.usda.gov/ora/menu/Published/snap/FILES/ProgramOperations/FSPFoodRestrictions.pdf

[13] http://legis.wisconsin.gov/Pages/waml.aspx

[14] http://insession.legis.wisconsin.gov/SessionInfo/Proposal/45/872

===

It’s “<a href="http://americansforprosperity.org/failingagenda/npad">National Prosperity Action Day</a>.” Tea Partiers, Republican volunteers and conservative activists are being summoned by Americans for Prosperity—the group founded and financed by several large corporations, and led by the billionaire Koch brothers—to begin mobilizing to defeat President Obama and Congressional Democrats.

They’re gathering in newly set up offices in critical swing states. Some of the locations have a tinge of irony for a supposedly grassroots, ordinary citizens-led organization: In <a href="http://americansforprosperity.org/failingagenda/npad">Saddlebrook, Arizona</a>, they’ll be meeting in a country club; in <a href="http://americansforprosperity.org/failingagenda/npad">Clearwater, Florida</a>, the local AFP field director rented space from an <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=51+S.+Main+Ave.%2C+Suite+301+Clearwater%2C+FL+33765&sugexp=chrome,mod=2&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8">outsourcing company</a> called TAC Worldwide. But the work the AFP machine is doing is no laughing matter for liberals. The Koch network has a sophisticated targeting system, as well as an army of experienced Republican campaign hands to guide the effort. The volunteers even receive Samsung Galaxy tablets to quickly log information and move on to the next potential Romney voter.

It’s the beginning of an extremely well-planned get-out-the-vote effort that duplicates what an entire national party would attempt. And it’s been four years in the making.

In 2009, the Koch network created a model called the Wisconsin Prosperity Project to move the state to the far right. After witnessing the Democrats’ stunning 2008 ground game, the operatives in Wisconsin were determined to out-organize liberals. They hired Tea Party organizers, invested heavily in front groups (like the <a href="http://www.onewisconsinnow.org/blog/2010/01/CHcQ.html">MacIver Center</a>), ran constant advertising and coordinated with employers to hold <a href="http://www.alternet.org/story/151182/wall_street_journal_honcho_shills_for_secret_worker_%27education%27_program_linked_to_koch_group">propaganda meetings</a> with workers. Tea Party bus tours in the state, fully financed by AFP, were “<a href="http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2011/09/06/312478/koch-admits-tea-party-gop-gotv/">designed</a>” to help elect Republicans.

And in 2010, Wisconsin turned harder to the right than almost any other state in the nation during the midterm elections. At least from the Koch perspective, the investments worked. (The Koch theory of change was also reinforced by the savvy Scott Walker recall campaign, in which Koch operatives bused <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-57448678-503544/a-record-amount-of-money-spent-on-wisconsin-recall/">seventy-five canvassers</a> to the state to out-perform the unions.) ...http://www.thenation.com/blog/170103/koch-group-kicks-massive-voter-mobilization-effort#

</div>

...

The Wisconsin Supreme Court election of 2011 took place on Tuesday, April 5, 2011. Unlike past elections for the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisconsin_Supreme_Court" title="Wisconsin Supreme Court">Wisconsin Supreme Court</a>, the race between 12-year incumbent <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Prosser,Jr." title="David Prosser, Jr.">David Prosser, Jr.</a> and challenger Assistant Attorney General <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JoAnne_Kloppenburg" title="JoAnne Kloppenburg">JoAnne Kloppenburg</a> gained significant nationwide publicity as it was widely seen as a referendum on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Governor_of_Wisconsin" title="Governor of Wisconsin">Governor</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Walker%28politician%29" title="Scott Walker (politician)">Scott Walker</a>'s proposed <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Wisconsin_Act_10" title="2011 Wisconsin Act 10">budget reforms</a> in Wisconsin, and a part of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Wisconsin_protests" title="2011 Wisconsin protests">2011 Wisconsin protests</a>.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisconsin_Supreme_Court_election,2011#cite_note-1">[1]</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisconsin_Supreme_Court_election,2011#cite_note-2">[2]</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisconsin_Supreme_Court_election,2011#cite_note-3">[3]</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisconsin_Supreme_Court_election,2011#cite_note-4">[4]</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisconsin_Supreme_Court_election,2011#cite_note-5">[5]</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisconsin_Supreme_Court_election,2011#cite_note-6">[6]</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisconsin_Supreme_Court_election,2011#cite_note-7">[7]</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisconsin_Supreme_Court_election,2011#cite_note-8">[8]</a><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisconsin_Supreme_Court_election,_2011#cite_note-9">[9]</a>

<h2>Contents</h2>

</div>

<ul>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-1"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisconsin_Supreme_Court_election,_2011#Campaign">1 Campaign</a>

<ul>

<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-2"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisconsin_Supreme_Court_election,_2011#Primary_election">1.1 Primary election</a></li>

<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-3"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisconsin_Supreme_Court_election,_2011#General_election">1.2 General election</a></li>

</ul>

</li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-4"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisconsin_Supreme_Court_election,_2011#Results">2 Results</a>

<ul>

<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-5"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisconsin_Supreme_Court_election,_2011#County_results">2.1 County results</a></li>

</ul>

</li>

<li class="toclevel-1 tocsection-7"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wisconsin_Supreme_Court_election,_2011#References">4 References</a></li>

</ul>

</td></tr></tbody></table>

<h2>Campaign</h2>

===

Wisconsin: Wisconsin’s five Dirty Air Villains are Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Reps. Paul

Ryan (R-WI1), James Sensenbrenner (R-WI5), Sean Duffy (R-WI7) and Reid Ribble (R-WI8).

Wisconsin’s Clean Air Hero is Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI2).

