One Wisconsin Now

On Sunday the Wisconsin State Journal reported that Wisconsin’s largest lobbying organization, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) may be rethinking the tone of their infamous political ads. Who could ever forget the sleazy and misleading ads that they have run, most notably in their state Supreme Court efforts to install empty suit Michael Gableman while absolutely defaming then-Justice Louis Butler? Their ads at that time were found by FactCheck.org to contain many false claims and even the nonpartisan Wisconsin Judicial Campaign Integrity Committee said that WMC’s ads sought to deceive the public.

Perhaps the largely partisan staff that operate WMC were finally caught over-reaching with their despicable and dishonest attacks. Perhaps they didn’t think that they would eventually have to account for them. They obviously thought wrong, as WMC efforts have garnered less than flattering attention both in the state and nationwide. They have also found themselves on the receiving end of much criticism by many distinguished Wisconsinites, the latest being former UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley. Both before and after their contemptible attacks on Louis Butler, WMC also found itself losing members of its own board. Combine all of these developments with the work of WMCWatch.org, former Madison Mayor Paul Soglin, progressive bloggers, and many other fed up citizens and WMC has a big problem.

Last week One Wisconsin Now filed a complaint against Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the state’s big business lobby. The complaint was filed as a result of WMC’s lead lobbyist saying that they “actively lobbied for final passage of the UW budget” even though that activity was never reported to the Government Accountability Board as required under law. OWN’s effort to hold the powerful special interest organization accountable drew the same old laughable refrain of victimhood.

Deservedly WMC has been on the receiving end of much criticism for their increasing partisanship, undue influence, and for the toxic political atmosphere that they have created. People are increasingly beginning to hold WMC accountable and they apparently don’t like it. After OWN asked concerned citizen’s to contact WMC board members asking them to change course WMC staff howled about “harassment.” Obviously they don’t understand the concept of being held accountable to the public for their many questionable actions.

Now that WMC is again being held accountable for failing to follow the rules they once again are trying to play the role of a victim. WMC’s resident Jokeman Jim Pugh has repeated their laughable “harassment” claim rather than fully coming clean about the situation. Does WMC really expect us to believe that such a powerful special interest is a victim merely for being held accountable? If they really are serious then they are not likely to find much sympathy. They just might learn that the joke is actually on them.

One Wisconsin Now has filed a complaint with the state’s Government Accountability Board (GAB) against Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce and its seven-member special interest army for failure to report lobbying activities. In an August 20, 2008 memo authored by WMC’s chief lobbyist Jim Buchen claims “WMC actively lobbied for final passage of the UW budget,” yet no lobbying activity was reported by WMC to the GAB for the University of Wisconsin budget, as required under law.

This WMC memo was released shortly after out-going UW Chancellor John Wiley criticized them for the “toxic” political atmosphere that they have created in Wisconsin. In the memo, Buchen claims that WMC tried to influence legislation on the UW budget but it does not list the UW as a budget bill subject in which it lobbied in 2007-2008. In addition, GAB’s listing for lobbying activities for the UW budget does not include WMC as having registered any lobbying. When a lobbying entity files with the GAB they are also required by statute to list the general areas of legislative action that they are trying to influence. WMC’s own website does not indicate that it lobbies on higher education or funding the UW.

WMC may have undue influence with conservatives in the state legislature, but it still can’t ignore the same laws that every other lobbying group must follow. This situation should force WMC to finally come clean. Did they fail to follow the law, or was their chief lobbyist being dishonest when he suggested that the group tried to help the UW? WMC should be required to answer the question and be held accountable for their actions.

Just over a week ago, the Institute for One Wisconsin launched an email campaign asking concerned citizens to send a message to the board members of Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC). To date over 10,000 communications have been generated in that very short time. This is just another example of how people all across the state are sick of their increasingly partisan behavior. Outgoing UW-Madison Chancellor John Wiley accurately stated that WMC has been taken over by “political extremists” and that they have created a “toxic” political environment in Wisconsin. Obviously he is not alone in making that assessment as evidenced by large numbers of emails sent out by concerned Wisconsinites.

