Politics can be so much fun. Take, for instance, the ongoing soap opera that is Wisconsin's legislative caucus scandal.
The caucuses were created back in the 1960s to assist lawmakers with research and communications. Back then, state senators and assembly people did not have personal staffs.
Last May, the Wisconsin State Journal unveiled an investigation depicting how the four caucuses'one for each party in both chambers'had grown into campaign machines. The newspaper alleged that caucus staff were regularly campaigning on state time and with taxpayer-funded resources, violating campaign finance and ethics regulations. By early June, the State Ethics Board was looking into the allegations surrounding campaigning on state time, the Elections Board was delving into possible campaign finance violations and the Dane County District Attorney's office was investigating possible criminal or civil violations. Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard's office was also looking into possible violations of Wisconsin's Open Records Law amidst allegations that the Assembly Republican Caucus had destroyed campaign-related materials created on state time, before records were turned over to the State Journal.
Blanchard, however, asked for Milwaukee District Attorney E. Michael McCann to be special prosecutor in the investigation related to the Senate Democratic Caucus after it was discovered that someone from the SDC helped Blanchard put together his nomination form in June 2000.
In late June, Rep. Marty Reynolds, D-Ladysmith, proposed a perfectly reasonable bill to eliminate the caucuses and an amendment to the budget to remove the nearly $4 million in funding the caucuses received every year. The amendment failed, the bill was tabled and assembly leaders promised eform"" of the caucuses.
Then, in early October, the Ethics and Elections boards reached a settlement with legislative leaders that called for the elimination of the caucuses by Jan. 1. The deal, however, was a half-baked reform'only eliminating 32 of the 62 caucus staff positions. It shifted three staffers to the chief clerk in each chamber and six staffers to the staffs of the four legislative leaders, creating what some have called ""shadow caucuses"" that could serve similar functions as the caucuses meant to be eliminated. The Assembly, though, has voted not to fill its 12 positions.
In accordance with the settlement, the Senate voted 30-3 Oct. 16 to eliminate the caucuses, followed by an 86-8 vote the following day in the Assembly to do the same.
Ah, but the tale is far from over.
As of last Friday, $124,709 of taxpayer funds had been spent on legal fees for staffers involved in the investigations. The Legislature cleared the funding, but Attorney General Jim Doyle's office says this is illegal. The Attorney General's Office is, however, also assisting in the investigation of the caucus staff. Meanwhile, the State Journal has reported that caucus staff, typically people with limited means, acquired the services of some of the highest paid lawyers around before the Legislature cleared reimbursement of fees. In other words, it is reasonable to assume that someone was hinting to staff before they should have known whether their bills would be compensated. According to one WSJ article, Wisconsin Common Cause executive director Jay Heck has called the reimbursements ""hush money.""
Last week, Doyle asked Gov. Scott McCallum for permission to sue the Legislature to keep taxpayers from paying for the reimbursements. McCallum requested additional information and questioned why Doyle made his request public. Doyle retorted that he wanted to try the case before a judge and that a simple yes or no would do. Coincidentally, a poll released over the weekend put Doyle at the head of a pack of possible Democratic challengers to McCallum for next year's gubernatorial election. Taxpayers should not be paying for staffers' legal fees (a point that McCallum has not disputed), but on the other hand it is rather ironic that an issue related to a campaign scandal may become a campaign issue.
It gets better. The State Journal and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel are now suing the Ethics and Elections boards under the Open Records Law because the boards refused to divulge records of negotiations from the settlement proceedings. It turns out the Ethics Board never actually investigated any allegations, preferring to go directly to negotiations. The Elections Board only investigated whether the Assembly Republican Caucus illegally coordinated campaigns with Project Vote Informed, deferring other investigations to the Ethics Board or the District Attorneys involved.
On Sunday, the State Journal released another investigative report, this time alleging that illegal campaigning is endemic among legislative staff throughout the Capitol.
It appears ""As The Caucuses Turn"" has already spawned a spinoff.
