Exclusive: After Subpoenas in Walker Criminal Probe, WI GOP Sought to Quietly Change Law

[Ellipsis]

Source: PR Watch

New documents indicate that just weeks after the first subpoenas were issued in Wisconsin's "John Doe" criminal campaign finance probe in October 2013, senate Republicans had begun working to change state law to legalize the activities under investigation.

Legislative Republicans surprised many in the state in March of 2014 when they tried to rush Senate Bill 654 through the legislature to explicitly carve-out an exception to the state's campaign finance statutes for so-called "issue ads," those thinly-veiled election messages that stop short of telling viewers to vote for or against a candidate.

/snip/

Two weeks after the secret subpoenas were issued, drafting records show that an aide to Sen. Lazich, Zach Bemis, contacted the Legislative Reference Bureau and requested a bill that would rewrite state law, reverse court of appeals precedent, and exempt "issue ads" from Wisconsin campaign finance statutes.

/snip/

Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce backed SB 654, and its Vice President of Government Relations, Scott Manley, testified in support of the bill. According to recently-unsealed court documents, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce affiliate received a subpoena in the John Doe and prosecutors believe WMC was deeply involved in the alleged criminal coordination scheme. WMC's Senior Vice President James Buchen regularly participated in conference calls with Walker and others about the 2011 and 2012 recall elections. WMC also received nearly $3.4 million from Wisconsin Club for Growth, and according to prosecutors, "became a means used by WiCFG for placement of advertisements during the recall campaign supporting Governor Scott Walker and criticizing his opponents."

Read more: http://www.prwatch.org/news/2014/07/12536/after-john-doe-subpoenas-wi-gop-sought-quietly-change-law

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I Remember Sen. Lazich and her "dramatic" speech as part of the chaos from Senate bill 206. State Senate Abortion Debate:

[Stargazer99]

1. typical Republican crap! Play by the rules, hell no....rules are only for democrats

[hue]

2. Wello! The Repukes WRITE the rules!! It's what ALEC & Co. is all about!! (Going on for 40 yrs. now)

[Dustlawyer]

3. Yes, where is the Republican outrage, or at least some denouncing his illegal behavior!

If they weren't so bat shit crazy at anything a Democrat does I wouldn't expect much, but crickets, sheesh!

[hue]

5. No outrage for any RW wrongdoings. They own the media. For example:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/07/12/1313425/-Wisconsin-media-covers-up-Walker-giving-taxpayer-handouts-to-outsourcers#

[freshwest]

28. Plus a million. No, make that $30 million:

Boehner just funneled $30 MILLION to unseat Democrats in 2014 in one week:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/110224067

[Dopers_Greed]

8. He gets a pass

Because he busted unions.

[Fred Sanders]

9. The media is batshit crazy also for the avoiding of reporting this. Democrats need a little outrage

now and then, judicious hair on fire,.....but who will report it?

[hue]

4. Yes, this is & has been what's happening in WI for the last 8 yrs & more...

The evil ether that surrounds Wisconsin...

[Fred Sanders]

6. Why the media cone of silence for Walker and Christie? How much more evidence do sleepy

American voters need to be convinced that the messenger is corrupt also?

How many more factual insults can they absorb before the 60% of them rouse themselves from their perpetual slumber long enough to trudge to a polling booth and end this rejection of fact driven policy, this cheerleading of faith based policy, this monopoly of politics?

Climate change is a fiction and if it is true, we should do nothing? Really? Really? You hear that, corporate media, do you corporations have that built into your profit projections?

[unionthug777]

7. this doesn't surprise me

bunch of criminals !!!

[Half-Century Man]

10. Legally speaking; after a crime,

those who may not have been party to the crime, but work to conceal said crime, do become accessories to the crime? Being as guilt of the crime as the original perpetrators of the crime?
Did I get that right?

If so, how much of the rethuglacan party of Wisconsin rendered itself ineligible for office?

[Ellipsis]

11. Interesting point.

Very... interesting point.

[Half-Century Man]

14. Ron Johnson recently declared he wouldn't seek re-election

Just after it came out he might be an accessory after the fact to a sexual assault perpetrated by Ex- Wisconsin Assembly Majority Leader Bill Kramer over two years ago on a political aide, a woman only named as " D.R.", after a political mixer at a Muskego bar on April 8, 2011.

Evidently Johnson was a witness to the parties in the parking lot, and may have been complicit to the woman's decision to not report Kramer if he promised to never do an assault again. He made it two years, before assault two different women on one trip to DC.

[Ellipsis]

15. I missed that one... wow!

I'll be glad when that guy is gone.

[snacker]

16. Johnson is running again in 2016

according to this article:

http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/sen-ron-johnson-says-hell-seek-reelection-in-2016-56940ru-197017231.html

[Ellipsis]

19. that's from march 2013

[snacker]

21. Oops! nt

[Ellipsis]

22. I don't see anything on line that he's not running though there is this from April.

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/04/ron-johnson-ex-aide-alleged-assault-105404.html

[Half-Century Man]

26. I have been searching through my mishmash of notes looking for the reference.

It was from around Apl-May of 2014.
Until I find it again, I retract my earlier statement about his not running.

I appear to have gotten caught up in the moment.

[Half-Century Man]

20. jsonlie links time out for me

If he has changed his mind from earlier, he has found a way to insulate himself, or was ordered to run anyway by his masters (GOP leadership/Kochs/Rove).

[samsingh]

12. that's a repug act

[AllyCat]

13. Of course they did. Lie, cheat, steal.

It's all they know.

[blm]

17. This is exactly what Bush did with NSA legislation - GOP congress

wrote the legislation to institutionalize most everything Bush had been doing illegally since 2001.

[Uncle Joe]

30. Precisely, blm. n/t

[olddad56]

18. we get the government we deserve

[Hissyspit]

23. Incredible.

[Ellipsis]

24. This doesn't surprise me at all. Very Roveian isn't it?

Rove has some people involved directly with this state.

Mordor has entered the Shire.

[Ellipsis]

25. ‘Brazen’ - Raw Story - WI GOP tried to retroactively legalize campaign abuses...

Love it.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/07/15/brazen-wi-gop-tried-to-retroactively-legalize-campaign-abuses-after-scott-walker-scandal/

[Ellipsis]

27. "le bump"

[Uncle Joe]

29. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Ellipsis.

[rocktivity]

31. Get thee to the Scott Walker Crime Digest!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024537137


rocktivity

[sendero]

32. ex post factor..

.... wouldn't make any difference.