The “political extremists” that Wiley describes are apparently so concerned about the email campaign that one of them decided to send his own communication to the WMC board members. In it he pleads that they should not let the emails disrupt their fundraising drive for the ads that they plan to run in the coming months. In an email to WMC board members, WMC Vice President for Government Relations James Buchen said the following:

It appears that the email campaign is an effort to disrupt WMC's fundraising drive for the WMC Issues Mobilization Council, Inc. We hope that this will not be the case. We hope that Directors will continue to show the resolve and fortitude demonstrated at the June Board Retreat when the Board voted unanimously to launch our fall issue campaign.

Yesterday we told you about the early success of our email campaign to the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) board. Since then many more people have responded and thousands more emails have been sent flooding the inboxes of those that sit on the WMC Board. If you have not yet had the opportunity to speak your mind to the WMC Board of Directors, now is the time to take your stand. WMC has been rightfully on the receiving end of much criticism lately by some of the most respected people in our state.

Most recently the outgoing UW-Madison Chancellor John D. Wiley called out WMC for allowing itself to be “hijacked by highly partisan, ideologically driven staff.” The senior staff at WMC have ignored very similar statements in the recent past by other prominent Wisconsinites and all indications seem to show that they will also ignore Chancellor Wiley’s as well. WMC Vice President Jim Buchen responded to the comments claiming that he and the other staff “is not ideologically fixated.” A laughable comment considering just some of the following facts available at WMCWatch.org:

Many of the staff have worked in or come directly out of Republican Party politics.

Only Republicans receive a high rank on their phony “scorecard”.

They have spent millions of dollars to support Republican candidates.

The staff and leadership of Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) have proven that they are drunk with partisanship. The only hope is for both the rank and file and higher profile members to have a long overdue intervention. The long list of events over the last several months should finally inspire the legitimate business interests to take back their organization from the partisans that now control it. In a relatively short period of time WMC has lost board members and was on the receiving end of a well deserved rebuke from one of the leading businesses in the state, Epic Systems. Their successful effort to fill another seat on the state Supreme Court with an ethically challenged intellectual lightweight brought the scorn of a wide cross-section of independant observers. Now yet another Wisconsin leader is sounding the alarm over the direction and toxic influence of WMC.

Outgoing UW-Madison chancellor, John D. Wiley penned a forceful piece in Madison Magazine this week. In it he observes that “We’ve lost touch with our traditions and values. Our politics has become a poisonous swill, and the most influential voice for the business community has been taken hostage by partisan ideologues.” He then goes on to thoroughly debunk many of WMC’s favorite talking points around the issue of taxes and regulation. He also confirms what many observers and activists have been saying for some time.

It looks like we can all expect the races for the state Assembly to get really ugly this year, primarily because Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) plans on buying up as much ad time as possible. Some observers expect them to spend as much as $7 million to keep their iron fisted control of the state Assembly and its agenda. Wisconsin is still recovering from the dishonest and disgusting attacks that they helped launch earlier this year against Louis Butler. Their actions helped draw very negative national attention to Wisconsin. The vast majority of independent observers condemned their actions in that race and the nonpartisan Wisconsin Judicial Campaign Integrity Committee described the WMC ads as “deceiving the public”. Why would we expect anything else from them when their gravy train in the Assembly may be at stake?

Whenever WMC prepares to spend record amounts of money to influence elections, they often send out their resident joke man Jim Pugh. It is his job to serve up the real whoppers that can sometimes get him laughed out of a room. His most often joke is that WMC’s nonstop flow of deceptive ads are merely an effort to “educate the public.” The Milwaukee Journal has reported the contents of a July fund-raising solicitation from WMC that appears to very clearly state their real goal for the fall, retaining Republican control of the Assembly. The story describes this as their “top priority.” It also reports that they would like to raise some $1 million by Labor Day to use for political ads that would serve that underlying goal. Flooding the public airwaves with deceptive ads is merely a vehicle for WMC’s real goal of maintaining their control over the Assembly.

