Crooked Trump/Bondi Pay Off Hits the Fan....

Just a short recap, before getting into the latest paid to play revelation. This isn't just gotcha politics, it's caughtcha politics. He's so crooked:

This latest revelation (below) adds to the “pay-to-play” rumors swirling around Trump’s foundation’s Sept. 2013 donation to a political committee backing Bondi’s reelection. The gift, which Bondi personally solicited, was granted just four days after she announced that she might join the New York state attorney general’s fraud probe into the now-defunct Trump University. She ultimately declined to pursue the investigation, though Florida residents had complained about being scammed by Trump’s real estate programs since 2011, two years before Bondi took office.

Q: So what were you hoping to get out of that donation?

Trump: I’ve just known Pam Bondi for years. I have a lot of respect for her. Never spoke to her about that at all. And just have a lot of respect for her as a person. And she has done an amazing job as attorney general of Florida. She is very popular.

Trump went on to say that he “never spoke to [Bondi]” about the donation. This appears to be contradicted by a statement from a Bondi aide named Marc Reichelderfer. The Associated Press reported in June that, according to Reichelderfer, Trump made the donation after receiving a personal phone call from Bondi.

Here are a few of Trump's tell-it-like-it-is admissions about donating campaign money:

-I’ve given to Hillary, I’ve given to everybody. Because that was my job. I got to give to them. Because when I want something I get it. When I call, they kiss my ass. It’s true. They kiss my ass.

-I will tell you that our system is broken. I gave to many people. Before this, before two months ago, I was a businessman. I give to everybody. When they call, I give. And you know what? When I need something from them, two years later, three years later, I call them. They are there for me. And that’s a broken system.

-These are not people that are doing it because they like the color of his hair, believe me. These are highly sophisticated killers. And when they give $5 million or $2 million or a $1 million to Jeb, they have him just like a puppet. They’ll do whatever they want. He is their puppet. Believe me.

 LATEST: Coincidence? Well, here's another coincidence....TPM:

Donald Trump not only donated $25,000 to the Florida attorney general weighing whether to investigate Trump University, but held a lavish fundraiser for her at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, according to a Huffington Post report … and he charged the Florida GOP just $4,855.65 for use of the resort. He has charged his own presidential campaign $140,000 to host events at Mar-a-Lago.

Whoa. Can you say "thank you" in any bigger way than that? Plus, you might have also noticed how Trump is making money from his own campaign spending...that's so presidential.

Total donations from the Trumps to Bondi’s re-election efforts include the $25,000 gift from his foundation, $500 checks to her campaign from both Ivanka and Donald Trump in the fall of 2013, and, in the spring of 2014, a total of $125,000 from Ivanka and Donald Trump to the Florida GOP, which was Bondi’s primary source of campaign funds.

Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O'Donnell both offered this coverage:

Walker offers state office building construction to squeeze donors just before election.

Pay-to-play government is becoming so common place now that it won't be long before no one is even going to notice...that is until Democrats gets back into office.

After several open records requests for the names of the interested developers for a couple of state office buildings, we now know who they are. But who cares, when Wisconsin is coming back: 

WKOW: A Madison developer who donated nearly $10,000 to Gov. Scott Walker's (R-Wisconsin) campaign, after the state put out a request for proposals (RFP) to purchase and redevelop the state's Hill Farms property, is now one of four finalists being considered for the project by the Wisconsin Department of Administration (DOA).

You’ll notice the “bidding” process started just before the elections, when campaign contributions were most needed. Even the losers ended up helping Walker win. Nice con:

The RFP process opened on October 13th, 2014 and on October 24th, Wall donated $9,975 to Friends of Scott Walker, maxing out his donations for the year.  

"What I think is very obvious and smacks of pay to play is the fact that the donation came, the donation of $10,000 to the Walker campaign, came 11 days after the RFP was announced and during prime campaign season," said Rep. Terese Berceau (D-Madison), who represents the Assembly district in which the Hill Farms property is located.