So what about a simple, direct approach? Why not simply ban corporations

from the political arenaperiod? Far from being a pie-in-the178

GANGS OF AMERICA

sky proposition, such laws once existed in some states. Consider Wisconsin,

for example. Until 1970, that state had the following statute on

the books:

No corporation doing business in this state shall pay or contribute,

or offer consent or agree to pay or contribute, directly or indirectly,

any money, property, free service of its officers or

employees or thing of value to any political party, organization,

committee or individual for any political purpose whatsoever, or

for the purpose of influencing legislation of any kind, or to promote

or defeat the candidacy of any person for nomination, appointment

or election to any political office. [Wis. Laws, Section

4479a (Sec. I, ch 492, 1905)]

Fighting Bob La Follette fdr progressive mag (joe mccarthy)-

R REED and AFP in recall:

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

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

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

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

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

��

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

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

��

Doing 'Better' With a Bit of Help

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

��

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

===

BILL MOYERS: And a star was born that election night: Wisconsin’s new governor, a son of ALEC named Scott Walker.

</blockquote>

GOV.-ELECT SCOTT WALKER: Wisconsin is open for business!

</blockquote>

JOHN NICHOLS: I’ve known Scott Walker, the governor of Wisconsin, for the better part of 20 years. And Scott is a classic career politician. And I don’t say that in a negative way.

</blockquote>

BILL��MOYERS: Journalist and Wisconsinite John Nichols has tracked Scott Walker’s career since the ’90s, when Walker was a state legislator and then-ALEC member.

</blockquote>

JOHN NICHOLS: And in 2010, he ran, not presenting himself as anALEC alumni or as a ally of big corporations or big business people outside the state; he ran a very down-home campaign.

</blockquote>

SCOTT WALKER: This is my lunch. I pack a brown bag each day so I can save some money to spend on, you know, the more important things in life, like sending my kids to college.

</blockquote>

BILL MOYERS: Nichols says that despite the folksy image, in the years leading up to Walker’s 2010 campaign, he had become a master political fundraiser.

</blockquote>

JOHN NICHOLS: And he began to really forge incredibly close ties with a lot of corporate interests that he had first been introduced to in ALEC, individuals and groups like the Koch brothers.

</blockquote>

BILL MOYERS: David and Charles Koch, the billionaire businessmen behind the vast industrial empire, are also political activists with an agenda. Their companies and foundations have been ALEC members and funders for years.

</blockquote>

JOHN NICHOLS: The Koch brothers were among the two or three largest contributors to Scott Walker’s campaign for governor of Wisconsin. And the Koch brothers get that if you really want to influence the politics of this country, you don’t just give money to presidential campaigns, you don’t just give money to congressional campaign committees. The smart ones, the smart players, put their money in the states.

</blockquote>

SCOTT WALKER: Hi. I’m Scott Walker.

</blockquote>

JOHN NICHOLS: It’s state government that funds education, social services. And it taxes.

</blockquote>

SCOTT WALKER: If you want lower taxes and less government, I��m Scott Walker, and I know how to get the job done.

</blockquote>

JOHN NICHOLS: And so, the smart donors can change the whole country without ever going to Washington, without ever having to go through a congressional hearing, without ever having to lobby on Capitol Hill, without ever having to talk to the president.

</blockquote>

JUSTICE SHIRLEY ABRAHAMSON: Please raise your right hand and repeat after me.

</blockquote>

BILL MOYERS: The new governor moved quickly with a raft of ALEC-inspired bills. They included one similar to Florida’s "stand your ground." Another made it easier to carry concealed weapons. There was a resolution opposing the mandated purchase of health insurance. And, of course, there was one limiting corporate liability. The Wisconsin legislature passed a so-called tort reform measure that included parts of eight different ALEC models. ALEC was elated, praising Walker and the legislature in a press release for their, quote, "immediate attention to reforming the state’s legal system." But Scott Walker was also shooting for another big ALEC prize.

</blockquote>

GOV. SCOTT WALKER: Now, some have questioned why we have to reform collective bargaining.

</blockquote>

BILL MOYERS: Taking away workers’ collective bargaining rights, that had long been an ALEC goal. A candid video caught Scott Walker talking about it with one of his financial backers, the billionaire businesswoman Diane Hendricks.

</blockquote>

GOV. SCOTT WALKER: Well, we’re going to start in a couple weeks with our budget adjustment bill. The first step is, we’re going to deal with collective bargaining for all public employee unions.

</blockquote>

DIANE HENDRICKS: Right.

</blockquote>

GOV. SCOTT WALKER: Because you just divide and conquer.

</blockquote>

BILL MOYERS: Despite an extraordinary public outcry and after a brief but intense political struggle, Walker’s anti-collective-bargaining measures became state law.

</blockquote>

JOHN NICHOLS: It was ALEC’s ideas, ALEC’s values, that permeated the bill and undid almost 50 years—more than 50 years of collective bargaining law in Wisconsin.

</blockquote>

===

more alec, walker, cronon

andy kroll in Mojo tries to track down Coalition of American Values see DN 27 june: <a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2012/6/27/dark_money_inside_the_final_frontier">http://www.democracynow.org/2012/6/27/dark_money_inside_the_final_frontier</a>

<h1 class="print-title">ALEC in Wisconsin: The Hijacking of a State</h1>

<div class="meta">by <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/users/35270/mary-bottari" title="View user profile.">Mary Bottari</a> [1] — May 21, 2012 - 9:11am</div>

<ul>

<li class="vocabulary-2">Topics: <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/topics/corporations">Corporations</a> [2], <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/topics/politics">Politics</a> [3]</li>

</ul>

</div>

<ul>

<li class="vocabulary-9">Projects: <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/projects/alec-exposed">ALEC Exposed</a> [4]</li>

</ul>

</div>

Governor Scott WalkerWisconsinites were shell shocked in 2011 by a wide-ranging legislative agenda in their State Capitol that seemed to come out of the blue. Anti-consumer bills, union busting legislation, voter ID, enormous tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy along with requirements for "super majority" votes to raise revenue were fast tracked through the legislature.