In a 4-3 decision the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled against the State of Wisconsin in the Department of Revenue v. Menasha Corporation case. Of all people, ethically challenged Justice Annette Ziegler wrote the majority opinion. Last year hundreds of Wisconsinites called for her to recuse herself from the case because it was a major priority for her benefactors at Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce. Who could forget that they spent some $2 million helping to get her elected? That was more than she spent on her own campaign and almost more than both campaigns combined. She refused to recuse herself and now has delivered a big victory to her benefactors.

It looks like WMC just won a $265 million return on a $2 million investment in just one year. Unfortunately this special interest gain is a big loss for Wisconsin. During this troubling economy and a time of tough budgets, Ziegler’s decision gives us $265 million less to invest in schools, public safety, or to fix our crumbling infrastructure.

Although she chose to step down from many cases last year, oddly this was one that she refused to leave. At the time she said that she would only consider recusing herself if one of the parties in the case requested it. The person that was supposed to represent Wisconsin in the case was Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, who also owes his current job to WMC’s deep pockets. Naturally Van Hollen didn’t cross them by asking for their latest installation to step aside. WMC really covered their bases on this one and it got what it paid for, meanwhile the rest of us just get the shaft.

Last week it was reported that a Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) staffer condescendingly referred to the Epic Systems founder and well-respected progressive business leader as “that computer lady.” As a result the Institute for One Wisconsin launched an education effort this week questioning WMC’s attitude toward women and their history of opposing legislation that would have been helpful to both women and their families.

The online campaign includes a WMC Watch News Alert available at WMCWatch.org and a letter to the editor writing tool. Individuals can write a letter to the editor of their local papers expressing their outrage at both the dismissive WMC comments and their legislative positions that have been bad for Wisconsin women.

Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) have shown themselves to be little more than a partisan organization in recent years. Rather than simply representing business interests in the state, they have become hugely partisan and practically the funding arm for right wing candidates. Understandably, this increasingly partisan direction has concerned numerous businesses that did not sign up for such controversy. Partisanship has become one of the obvious faces of WMC, but in a recent story in the Isthmus, we may have seen a sign of something more troubling.

The Isthmus profiled Epic Systems, a Madison based software company that has not only grown to be one of the most important companies in Dane County but a powerhouse in both the state and country. While describing the many ways that Epic Systems has been leading their entire industry, the story also takes a look at the leadership behind Epic Systems and their great successes. No look at the company would be complete without mentioning the founder and CEO, Judy Faulkner. The story goes on to give a professional and rather personal profile of the force behind this giant success story. As part of that discussion, the story points out that Judy Faulkner is very forward thinking and progressive when it comes to public policy and other important issues. This certainly does not fit with the increasingly right wing partisan WMC agenda.

On May 27, the Wisconsin Taxpayers Alliance did a new report showing Wisconsin dropped out of the ranks of the 10 highest-taxed states for the first time in more than 25 years. Indeed, going all the way back to 1963, when the state first adopted a sales tax, Wisconsin has ranked in the top 10 every year except 1980 and 1968.

As recently as 1999, when Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson was near the end of his long tenure, Wisconsin ranked as the third-highest taxed state. Today, Wisconsin has dropped to 11th-highest. That's quite a change, and it got extensive coverage in the Wisconsin State Journal . The story was picked up by other newspapers statewide.

But the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel sat on the report for nearly a week and then barely reported it: The disclosure came in the 23rd graph of a story telling us "Property taxes jump 3.8%, most in 3 years." At the very end of this story telling us taxes are going up, the paper devoted just four paragraphs to the news that the state dropped out of the top 10, and used a quote from Taxpayers Alliance President Todd Berry saying the ranking merely showed that some other states increased their taxes.

Once again John Torinus has written a column trying his best to minimize the serious violations of Justice Annette Ziegler. Like Ziegler, Torinus is willfully ignoring many factors in the unprecedented decision by the Wisconsin Supreme Court to discipline one of their own. Once again he fails to inform readers of his own conflict while at the same time putting hypocrisy on full display.