"There were two other companies that were part of the T. Wall bid, Potter/Lawson and I believe Miron Construction, also gave money during that same period," said Jenni Dye, research director for One Wisconsin Now … the construction and architectural firms tied to Wall's proposal, gave a total of $3,500 to Walker after the RFP period opened.

Walker Administrations Pay-to-Play Cronyism hits stride after Election...nothing to stop them now.

In what is turning out to be an endless stream of stories tying campaign contributions to government contracts, pay-to-play, we've got another one that stinks to high heaven. What has to happen to get the attention of "stand with Walker" supporters?

Scott Walker's business friendly elimination of competitive bidding for taxpayer funded projects is bearing fruit for some well connected individuals, and is plainly set up for backroom pay-to-play deals. Let's get serious here and admit the obvious?

Keep in mind, the story from WKOW's Greg Neumann starts by saying the DOA is forking over the names of all the parties, but that obscures the fact that despite a long list, it wouldn't matter. The administration had already picked a winner based on a suspiciously timely campaign contribution.

The Wisconsin Department of Administration (DOA) has agreed to release the names of all developers who have submitted proposals to purchase the state's Hill Farms property, just one day after 27 News reported the agency had turned down records requests for similar information.  The names will be released either late Monday or early Tuesday of next week.

Here's the video story:

The interest from the media is due, in part, to a $10,000 donation Madison developer Terrance Wall made to Gov. Scott Walker's (R-Wisconsin) campaign less than two weeks after DOA opened its Request for Proposals (RFP) on the property in October. In June 2013, The state legislature passed a measure eliminating competitive bids On October 13th, 2014.  27 News wanted to know who was on the tour, because nine days after the registration deadline for it, Terrance Wall made a donation of $9,975 to Gov. Walker's campaign.

In an amazing understatement, at least one Democrats had the time to comment:

"I think we're starting to see a very direct line of cronyism," said Rep. Terese Berceau (D-Madison).

Ya think? Where are the other Democrats we thought learned their lesson from the midterm drubbing? No major offensive? Nothing has changed. 

Republican Rep. Robin Vos' slip exposes pay to play game of political extortion at the Capitol.

There's no mistaking the jaw dropping admission the other day by Assembly Speaker Robin Vos on Upfront with Mike Gousha. Don't contribute to Democrats if you want to do business in the state. Illegal? Yes. But will Vos and his party escape justice if everyone in state is too intimidated to investigate? So far it looks like it. Here's Vos' threat:

WKOW's Greg Neumann picked on the story after that. Watch Vos' accomplice Rep. Jim Steineke confirm the alleged scheme by saying if you're pushing a business issue in this state, it must be as politically "non-controversial as it possibly can."

A controversy is blowing up over comments Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) made about the prospects of state funding for a new arena for the Milwaukee Bucks basketball team. Vos indicated the political leanings of the Bucks new owners may cost them in their quest to get state funding. "Having one of the Bucks new owners go and greet Barack Obama on the tarmac during the middle of the Mary Burke campaign probably wasn't the wisest decision," Vos told Gousha. "Having us give hundreds of millions of dollars to big time donors who give to Democrats, but also who have billions of dollars of their own, that's a hard sell.

Scot Ross, executive director of the liberal advocacy group One Wisconsin Now said, "I thought it was just a really blatant and unmistakable message that Speaker Vos was sending to people in Wisconsin and that's, 'you play by my rules or you don't get to play.' The statutes are very clear and they say that no public official can promise either action or inaction specifically based on a person's campaign donations," said Ross, who has asked both the Milwaukee County and Racine County District Attorneys to investigate the matter. The Milwaukee County DA has already declined.

What if the Racine County DA declines? With the Republicans extraordinary control over the state, not to mention the new rubber stamp AG Brad Schimel, is everyone too intimidated to enforce the law?

