Scott Jensen's Behind-the-Scenes Support

When former Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen wasn't working on getting a new trial, he was busy working behind-the-scenes to prop up the Republican Party and it's infrastructure. On this blog we highlighted at least one example involving the start of the MacIver Institute. Now, even after working out a sweetheart deal with Republican prosecutors, it seems that Jensen still prefers to work behind-the-scenes.

Scott Jensen is still listed as a "senior advisor" for American Federation for Children which is a radical right wing organization that seeks to undermine public schools among other things. According to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign it is a spin-off of the Michigan-based group All Children Matter (ACM). Perhaps they needed a spin-off group because ACM was not getting the best publicity after being fined for violating campaign finance rules all over the country.

The American Federation for Children lists a Washington D.C. address in a recent filing with Wisconsin's Government Accountability Board. What you can also find in that filing is a listing of their recent activity in Wisconsin. The records show that on March 17th this radical group paid for robo-calls to support all 8 of the Walker rubber stamps that are subject to recall in the state Senate. As a reminder, those include the following:

• Robert Cowles


• Alberta Darling


• Glenn Grothman


• Shelia Harsdorf


• Randy Hopper


• Dan Kapanke


• Mary Lazich


• Luther Olson

According to their GAB filing, Scott Jensen's D.C.-based group spent a total of $8,102 for these robo-calls. I'm sure that this is only the beginning so before the rest of the money starts rolling in I think that the Republican Senators should encourage Scott Jensen to come out of the shadows. For example, if he is going to do more robo-calls then maybe he should actually be the voice that voters hear on the other end. Perhaps he should join them on the campaign trail, appear in campaign literature or maybe even do a cameo in the TV ads. If voters needed any other motivation to dump the Republican 8, Scott Jensen's public support could certainly help to serve that noble purpose.

“Throwing Money at it Won’t Fix it”

How many times have we heard Republicans complain that we can't fix things by throwing money at it? That seems to be their tired retort anytime we want to invest in our future, our kid's education, or ensure a proper safety net for the most vulnerable among us. National Republicans are trying to fix their branding problem by trotting out all the same old guys, purging themselves of moderates, and pushing the same old failed strategies. It appears that Wisconsin conservatives are picking up on some of the same elements while also adding a "throw money at it" approach.

Over the weekend the Wisconsin State Journal reported on a right wing effort to copy the progressive infrastructure in the State of Wisconsin. The story reveals a conservative plan called the "Wisconsin Prosperity Network". Apparently they would like to create some 14 new (read artificial) right wing organizations that make all of the same arguments and push all of the same old right wing policies that the country has now moved past. And who are the people behind this "new" multi-million dollar effort in Wisconsin? It appears to be all of the same old guys that have been pulling strings and/or getting in trouble in Wisconsin for years. It is a who's who of the old Republican guard in Wisconsin: GOP big wig and former Tommy! aide James Klauser, right wing sugar daddy Michael Grebe, Mark Block who was famously on the wrong side of elections laws a few years back, and Scott Jensen who is still awaiting his second criminal felony trial.

Here is a hint to the right wing in Wisconsin: when you are trying to do something new, you may want to avoid using the same old guys pushing the same old policies backed by the same old money bags. Just look at one of the "newer" right wing organizations that now appears to be defunct, the Wisconsin Institute of Leadership. It was very clearly formed to be a knock off on the successful progressive organization One Wisconsin Now. After having right wing dollars pumped in and being initially hyped, it doesn't appear to actively exist anymore. The only accomplishment that I can see from its existence is running a few ads and sending out some direct mail during one single legislative election cycle. The right wing money bags threw cash at it but was it worth the investment? I don't think so, but then again I don't have money to burn.

The first official organization that the WSJ story lists as being part of this "new" effort is the stumbling bumbling MacIver Institute. All of these old guard guys behind this effort with all of their money and influence and they couldn't even get this thing launched properly. They seemed to rush their official launch, they lied about Scott Jensen's real ties to it, they have been operating for much of their existence with an invisible staff, and they haven't really produced anything real by themselves. If this is their official start to this 14 organizational network, so far it doesn't seem to be an ideal one.

Republicans in Wisconsin can try to artificially replicate progressive success all that they want, but they really should keep a few things in mind before fully taking the big plunge. Using all of the same old guys, pushing all of the same old tired policies is not a winning model no matter what you plan on paper. This is one perfect example where I can fall back on an old right wing mantra; "throwing money at it" just won't make up for all of these major flaws in your plan.

Scott Jensen Finally Gets His Man!