The extreme agenda <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2011-02-26-wisconsin-saturday-rally_N.htm" title="reference on sparked massive protests" target="blank">sparked massive protests</a> [5] regularly topping 100,000 and an 18-day Capitol occupation. In the middle of all this, mild mannered UW Professor William Cronon posted a <a href="http://scholarcitizen.williamcronon.net/2011/03/15/alec/" title="reference on personal blog" target="blank">personal blog</a> [6] speculating that the legislative onslaught may not be home grown, but might have to do with a little known cadre of politicians and corporations known as the American Legislative Exchange Council. The Wisconsin GOP kicked up a media firestorm when it demanded all of Cronon's emails in a fruitless attempt to prove that this highly regarded historian was involved in partisan political activities.

A year later, Professor Cronin's thesis has been upheld by a <a href="http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed" title="reference on new report" target="_blank">new report</a> [7] detailing the hijacking of Wisconsin by 49 ALEC members and their corporate sponsors. This massive ALEC caucus (Wisconsin only has 132 legislators), which includes top leadership in both houses, has worked with ALEC alum Scott Walker to transform the state in a manner only an ALEC corporation could love.

<h2>Walker's Early ALEC Agenda</h2>

Before Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker ran for governor, he was a state legislator from 1993-2002 and a proud member of American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). At ALEC, corporate and legislative members gather behind closed doors to craft and pre-vote on legislation that is later introduced in state houses across the land with no disclosure of its ALEC roots.

In his first year in office, Walker cosponsored "Right to Work" legislation (1993 SB 459) making it harder for public and private sector unions to organize or exist. That bill failed to pass, but Walker kept trying sponsoring "Paycheck Protection" legislation (1997 AB 624), which would make it tough for unions to spend money on elections. He also worked hard to pass "Truth in Sentencing" (1997 AB 351), which would greatly increase the number of inmates in prison at the same time that he attempted to privatize Wisconsin's prison system (1997 AB 634, 1999 AB 176 and AB 519), He also co-sponsored a bill (1997 AB 745) which would have prohibited all state agencies, including higher education, from providing goods and services that could be procured from the private sector, with rare exceptions.

All these measures reflect long-standing ALEC bills and priorities. This week, a <a href="http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed" title="reference on new report" target="_blank">new report</a> [7] from the Center for Media and Democracy shows that Walker is still one of ALEC's most able and effective politicians. In the 2011-2012 session, the Wisconsin legislature passed at least 32 bills reflecting 41 ALEC provisions, the vast majority of which were signed into law by Governor Walker.

No doubt the ALEC team trophy is in the mail.

<h2>Going for Broke, Walker's ALEC Agenda Today</h2>

After his election in 2010, Governor Walker delivered a one-two punch only ALEC would love. His first proposal was an "omnibus" tort bill that draws on numerous ALEC templates to make it much harder for Wisconsin families to hold corporations accountable when dangerous products injure or kill their loved ones.

When asked by the <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/noquarter/125510523.html" title="reference on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel" target="_blank">Milwaukee Journal Sentinel</a> [8] if Walker was drawing from the ALEC playbook, Walker's press secretary Cullen Werwie replied "absolutely not." But as the bill was pending in the legislature, ALEC sent an email to Wisconsin members stating ALEC "supports this legislation which includes numerous provisions that reflect ALEC's civil justice reform policy and model legislation." The bill benefits Big Pharma and other ALEC firms.

After Act 2 became law, ALEC issued a release applauding team Walker for their "immediate attention to reforming the state's legal system." Walker promoted the bill as needed to entice new businesses to the state; he promised 10,000 new businesses and 250,000 jobs while on the campaign trail.

On Feb. 11, 2011, Walker sent shock waves through the state by introducing a "Budget Repair Bill," which effectively eliminates collective bargaining for state workers -- making way for a race to the bottom in wages and benefits for some 380,000 workers. A key aspect of Act 10 Act, which prohibits the state from collecting union dues, reflects ALEC's Public Employer Payroll Deduction Policy Act. Another key aspect, which does not allow unions to re-certify unless they get the majority of 100 percent of their members to vote, was just approved as an ALEC "model bill" at their May 2012 meeting in Charlotte.

While consumers and working families were most injured by these bills, it did not escape notice that unions and trial lawyers -- who traditionally support Democrats -- were also harmed. In introducing the budget repair bill, Walker said the state was <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/07/scott-walker-economic-development-ipad_n_1000578.html" title="reference on " target="_blank">"broke"</a> [9] and he had no other option. In public, he stuck to these talking points with admirable discipline, but he told a different story when talking to his top campaign contributor.

<h2>How to Become a Red State? Divide and Conquer</h2>

In <a href="http://www.thenation.com/blog/167881/did-scott-walker-lie-under-oath-congress" title="reference on sworn testimony" target="blank">sworn testimony</a> [10] before Congress in April 2011, Gov. Walker said his controversial measure was not political and that he had no intention of going after the donor base of the Democratic Party. He specifically denied ever having a conversation along those lines. <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/in-film-walker-talks-of-divide-and-conquer-strategy-with-unions-8o57h6f-151049555.html" title="reference on A video" target="blank">A video</a> [11] recently released by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel provides evidence to the contrary.

The video catches Walker talking to a campaign contributor in January 2011, before he introduced the union-busting bill. Billionaire Diane Hendricks greets Walker with enthusiasm and asks two critical questions: how he was going to make Wisconsin a "red state" and if he would be implementing "Right to Work" legislation. Walker replies that the "first step" would be <a href="http://www.thenation.com/blog/167881/did-scott-walker-lie-under-oath-congress" title="reference on " target="_blank">"to divide and conquer"</a> [10] the unions through a budget bill dealing with public sector workers. He also discusses legislation to limit corporate liability.

