MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Lost in the hoopla over the effort to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker after he took on union rights is an ongoing secret investigation that has already ensnared a handful of the Republican governor’s former aides.
The investigation by Milwaukee County’s district attorney hasn’t resonated with voters, but with the June 5 recall less than three weeks away Democrats have started playing up questions about why Walker created a criminal defense fund for himself and whether the governor might face charges next.
Walker has branded the strategy a “cheap political stunt,” but Democrats are banking that the tactic will help them curry favor with the dwindling pool of undecided voters who could turn the election.
“The public deserves some answers as they try to decide who to vote for,” said Jeremy Levinson, an attorney for the state Democratic Party. “He just needs to explain what’s going on. It’s that simple.”
Republicans say Democrats are grasping for an edge as polls show Walker pulling ahead of Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. The most recent Marquette University Law School poll, released Wednesday, showed Walker leading by 6 percentage points after the race was essentially a dead heat a month ago.
“When you’re down or your message isn’t playing the way you want it to in a tight race, you’ve got to find something else,” said Brandon Scholz, a Madison lobbyist who has worked on a number of GOP congressional races across the country. “You’ve got to change that message and find something that sticks.”
The push to recall Walker began last year after he championed a contentious law stripping most public sector workers of nearly all their collective bargaining rights. Democrats called it an all-out attack on organized labor, but Barrett’s easy primary victory over an opponent backed by most of the state’s major unions signaled the momentum for the collective bargaining argument may have started to fade.
Barrett moved on to beating up Walker over his inability to create jobs, harping on a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report that found Wisconsin lost the most jobs of any state between March 2011 and March 2012.
Meanwhile, Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm has been quietly investigating Walker’s associates during the governor’s tenure as Milwaukee County executive. Chisholm, a Democrat, has set the probe up as a so-called John Doe proceeding, meaning his prosecutors can subpoena witnesses and compel them to testify while barring them from speaking publicly about the case. Five people have been charged so far on allegations ranging from embezzling money from a veterans trust fund to campaigning on county time.
Walker has insisted he’s not a target, saying he learned honesty as an Eagle Scout and his county office even alerted Chisholm to the embezzlement.
Nobody has given any indication when the investigation might end or who else it might ensnare. Walker’s state spokesman, Cullen Werwie, has testified in exchange for immunity that the governor disclosed he had created a legal defense fund using campaign contributions. Wisconsin law allows officeholders to create such funds only if they or their agents are being investigated or have been charged with campaign or election violations.
Walker has said he formed the fund to cover “expenses incurred in cooperating with the inquiry,” but he hasn’t elaborated on the probe.
Barrett, who has been jabbing the governor on the investigation for weeks, said Wednesday that Walker needs to clear the air because “when people realize what’s going on, they’re troubled by it.”
Still, the issue hasn’t seemed to have gripped voters. Marquette polls conducted since February have consistently shown most people either regard the investigation as politics as usual or don’t know enough about it to form an opinion about whether it’s truly serious.
“Either he’s being investigated or he expects to be charged,” said Sachin Chheda, who chairs the Milwaukee Democratic Party. “What kind of position would the state be in if we don’t know the facts, there’s an election and there’s an indictment after the election?”
Dick Frasser, a 74-year-old retired fire inspector from Watertown, said he plans to vote for the governor in the recall, despite the investigation.
“It’s typical politics,” Frasser said. “Ethically and morally, I suppose he does (need to explain his part in the probe). But they should do this after the election. Prior to it, they’re digging up all the dirt they can.”
The liberal attack group Greater Wisconsin Committee launched a television ad last week questioning how Walker didn’t know what his county employees were doing, and Barrett sent Walker a letter Tuesday demanding he disclose any advice state election officials may have given him that led to him forming his defense fund.
Walker campaign manager Ciara Matthews said in a statement that Barrett is resorting to political stunts to deflect voters’ attention from high unemployment in Milwaukee and his refusal to explain how he would manage the state budget. She didn’t address the investigation itself.
