Remember Advocates for Student Achievement, the so-called “reform” group that recruited and raised money for candidates for the MPS board elections held in April 2009?
It took almost a year, but the district attorney’s office has charged Advocates for Student Achievement PAC and ASA-MKE Inc. with seven campaign-related violations in a civil complaint made public today.
The DA is charging ASA-PAC and ASA-MKE Inc. with failure to file timely campaign finance statements; three violations of a domestic corporation making a political contribution; and three violations of exceeding campaign contribution limits.
It’s expected that the groups will pay a $5,000 fine and move on.
Attorney Michael Maistelman, who is representing ASA, told me, “My clients have agreed to this settlement in order to put this matter behind them.”
What’s so fascinating about this settlement, in my humble opinion, is that the ASA groups are headed by folks who should know campaign finance laws. Joe Dannecker, the PAC’s treasurer, is also listed as the registered agent for ASA-MKE Inc. Dannecker is a former MPS board member. Bruce Thompson, currently serving on the MPS board, co-founded ASA to recruit candidates to the board. Thompson is still hosting the group’s “pre-election” website. in fact.
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What's more, ASA was so poorly run that its emails were easily made visible to the public, showing just how closely it was linked to the three candidates it supported--Annie Woodward, David Voeltner, and Redonna Rodgers. Woodward and Voeltner won their races, but Rodgers lost to then-MPS board president Peter Blewett.
Here are more links to ASA’s involvement in last year’s election:
Things start to look a little wonky before the election
Citizen Action of Wisconsin’s complaint, which got the DA interested in ASA
ASA’s emails go public, shedding light on the close links between the candidates and the organization
The Journal Sentinel goes easy on ASA
The DA issues its first subpoena for ASA’s bank records
I’ll have more about this story in the Daily Dose and this week’s Shepherd.
