Flowers For Socrates

Governor Scott Walker
(R-Wisconsin)

By Elaine Magliaro

Last month, I wrote a post about the “John Doe” criminal investigation into the alleged coordination between Friends of Scott Walker and “independent” groups during the tumultuous 2011-2012 recall elections.

Excerpt from my post:

Prosecutors have alleged that Scott Walker had secretly raised millions for the Wisconsin Club for Growth (WiCFG) from “out-of-state donors like Donald Trump and Paul Singer, and allegedly coordinated with WiCFG in order to evade Wisconsin’s donor disclosure laws.” Talking points that were prepared for the governor reportedly advised him to “stress that donations to WiCFG are not disclosed,” and to tell donors “that you can accept corporate contributions and it is not reported.”

I also wrote in my post about Mary Bottari of PR Watch who reported that the Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) had argued in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the “dark money schemes left voters completely in the dark about who was truly influencing elections in the state.” Bottari said that Wisconsinites were unaware “that a Florida-based mining company lobbying for a massive open pit mine in Wisconsin secretly gave $700,000 to WiCFG.” In addition, she said they did not know that “John Menard gave $1.5 million to the group, and in turn received at least $1.8 million in tax credits from Walker’s job development agency.” She added that the investigation into the schemes had “been halted by a passel of lawyers hired by the groups under investigation.”

Greg Stohr of Bloomberg News reported yesterday that the United States Supreme Court has “refused to end a state investigation into Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s 2012 recall campaign, rejecting an appeal from a conservative group that says its constitutional rights are being violated.”

According to Stohr, the future of the investigation is now “in the hands of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which is considering a separate bid to stop the probe.” Stohr added that the criminal investigation—which had been on hold during the court fight—“might complicate Walker’s potential campaign for the Republican presidential nomination.”

Continue reading →