This frank talk to a woman who would later hand his recall campaign committee as single check for $500,000, puts the Walker agenda in a new light.

<h2>So How is the ALEC Economy Working for You?</h2>

Walker's efforts to dismantle unions and kneecap trial lawyers are completely in synch with the ALEC agenda. CMD's published over 800 ALEC model bills last year and the <a href="http://www.alecexposed.org/wiki/ALEC_Exposed" title="reference on ALECexposed.org" target="_blank">ALECexposed.org</a> [7] archive reveals that ALEC has dozens of bills to dismantle unions and to protect companies that produce dangerous and deadly products. No other issue area, except perhaps school privatization, contains such a raft of bills.

But what has the Walker/ALEC agenda gotten Wisconsin residents? Rather than delivering the 10,000 new businesses and 250,000 jobs, Walker is down <a href="http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/promises/walk-o-meter/promise/527/create-10000-new-businesses/" title="reference on 4,338 businesses" target="blank">4,338 businesses</a> [12] from when he took office and the state ranks dead last in job creation according <a href="http://gallery.mailchimp.com/5fdce0a26f89c28febc13998d/files/BLSApr11_Apr12.pdf" title="reference on to the most recent" target="blank">to the most recent</a> [13] Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

The only real winners have been the global corporations that back ALEC and its radical agenda. Walker has received $406,553 dollars in recent years in campaign contributions from ALEC member corporations, and millions more funneled though 3rd party groups by the Koch brothers and Koch Industries, which funds ALEC and sits on the governing board of ALEC. David Koch's Americans for Prosperity, is spending undisclosed millions on TV and is reportedly tasking some 70 staff to the Walker recall election on June 5.

These corporations will fight tooth and nail to prevent the recall of their single best investment.

</div>

<div class="print-footer">Center for Media and Democracy • 520 University Avenue, Suite 260 • Madison, Wisconsin 53703

Phone: 608-260-9713��• Fax: 608-260-9714</div>

<div class="print-source_url">Source URL: <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/05/11518/alec-wisconsin-hijacking-state">http://www.prwatch.org/news/2012/05/11518/alec-wisconsin-hijacking-state</a></div>

Links:

[1] http://www.prwatch.org/users/35270/mary-bottari

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

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

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

[5] http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2011-02-26-wisconsin-saturday-rally_N.htm

[6] http://scholarcitizen.williamcronon.net/2011/03/15/alec/

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

[8] http://www.jsonline.com/watchdog/noquarter/125510523.html

[9] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/07/scott-walker-economic-development-ipad_n_1000578.html

[10] http://www.thenation.com/blog/167881/did-scott-walker-lie-under-oath-congress

[11] http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/in-film-walker-talks-of-divide-and-conquer-strategy-with-unions-8o57h6f-151049555.html

[12] http://www.politifact.com/wisconsin/promises/walk-o-meter/promise/527/create-10000-new-businesses/

[13] http://gallery.mailchimp.com/5fdce0a26f89c28febc13998d/files/BLSApr11_Apr12.pdf

---

alec report:

Here are some of the key findings from the new report:

32 bills or budget provisions reflecting ALEC model legislation were introduced in Wisconsin's 2011-2012 legislative session;

21 of these bills or budget provisions have passed, two were vetoed;

More than $276,000 in campaign contributions were made to ALEC legislators in Wisconsin from ALEC corporations since 2008;

More than $406,000 in campaign contributions were made to ALEC alumnus Governor Walker from ALEC corporations over the same time period to his state campaign account;

At least 49 current Wisconsin legislators are known ALEC members, including the leaders of both the House and Senate as well as other legislators holding key posts in the state. Additionally, the Governor, the Secretary of the Department of Administration, and the Chairman of the Public Service Commission are ALEC alumni; and

At least 17 current legislators have received thousands of dollars of gifts cumulatively from ALEC corporations in the past few years, in the form of flights and hotel rooms filtered through the ALEC “scholarship fund” (complete “scholarship” information is not available).

ALEC describes itself as the largest "independent member association of state legislators" in the country, but over 98 percent of its nearly $7 million in annual revenue comes from corporations and sources other than legislative dues, which are $50 a year. Representatives from America’s largest corporations, including Koch Industries, Wal-Mart, Exxon Mobil, Reynolds, and Altria/Phillip Morris fund ALEC and sit on its private sector governing board.

The full report can be found at <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://alecexposed.org/wiki/Wisconsin_Report"> ALECexposed.org</a>. The letter to the Attorney General can be found <a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://www.alecexposed.org/w/images/a/a7/CMD_Letter_to_AG_Van_Hollen.pdf"> here</a> (PDF).

MADISON -- The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) filed a <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=E6UAJKMh72oobzIedFlHeHcY%2B4p8xTXx">complaint</a> today with the Government Accountability Board (GAB) based on newly discovered documents revealing that numerous Wisconsin legislators have received corporate-funded gifts through their connections to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). Although ALEC describes itself as the largest membership group for legislators, over 98% of its $7 million budget is from corporations and sources other than legislative dues. Documents obtained via Wisconsin open records law and other sources show that ALEC corporations are funding lawmakers’ out-of-state travel expenses to posh resorts for ALEC meetings with corporate lobbyists, in addition to gifts of entertainment and exclusive parties.