Even more insulting, Vos blamed liberals for just asking questions, and thinks political favoritism and extortion is just part of the process now. That didn't take long:

Speaker Vos issued a statement on Friday saying liberals are attempting to smear the process. 

Walker's clueless act gets world wide belly laugh!

I thought this had the right amount of skepticism.

Here's Ed Schultz with DPW's Mike Tate and fact buzzsaw Ruth Conniff from The Progressive Magazine cutting through the crap:

GOP Mistake? Blatantly gets Moneyed Lobbyists to go Door-to-Door asking for votes.

It took me about a day to digest this story. Was there ever a question about who owns, controls and makes our GOP corporate puppets dance to their tune?

If you thought campaign money bought influence and favorable Republicans legislation, imagine what these politicians would owe if lobbyists went door-to-door helping them get elected:

It's almost impossible to imagine this wildly public admission by our Republican legislators whose actually running our state government.

Be amazed:

jsonline: Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) has stepped up efforts to get lobbyists to personally give to candidates. Leggiepalooza adds to that effort by having lobbyists and others drop off campaign literature and urge people to vote for Republicans.

Some lobbyists have expressed reservations about being asked to directly give to legislators. Similarly, some told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel they were uncomfortable with being asked to help with door knocking because they feared they could have a harder time passing bills if they didn't participate.

Supreme Court ‘s “Money doesn't Corrupt” theory trashed again, as Congress Hides Pay to Play Junkets from the Public.

While the rabid right is distracted by lawsuits and the possible impeachment of our corrupt imperial president, their conservative elected representatives are increasing the power and influence by piling away, unreported, lavish junkets from their wealthy contributors to do their bidding. It's an old magicians trick.

Republicans couldn't make it any more obvious about the influence of money on our political elite! The following admission leaves little doubt. TPM:

House Secretly Kills Disclosure Of Junkets By Congress Members: The House Ethics Committee has quietly done away with the requirement that lawmakers disclose their all-expense-paid trips on annual financial forms, National Journal reported on Monday. The disclosures had been required since the 1970s. Lawmakers must still disclose any privately-paid trips to the House clerk's office, but the financial disclosure form is the "chief document" that journalists and watchdog groups use to review members' finances, according to the Journal.

"This is such an obvious effort to avoid accountability," Melanie Sloan, the executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a top watchdog group, told the Journal. "There's no legitimate reason. There's no good reason for it."

Republicans deny Deception, happy to usher in Pay-to-Play Government!

Folks, it can happen here. We've been sold down the river:

jsonline-Patrick Marley: State election officials cleared the way Wednesday for lobbyists to deliver campaign checks from their clients and political action committees at any time, including while lawmakers deliberate the state budget and other major legislation … the state Government Accountability Board unanimously ruled that a law approved in March eliminated that prohibition … to hand off big campaign checks from special interest groups as legislators decide whether to tighten or loosen regulations affecting them.

Nice clean transparent government? I know that in a few years after Walker has left office, under a Democratic governor, Republicans will say they never did agree with such a corrupting law or bizarre interpretation.

Public outrage over the obvious pay to play proposal forced the Republicans to promised to pull that part of their bill...supposedly. But they tricked us:

…after introducing the bill, senators said they were backing off from that position, moving up the date only … But in recent weeks, officials (the GAB) determined the law said something other than what legislators claimed they intended.

It’s the old Republican bait and switch, and they pulled in on their own constituents too. 

...in a letter this week to the accountability board, Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) and Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) urged the board to adopt the latest (pay-to-play) position of the Legislative Council.

Under the threat of being disbanded and replaced with a more partisan group overseeing elections, the GAB made the only decision they could:

WSJ: Mike McCabe, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, accused lawmakers of ... bullying the GAB into agreeing with their interpretation of the law, despite a drafting error made in crafting the measure … the GAB originally said a drafting error in the legislation banned lobbyists from ever passing along others’ contributions to candidates.

