In 1873, during the University of Wisconsin’s Law School commencement address and shortly before he became a Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice, Edward G. Ryan stated that:
“[There] is looming up a new and dark power... the enterprises of the country are aggregating vast corporate combinations of unexampled capital, boldly marching, not for economical conquests only, but for political power.... The question will arise and arise in your day, though perhaps not fully in mine, which shall rule --wealth or man [sic]; which shall lead --money or intellect; who shall fill public stations --educated and patriotic freemen, or the feudal serfs of corporate capital....”
While it is likely that Justice Ryan was speaking of the upcoming battles with the railroad industry in the late 19th century, his statement showed a prescience toward the events of 2011 and beyond—namely Scott Walker and his Republican cabal. Documents leaked to The Guardian show exactly how Gov. Walker sold the citizens of Wisconsin down the river and into serfdom to benefit corporate America.
In an email from Kate Doner to Gov. Scott Walker, she names three donors for Walker to pursue for the recall election—not for his campaign coffers, but for the benefit of the Wisconsin Club for Growth. The most disturbing of the men she has asked him to pursue is Harold Simmons, owner of NL Industries. The email details just how heinous this man and his corporation are.
A spread in Dallas Magazine described NL Industries as having blatant disregard for its dumping of toxic waste, even though much of this dumping came before Simmons owned the company and many of the sites (most specifically Ferdinand, OH) took years for NL to even begin cleanup.
Still, they claim Simmons has dumped on sites on the EPAa€™s National Priorities List, most notoriously through political maneuvering in the Texas Legislature. In a 2006 interview Simmons stated a€reWe first had to change the law (in Austin) to where a private company can own a license [to handle radioactive waste], and we did that. Then we got another law passed that said they can only issue one license. Of course, we were the only ones that applied.a€0
Most recently (July 2009), he paid out $178.1 million to a plaintiff (minority shareholders in an NL subsidiary) who a€reclaimed that NL had improperly stripped the subsidiary of its assets and reduced the value of their shares tenfold.a€0
Simmons has been fined and continuously targeted by the Federal Election Commission and also attempted a high profile hostile takeover of Gehl Industries in West Bend.
Most politicians would run away screaming from a guy like Mr. Simmons. He pollutes the environment, screws over unions and stockholders, has been fined by the FEC, and has bought off the Texas legislature. But not Scott Walker: he embraced this man. Mr. Simmons must have liked Walker, as he donated $750,000 to the Wisconsin Club for Growth. He did not do this out of the kindness of his heart. This was pay for play—NL Industries, formerly known and National Lead Industries, got legislation passed in the Wisconsin legislature that would exempt lead manufacturers from any compensation claims for lead paint poisoning. Thankfully, the federal courts stepped in and blocked much of this law, leaving NL Industries on the hook for lawsuits filed against them.
That is not the only thing in the leaked John Doe documents that is damning. There are documents about the re-election of David Prosser to the Wisconsin Supreme Court—a court that is supposed to be nonpartisan. However, thanks to Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, it has become little more than a rubber stamp for the WMC agenda. Of course, Americans For Prosperity had no intention of allowing Justice Prosser to lose his race. In an email dated March 3, 2011, Matt Seaholm, Wisconsin Director of Americans For Prosperity, sent an email to Tim Phillips, the national director of AFP.
If they take it to a court with Joanne Kloppenberg, a liberal, on it, they will win. This could stop everything that Walker is trying to accomplish and they know it. Goes without saying, that would be a bad thing.
Again, the Wisconsin Supreme Court is supposed to be nonpartisan. By statute, Justice Prosser and his opponent could only spend $400,000 each on their campaigns to be elected. Right-wing groups, in collusion with Walker and his cohorts, spent more than $3.5 million on his behalf. Prosser won his election, and the Wisconsin Supreme Court was effectively purchased by the highest bidder.
Gov. Walker cannot claim that he did not collude with third-party groups, something that was illegal in Wisconsin until the Republican legislature changed the law after the John Doe investigation began. On May 4, 2011, Walker sent an email from his Blackberry to none other than Karl Rove.
Good talking with you this afternoon.
Had a good discussion with a bout 25 people tonight about our recall elections and our message. It will be tough but we can (and will) hold our majority in the state Senate.