John Torinus again failed to tell his readers that he is hardly an objective viewer of the Ziegler scandal. He is a long-time board member for corporate lobby, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC). They shattered all kinds of records by spending unprecedented millions to get Ziegler elected. They not only spent more than Ziegler did on her own campaign but they spent more than both campaigns combined. To present his severely biased views of the Ziegler scandal without making full disclosure of this conflict is deliberately misleading.

Guess who is involved in yet another lawsuit against the State of Wisconsin? Why it is Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce of course! They have filed a lawsuit, along with other business interests, against the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. Apparently they want the DNR to suspend rulemaking on new pollution limits for power plants. They claim that they are not challenging the merit of the proposed rule. Instead their feathers are ruffled over what sounds like a very technical issue.

WMC claims that they were not given notice of the proposed rules before the start of the rulemaking process. Some might consider this to be using a legal “loophole” or a “technicality” just to undermine the new rule. Are they willing to rush off to court and sacrifice public health and the environment because of a “technicality”?

That’s funny, for some reason I thought they were against legal “technicalities” and “loopholes”. In any case, someone should call WMC and tell them to stand up for the environment and public health - not technicalities! Heck, if someone had the cash, they could even run a scary ad about it.

**Update Below**Senator John McCain is visiting the Milwaukee area today and plans to have what he is calling an “economic summit.” What is telling is who John McCain has decided to include in the discussion. Both panels at the event are stacked with nothing but CEO’s of large corporations. This includes one board member of Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce as well as their President. It would be wrong to think that these corporate leaders are the only ones qualified to speak about the broader economy. Some of the issues that are on the agenda are things such as education, healthcare, and housing. Does John McCain really believe that CEO’s and the corporate elite are the only ones qualified to contribute on those issues? How elitist of him!

If you are going to speak about healthcare issues, why not include working people that struggle to pay ever increasing medical costs? Instead McCain has a CEO. If you are going to talk about housing, why lock out people that have fallen pray to predatory lenders? Instead McCain has a Mortgage Company CEO. In many ways regular folks are the people that are on the front lines of all aspects in this economy. These are the kinds of people that sounded the alarm long ago about our troubling economy. Yet these are the very people that McCain has locked out in favor of the corporate elite.

UPDATE: We may have found a few more reasons for McCain’s elite-only summit today:

“As McCain touts his tax plan at the manufacturing plant in Milwaukee today to allow for the expensing of equipment, McCain will be helping out the very manufacturing industry that has helped him over the years — to the tune or $838,415 in campaign donations over his lifetime, according to a Public Campaign Action Fund analysis of campaign finance data from the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.”

Let me get this straight. McCain receives massive amounts of cash from manufacturing interests, shows up to an elite-only “economic summit” to listen to manufacturers who will then cash in handsomely if his proposed loopholes are enacted? No wonder he locked out the public today, he has more important constituencies to please.

Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) successfully bought a corporate majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court this week. They accomplished their goal in the most dishonest and deceptive of ways, churning out a nonstop flow of deceptive ads. They were successful at kicking out one of the most brilliant minds and first ever African American on the high court. They replaced him with a dishonorable man that is not fit to carry a law license much less render decisions on the most complex aspects of the law. The one good thing to come of this tragedy is that WMC has finally over-reached and people are not going to stand for it anymore.

During the heat of WMC’s disinformation campaign blogger Jim Bouman wrote a letter to TDS Metrocom CEO Dave Wittwer, who also served on the WMC Board. Jim expressed how although he had only good experiences with TDS that he planned on taking his business elsewhere because of Wittwer’s service on the WMC board. Jim listed several WMC activities that were at the heart of his complaint including their backing of Annette Ziegler and Michael Gableman. A short time later Wittwer wrote a letter back to Jim asking him to reconsider and announced that he was leaving the WMC board for “philosophical and personal reasons.”