But that interpretation drew criticism from Republican leaders in the Legislature and others … Vos and Fitzgerald argued that the language of the measure allows lobbyists to make most campaign contributions at any time … “We believe that this is the only logical interpretation of the statute, and fear that other interpretations could lead to confusion, inadvertent non-compliance, and costly litigation against the state,” Vos and Fitzgerald wrote.

That interpretation is different than how lawmakers described the measure as it was passing the Legislature and being signed into law. At the time, they said it was widening the time window for lobbyists’ contributions but leaving other rules the same.

They lied, and have found a new way to deceptively pass laws with no political blowback from voters.  

Wisconsin sold to Business and Wealthy Contributors, who are now writing state Laws. People still allowed to vote in smaller numbers, but for how long?

Ruth Conniff, the editor of The Progressive, wrote this nice summation of Wisconsin's now pay to play political environment, a system Scott Walker brags could be the model for the rest of the country. From the Isthmus Daily Page:

You have to hand it to them -- at least they're consistent. If there's an issue that pits the interests of ordinary Wisconsinites against those of a wealthy elite, you can count on our leaders in the statehouse to defend the rich and corporations against kids, low-wage workers and the uninsured.

1. Take Assembly Bill 540, Rep. Joel Kleefisch's bold initiative to defend the interests of stingy millionaire dads. It just so happens that Michael Eisenga maxed out on campaign contributions to Kleefisch six times. He also gave $7,500 to Kleefisch's wife, Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, and $15,000 to Gov. Scott Walker. But this is more than one isolated story. It's actually the new model for how Republicans do business in our state.

2. Take the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation, which has been handing out money to companies that happen to be big Republican donors, on the theory that these incentives will induce the "job creators" to create some jobs. Instead, the agency lost a lot of the money, gave it to companies for jobs that existed before the program went into effect, and bought Badger tickets and iTunes gift cards for staff. The net effect? Wisconsin lags the region in job creation and had the highest number of unemployment claims in the nation in November. So what does the Legislature do? It releases millions to the WEDC to keep up the good work.

3. The drive to do away with the weekend is another example of our pay-to-play government at work. Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, the state's biggest business lobby and a major Republican contributor, is pushing for the law so that employers can "allow" their employees to work seven days a week. Sen. Glenn Grothman makes no bones about the fact that WMC came up with the idea.

4. The privatization of our public schools in Wisconsin follows the same pattern. The powerful school privatization lobby, which now employs three former Assembly speakers who walk the halls of the Capitol and twist arms, ranks with the WMC as a top donor to state Republicans and is pushing for profit-making education companies to get a piece of the state's public-school funds.

An Assembly committee last week took up a bill that would make it easier for independent, profit-making charter schools to proliferate, without oversight by local school boards and communities. These schools take money right off the top of state education funds, draining money from every public school in the state. Rocketship lobbied for the bill and appears to be its primary beneficiary. In an offhand remark during the debate on a companion measure in the Senate, Sen. Luther Olsen commented, "We're just doing this for Rocketship," according to one of his Democratic colleagues on the committee.

What's amazing about all this is how flagrant Republicans are about pushing legislation that narrowly benefits their own benefactors -- at great cost to the taxpayers, public school kids and regular citizens of the state. How long can we sustain this kleptocracy before there's nothing left?

Did you hear the one about United Sportsmen....can you believe this stuff?

Not only is the following $500,000 Republican payout to right wing activists an in-your-face giveaway to donors, but can you imagine what kind of deals are being made behind the scenes to even bigger players favored by our red state legislators. If they don't care about how this looks, with no blowback, skies the limit for the Walker Authority from here on in. 

