Posts
In one leaked email, Walker casually mentions that he got John Menard, CEO of the home improvement chain Menard’s, to contribute $1 million directly from his corporation to the Wisconsin dark money group. A $10,000 check to the group from a wealthy financier had the words “Because Scott Walker asked” written on the memo line.
The Guardian article also details how Walker went around the country to court right-wing mega-donors. Just two months before his recall election, Walker went on a fundraising tour down Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, stopping over the course of a few hours at a hedge fund, a corporate law firm, and Morgan Stanley. He even had a 45-minute meeting with Donald Trump at the real estate mogul’s headquarters. Trump later cut a check to the outside group for $15,000.
Casino magnate Sheldon Adelson gave $200,000, and hedge-fund billionaire Paul Singer gave $250,000.
“Stress the donations to WiCFG [Wisconsin Club for Growth] are not disclosed and can accept Corporate donations without limits,” stated an emailed list of talking points to Walker from his top fundraiser.
The documents show that special prosecutor Francis Schmitz had found that “a review of email reflects that RJ Johnson … was involved in the media buys on behalf of Wisconsin Club for Growth and [Walker campaign committee] Friends of Scott Walker.”
Walker was even briefed about controversies surrounding some of the donors in the event that their names ever became public. One of the controversial donors mentioned Harold Simmons, owner of NL Industries, a company that produced lead paint. Walker was briefed about how Simmons’ company had avoided a $52 million lawsuit by the City of Milwaukee seeking damages for children who had suffered from lead poisoning.
In three payments throughout the recall election campaigns, Simmons contributed $750,000 to the group. The public had previously not known about his contributions. This revelation was particularly striking because after the elections, Republicans in the state legislature approved an amendment that gave former lead paint manufacturers retroactive immunity from lawsuits, a measure NL Industries officials had lobbied for aggressively. Watchdogs are now alleging that undisclosed political money allowed a potential pay-to-play scheme to fly under the public radar.
Overall, millions of dollars flooded into the Wisconsin Club for Growth from billionaires and corporations during 2011 and 2012 to support Walker and the six Republican state senators who were also facing recall elections.
The campaign’s coordinated effort with the outside group was a success. After Walker won his recall election, he sent an email to an aide asking: “Did I send out thank you notes to all our c(4) donors?”
“The campaign and the outside groups were almost indistinguishable. It appeared to be a coordinated campaign from start to finish,” says Brendan Fischer, associate counsel for the Campaign Legal Center and a watchdog who has closely tracked Walker over the years. “This is a snapshot into how dark money actually works. The public had no idea that any of this was going on. This demonstrates that dark money is really only dark for the public. The politicians know where it’s coming from.”
Now the Supreme Court may be forced to reckon with the outcome of its 2010 Citizens United v. FEC ruling to deregulate independent political spending. That ruling paved the way for unlimited contributions to outside groups based on the rationale that, as Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority, unlimited spending would not lead to corruption or the appearance of corruption because the outside spenders were acting independently from candidates.
No comments:
Post a Comment