Joke of a presidential candidate Scott Walker is the governor of Wisconsin. Wisconsin is bleeding tens of thousands of jobs as the result of Gov. Scott Walker’s “right to work” policies, which give corporations and private interests the right to find workers anywhere but in Wisconsin. Ever since Gov. Scott Walker rose to office in Wisconsin, it has been clear to everyone but the Republican Party in Wisconsin that he’s a real classic piece of corruption. Progressives have pursued Gov. Walker, trying to show how dubious “dark money” has flooded into his campaign, and subsequent recall campaign shenanigans. The Guardian has gotten its hands on a 1,500 document leak being called The John Doe Files. Amongst the proof of how much it costs to privatize and screw over a state is this perfect tidbit about when Gov. Walker, under pressure during his recall election, reached out his main fundraiser Kate Doner.
Her advice was bold and to the point. “Corporations,” she said. “Go heavy after them to give.” She continued: “Take Koch’s money. Get on a plane to Vegas and sit down with Sheldon Adelson. Ask for $1m now.”
Her advice must have hit a sweet spot, because money was soon pouring in from big corporations and mega-wealthy individuals from across the nation. A few months after the memo, Adelson, a Las Vegas casino magnate who Forbes estimates has a personal fortune of $26bn, was to wire a donation of $200,000 for the cause.
The money all went into third-party accounts and became what is called “dark money,” which is the term for the millions spent without the source needing to be publicly known. It’s the grand corruption made somewhat legal by the Citizen’s United decision. One of the more depressing (poetic?) reveals in the leaked documents is a check for $10,000 made out to a Scott Walker third-party group from some ridiculously named person that says “Because Scott Walker asked” on the check. Some of this evidence is a part of the petition that Wisconsin prosecutors have in front of the U.S. Supreme Court. The John Doe Files are some of the evidence dug up during these prosecutorial investigations that the Wisconsin court’s attempts to squash their investigations into Walker’s shadiness.
Some of the Guardian’s findings:
- Businessguy Carl Ichahn was approached for a cool $100,000 though it is not known if he donated to the evil that is Gov. Walker.
- Billionaire Stephen Cohen donated $1 million.
- Home Depot moneymaker Ken Langone donated $25,000.
- Hedge-fund manager and big Romney bankroller Paul Singer seems to been a target that Gov. Walker approached at a luxury resort off the coast of Georgia that netted him $250,000—gross.
And there is even the $15,000 Walker got from the future winner of the Republican whackjob olympics Donald Trump. But even more revelatory, though unsurprising, is that the prosectors investigating all of this dark money seem to have been able to show some connections between two of the Wisconsin State Supreme Court judges and this right-wing campaign finance network.
Take David Prosser. He was one of the four conservative judges who approved the July 2015 ruling that terminated the John Doe investigation, sacked Schmitz from his position as special prosecutor and ordered the destruction of all the documents that had been collected (later that order was softened a little to a demand that the prosecutors hand in all the documents to the court which would keep them secret under seal).
At precisely the same time as the six Republican senators were embroiled in their recall election, Prosser was in his own electoral fight for survival. He was up for re-election in April 2011 and facing a tough challenge from JoAnne Kloppenburg, then Wisconsin's assistant attorney general. The Prosser election and the recall election were intertwined in that Kloppenburg was attempting to turn her battle against Prosser into a referendum on Governor Walker'santi-union legislation, Act 10.
Brutal corruption. The Guardian’s coverage is extensive if you want to read it here.