Skindrud: Real job of caucuses well known
10:03 AM 6/11/02
Dee J. Hall Wisconsin State Journal
indentContrary to earlier public statements, Rep. Rick Skindrud told a group of local politicians and others last week that he was fully aware of possibly illegal campaign activity at the Legislature.
indentSkindrud, R-Mount Horeb, was having lunch with three Dane County supervisors and three others at Shelton's, a bar and restaurant in Cross Plains.
indentDuring a discussion about the ongoing caucus scandal, Skindrud said, "This thing has been going on for 30 years. Anybody who runs (for office) and says it didn't happen is either a fool or a liar. It did happen."
indentSkindrud's statements were overheard by two Wisconsin State Journal reporters, who were sitting at the next table, and the statements were later confirmed by two county supervisors.
indentJust before he was re-elected to the Assembly in 2000, Skindrud told one of those reporters that he didn't know anything about possibly illegal campaigning at the Legislature. At the time, Skindrud said he wasn't aware that staffers from the four partisan legislative caucuses were working on campaigns on state time.
indentIndeed, Skindrud said he wasn't certain who was paying his own campaign manager, legislative aide Al Colvin, who had taken a partial leave from Skindrud's Capitol office to help his boss get re-elected.
indent"I don't know how the system works," Skindrud said in the Oct. 22, 2000, article. "There's money that flows all directions. I don't know where all the money flows from. I don't know where these (campaign) people get their pay from this time of year - I don't know."
indentA staff member said she was unable to reach Skindrud for comment on Monday or Tuesday. A message left at his home Tuesday wasn't immediately returned.
indentSkindrud has announced plans to sell his farmhouse and move into the newly configured 79th Assembly District to seek a fifth full term in the Legislature.
indentIn a Nov. 11, 2001, article, the State Journal reported that Skindrud staff members had used his Capitol office and a state-owned laptop computer to work on Skindrud's 1998 and 2000 campaigns. At the time, Colvin declined to comment, and Skindrud didn't return telephone calls and e-mails seeking his comments.
indentThe State Journal also has obtained campaign phone lists from the taxpayer-funded and now defunct Assembly Republican Caucus listing that agency's fax number as the place to send information to Skindrud's 1996 and 2000 campaigns. Documents also show that caucus staff members worked on Skindrud's campaign in 1996, 1998 and 2000.
indentTwo of the county supervisors who had lunch with Skindrud on Friday, Vern Wendt of the town of Black Earth, and Lyman Anderson, town of Oregon, confirmed Skindrud's statements.
indent"To the best of my knowledge, he did make those statements," Wendt said. "I guess you overheard a conversation at a restaurant that wasn't for public knowledge."
indentAsked if he recalled the "fool or a liar" statement, Anderson said, "Yeah."
indent"I don't know if that's exactly what he said," Anderson added, "but I think everybody knows that's been going on for many, many years."
indentDuring the lunch, Skindrud also voiced opposition to proposals for public financing of campaigns, a topic currently being debated by the Legislature's budget conference committee. And he was critical of the ongoing "John Doe" criminal investigation into illegal campaign activity being conducted by Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard and Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael McCann.
indent"That's what it (caucus system) was - it was public financing," Skindrud said. "To me, it (the investigation) just doesn't make sense. So you're gonna put these people in jail and put some other people in charge of public financing?"
indentIn a series that began in May 2001, the State Journal reported that campaigning was widespread at the $4 million-a-year caucuses and at some legislative offices, including Skindrud's, despite state ethics laws prohibiting such activity. The four state agencies, which had official duties that included offering policy and communication support to lawmakers, were closed Jan. 1 in the wake of the scandal.
indentA third county supervisor who was at Shelton's, Bill Hitzemann of Mount Horeb, said he didn't specifically recall the discussion about the caucuses. "My ears kind of shut down because I wasn't interested," Hitzemann said.
indentBut he added he wasn't surprised other restaurant patrons overheard the comments by Skindrud, a former farmer.
indent"That's the problem with people who are used to talking over the sound of a tractor or a milking machine - they just talk too darn loud," Hitzemann said.