The John Doe investigation is back in the news, which should bring with it a close examination of the way that the Wisconsin Club for Growth moved money around during the 2011 and 2012 recalls.
Prosecutors say it coordinated its efforts with Scott Walker’s campaign and from what I’ve seen, that’s very true. What remains to be seen is whether that was legal or not.
Six Wisconsin Supreme Court justices will decide that question—and related issues—next year. Four of those justices have benefited from the Wisconsin Club for Growth, so don’t expect the most impartial rulings.
You know who else benefited from the Wisconsin Club for Growth’s largesse? A dark-money group based in Kansas City, Mo., called American Democracy Alliance. The Wisconsin Club for Growth sent this entity $750,000 in 2013, according to the Club’s IRS filings for last year.
I can’t find much about this “group” and I haven’t been able to find its 2013 tax filings yet. As a 501(c)4 like Wisconsin Club for Growth, it doesn’t have to list its donors—it just has to list the groups that it sends money to.
As far as I can tell, American Democracy Alliance doesn’t do much. It doesn’t have a website. Its mission on its tax form is “To collect donations from individual and corporate donors and then to donate such funds to other social welfare organizations that promote conservative causes.” So it basically just moves money around from dark-money group to dark-money group, I guess. In fact, it sent Wisconsin Club for Growth $225,000 in 2008, so obviously there’s been a relationship between the two for a while.
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I did find that it spent money in a Missouri effort to change the way that state selects judges, but no one would answer reporters’ questions about its donors. That same effort was also funded by David Humphreys of the ultra-conservative Humphreys family that has been so generous to the Koch network as well as Scott Walker.
One important thing to note is that the address used on its tax form just happens to be the same address as Todd Graves, the attorney representing the Wisconsin Club for Growth in its suit trying to halt the John Doe and also in its suit against the state Government Accountability Board. The Club for Growth was subpoenaed in the second John Doe investigation in the fall of 2013. I don’t know the date of its donation to the American Democracy Alliance, though.
The only other entity Wisconsin Club for Growth funded in 2013 was the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce’s political arm, which received $500,000 of the $2.2 million the Club raised last year.
Interestingly, the Citizens for a Strong America—a phony front group whose treasurer is the wife of Wisconsin Club for Growth’s R.J. Johnson, also sent WMC $500,000 in 2013. Prosecutors allege that Johnson and his business partner Deb Jordahl created CSA, likely as a way to move money around anonymously and spend on campaigns. CSA reported that it didn’t raise any money in 2013, although it had $642,342 on hand at the beginning of the year, leaving it with $58,783 at the end of the year after deducting some expenses and paying off WMC.
I’ve always wondered why a Missouri-based attorney was mixed up in a case involving Wisconsin’s campaign finance laws. Is the Wisconsin Club for Growth’s money the link? And, if so, why?