The right wing sugar daddies must have a ton of money to burn! It seems that they are creating a new right wing organization every year. Last year it was the Wisconsin Institute for Leadership (WIL), which was apparently mothballed after its Executive Director, Brian Fraley, left to run the Rose Fernandez campaign. Apparently WIL is gone for good because now the most recent org announced that it is making Fraley its director of communications. With the way that MacIver stumbled out of the gate in the first few weeks, they could certainly use someone in that position! Who can forget the rushed press release announcing their existence, or the lack of real content on their site or their oddly invisible staff? The one thing that MacIver wont be able to shake so easily with this new hire, are the continual questions about the real role of Scott Jensen.

Before MacIver's "official" launch it had long been rumored that Scott Jensen was either behind the starting of the organization or was going to be its leader. After MacIver got off to a less than flattering start, one of their invisible employees downplayed the actual role of Jensen. Only days after those comments, we found that Scott Jensen appeared to be writing the press releases for MacIver. As if they needed more Jensen ties, MacIver then hired Jensen's former chief of staff as the executive director. Now MacIver has hired a communications director whose biggest fan seems to be…Scott Jensen.

While reporting in 2006 on the caucus scandal, Wispolitics mentioned a correspondence that was displayed in court at the time. It detailed a discussion about who should be hired for a specific ARC job. Some of the GOP players wanted to hire a former Frank Lasee staffer, but Scott Jensen thought that Brian Fraley was the better choice. Wispolitics quoted Jensen as saying that Fraley should get the job because "he was known as a great campaigner and would benefit the team." Sadly Jensen did not get his way at that time, as the Lasee staffer ended up getting the job. But I'm sure that Scott Jensen is thrilled now, because an organization with so many of his fingerprints on it, has finally picked his man!

Shady Organization’s Shady Start Requires Real Reporting

On Saturday a full array of right wing madness will be on display in downtown Milwaukee at the “Defending the American Dream” summit. According to the listed agenda the opening session will not only include all sorts of right wing politicians but will also include the 2nd official announcement of the Maciver Institute. Perhaps they will be hiring folks to fill their apparently vacant staff spots. One thing that we do know is that they will be releasing a poll.

In their first official introduction via sudden press release on Wednesday, they state that they will be releasing “results of a statewide poll on Governor Doyle’s proposed state budget, the economy and Wisconsin politics” on Saturday. But before the media just swallows up the talking points and simply reprints poll results, I certainly hope that they do their due diligence. The bottom line is that this already appears to be a shady organization that is off to a shady start. Many questions need to be asked and answered before the media just jumps on the bandwagon.

First, who is the executive director for this new organization? It has been reported that Scott Jensen was involved with starting this organization and Bruce Murphy has reported seeing documents that show a possible $120,000 salary for him. So if these documents do show that, then why is he not listed in their official launch press release or on their website? By the way, wasn’t Jensen ordered to repay the taxpayers of Wisconsin some $190,000 for legal costs associated with his first criminal felony trial? If he is involved in this group how can they have any credibility on issues of taxes, spending and personal responsibility?

Another important question that some in the media should be asking is of themselves, particularly the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the Wisconsin State Journal. Bruce Murphy has also reported that several reporters from both papers were recruited to take a research director job at Maciver. Is this true and is this why none of them have reported a single thing about the start of this organization? If this is true, how is it not a conflict to now carry their poll and their activities without having some sort of conflict?

It is pretty clear that the major thing that Maciver has done at this point, apparently without a staff, is produce a poll. Again, before simply reporting the results of this poll, the media has a responsibility to ask some questions and point out some facts. Based on Maciver’s own description of the poll, it is pretty clear that it will serve as little more than an attack on Governor Doyle. Should this be a surprise when the President of this shady organization is Fred Luber, former Finance Co-Chair of Scott Walkers failed 2006 run for governor and major GOP bagman? If there is going to be any reporting at all on this poll, shouldn’t this be very clearly stated?

One of the other major set of questions that the media must ask about this organization is who are their funders? We know from Mark Block’s Twitter account that there is supposed to be some “very important” meeting on Saturday involving the Bradley Foundation’s Michael Grebe and former Governor Thompson disciple James Klauser. What are their roles in this? Is the Bradley Foundation funding this new right wing operation? Did they pay for this poll? Does the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the other papers just print the results of any group’s poll in the paper without knowing such things?

How can the media treat this organization or their poll as legitimate without first asking all of these very important questions? So far this has proven to be a shady organization that is off to a very shady start and if the media doesn’t ask the important questions before reporting its talking points, then the are abdicating their most basic responsibilities and they are just as shady as all the rest.

Think Tank or Tweet Tank?