After our meeting, I had a good chat with RJ*. Because of his financial position, he is not taking a cut of the funds being used for Club for Growth - Wisconsin.
“RJ” is not Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI). RJ is a political strategist in Wisconsin. What Walker did was illegal at the time. Of course the Republican-led legislature and corporate-controlled Wisconsin Supreme Court have worked together to first rule that Walker did not illegally coordinate with third-party groups when he clearly did, and then pass legislation to make what Walker did legal.
The proposal would ban candidates from coordinating with outside groups on express advocacy — calls to vote "for or against" a candidate — but would place no restrictions on coordination on issue advocacy.
Issue advocacy avoids telling voters to elect or defeat a candidate and instead focuses on a candidate's policies. The state Supreme Court
ruled in July that kind of coordination is legal, as a matter of free speech.
By allowing coordination between candidates and outside groups on “issue advocacy,” the Wisconsin GOP has just allowed unlimited spending that cannot be tracked into our elections. This is the same Republican Party that accused then Assemblywoman Sandy Pasch, a Democrat, of collusion with outside groups during a recall election in Wisconsin’s 8th Senate district in 2011—while they were doing exactly what they were accusing Pasch of doing.
Gov. Walker and his Republican cabal have lied, cheated, and stolen from the people of Wisconsin. They have screamed that voter ID is needed to secure the integrity of our elections while they, in backroom deals and with shady special interest groups, have done more to destroy the integrity of our elections than nonexistent voter fraud ever could. The Wisconsin GOP is little more than a subsidiary of corporate America. The amount of untraceable money they have allowed into Wisconsin elections is unprecedented, and this post only scratches the surface of the duplicity Wisconsin Republicans engaged in.
Scott Walker can say he did not break the law. However it is very clear, based upon the emails leaked to The Guardian, that he and other Republicans did break campaign laws as they existed in 2011. The Wisconsin Supreme Court, which was bought and paid for by outside groups, found that Walker did not break the law. But after reading these emails and other leaked documents, I have lost all faith in the justice system in Wisconsin. Justices Prosser and Gableman, who benefited from outside spending on their campaigns, from the very groups the John Doe investigation was looking into, should have recused themselves. They should have never been in a position to rule on Walker’s case.
In the Wisconsin State Capitol, the Supreme Court is directly above the governor’s office. Legend is that it was designed that way so that the governor would feel the weight of the courts upon his shoulders. Sadly, Walker will never feel that weight. That is how badly the disease of unlimited corporate cash has impacted Wisconsin.
Milwaukee County District Attorney, John Chisholm, is taking the case the State Supreme Court ruled in Walker's favor to the U.S. Supreme Court. When asked about this at a recent event Governor Walker said what amounted to, “Nice DA’s office you got there, be a shame if anything happened to it,” when he stated:
"I would think most people in the state would think after the U.S. Supreme Court rules on this that there’s certainly not a lack of work to be done in Milwaukee County on issues related to crime and on other issues. We hear, not only in that county, but in other counties, about the need for additional district attorneys and additional resources. I think a lot of people wonder, if they continue to spend time after the U.S. Supreme Court were to rule on this, if that’s really necessary, if they have time to spend on this even after the courts have shut it down."
In Wisconsin, county DA offices are funded by the state and the state determines how many assistant District Attorneys are needed. There has been a chronic shortage in every county in Wisconsin of Assistant District Attorneys for several years, in 2007, there was a shortage of 117 Assistant DAs — today that shortage is 130 Assistant DAs. Walker just threatened every DA in the state by saying that additional attorneys would not be added if the John Doe investigation was restarted — I wonder how much money they would have to donate to Club for Growth to get the needed legislation passed to get the manpower they desperately need.
We were warned about this in 1873, when Gov. Robert M. Lafollette Sr. heeded Justice Ryan’s warning and changed Wisconsin politics for the better at the turn of the 20th century. Scott Walker and the Republican-led legislature have undone a century’s worth of clean elections in Wisconsin, and have unraveled Fighting Bob’s legacy. Wealth rules the day now, not intellect. And our public offices are not filled by educated and patriotic freemen, but by the feudal serfs of corporate capital.
When Walker was elected, he changed the signs coming into the state to read “Open for Business.” If he were honest, he would have changed the signs to read “For sale to the highest bidder.”