Wisconsin has some of the nation��s strongest ethics rules and prohibits legislators from accepting anything of value from lobbyists (or corporations that employ lobbyists here). Wisconsin statutes also prohibit elected officials from taking anything of value that could reasonably be expected to influence how they vote on legislation. CMD’s findings include:

The “scholarship fund” that pays for legislators’ travel to resorts is funded entirely by ALEC corporations, many of which employ lobbyists to influence Wisconsin law; Despite public claims the “scholarships” are in a “blind” trust, <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=xD7lEfOPyoRDBwe1TyOTDXcY%2B4p8xTXx"> documents </a>(PDF) obtained through an open records request to Senator Scott Fitzgerald shows which corporations have bankrolled legislators’ travel; The drug companies’ trade group, PhRMA, gave over $350,000 to the ALEC scholarship fund in 2010 via the Madison address of ALEC’s corporate co-chair of Wisconsin, a state-registered lobbyist on behalf of several ALEC companies in Wisconsin, including Koch Industries; and Many Wisconsin state senators and representatives who received money from the “scholarship fund” held in trust by ALEC did not disclose this on their Statements of Economic Interests.

Documents unveiled today by CMD also show that in 2011 numerous Wisconsin legislators received an <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/dia/track.jsp?v=2&c=88nGiDdI1YzCOJgJjSEJ73cY%2B4p8xTXx">invitation</a> (PDF) offering free tickets to a Cincinnati Reds game and free food and drinks paid for by the ALEC corporate member Time Warner Cable in conjunction with ALEC’s spring meeting. Two weeks later, a major telecommunications bill that would benefit Time Warner Cable was introduced in the state legislature and many of the legislators invited to the party added themselves as co-sponsors. The next day, many of those same Wisconsin legislators may have partied at the Reds ballpark, courtesy of the corporation that stood to benefit from the bill. CMD is asking the board to evaluate all these activities.

ALEC: 

The pharmaceutical drug lobby PhRMA gave $356,075 to the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) "scholarship fund" in 2010, but listed the recipient's address at a lobbying firm steps away from the Wisconsin State Capitol, rather than ALEC's Washington, D.C. offices, according to filings with the Internal Revenue Service. The PhRMA contribution is leading to calls for greater transparency about how the ALEC scholarship fund operates.

In its <a href="http://www2.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2010/530/241/2010-530241211-07d129f7-9O.pdf" title="reference on 2010 IRS filings" target="blank">2010 IRS filings</a>, the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, better known as PhRMA, listed a $356,075 contribution to the "ALEC Scholarship Fund." That fund <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/07/10887/cmd-special-report-alecs-funding-and-spending" title="reference on pays for flights and hotels" target="blank">pays for flights and hotels</a> for state legislators to attend ALEC conferences in places like New Orleans or Florida.

PhRMA's contribution to the scholarship fund is not its only involvement with ALEC. A PhRMA representative sits on the ALEC Private Enterprise Board, and two representatives are on the Executive Committee of the ALEC Health and Human Services Task Force. A PhRMA executive was given ALEC's "Private Sector Member of the Year" award in 2011. PhRMA was a "Chairman" level sponsor of the 2011 ALEC conference (which cost $50,000 in 2010), and sponsored a plenary luncheon at that conference (where its CEO also spoke).

A number of ALEC "model" bills also favor the interests of PhRMA and its members, including bills that would limit the liability of pharmaceutical manufacturers when they release dangerous drugs. There is even an ALEC "Resolution In Support of the PhRMA Code and Corporate Self Regulation."

<h2>ALEC Located in Madison, Wisconsin?</h2>

A closer look at the IRS filing shows that PhRMA listed the address for the ALEC Scholarship Fund not at the ALEC headquarters in Washington, D.C., but at an address in Madison, Wisconsin.

The apparent recipient of PhRMA's $356,075 donation was located at 10 East Doty Street, Suite 500, just steps away from the Wisconsin State Capitol. That is the same address as the lobbying offices of Hamilton Consulting.

Lobbyist Amy Boyer

Lobbyist Amy Boyer of Hamilton Consulting is the ALEC corporate co-chair for Wisconsin. Boyer's <a href="http://ethics.state.wi.us/scripts/CurrentSession/Lobbyists.asp?LobID=2531&start=B" title="reference on lobbying clients" target="_blank">lobbying clients</a> include ALEC members like Koch Industries, Wal Mart, and Xcel Energy.

As CMD has <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/09/11031/koch-lobbyist-alec-state-co-chair-wisconsin-scholarships-raise-ethics-concerns" title="reference on reported" target="_blank">reported</a>, the role for the corporate chairs, as defined in ALEC's bylaws, is to work with the ALEC legislative chairs to raise funds for the ALEC scholarships that pay for legislators to attend ALEC meetings....

<h2>PhRMA's Investment Pays Off in Wisconsin</h2>

Legislation introduced in Wisconsin during the year following PhRMA's contribution suggests the investment in "scholarships" paid dividends.

<img src="file:///D:/DATAfugazi/BRAINS/webodec3_brain/Files/CD56B80C-635D-D48B-9B32-68E2CA3B8E10/PersonalBrain Notes/copiedlocalimagefile0.jpeg" alt="PhRMA" height="92" width="283" style=" float: right; margin: 3px;" />One of Governor Walker's first actions upon taking office was to push a package of tort reform measures lifted from the ALEC playbook. So-called "tort reform" bills benefit drug companies and other major corporations by making it harder for Americans to sue companies whose products or services result in injury or death. PhRMA has <a href="http://www.phrma.org/news-media/speeches/putting-patients-first-keep-health-care-america-best-world-putting-patients-firs" title="reference on long supported" target="_blank">long supported</a> "tort reform" and used ALEC to push it.