The right wing organization Maciver Institute launched via press release on Wednesday. They made the announcement while apparently having no Executive Director or paid staff. Their web site actually has less on it today than it did the day before they made it official. By far the most “active” part of the site is the display of their Twitter account. Reading their tweets, I found myself wondering exactly who is tweeting for them since they apparently don’t’ have a staff? Is the board rotating that responsibility because we already know that Mark Block likes to tweet. We know that Scott Jensen was rumored to be starting this organization, so is Scooter in some undisclosed location tweeting for them? The bottom line is that their site has not so much “think” and just a little too much “tweet.”

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Ruffled Feathers and a Missing Staff

At 9:32 a.m. I posted a blog asking questions about the new right wing organization that Scott Jensen was reportedly trying to start. Because of Bruce Murphy’s reporting, I knew that this organization was named The Maciver Institute. Yesterday I learned that they also had a live website. When I went to that site I found the list of board members and the contact information. I also discovered a restricted Twitter account for the new org. This morning as I was preparing my blog I noticed that the site was suddenly down, so I just linked to a couple cached pages and posted the blog. At some point this afternoon, and I’m sure it was a complete and total coincidence, The Maciver Institute sent out a press release, officially launching their org.

Perhaps it was just an over site, but even though they listed board members, they didn’t mention an executive director or any paid staff. What kind of organization launches without any of those things or naming them if they do exist? That phantom ED and staff still doesn’t show up on their “About Us” page.

The invisible staff at Maciver also removed the restriction from their Twitter account. Apparently my blog post this morning must have ruffled a few feathers over there because 2 of their 5 Tweets so far are directed at it. My favorite is the most recent one which states:

“Accusing us of imposing a "rigid ideology" upon others after having said
nothing specific is the epitome of crying wolf. That's extreme.”

To borrow a famous quote, “I must've hit it real close to the mark to get her all riled up like this…”

Not that their comment needs any real response, but let’s just say that I have seen “the body of work” that many of the people that appear to be affiliated with this organization have produced and I feel pretty safe with my previously posted descriptions. I just hope that the media looks at The Maciver Institute for what it really is, and I also hope that they eventually help find the misplaced ED and staff.

Introducing the Scott Jensen Chain Gang

Bruce Murphy at Milwaukee Magazine has been the only person reporting on Scott Jensen’s attempt to start yet another right wing organization in Wisconsin. Apparently preparing for a second criminal trial is not fully occupying his time. According to Murphy’s most recent report, Jensen would be paid $120,000 to lead the organization and someone else would be brought on to head the research for $72k. Apparently they have tried to recruit both Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Wisconsin State Journal reporters for the research job. Maybe that is why neither paper has saw fit to even mention the org at all. This would be just the latest addition in a long line of extreme right wing groups trying to impose their rigid ideology onto the rest of Wisconsin. It is reportedly named the Maciver Institute.

In December the domain maciverinstitute.com was privately registered with no one willing to lay public claim to the new org. They also have set up a super duper secret Twitter account that you can’t follow without special permission. When I visited their actual website last night, it was still largely lacking substance. Right now I am having problems accessing it but here is a cached version. The site did give some important information however. It gave a glimpse of some of the people involved with this operation - a motley crew indeed. First you have Scott Jensen who still is awaiting his second criminal felony trial. Then you have Michael Dean, from the wild-eyed First Freedoms Foundation, listed as a contact person. Listed as treasurer for the org is Mark Block, the guy that got the stiffest penalty for political campaign violations ever handed down in the state. This new right wing org is also listed on a national directory and it lists Block as also being a contact for the organization.

Speaking of Mark Block, he posted an interesting entry on his Twitter account on January 30, 2009 at 3:18pm. I’m wondering if that Tweet inadvertently tells us a few more things about this new right wing outfit. It states the following:

“Klauser and Grebe will be calling meeting for Saturday, March 7th. Very important.”

Klauser is of course a long-time disciple of former Governor Tommy Thompson and Grebe is surely the right wing Bradley Foundation sugar daddy Michael Grebe. Michael Grebe and the Bradley Foundation are notoriously partisan and have funded some of the most extreme and narrow right wing outfits in the country. It looks like they may be adding yet another one to their twisted portfolio. With all of this chatter lately and with the constellation of right wing nuttery on March 7th, should we also expect a roll out this weekend?

I can’t help but notice that this new Jensen/Block/Dean/Grebe/Klauser thing appears to be coming just after the latest right wing organization (Wisconsin Institute for Leadership) lost its Executive Director and apparently its level of activity. Could this mean that WIL will be folded into the Jensen operation? How many of the other Wisconsin right wing organizations will be brought in? Whatever the exact arrangement, one thing is pretty clear: the Maciver Institute is bound to be a prison of rigid corporate interests and narrow right wing extremism. In that spirit and with its launch appearing imminent, I hereby dub it, the Scott Jensen Chain Gang!