Asked Wednesday whether the governor was under investigation, Matthews responded by pointing to remarks Walker has made to the media since January saying people are twisting things, he’s not the target of the investigation and he agreed to meet with Chisholm to discuss the investigation.
Scholz, the former Republican operative, said Walker has nothing to gain by responding directly to Barrett. Democrats have run out of issues and are merely trying to put Walker’s camp on defense, he said.
“When you’re down or your message isn’t playing the way you want it to in a tight race, you’ve got to find something else,” Scholz said. “You’ve got to scratch for an issue. A John Doe is sexy. They’ll just throw it out there. If they can force the other side to lose a half-day, that’s what they’ll do.”
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Associated Press writer Scott Bauer in Madison contributed to this report.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has a pretty impressive fan base — company founders, a Las Vegas casino president, even an NBA team owner.
And they’ve come up big for the embattled governor as he faces recall this spring, helping him shatter Wisconsin’s political fundraising record. Campaign finance reports filed Monday show Walker raised a record $13.1 million between Jan. 18 and last week.
Among his chief benefactors were Diane M. Hendricks, founder of Beloit-based American Builders and Contractors Supply Co.; Sheldon Adelson, chief executive officer of the Las Vegas Sands casino; and Richard DeVos, owner of the Orlando Magic basketball team and co-founder of the Amway Corp., a direct-sales company.
Five others handed him $100,000 each.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has raised more than $13 million in three months for a recall election, a jaw-dropping feat that easily shattered the fundraising record he set last year.
Walker became the target of a recall election after he pushed through legislation last year eliminating most public workers’ union rights. His showdown with labor leaders and their Democratic allies made him a celebrity in Republican circles and enabled him to rake in campaign cash never before seen in Wisconsin.
He set a record for fundraising for a state office last year, when he pulled in $12.1 million. But that paled next to his fundraising so far this year. Campaign finance reports filed with state elections officials Monday show he collected $13.1 million between Jan. 18 and April 23.
A special state law allowing recall targets to raise unlimited amounts of money in their campaigns’ early days helped Walker, but the pace of his fundraising underscores how beloved the governor is in conservative circles nationwide.
He attended a Christmas party thrown by conservative power broker Grover Norquist and raised money with Hank Greenberg, founder and former CEO of American International Group, at his Manhattan office. He was in Oklahoma last month, mingling with the corporate elite and top Republicans at a fundraiser co-sponsored by Koch Industries, the oil company led by billionaire brothers who are top backers of conservative causes nationwide.
Walker faces political agitator Arthur Kohl-Riggs in a May 8 Republican primary. Five candidates are running in the Democratic contest. The survivors from both sides will face off in a June 5 general election. None of Walkers’ competitors have been able to keep up in the money race.
Kohl-Riggs reported raising just $2,045 dollars from Jan. 1 through April 23, giving him little chance against the governor. The two Democratic front-runners, former Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, didn’t come close to Walker’s totals: Falk’s report showed she raised about $977,000 between Jan. 1 and April 23. Barrett hadn’t filed a report by early Monday evening, but his campaign said he brought in $750,000.
Both Falk and Barrett’s campaigns issued statements accusing Walker of spending more time raising money than creating jobs in Wisconsin.
State law allows recall targets to collect unlimited amounts of contributions from the day a group registers against them until the state Government Accountability Board schedules the elections. The first recall committee registered with the board on Nov. 4. The board scheduled the elections on March 30, giving Walker’s donors months to funnel unlimited dollars to his campaign.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker quietly reinstated a program to give merit raises and bonuses to some state workers even as he preached cost-cutting and pushed through a law reducing most public workers’ pay and eliminating their union rights.
An analysis of data The Associated Press obtained through an open records request showed Wisconsin agencies have handed out more than $765,000 in bonuses and merit raises this year to nearly 220 employees.