<a href="http://www.legis.state.wi.us/2011/data/acts/11Act2.pdf" title="reference on Wisconsin Act 2" target="blank">Wisconsin Act 2</a> was the first bill Walker signed into law on January 27, 2011. As the January 2011 "special session" of the Wisconsin legislature began, ALEC sent an <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/files/ORR_0383.pdf" title="reference on issue alert" target="blank">issue alert</a> to Wisconsin's ALEC politicans stating the organization "supports this legislation which contains numerous provisions that reflect ALEC's civil justice reform policy and model legislation." Act 2 adopted a variety of ALEC models, including the ALEC <a href="http://alecexposed.org/w/images/7/79/0G0-Constitutional_Guidelines_for_Punitive_Damages_Act_Exposed.pdf" title="reference on " constitutional="" guidelines="" for="" punitive="" damages="" target="blank">"Constitutional Guidelines for Punitive Damages Act"</a>, limiting the ability to hold corporations accountable for causing injury or death, and the ALEC <a href="http://www.alecexposed.org/w/images/d/d0/0M1-Product_Liability_Act_Exposed.pdf" title="reference on " product="" liability="" target="blank">"Product Liability Act"</a>, making it easier for corporations like drugmakers to escape liability for manufacturing dangerous products or products with insufficient warnings about hazards. Passage of the bill was promptly lauded by ALEC in a <a href="http://www.emailwire.com/release/printPR.php?prID=56693" title="reference on press release" target="_blank">press release</a>, where they "commended newly-elected Gov. Walker and the new Wisconsin legislature for their leadership in responding quickly to their mandate to restore business confidence and for making tort reform one of their top priorities to achieve this goal."

<a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/10/11060/wisconsin-gop-pushes-alec-anti-consumer-bill-protect-drug-makers" title="reference on In October 2011" target="blank">In October 2011</a>, Wisconsin GOP legislators <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/news/2011/10/11071/alec-politicians-spin-special-interest-bill-protect-corporate-wrongdoers-job-crea" title="reference on introduced" target="blank">introduced</a> <a href="http://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/2011/related/proposals/se1_sb13" title="reference on LRB 2890" target="blank">LRB 2890</a>, a version of the ALEC <a href="http://alecexposed.org/w/images/3/3b/5S2-Drug_Liability_Act_Exposed.pdf" title="reference on " drug="" liability="" target="blank">"Drug Liability Act."</a> The bill gives drug and medical device manufacturers complete immunity from lawsuits based on strict liability if the product was approved by the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Food_and_Drug_Administration" title="reference on Food and Drug Administration" target="self">Food and Drug Administration</a> (FDA) and complied with FDA regulations (see the side-by-side comparison <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/files/Drug%2526_Medical_Device_side_by_side.doc">here</a>). Lawsuits might be unnecessary if there were limitless funds for independent clinical trials and if the FDA approval process worked perfectly to weed out dangerous products. But it does not. Numerous drugs have been approved by the FDA only to be recalled after people died or were seriously injured. PhRMA and its members <a href="http://ethics.state.wi.us/scripts/CurrentSession/LegProps.asp" title="reference on lobbied" target="_blank">lobbied</a> on this bill.

<h2>Lack of Transparency Keeps Public in Dark</h2>

...

<a href="http://www.prwatch.org/node/11342">http://www.prwatch.org/node/11342</a>

===

The Sunday Show with Philip Maldari 2/12/12  author of uprising, john nichols on WI nation books

says WI was 1st to have some sort of union

walker had surplus, looted to cronies (no bid selloff) then declared budget emergency, blamed workers

1st madison rally was students, then parents; capitol occupied 18 day, 8-10k ppl inside

million signed walker recall

david koch bro punk call  blogger ian murphy buffalo beast (orig idea was to be honi mubarak, tell gov to hold on)  2o min on how to get unions, send in agent provocateurs into rally [difference is that not edited like okeefe)  led to cops for labor

review <a href="http://host.madison.com/ct/news/opinion/column/john_nichols/john-nichols-uprising-dissects-state-s-historic-protests/article_a2ea5906-e453-5dd5-9f19-1ea4839e42bd.html">http://host.madison.com/ct/news/opinion/column/john_nichols/john-nichols-uprising-dissects-state-s-historic-protests/article_a2ea5906-e453-5dd5-9f19-1ea4839e42bd.html</a>  links

===

<h2 class="headline"><a href="http://boingboing.net/2011/12/14/wisconsins-scott-walker-reca.html" rel="bookmark">Wisconsin's Scott Walker recall workers face intimidation</a></h2>

By <a href="http://boingboing.net/author/cory_doctorow_1" title="Posts by Cory Doctorow" rel="author">Cory Doctorow</a> at 7:49 am Wednesday, Dec 14 <a href="http://submit.boingboing.net"><img src="/98ed1c2a-1f21-51e1-9f8e-4982e34ce133.png"/></a>

Activists collecting signatures for the recall of Wisconsin's governor Scott Walker report widespread intimidation from the governor's supporters, including an incident recently captured "on tape" (I'm pretty sure tape wasn't involved). Kudos to the volunteers who stand their ground in the face of harassment from people who think "democracy" includes threatening people who disagree with you.

===

<h1 class="title">18 Arrested in Wisconsin Assembly for Using Cameras; Guns Still Allowed</h1>

<div class="meta">Submitted by <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/users/35275/brendan-fischer" title="View user profile.">Brendan Fischer</a> on November 2, 2011 - 7:36am</div>

Eighteen people were arrested Tuesday, November 2 for using cameras in the Wisconsin Assembly gallery, including the editor of The Progressive magazine, Matt Rothschild.

Rothschild and others had gone to the capitol to protest a series of <a href="http://www.thedailypage.com/daily/article.php?article=35023" title="reference on arrests" target="_blank">arrests</a> in recent weeks of individuals who carried signs or took photos or video in defiance of an Assembly ban.

"We ought to have a right to take a picture," Rothschild said.

<h2>Guns, Yes. Cameras, No.</h2>

The protest was organized through a <a href="http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=158926427536228" title="reference on Facebook event" target="blank">Facebook event</a> called "Concealed Camera Day at the Capitol!" The event coincided with the implementation of Wisconsin's new <a href="http://www.wisn.com/politics/29614899/detail.html" title="reference on concealed carry law" target="blank">concealed carry law</a>, which allows residents to carry a concealed firearm -- including inside the Assembly gallery.

