Mark Green Case Explodes

As I had previously reported a few weeks ago, Wisconsin Republican Gubernatorial candidate Mark Green had been orded by the Wisconsin State Elections Board to divest some $480,000 because of an ex post facto rule change. At the time, the action stunk of a partisan ploy. Now the news coming out of Wisconsin is that the ploy was not only partisan but appears to have been orchestrated by Democratic operatives and Governor Doyle's campaign staff actively lobbied Democratic Members of the Elections Board for a ruling that would put Green in a jam.

On January 25, 2005, Mark Green, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, transferred funds from his federal campaign to his campaign fund for Governor, in a move that had been allowed for nearly 30 years and was in 2002 by Democrat Tom Barrett. The very next day, the Democratically controlled State Board of Elections voted to outlaw the practice, including Green's transfer, indeed Green's transfer was the only such transfer affected. The state legislature had an opportunity to overturn the regulation, but failed to do so before the legislature adjourned in July 2006.

After the failure of the legislature to permanently revoke the initial SEB ruling, on August 30, the State Elections Board ordered Green to divest his PAC funds that he transferred from his federal campaign to his state campaign that were over the aggregate limit of PAC funds for gubernatorial candidates, some $480,000 dollars. Green then vowed to defy the order. Yesterday Green went to court in Dane County, Wisconsin to have the order overturned.

What is most shocking is the role and activities of the Doyle campaign. According emails (available here), As early as August 24 (nearly a full week before the ruling), Michael Maistelman, a lawyer for Doyle's campaign, contacted three Democratic members of the SEB, Kerry Dwyer, Carl Holborn and Robert Kasieta and began lobbying for a ruling that would punish Green (the title of the original email reads "Follow the law when it is good for me but not when it is not...."). On Monday August 28 , according to the emails, Kasieta met with Maistelman in his office to discuss the case and come up with some sort of plan of action. Later that day, in an email dated 8/28/06 at 3:53pm Maistelman thanks Kasieta for meeting with him that day and provides him with additional information regarding the case. Just nine minuts later, Maistelman sends material on the case to Dwyer and Holborn. The goal of the plan was to obtain SEC rulings saying:

• Bottom line-Green has a PAC limit like any other Gov candidate i.e. $485,000. When Green transferred his 1.3 Million dollars in January 2005, the PAC money that he transferred into his STate account should we {sic} counted towards that PAC limit...
• Bottom line-Non-Registered PAC's - a finding that he wrongfully accepted monies from PAC's not registered in WI. Nonetheless, the SEB will give him 7 days to get those non-registered PAC's registered in WI...

In an email dated 8/29/06 at 9:31am, Maistelman tells Dwyer and Holborn, "I have also been told that the Gov's Campaign and the Dem party and others will give you cover on this in the media."

Some more damning evidence of Doyle complicity comes in emails dated 8/29/06 at 9:33am, in which Maistelman says he has run the ideas past "Madison" and gotten the "green light" on the idea. Miastelman seeks a conference call the night before the vote to talk about plans with Dwyer, Holborn and Kasieta, but noted they should keep Sherwin Hughes off teh call in order to avoid violations of the open meeting laws. Hughes, by the way was directly appointed to the Board by Governor Jim Doyle. Maistelman also later amends the plans so that only two SEB board members would be on the conference call in order to not violate Open meeting laws. Maistelman also has the audacity to write:

"I am permitted as a member of the public to communciation with SEB members and to send to SEB members info and correspondence but I want to make sure whatever we do complies with the Open Meetings law."

While Maistelman is indeed a member of the public, he is not acting in this case as a citizen, but as a retained counsel and lobbyist. His actions and those of Dwyer, Holborn and Kasieta violate at the very least the spirit if not the letter of the law regarding Open Meetings. The fact that these ex parte communications are not divulged points more and more to a cover-up.

In teh meantime, it appears as though two separate investigations into Maistelman's activities are going to be opened, one by the state's Justice Department and one by the Waukesha District Attorney.

Here is a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial on the matter as well as a the Wisconsin Justice Deparment's response to the Green campaign motion for a temporary injunction. Brad Smith has comments here (and thanks to Brad for letting me know about these events).

It is highly disturbing that Wisconsin election officials seemed to think nothing of this. I served five years on the Federal Election Commission, and cannot imagine not recusing myself, and making public the communications, if lawyers for an interested party had ever lobbied me in such a fashion on an enforcement matter.

Update: Green is also facing questions about contributions from individual donors as well.

According to figures prepared by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign at the request of The Associated Press, 30 donors have exceeded the $10,000 maximum they are allowed to give under state law.

Not sure who the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign is, but what I don't understand is why the AP can't do the research themselves, since the contribution information is publicly available.