RememberAdvocates for Student Achievement (ASA), the conservative-backed “reform” groupthat recruited and trained candidates for the 2009 MPS board elections?
It tookalmost a year, but the Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office chargedAdvocates for Student Achievement PAC and ASA-MKE Inc. with seven violations ina civil complaint made public on Monday.
The districtattorney's office is accusing ASA-PAC and ASA-MKE Inc. of a series of campaignviolations, such as failing to file timely campaign finance statements,violating the ban on domestic corporations making political contributions, andexceeding campaign contribution limits.
It'sexpected that the groups will pay around $5,000 in fines.
“My clientshave agreed to this settlement in order to put this matter behind them,” saidattorney Michael Maistelman, who is representing ASA.
RobertKraig, executive director of Citizen Action of Wisconsin, whose complaintsparked the district attorney's investigation, said repeatedly in an interviewthat ASA's actions were “shocking” and “serious.”
Kraig saidhe was glad that the district attorney's office took action on the case.
“But there'ssomething unsatisfying with the result, that they [ASA] got away withsomething,” Kraig said. “It seems like the crime was worse than the result.”Essentially, they tried to use illegal campaign activities to take over the MPSschool board.
E-mailsShowed Campaign Strategies
ASA waslaunched in 2007 to recruit and train candidates for the April 2009 MPS boardelection. The group had the support of suburban business elites who supportprivatizing public schools through vouchers and charters. The groupspecifically opposed the teachers' union, claiming the board was toosympathetic to it.
ASA-PAC wasco-founded by MPS board member Bruce Thompsonwho still hosts the group's Websitein 2007. Former MPS board member Joe Dannecker is listed as the treasurerof ASA-PAC and the registered agent of ASA-MKE Inc.
Thompsonco-founded the group with campaign strategist Eric Hogensen, who then went onto work as a campaign consultant for Annie Woodward and ReDonna Rodgers, twoschool board candidates recruited by ASA.
CitizenAction filed its complaint last March, during the highly charged campaign forthe MPS board. Citizen Action was alarmed by a Feb. 19, 2009, fund-raisinge-mail on behalf of ASA's three handpicked candidatesDavid Voeltner, AnnieWoodward and ReDonna Rodgers. The e-mail was sent by the “ASA ExecutiveCommittee,” which was not registered as a PAC or a nonprofit corporation orissue advocacy group.
Strictfirewalls exist between candidates and outside, independent organizations.Domestic corporations, like ASA-MKE Inc., may not make direct contributions tocandidates. Political action committees, like ASA-PAC, may contribute, butwithin limits. And advocacy organizations may get involved in elections but notcoordinate with candidates' campaigns. They must, by law, be totallyindependent.
CitizenAction alleged in its complaint that ASA was “illegally providingcontributions” to the three candidates in the form of orientation sessions,fund-raising, express advocacy and providing the favored candidates with a$12,000 poll that their opponents could not access.
Just dayslater, ASA's activities were blown into the open when an anonymous blogger wasable to access the organization's Yahoo! Groups account. The hundreds ofe-mails revealed the discussions of ASA's inner circle over the course of ayear.
The mostactive membersincluding Thompson, former JournalSentinel business-reporter-turned-PR-pro Anne Curley, and former MPS boardcandidate Kevin Ronniepushed for weekly meetings with candidates, commissioneda $12,000 poll to discredit opposing candidates, and solicited funds for itscandidates. That poll was likely paid for by businessman Richard Pieper, whodonated $18,000 to the group. They also discussed tapping the resources of theMetropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce (MMAC) and the Greater MilwaukeeAssociation of Realtors, which have taken strongly pro-privatization stands oneducation issues.
Meanwhile,ASA's political action committee, which can legally donate $800 to and advocatefor individual candidates, had not filed campaign finance reports since itsinception. After the Shepherd'sscrutiny during the campaign, it did.
CitizenAction's Kraig said advocacy groups are careful to construct firewalls betweentheir nonpolitical affairs and political work, yet ASA seemed to have no regardfor campaign finance laws.
“It'sshocking how gross, overt and serious the violations were,” Kraig said.
WasIt Worth It?
Voeltner andWoodward, two of ASA's favored candidates, distanced themselves from the groupduring the campaign and won their elections. But Rodgers lost in a landslide tothen-MPS board President Peter Blewett, the No. 1 target of privatizationsupporters like Thompson and the MMAC.
Blewettdecided to relinquish his position as board president after the election, andWoodward and Voeltner supported Michael Bonds over Tim Petersons, Thompson'sfavored candidate for the board presidency.
So ASA'sdreams of building a conservative, pro-privatization majority on the board werethwarted just days after the election.
ASA-PAC andASA-MKE Inc. also are stuck with their $5,000 fine and bills for Maistelman'slegal work.
Ironically,Thompson writes frequent op-eds for the MilwaukeeJournal Sentinel in which he decries the influence of special interests inMPS board elections and chastises fellow board members for fighting a mayoraltakeover and preserving a democratically elected board.
But Kraigsaid ASA's potential influence on the April 2009 election was dangerous andserious. He noted, however, that the relatively small fine might not deterother groups from disregarding campaign finance laws.
“The ASA'sability to influence that election was worse than any voter fraud scenario asenvisioned by conservatives,” Kraig said.
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