</div>

"The message behind the ad was to our supporters that we're on a roll, we're excited about what's happening," said Block, who was banned from Wisconsin politics for three years and forced to pay a $15,000 fine after state regulators accused him of breaking election laws as campaign manager in a 1997 Supreme Court race.  Mark Block Koch

---

~ health care:

In December, he says, he and 20 to 30 other Wisconsin GOP lawmakers attended ALEC's national meeting Washington D.C., where a key topic of study and conversation was federal health care reform. The "State Legislators' Guide to Repealing Obamacare" was handed out at this meeting, and its model legislation discussed.  "A good example of that is a bill Joe Leibham is working on right now," Fitzgerald says.

Sen. Joe Leibham, R-Sheboygan, and Rep. Robin Vos, R-Rochester, introduced the bill Fitzgerald is talking about on Thursday. The "Health Care Freedom Amendment" would change the Wisconsin constitution to prohibit the government from forcing anyone to participate in any public or private health care or insurance program. The amendment is meant to block the implementation of federal health care reform.

The "State Legislators' Guide to Repealing Obamacare"  urges the passage of "freedom laws" exactly like this, which ALEC has been pushing for a while. A flood of similar bills was introduced in 42 states in 2010, according to the manual, which provides legislators with talking points, data and research supporting such legislation.  "Introduce ALEC's Freedom of Choice in HealthCare Act, the primary legislative vehicle for state pushback of the individual mandate and Canadian-style, single-payer health care," the guide says.

Several other GOP health proposals quickly coasting through the legislative process in the Capitol also show up in the guide.

Read more: <a href="http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/health_med_fit/vital_signs/article_30e0cb12-5719-11e0-970f-001cc4c002e0.html#ixzz1ZdxYkvcS" style=" color: #003399;">http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/health_med_fit/vital_signs/article_30e0cb12-5719-11e0-970f-001cc4c002e0.html#ixzz1ZdxYkvcS</a>

</div>

=

Wisconsin Republicans, without going on-the-record with a vote, have used a legislative trick to block an election board rule that would have shed light on the corporate interests laundering election spending through front groups. The move echoes the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=American_Legislative_Exchange_Council" title="reference on American Legislative Exchange Council" target="_self">American Legislative Exchange Council</a> agenda and will likely ensure a flood of secret ads and robo-calls for Wisconsin's 2012 elections.

<h2>Attack on Election Transparency Rule</h2>

In late June, the Republican-controlled Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules (JCRAR) passed a party-line "objection" to state election board rules that would have expanded the scope of political campaign advertisements that require the group running an ad, like <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Americans_for_Prosperity" title="reference on Americans for Prosperity" target="self">Americans for Prosperity</a> or <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Club_for_Growth" title="reference on Club for Growth" target="self">Club for Growth</a>, to disclose the identities of the corporations, CEOs, or foundations funding it. JCRAR then voted on party lines to introduce <a href="http://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/2011/related/proposals/ab196" title="reference on Assembly Bill 196" target="_blank">Assembly Bill 196</a> to not only overturn the election board's ability to make these types of rules, but to remove its authority to regulate ANY corporate "independent expenditure" election spending.

Four of the six Republicans on the JCRAR (Leah Vukmir, Daniel LeMahieu, <a href="http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/health_med_fit/vital_signs/article_30e0cb12-5719-11e0-970f-001cc4c002e0.html" title="reference on Joe Leibham" target="blank">Joe Leibham</a>, and Glenn Grothman) are affiliated with the <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=American_Legislative_Exchange_Council" title="reference on American Legislative Exchange Council" target="self">American Legislative Exchange Council</a>, and their opposition to election transparency <a href="http://alecexposed.org/w/images/f/f2/7G4-Resolution_in_Support_of_the_Citizens_United_Decision_Exposed.pdf" title="reference on tracks an ALEC resolution" target="_blank">tracks an ALEC resolution</a>. (tip from Badger Democracy)

<a href="http://www.prwatch.org/node/11026">http://www.prwatch.org/node/11026</a>

----------

~ corp

<div class="node-header"> Published on Friday, July 1, 2011 by <a href="http://www.commondreams.org">CommonDreams.org</a>

<h2 class="title">Movement to Abolish Corporate Personhood Gaining Traction</h2>

</div>

by <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/author/kaitlin-sopoci-belknap">Kaitlin Sopoci-Belknap</a>

</div>

In the year and a half since the Citizens United��decision, Americans from all walks of life have become concerned about corporate dominance of our government and our society as a whole. In Citizens United v. FEC, the U.S. Supreme Court (in an act of outrageous “judicial activism) gutted existing campaign finance laws by ruling that corporations, wealthy individuals, and other entities can spend unlimited amounts of money on political campaigns.

Throughout the country people have responded by organizing against “corporate personhood,” a court-created precedent that illegitimately gives corporations rights that were intended for human beings. 

The movement is flowering not in the halls of Congress, but at the local level, where all real social movements start. Every day Americans experience the devastation caused by unaccountable corporations. Thanks to the hard work of local organizers, Boulder, CO could become the next community to officially join this growing effort. Councilmember Macon Cowles is proposing to place a measure on the November ballot, giving Boulder voters the opportunity to support an amendment to the U. S. Constitution abolishing corporate personhood and declaring that money is not speech. 

At the forefront of this movement is <a href="http://www.movetoamend.org/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">Move to Amend</a>, a national coalition of hundreds of organizations and over 113,000 individuals (and counting). Move to Amend is committed to building a grassroots movement to abolish corporate personhood, to hold corporations accountable to the public, and ultimately to fulfill the promise of an American democratic republic.

Boulder is not alone in this fight, nor is it the first community to consider such a resolution. In April, voters in Madison and Dane County, WI overwhelmingly approved measures calling for an end to corporate personhood and the legal status of money as speech by 84% and 78% respectively. Similar resolutions have been passed in nearly thirty other cities and counties. Resolutions have also been introduced in the state legislatures of both Vermont and Washington.

