How could I have forgotten to mention in my note last night that someone has already admitted they're behind the second poll targeting Milwaukee Public Schools Board President Peter Blewett, and the trail leads right back to Advocates for Student Achievement, the pro-voucher group that commissioned the first anti-Blewett poll. And once again, the scoop didn't come from the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel -- where exactly does the MJS spend its reporting budget? -- but from the steadfast Shepherd Express, and from Lisa Kaiser, the one-woman investigative team covering the MPS Board race.
It makes you wonder if the Journal-Sentinel and the Shepherd Express cover education issues in the same city.
Oh, and I remembered the one big thing that had slipped my mind last night. It seems that when Advocates for Student Achievement behaves like a political action committee -- you know, raising money for candidates, giving money to candidates, recommending candidates, organizing support for candidates -- but doesn't file PAC financial disclosure statements, it may be breaking Wisconsin state law.
On top of that, it appears that when candidates get help from political action committees (including ones that may be avoiding laws that govern political action committees), they're supposed to report that help on their campaign finance reports. Who knew? Laws are tricky things, mainly designed to trip up forthright citizens, right? So a good-government group called Citizen Action has filed a complaint with the WI Government Accountability Board -- again, no notice of this has been found in the Journal-Sentinel yet -- laying out all the evidence, citing all the applicable state laws and asking all the pointy questions.
How's a pro-voucher group with unnamed financiers, a hidden political agenda and a stable of trained stealth candidates supposed to get an even break in a city like Milwaukee, if the Shepherd Express, Citizen Action and the Government Accountability Board keep poking around in its dark corners? Here's one tip to the folks at ASA: Don't take any calls from the Shep Express, Citizen Action or the GAB. Doing so will only hurt your cause.
And another tip, free of charge: Get legal counsel. Matters like these tend to start racking up court costs and fines.
But let's get the poll out of the way first.
Lisa Kaiser of the Shepherd Express broke the story that the latest anti-Blewett poll came from the Redonna Rodgers campaign, but that the poll questioners used a variety of names to cover the real source.
The survey-taker asked three questions: How would you rate Milwaukee Public Schools; do you hold current school board members responsible for the extremely low graduation rates; and who do you support in April’s election, MPS Board President Peter Blewett or his challenger, ReDonna Rodgers?
Milwaukee resident Patricia Stevenson said the questions were misleading and directed at Blewett. "You can’t blame a school board for low graduation rates," Stevenson said. "There are a lot of different factors."
Even stranger, the pollster claimed to be from "Dell Research Group." When one person asked who paid for the poll, he got the response "I don’t know." Another poll-taker claimed that Blewett paid for it himself, which is false.
State law requires that a pollster must disclose the entity that paid for the poll. Keith Bailey, an organizer with the ReDonna Rodgers campaign, said that the campaign financed the poll. "We paid for the poll," Bailey said. "We’re primarily identifying voters. That’s all that we have to say."
Bailey didn’t explain why the poll-takers didn’t admit that Rodgers’ campaign paid for the poll. "I’ve got my hands full here," he said. This isn’t the first time that Blewett’s been targeted on the phones.
Blewett’s opponent, ReDonna Rodgers, has the backing of the Advocates for Student Achievement (ASA), a pro-voucher, antiunion group that admitted to sponsoring an anti-Blewett push poll earlier this year. But John Parr, who serves on the executive committee of ASA, said his organization did not commission the most recent poll.
Kaiser talked to Blewett about being ASA's primary target, and about why, and about the pro-voucher gang that has organized itself against him in this year's election. She wrote, "Blewett added that he’s been targeted by the business community—Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC), in particular—because he has been fighting for more corporate income tax transparency so that state legislators can have an accurate picture of state revenues when crafting the budget."
That's a familiar name, the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce. It was an early promoter of ASA on its website and I figure its leadership may be tied into the financing of ASA too. I'm waiting to see when the Greater Milwaukee Association of Realtors is going to pop up again, but GMAR may have bigger fish to fry, like a bottomed-out real estate market.
And speaking of bigger fish to fry, there's the Citizen Action complaint to the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board that was filed late last week. As usual, the Shep Express posted the scoop:
A controversial "reform" group involved in the Milwaukee Public Schools campaigns—Advocates for Student Achievement (ASA)—is the target of a complaint by Citizen Action of Wisconsin. The complaint, filed with the state Government Accountability Board this week, alleges that ASA and three candidates for the MPS board have not properly disclosed all of their activities.
According to the complaint, ASA is "illegally providing contributions to three Milwaukee School Board Campaigns": Friends to Elect ReDonna Rodgers, Annie Woodward for Education, and Voeltner for School Board. Those contributions include candidate orientation sessions, issue papers for candidates, continuing candidate education, volunteer recruitment, fundraising, express advocacy via email and possible express advocacy through a "push poll."
Why does it matter what ASA does or doesn't do for its selected, trained and recommended candidates?
