Wisconsin Prosecutors Allege Scott Walker Illegally Coordinated Fundraising

Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin.
Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin.

Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin is very much immersed in his effort to win a second term, and has already been bandied about as a possible Republican presidential candidate in 2016. But if there is anything at all to allegations made by five local prosecutors who are investigating how Walker funded his effort to derail an attempt to recall him in 2012, Walker may have worries nearer and dearer than his political future. Yesterday, a federal judge who is weighing whether the investigation should continue unsealed over 200 pages of documents supporting claims that Walker and his aides illegally directed the fundraising efforts of outside groups opposing both Walker’s recall in 2o12 and efforts to recall six Republican state senators in 2011, and may have engaged in illegal coordination efforts as early as his initial run for governor.

As a legacy of the progressive era, Wisconsin has some of the strongest anti-corruption laws in the nation. One of those laws forbids coordination between campaigns and outside groups. In 2012, the Milwaukee County district attorney launched a secret criminal investigation of Walker’s 2012 recall election campaign, known in Wisconsin as a “John Doe investigation.” He has since been joined by four other district attorneys.

The special prosecutor for the investigation, former federal prosecutor Francis Schmitz, claims that Walker and two of his advisers, Richard “R. J.” Johnson and Deborah Jordahl, violated that law by exercising tight control over conservative groups’ spending during the 2012 recall elections. According to Schmitz, Johnson was the primary go-between in what is described as a “criminal scheme.” In addition to his work for Walker, the veteran Republican consultant also serves as an adviser to the Wisconsin Club for Growth. The prosecutors charge that Johnson used the Club for Growth as the “hub” for coordinating spending by the Walker campaign and various conservative groups.

The process leading up to yesterday’s massive document dump began this spring, when the Club for Growth sued to stop the investigation, claiming their First Amendment rights had been violated. On May 7, federal judge Rudolph Randa sided with the Club for Growth and issued a sweeping injunction to halt the probe. Although it was a preliminary injunction on paper, Randa ordered the investigators to return all property they had seized and destroy all other materials they had obtained during the investigation.

The ink had barely dried on that order when Schmitz and the prosecutors appealed to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago, which stayed Randa’s injunction pending the appeal. Yesterday, appeals judge Frank Easterbrook ordered the documents unsealed. You can peruse them here.

Among the highlights:

  • As early as March 2011–only two months after Walker took office–Schmitz claims there were serious discussions about coordinating the activities of various conservative groups with the Walker campaign. Actual coordination may have begun sooner than that; Schmitz claims that officials at the Club for Growth’s national headquarters raised concerns about illegal coordination between its Wisconsin chapter and the Walker campaign as early as 2009.
  • On one occasion, prosecutors say the Wisconsin Club for Growth transferred $2.5 million to Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the state’s equivalent of a chamber of commerce. An official with the trade group reportedly sat in on conference calls with Walker and others to plan strategy, and the group also ran ads supporting Walker.
  • Johnson reportedly formed a shell organization that funneled $4.6 million from the Wisconsin Club for Growth to three pro-Walker groups who helped coordinate absentee ballot drives during the 2011 state senate recall.
  • A legal filing details an email Walker sent to Karl Rove during the 2011 state senate recall lauded Johnson’s efforts, saying that he was responsible for leading “a team that is wildly successful in Wisconsin.”

The stakes couldn’t be higher in this case. Prosecutors allege a level of coordination so tight that for all intents and purposes, the groups supporting Walker were part of the Walker campaign. If that’s true, then numerous other laws were broken as well, since some of that money either exceeded Wisconsin’s contribution limits, weren’t properly disclosed or came from prohibited sources.

Predictably, both Walker and the Club for Growth contend the investigation is a partisan hatchet job intended to target conservatives. However, looking at the documents, there’s definitely the odor of smoke. From the looks of it, it also looks like there’s a fire behind that smoke–one that could potentially reduce Walker’s political career to an ash.

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Darrell Lucus.jpg Darrell Lucus is a radical-lefty Jesus-lover who has been blogging for change for a decade. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook.

Darrell is a 30-something graduate of the University of North Carolina who considers himself a journalist of the old school. An attempt to turn him into a member of the religious right in college only succeeded in turning him into the religious right's worst nightmare--a charismatic Christian who is an unapologetic liberal. His desire to stand up for those who have been scared into silence only increased when he survived an abusive three-year marriage. You may know him on Daily Kos as Christian Dem in NC. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook. Click here to buy Darrell a Mello Yello.