Remembering Walker Words on Recalls

Any New GAB Actions with the New Year?

Last year a number of ethics complaints were filed with the Government Accountability Board (GAB) and I'm wondering which of them might result in ethics fines (or more) this year. I'm not talking about every complaint that was filed because we all know of some (most of which were filed days before the November election) that were surly frivolous. But there are a few that seem very legitimate to me and I am wondering exactly how they will be resolved and will those resolutions have a larger impact?

The most cut and dry example is that of the perpetually troubled state Senator Dan Kapanke. It seems that every year he is facing an ethics probe or costing Wisconsin taxpayers money because of violations of open records laws.

As you may recall the Democratic Party of Wisconsin filed a complaint regarding Kapanke using money from his foundation to pay his own personal business debts. This was troubling on a number of levels but especially because he used his foundation to collect payments from businesses that employ lobbyists in Madison. In fact he himself made that point in one of his previous ethics cases back in 2007. At that time he suggested that the foundation would be used as a sort of ethical firewall because the money from special interests would go through it and toward local charities. At the time he said "I don't see any problem as long as the money isn't going to benefit me." [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 3/27/2007]

As it turns out foundation money did in fact go to directly benefit Kapanke. As we discovered last year, he used some $32,000 of it to help retire his own personal business debt. In fact, if you look at the grants that the foundation gave over the last couple of years, the largest "charity" appeared to involve paying down Kapanke's personal business debt. None of the other charities that received funds even came remotely close to his $32,000.

Shortly after this complaint was filed against him Dan Kapanke essentially admitted to the primary facts of the matter. The only real questions left in this specific example is what exactly does GAB plan to do about it and what precedent will those actions set?

Ryan Lends Name but No One Lends Him Support

Earlier this week Congressman Paul Ryan decided to lend his name to dueling DC fundraisers for both Scott Walker and Mark Neumann. Well, to be clear, he agreed to lend his name but apparently not his actual presence or endorsement. Seeing him lend his name made me wonder if any Republican officials/candidates have finally decided to lend Ryan some support. It was back in February when I asked Republican candidates and officials (especially those running for Congress) to publicly state their position on Ryan's "roadmap" legislation.

To refresh our recollection, Ryan's "roadmap" legislation is really just recycled right wing rhetoric probably cribbed from some 1980's position paper somewhere. You know the whole privatize and slash spending for Social Security and Medicare shtick that comes through every few years. Ryan's recycled "roadmap" doesn't actually accomplish its stated goal and it is based on several irrational assumptions. Perhaps that is why key Republicans were running from it early and often when he trotted it out for publicity earlier this year. The last time that I wrote about this, Ryan's legislation had only 8 co-sponsors Congress, none of which were from Wisconsin. So has anyone finally decided to lend Ryan some support for his misguided efforts? I hear that Sensenbrenner and Petri were at Scott Walker's DC fundraiser. Did Walker do his part to advocate for the missing namesake of the event?

It looks like Paul Ryan has gained the support of four more Republican Congressman; unfortunately none of them are from Wisconsin. Where the heck is Petri and Sensenbrenner on this and why haven't they signed on as co-sponsors yet? Similarly, where are all of the Republican candidates for Congress on this? Are they only convenient conservatives? No doubt the tea party types love to fawn all over Ryan and his "roadmap". So why aren't these allegedly principled activists demanding that their candidates lend Ryan's "roadmap" some support? If they don't stand for it now, what makes the tea party think that they will do it should they end up in Congress? The other two Wisconsin Republicans in Congress certainly have not.

Maybe the Republican convention would be a good place for these Congressional candidates to lend their support to Paul's privatization plans. If GOP activists and tea party-types really insist on ideological purity, one would think that they would demand that these candidates back up Ryan's "roadmap" with actual words. If not, then maybe they are not the conservatives that they claim to be.

So what say you, Sensenbrenner, Petri, Duffy, Kapanke, and the chorus of candidates in the 8^th Congressional District? Are you going to publicly lend your support to HR 4529 or not? Will the tea party hold you accountable or won't they?

Kapanke should pay for his violations, not taxpayers

Today State Senator Dan Kapanke (R-La Crosse) acknowledged that he violated state Public Records laws. The admission was made in court filings released today in Dane County Circuit Court. The open records complaint was filed against Senator Kapanke after he and his office delayed, concealed and even destroyed some of the requested records. The records involved his office's questionable use of his state staff and resources for two campaign related events.

The lawsuit calls for the state to pay $100 in damages and $38,000 in attorney's fees. Since Kapanke has admitted wrong doing shouldn't that come out of his own pocket? Why should the public have to pay? Especially given the tough economic times that we are in as a nation and as a state, the last thing that public dollars should pay for is Kapanke's incompetence and violations of important laws. The simple fact is that Kapanke has now admitted to the wrong doing involving the open records lawsuit and now he should have to pay for it.

UPDATE: See the actual court documents at Milwaukee World.

Also take a look at the good points being raised at Blogging Blue .

No “Vindication” for Kapanke in Court

Last week state Senator Dan Kapanke (R-La Crosse) saw a member of his staff get fined because of his office's questionable mixing of campaign work and state resources. The fine came after a limited review by the Government Accountability Board. Imagine what could have or might still happen if GAB actually takes a more complete look at the Kapanke office shenanigans. Either way, it might have been wise for the senator to withhold his claims of "vindication" until after all of the facts were fully examined.

It seems that as one examines the Kapanke office more, it only opens new areas of concern. One major example of this is Senator Kapanke's apparent obstruction of an open records request filed by the Democratic Party of Wisconsin. The DPW filed a lawsuit against the legislator because his office did not properly comply with an open records request. Today that case was heard in a Dane County courtroom and lets just say that Kapanke was not claiming any "vindication" afterwards. In fact I didn't see much in the reporting of today's activities that wasn't embarrassing for Kapanke, his staff and more importantly his constituents.

First, one of his top aides admitted during her testimony that she routinely conducts state business on her private email. This is not cool for a number of reasons, but perhaps more problematic was the fact that she didn't search these emails before denying the DPW open records request. Testimony also showed that some of the information requested was actually destroyed. Although this top Kapanke aide is the records custodian for the office, she stated that she has never had training to serve in that role. After hearing all of the testimony and the arguments, it looks like the judge is now ready to rule against Kapanke over the records dispute. The judge will have to decide the amount that Kapanke must pay for legal fees and whether he will make Kapanke pay any punitive damages for the open records obstruction.

Even Kapanke couldn't claim any level of "vindication" after this day in court.

So Where’s that “Vindication” Kapanke?

After being busted for possibly misusing state resources for his campaign, State Senator Dan Kapanke (R-Denial) compounded the problem by obstructing an open records request. Now he faces all manner of complaints filed not only with the Government Accountability Board (GAB), but also the La Crosse County District Attorney and now a Dane County lawsuit. For weeks Kapanke has been crowing about how he would be "vindicated" at the August 10^th GAB meeting. That day has come and gone and no such "vindication" has materialized.

As it turns out GAB took no action regarding the Kapanke complaint and it should also be noted that they are not commenting on the situation. This is important because if the matter was resolved in any way, they could absolutely comment on it. The only situation on which they cannot comment is an open and ongoing investigation.

Given the Kapanke office's statements that he is "always available for comment", someone in the media may want to ask him a few questions right about now. The first one could be: "So where is that 'vindication' that you were so confident about a couple weeks ago?"