The money was awarded under a program former Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle suspended but Walker reinstated last year. The money is meant to reward stellar performance, but it comes as the state faces a $143 million shortfall and after thousands of state workers took pay cuts through provisions in the collective bargaining law requiring them to contribute more to their pensions and health care.
Walker, who faces a June 5 recall election prompted by anger over the collective bargaining law, prides himself on fiscal restraint.
The Republican governor wasn’t available for comment Friday. His spokesman, Cullen Werwie, referred questions to Walker’s top aide, Department of Administration Secretary Mike Huebsch, who said the governor brought the program back because he felt it was important to mirror the private sector and provide rewards for outstanding work.
“It is a tool for a manager to go in and say this person truly set themselves apart,” Huebsch said.
Agency managers must find the money within their own budgets to cover the compensation, he added; the state budget doesn’t provide money specifically for merit compensation within the agencies.
Still, Huebsch said he warned agencies run by secretaries appointed by the governor to hold off on issuing bonuses or raises at least until the fiscal year ends June 30. Most did, but the Department of Workforce Development gave raises to two workers, one in January and one in April.
Huebsch said managers asked for special permission to make the moves because they were afraid the workers were about to leave for the private sector.
According to the AP analysis, 218 employees across nine agencies received raises or bonuses adding up to $765,195 between Jan. 1 and Tuesday.
The state Department of Justice, which couldn’t find enough money to fully fund services for sexual assault victims last year, was the biggest spender, giving out nearly $300,000 to 94 workers.
Assistant Attorney General Maria Lazar, who defended Walker’s collective bargaining law in an open meetings challenge and has handled the state’s defense of Republican redistricting legislation, got a $1,000 bonus and a $1.50-an-hour raise in March, bumping her salary by more than $3,000 to $104,730.
Deputy Attorney General Kevin St. John, who defended the collective bargaining law in front of the state Supreme Court, got a $2.51-an-hour raise in March that adds up to more than $5,000 per year and brings his pay to $134,307.
Thirty-seven DNA analysts, meanwhile, got raises worth $158,000.
The Justice Department handed out raises even after it warned budget cuts had forced it to reduce grants from its Sexual Assault Victim Services program by 42.5 percent. Walker later rescinded those cuts amid an outcry from service providers.
DOJ Executive Assistant Steve Means defended the awards, saying the money came from not filling positions and the agency can’t shift money from salaries to cover other expenses. Raises and bonuses are crucial to retaining star performers like Lazar and St. John, he added.
“If people understood why we’re doing what we’re doing, I don’t think they’d be concerned about it. It’s a good use of limited resources,” Means said. “If Kevin St. John were to announce today he wanted to go work in private practice, he’d have at least a half-dozen law firms on the phone in 10 minutes offering him twice as much as he makes here.”
The University of Wisconsin System, meanwhile, also gave out nearly $300,000 in raises and bonuses. Five employees, including a power plant superintendent at UW-Milwaukee and a UW Extension human resources manager, each received $5,520 bonuses, the largest ones anyone in state government received.
The bonuses and raises come as the system absorbs a $250 million cut in the 2011-13 state budget as well as another $46 million in additional cuts this year. Tuition has gone up by at least 5.5 percent across system campuses.
System spokesman David Giroux said the merit awards enable the universities to retain stellar performers and rewarding a handful of the system’s 40,000 workers isn’t the reason for the tuition increases.
“You’re talking about people who have taken on additional responsibility and expanded work scope and in some cases getting competitive offers from elsewhere,” Giroux said. “It’s hanging on to the people we need to get the job done.”
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A prosecutor leveled more charges Monday against a husband and wife accused of torturing and starving the man’s 15-year-old daughter and forcing her to live in their basement for years.
Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne charged the couple with felony reckless endangerment, child abuse and child neglect in February. He also filed felony sexual assault and child abuse charges against the girl’s stepbrother.
Moments before the man and wife were scheduled to enter pleas in court Monday afternoon, Ozanne added four more felonies against each of them, including causing mental harm to a child, failure to protect a child, false imprisonment and child neglect. He did not add any more counts against the stepbrother.
