As some of you may already know, the Scott Walker Administration is quite responsive to the desires of its donors up here in Wisconsin. But more of this crew's pay-to-play procedures were exposed this week.
The AP's Scott Bauer had an excellent article on Thursday revealing failed GOP Senate candidate, mega-GOP donor and Madison developer Terrence Wall called the Walker Administration with a business proposition.
Terrence Wall offered his cellphone number in the letter, urging that the “appropriate person” call him to discuss possible deals for properties including the state crime lab, records obtained by The Associated Press show. Wall also offered his support for the change in the bidding process, an idea that originated with Walker.
Wall sent the letter on June 10. The Republican-controlled Legislature agreed 11 days later to allow no-bid sales of state properties over the objection of Democrats, who argued that it opened the door for political cronies to be cut special deals.
This isn't T.Wall's first run-in with sketchiness. His attempt to run for the GOP nomination for Senate in 2010 was put down soon after One Wisconsin Now revealed first that Wall dodged $34,000 in property taxes by
claiming development land he bought in Middleton was being used for "agriculture." Later it was shown that
Wall paid zero state income taxes for 9 out of 10 years between 1999 and 2008,despite accumulating tens of millions in assets in that time.
So to believe Terrence Wall and Scott Walker would be involved in behind-the-scenes deal-making to put big money into their pockets at taxpayer expense isn't exactly a reach. Of course, it took the Walker-endorsing Milwaukee Journal Sentinel over 24 hours to pick up this AP story (meaning they wanted it buried as much as possible), but it's now been run in pretty much every outlet in the state.
You know another WisGOP who seems to like this pay-for-play plan to sell off state assets? State Rep. John Nygren.
But Rep. John Nygren, co-chairman of the Legislature’s budget committee, said lawmakers would seriously consider any proposal.
“If he stepped up and made an offer we couldn’t refuse, we’d have to take a look,” Nygren said of Wall’s proposal.
Campaign finance records maintained by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign show that Wall has donated $77,220 since 1993 to mostly Republican candidates, including $8,854 to Walker between 2005 and 2012.
Wall's donation history sure puts a new spin on the concept of "Offer you can't refuse," eh? Then again, these guys do kinda operate like the mob (with less class).
Below the orange squiggle, I'll tell you about another Walker crony who's used his access to get well over $1 million for his company, and tried to use his influence to save another corporation millions more.
In another article, the Wisconsin Center for Independent Journalism's Bill Lueders was out today telling us that the Walker Administration has ended its no-bid contract with Michael, Best and Friedrich after giving MBF nearly $1 millionto help the Administration defend Act 10 from lawsuits.
Michael Best was originally hired by Walker on Feb. 7, 2011, four days before he announced plans to impose sweeping changes to the collective bargaining rights of public employees. The original contract was for $50,000, and set a rate of reimbursement of up to $300 per hour.
The contract has since been amended several times to increase its duration and maximum payment amount. Prior to the recent amendment, the last revision was in March 2012, when the amount was raised to $850,000. The per hour fee has not changed.
Michael Best has long been state Republicans’ go-to law firm for outside representation. The firm has represented Republican lawmakers on legislative redistricting (including housing GOP staff at its Madison offices to try to get around open records laws while doing redistricting work) and has received $368,879 for legal services from Walker’s campaign, state records show.
Walker’s contract for representation over collective bargaining challenges was signed by Michael Best attorney Raymond Taffora, formerly chief legal counsel for Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson. Taffora worked for the state Department of Justice until January 2011, shortly before the first contract.
Ah yes, Ray Taffora, who first came to prominence nearly 2 years ago
after it was revealed he donated $4,000 to Attorney General JB Van Hollen's campaign, then left to go to MBF and land the Act 10 contract, allegedly because the DOJ allegedly lacked the manpower and expertise to fight for Act 10 on its own. It's a classic example of "you pay me, and I'll pay you back" that has been a hallmark of the way this administration has operated from day 1.
And oh yeah, let's also point out that before he left the DOJ Taffora talked with Milwaukee County D-A John Chisholm in November 2010 about the John Doe investigation into Scott Walker's doings in Milwaukee County.Sure makes you wonder what ol' Ray talked about with new client Scott Walker two months later, doesn't it?
Taffora was also prominent in another story that was back in the news this week, as he was also the guy who asked the Governor's office to have the state sue Madison-Kipp Corporation as a way to head off a federal lawsuitthat could have made Kipp liable for more damages as a result of contaminating the ground water of homes on the east side of Madison. I bring this up as a new development because Kipp just signed an agreement this week to pay $7.2 million to Madison homeownersdue to their polluting, and may have to pay more related to the cleanup of the site.
The backroom dealings and special payoffs at taxpayer expense brings to mind this great speech from the sorely missed George Carlin on how corporate interests like T.Wall Enterprises and Michael Best and Friedrich get their great insider deals.
"It's a big club, and we ain't in it." This type of naked corruption is the biggest thing that'll implode any chance Scott Walker has as a serious national candidate in the long-run. A real media would eat this bumbling, corrupt administration alive.