Because apparently state laws exist to govern that activity.
State law requires political action committees (PACs) and candidates to report all of their contributions that are of value. Robert Kraig of Citizen Action said that ASA's lack of disclosure runs counter to the "very important public purpose of campaign finance laws."
The complaint and a potential GAB investigation would give the campaigns and ASA the opportunity to explain their actions, Kraig said. "Our position is that there’s a pattern here that’s disturbing," Kraig said.
Just one more reason that ASA might do well to invest in legal counsel. A good lawyer might have anticipated these things.
And what is ASA's response?
A call to ASA has not been returned.
Good strategy!
ASA has registered as a PAC with the City of Milwaukee, but as of this writing no ASA campaign finance disclosure forms have been found at the Milwaukee Election Commission.
And what about the candidates themselves -- Redonna Rodgers and the other two -- have they reported the help they're getting from ASA?
The three candidates have filed required forms, but they have not reported ASA contributions on them. The next campaign finance form deadline is March 30, one week before the April 7 election.
You know, I have to ask, because ASA or its defenders may argue that they really aren't a PAC, they don't have an agenda, they're not pro-voucher, they're not really helping these candidates, and that they're only giving information when they're asked for it. So, what's the Shep Express's evidence that ASA is actually doing these things that are violations of the law?
The Shepherd has reported on the ASA since its inception in 2007. The group laid out its blatantly political objective on its website: "In the April 2009 election, to offer Milwaukee voters the most highly qualified group of school board candidates in the city's history...to build a network of citizens who are invested in identifying, developing and electing strong school board candidates for future elections."
ASA supporters—including MPS board member Bruce Thompson—have been longtime advocates for vouchers and increased privatization.
Since ASA’s campaign finance forms have not turned up, it’s difficult to know who is funding the group and how it’s spending its money.
As reported in the Shepherd, an email sent on Feb. 19 from the "ASA Executive Committee" asked for donations to the three candidates or to the Milwaukee Fund for Public Education, a pro-voucher group that dumped $50,000 into voucher-supporting incumbents’ races just before the 2003 board elections. It also requested volunteers to work on the campaigns’ door-to-door and phone bank activities.
Okay, just checking. Sounds like the evidence shows they're doing exactly what they're accused of doing.
Except for one thing: Since I haven't seen that fundraising email that ASA reportedly sent out on February 19, I don't know how much to trust second-hand reporting about an email. Email notes are sometimes subtle or vague, and you can't get a clear sense of what someone's asking for sometimes. Does the Shep Express or someone else have a copy for me to read, to judge for myself whether ASA is engaging in raising money for candidates, giving money to candidates, recommending candidates, organizing support for candidates, things like that?
Dear friends of ASA,
Thanks in part to your support, three strong candidates are on their way to the general election for MPS board members in April. As you probably know by now, David Voeltner and Annie Woodward won their primaries decisively. And, of course, ReDonna Rodgers already was slated to run in the general election against MPS Board President Peter Blewett.
These three candidates are not "ASA candidates." They’re running on their own platforms and are receiving support from a variety of groups and individuals. However, they have taken advantage of the candidate orientation sessions we held last fall, the issue papers we commissioned to help candidates understand the key challenges facing MPS, and the candidate roundtables we host on Saturday mornings to provide continuing education and moral support. We think that shows an admirable level of commitment that bodes well for their effectiveness as school board members. Having gotten to know them well, we also believe they have the temperaments, skills and intelligence needed to make the entire board more effective.
At this point, they have virtually zero in their campaign accounts. While all three need financial support to win in the general election, ReDonna needs a substantially higher campaign budget to unseat Blewett, whose leadership of the board has been widely viewed as ineffective but who continues to enjoy strong support from the teachers’ union.
PLEASE consider sending checks right now -- up to $800 for an individual contributor (or $600 for a PAC) per candidate -- to the following campaigns:
Friends to elect ReDonna Rodgers
2863 N. 45th St.
Milwaukee, WI 53210
Annie Woodward for Education
1920 W. McKinley Ave.
Milwaukee, WI 53205
Voeltner for School Board
5311 W. Jerelyn Pl.
Milwaukee, WI 53219
Or send a single check with instructions on how to allocate it to:
Milwaukee Fund for Public Education
c/o Kathy Ronco
1919 N. 48th St.
Milwaukee, WI 53208
The candidates also would deeply appreciate any time you can volunteer to "do doors," make phone calls or take on other assignments. To volunteer your time, just respond to this e-mail.
ASA Executive Committee
Mike Dawson, President
Steve Adams
Anne Curley
Todd Ferris
Emily Koczela
John Parr
Wendell Willis
Wow. That's a heck of a lot of organization and coordination to raise money for candidates, to give money to candidates, to train candidates and to round up campaign support for them.
Sounds like ASA has good reason to hide from the Shep Express, Citizen Action and the Government Accountability Board. ASA might actually be breaking a lot of laws.