An amended information alleges the couple demonstrated substantial disregard for the girl’s mental well-being and failed to protect her from her stepbrother. The document also says the couple unlawfully confined the girl and neglected her, resulting in bodily harm. It doesn’t offer any details.
The man, woman and stepbrother all pleaded not guilty to every count they face.
The new charges seemed to catch the couple’s lawyers, William Hayes and Thomas McClure, by surprise. Ozanne handed the new information to each of them as court began and both had to spend several minutes privately reviewing the new counts with their clients.
Neither attorney returned messages Monday afternoon. The Associated Press isn’t naming any of the defendants to avoid identifying the girl.
The girl’s case came to light on Feb. 6, when a motorist spotted her walking the streets barefoot and dressed only in thin pajamas.
She told investigators later that her father, 40, and stepmother, 42, had forced her to stay in the basement since 2006. She said she had to scrounge for food and sometimes was forced to eat her feces and drink her own urine. If she was caught eating without permission, the couple would make her throw out the food or vomit it back up.
She also accused her 18-year-old stepbrother of trying unsuccessfully to have intercourse with her once and forcing her to perform oral sex on him more than 10 times.
She told investigators she decided to run away that day because her stepmother had threatened to throw her down the stairs.
Ozanne filed the first charges 10 days after the girl was found.
During a preliminary hearing last month, Ozanne presented a video of the girl telling a detective she tried to run away several times but her father always found her and brought her back. A doctor also testified that the girl weighed 68 pounds on the day she was discovered.
It’s unclear whether any information from that hearing prompted the new charges. Ozanne was vague with reporters after court, saying only that he and his assistants reviewed the case and thought they should file more charges.
Hayes, who is representing the father, and McClure, who is representing the stepmother, both filed motions Monday asking Judge Julie Genovese to throw out the cases against their clients because they didn’t receive timely preliminary hearings.
Hayes also asked Genovese to seal the girl’s medical records, saying she appears to suffer from mental health problems that are making her to lie to police. McClure, meanwhile, asked the judge to allow the stepmother to see a doctor of her choosing because jail staff hasn’t properly treated her kidney problems.
Genovese scheduled a hearing on the jail issue for next week. She plans to take up the rest of the requests in May.
MILWAUKEE (AP) — Sonja O’Brien heard from the hecklers as she collected signatures in a final push to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker.
One man yelled at her for forcing the state to spend millions on a recall election. A woman told her she was annoying. And Jack Bublitz, a 75-year-old retired banker, said Democrats would never collect enough names.
“You’re not going to do it! You’re not going to do it!” Bublitz yelled at her.
But O’Brien figured these naysayers were relatively civil compared to most days over the past two months in what has become a knock-down, drag-out brawl to oust Walker from office. Now the fight is about to move from the streets to the courtroom.
Democrats want to wind up the signature drive this weekend and get the names to state election officials by Tuesday’s deadline. GOP legal challenges are almost certain to follow.
With supporters and detractors almost equally vocal, the recent petition campaign has been a microcosm of a political landscape that remains toxic and highly divided a year after the Republican governor introduced his plan to strip almost all public workers of their collective bargaining rights.
“These people are being ridiculous,” Bublitz said as he hurried inside the casino. “We elected Walker. Let him serve out his term.”
O’Brien, a 57-year-old data technician, shrugged it off as she made the rounds Wednesday at the Potawatomi casino near downtown Milwaukee.
“We’re making history,” she said, armed with two homemade “Recall Walker” signs, a pair of clipboards, boots and a parka. “It feels good to empower the people.”
Walker argued the union crackdown was needed to balance the state’s $3.6 billion budget deficit, but Democrats saw it as a doomsday attack on unions, one of their crucial constituencies.
Thousands of demonstrators protested at the Capitol around the clock for three weeks. The Senate’s 14 minority Democrats fled the state in a futile attempt to block a vote on the plan, which Walker eventually signed into law last March.