</div>

<a href="http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/01-14">http://www.commondreams.org/view/2011/07/01-14</a>

cmd:

<h1 class="title">Strangling Dissent: David Prosser Accused of Attacking Fellow Justice</h1>

<div class="meta">Submitted by <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/users/35270/mary-bottari" title="View user profile.">Mary Bottari</a> on June 27, 2011 - 1:02pm</div>

<li class="taxonomy_term_76 first"><a href="http://www.prwatch.org/topics/politics/right-wing" rel="tag" title="">right wing</a></li>

<li class="taxonomy_term_736 last"><a href="http://www.prwatch.org/campaigns/wisconsin-protests" rel="tag" title="">Wisconsin Protests</a></li>

</ul>

</div>

<div class="content clearfix">David ProsserThe Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism and Wisconsin Public Radio <a href="http://www.wisconsinwatch.org/2011/06/25/prosser-allegedly-grabbed-fellow-justice-by-the-neck/" title="reference on broke the latest blockbuster from Wisconsin." target="blank">broke the latest blockbuster from Wisconsin.</a> The story alleges that recently-elected Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice <a href="http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=David_Prosser" title="reference on David Prosser" target="self">David Prosser</a> grabbed fellow Justice, Ann Walsh Bradley, in a chokehold earlier this month. The incident took place on June 13, the day before as the Justices issued their split ruling on Wisconsin's controversial collective bargaining bill. Bradley released a statement late Saturday to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel confirming the incident. Prosser's defense? An unnamed source <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/124546064.html" title="reference on said" target="blank">said</a> that Bradley had charged Prosser with fists raised and somehow her neck fell into his hands. Bradley responded by saying, "You can try to spin those facts and try to make it sound like I ran up to him and threw my neck into his hands, but that's only spin." According to news reports, Bradley was asking Prosser to leave her office after he made disparaging remarks about the Chief Justice. In March, the Journal Sentinel <a href="http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/118310479.html" title="reference on reported" target="blank">reported</a> that Prosser had called Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson a "total bitch," threatening to "destroy her." The story dropped like a bombshell into a hotly contested Supreme Court race that was widely considered a referendum on the governor's anti-union policies. Prosser was declared the victor after a recount and investigation into the discovery of 7,300 misplaced votes in Waukesha County. The latest incident involving Prosser's abusive behavior has been brought to the attention of the Wisconsin Judicial Commission and the Capitol Police. While calls for Prosser resignation rolled in, FOX News anchor and Wisconsinite <a href="http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2011/06/27/254619/greta-on-prosser-choking/" title="reference on Greta Van Susteren" target="_blank">Greta Van Susteren</a> had a unique take on Prosser's behavior. She called upon the Chief Justice Abrahamson to step aside for not keeping control in her court.</div>

</div>

----

<h1>Wisconsin Facts</h1>

Based in Wichita, Kan., Koch Industries, Inc. is one of the largest private companies in America according to Forbes magazine. It owns a diverse group of companies involved in refining and chemicals; process and pollution control equipment and technologies; minerals; fertilizers; polymers and fibers; commodity trading and services; forest and consumer products; and ranching. Koch companies have a presence in nearly 60 countries and employ about 70,000 people. Since 2003, Koch companies have completed more than $32 billion in acquisitions and investments, and nearly $11 billion in capital expenditures.

<ul>

<li>Companies in Wisconsin

Flint Hills Resources, LLC, through its subsidiaries, is a leading refining and chemicals company. Its subsidiaries market products such as gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, ethanol, olefins, polymers and intermediate chemicals, as well as base oils and asphalt. A subsidiary distributes refined fuel through its strategically located pipelines and terminals in Junction City, Waupun, Madison and Milwaukee. Another subsidiary manufactures asphalt that is distributed to terminals in Green Bay and Stevens Point.</li>

<li>Koch Pipeline Company, L.P. operates a pipeline system that crosses Wisconsin, part of the nearly 4,000 miles of pipelines owned or operated by the company.</li>

<li>The C. Reiss Coal Company is a leading supplier of coal used to generate power. The company has locations in Green Bay, Manitowoc, Ashland and Sheboygan.</li>

<li>Georgia-Pacific companies have six facilities in the state that manufacture consumer tissue, towel and wiper products, corrugated packaging, and hardboard. In addition, the company has offices and a research center in the state. Georgia-Pacific LLC, based in Atlanta, and its subsidiaries have approximately 300 manufacturing facilities across North America, South America and Europe, ranging from large pulp, paper and tissue operations to gypsum plants, box plants and building products operations. companies have six facilities in the state that manufacture consumer tissue, towel and wiper products, corrugated packaging, and hardboard. In addition, the company has offices and a research center in the state. Georgia-Pacific LLC, based in Atlanta, and its subsidiaries have approximately 300 manufacturing facilities across North America, South America and Europe, ranging from large pulp, paper and tissue operations to gypsum plants, box plants and building products operations.</li>

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6/11: However incomplete, though, the data reveal that over the course of those three years, Koch Industries' facilities emitted <a href="http://sourcewatch.org/images/6/63/Koch_Industries_Emissions_2007-2009.pdf" target="blank" title="reference on over 5.4 million pounds (PDF)">over 5.4 million pounds (PDF)</a>1 of toxic discharges into Wisconsin's air and water. Of these discharges, <a href="http://sourcewatch.org/images/6/63/Koch_Industries_Emissions_2007-2009.pdf" target="blank" title="reference on nearly 100,000 pounds (PDF)">nearly 100,000 pounds (PDF)</a> were of substances known or suspected to cause cancer.

see k notes <a href="http://www.prwatch.org/node/10722">http://www.prwatch.org/node/10722</a>

</li>

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