This is just so wildly out there, with no plausible excuses given, I'm still on the amazed side:

jsonline: United Sportsmen of Wisconsin Foundation Inc., a group that claimed federal nonprofit status in winning a controversial $500,000 grant to promote hunting and fishing hasn't actually received that status yet ... showing it had misrepresented its tax status during the process of receiving a grant to promote hunting and fishing in the state. The DNR requested the letters from United Sportsmen, apparently following a Friday report by the Journal Sentinel that the group wasn't listed in federal and state registries of 501(c)(3) nonprofits.

United Sportsmen, a group with close ties to Republican politicians and other conservative organizations but a scant track record, applied for federal nonprofit designation on March 1 but has not yet received it. And the group has been denied a hardship request to speed up that process ... 

So could this group lie in it's application, a firing offense anywhere else, and still keep its job and credibility with our straight arrow Republicans?

Despite the misrepresentation, the DNR officially notified United Sportsmen in a letter Tuesday that it would be receiving the grant anyway, with $50,000 of it as an advance before receipts are filed. Rep. Al Ott (R-Forest Junction), chairman of the Assembly Natural Resources Committee, was displeased the group had not been forthright with lawmakers and potential donors. "They misled and I'm disappointed about that," Ott said. 

As is typical with all Republicans, no response is necessary.

DNR spokesman Bill Cosh has not commented on whether the DNR has concerns about any possible misrepresentation by United Sportsmen about having received the federal designation. 

But wouldn't donors be surprised when they find out about their lack of tax exempt status:

Without the federal recognition, the group won't be tax-exempt, and its donors won't be able to deduct their contributions to United Sportsmen on their tax returns.

According to the Democratic Party of Wisconsin:

Suder’s resignation comes as questions are swirling about his motivations in an award process that resulted in a $500,000 state grant made in perpetuity to a shadowy Tea Party organization with ties to the National Rifle Association … group calling itself United Sportsmen of Wisconsin, headed by Suder’s former chief of staff, Luke Hilgemann … During the 2011 senate recalls, United Sportsmen faced backlash for their involvement in a series of misleading “Absentee Ballot Application” mailers and in 2012 they endorsed Scott Walkerin the recall election, stating that, “The second amendment took on a new meaning in Wisconsin under Governor Scott Walker.” 

Walker's Pay-to-Play Government of the FUTUUUUURE!

Pay to play under Scott Walker will soon be the official way things get done in this state. With a wave of his hand and simple statement of denial, Walker will get away with this bit of corruption too. After all, if you need something done your way, at least your best contributor friends won’t let you down, right?

WKOW-Tony Galli: WHEDA officials delayed disbursement of $1 million to a company selected in a state contract process, until the company can verify it followed federal, conflict-of-interest rules. Capital Midwest Fund II will have to show it adheres to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rules to protect against "pay-to-play."

Fund manager Stephen Einhorn won the contract one month after Einhorn and his wife, Nancy, contributed a total of $25,000 to Governor Walker's campaign to stop his recall. Walker appoints WHEDA's executive director and eight of its twelve member board.

Here’s the rule:

SEC rules adopted in 2010 "prohibit an advisor from providing advisory services for compensation - either directly or through a pooled investment vehicle - for two years, if the adviser or certain of its executives or employees make a political contribution to an elected official who is in a position to influence the selection of the adviser."

And the “proof” Walker committed no wrong doing? He said so:

A spokesperson for Governor Walker told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel politics played no role in WHEDA's selection of Einhorn's company. 

That's good enough for me?

Republicans about to pay off Road Builders with little oversight, all at taxpayer expense.

Republicans don't want to track the cost of road projects that could cost taxpayer tens of thousands of dollars, and instead, want to be surprised at the end of the year. That would be when the money is gone. And gone will be the states cost analysis for the accurate, wing and a prayer.

By using private contractors and instead of public employees, the state feeds their contributors with money, at the expense of taxpayers. Rep. Mark Honadel wants it this way so much, he's willing to change the law to cover up the expense. They're not even trying to hide what they're doing. Would I make this stuff up? Even WISC 3 reporters appear amazed: