Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Questions About Duffy Fundraiser

Earlier today, Heartland Hollar made some very interesting points about a fundraiser at the posh Milwaukee Athletic Club for Republican candidate for Congress, Sean Duffy. It appears that the head of the "independent" right wing group Americans for Prosperity (AFP), Mark Block, is throwing the party. What is particularly interesting is that Mark Block's contact information regarding the event lists a phone number that is also associated with yet another right wing "independent" group, the MacIver Institute. So the head of one nonprofit uses the contact info for yet another nonprofit to promote a partisan fundraiser? I think that Heartland Hollar may be on to something and someone should start asking a few questions.

We are already well aware of Mark Block's past shenanigans which included a record fine and a ban from Wisconsin politics until 2004. Now we have Block, the head of a nonprofit, throwing a fundraiser for a partisan candidate and using a phone number for it that is connected to yet another nonprofit. Perhaps someone should be asking Block if this is really the best way to promote this partisan event. Perhaps someone in the media or maybe even a District Attorney should start asking some questions just to make sure. Who knows, maybe there is some good explanation as to why this is no big deal.

The candidate that Block is throwing the fundraiser for, Sean Duffy, is currently a District Attorney, so we can probably rule him out as the person to ask the important questions about the fundraiser. We can also rule Sean Duffy out because he is the same DA that passed the buck when One Wisconsin Now asked him to investigate Michael Gableman's apparent use of a state phone to raise campaign funds. Earlier this year OWN brought up an entirely new line of questions related to Duffy's refusal to investigate Gableman's calls. Naturally Duffy never answered or addressed any of those questions so we can't expect him to give any reliable answers regarding the fundraiser today.

Since the event is being held in Milwaukee, perhaps the Milwaukee County DA could render an opinion on the situation or perhaps the Milwaukee press could ask a few questions about whether any important lines are being crossed with this fundraiser.

6 comments:

George said...

Unfortunately, I think the Milwaukee media is still a little tied up learning more about Mil. Co. Supervisor Toni Clark's investigation into possible campaign finance violations.

Cory Liebmann said...

i think that they can do two things at once, but maybe i'm giving them too much credit.

Anonymous said...

Cory, thanks for pointing this out. I'm a Republican, and I also view this as a conflict of interest from the perspective that Mr. Block is involving himself and his 501c4 org. in a Republican Primary. Sean Duffy does have a primary opponent, one who the voters selected to run against Dave Obey last time around.

Anonymous said...

The voters did not select him to run, he ran on the ticket unapposed.

Anonymous said...

In 2008 there was only one person on the Republican ticket, but I would not call him a republican. More like a right wing nut job.

Anonymous said...

Dan is not a right wing nut job.
he is a buisness owner, and farmer who has a very long histroy in fighting for the people in the 7th district. He was responsible for forcing Portage County to have an Elected executive verses the administrator the good ole boys wanted. He pushed that through virtually single handed. He was an active fighter against illegal immigartion, putting a stop to the McCain/Kennedy bill. For over 10 years was on the speaker circut fighting the Smart Growth legislation which was infringing on property rights. He also served as a minister for the Church of Christ.