Democrats have been itching for payback ever since. They ousted two Republican state senators in recall elections last summer, narrowing the GOP’s edge in that chamber to just one vote. Now they’ve set their sights on Walker, Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, and four more Republican state senators. They need 540,208 signatures against Walker and the same against Kleefisch to trigger separate recall elections.
The effort has intensified the already rigid battle lines. Republicans have decried the recalls as a frivolous power grab that the state can’t afford. Democrats maintain Wisconsin can’t take Walker for another three years.
A Wisconsin Public Radio/St. Norbert College poll released the same day as the recall signature drive began two months ago found 58 percent of respondents think Walker needs to go, which was up from 47 percent in April. “Recall Walker” signs line yards in Madison, the state’s capital. Wisconsin roads are full of vehicles with bumper stickers supporting Walker or calling for his ouster.
In the early days of the signature drive, Walker’s supporters vented their anger. In Madison, someone pulled up to a drive-up signature station, grabbed a paper with three signatures on it and ripped it up. Someone anonymously started a Facebook page imploring people to collect petitions and burn them.
The rancor forced state election officials to make an unprecedented call for calm. Then they poured gasoline on the fire last week by estimating that a statewide recall election would cost $9 million, sparking a new round of outrage from Republicans.
State GOP spokesman Ben Sparks said Walker did what he promised he would — make the tough decisions to fix the state’s finances.
“The Democrats are forcing this completely baseless and expensive recall on Wisconsin families,” Sparks said. “Basically, this entire recall effort has been a completely politically driven effort.”
Things didn’t get bare-knuckle brutal outside the Potawatomi casino Wednesday, but passions ran high on both sides.
As O’Brien and Karen Hartwell, an unemployed volunteer from Muskego, shivered on public property across the street, a parade of people said they’d already signed a petition. But Michele Corrao, 65, of Grafton, lit up when she saw O’Brien.
“Give me that baby,” she said, reaching for O’Brien’s clipboard. “I’m dying to sign.”
One man berated O’Brien for helping force an election that could cost millions. O’Brien countered the expense would be less than the costs of a new law forcing Wisconsin voters to show voter IDs at the polls.
“We need voter ID because you people are crooked,” the man shot back as he stomped off.
The volunteers weren’t fazed. In fact, they said, the detractors this day were unusually mild.
“When they’re in their cars, that’s when they call you blankity-blank-blank,” Hartwell said.
Democrats said in December they had collected 507,000 names but have refused to provide any more updates. They want to collect 720,000 signatures, nearly 180,000 more than they need, to ensure the recall withstands GOP court challenges. Sparks said the party has built a statewide network of volunteers to verify signatures, the first step toward a challenge.
Nevertheless, Democrats have scheduled parties this weekend to celebrate.
“Whether or not we reach our internal goal of 720,000 signatures … this has represented a great victory for democracy and the working people of Wisconsin in the face of a well-financed and totally dishonest corporate agenda run from afar,” state Democratic Party chairman Mike Tate said.
Hartwell seemed relieved the drive was almost over. She was clearly suffering from her own personal recall fatigue.
“I’ve done my part,” she said. “I’ve been out in the rain, in the bitter cold, and I’m done.”
FILE - Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker speaks to the Illinois Chamber of Commerce in this April 17, 2012 file photo taken in Springfield, Ill. Lost in the hoopla over the effort to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker after he took on union rights is an ongoing secret investigation that has already ensnared a handful of the Republican governor's former aides. Democrats have started playing up questions about why Walker created a criminal defense fund for himself and whether the governor might face charges next. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman, File)(Credit: AP) 
In this April 17, 2012, photo Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker speaks to the Illinois Chamber of Commerce in Springfield, Ill. An analysis of data by The Associated Press shows Walker quietly reinstated a program to give merit raises and bonuses to over 200 state workers even as he preached cost-cutting and pushed through a law reducing most public workers' pay and eliminating their union rights. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman)(Credit: AP) 