One caucus may have illegally helped group
2:04 PM 5/22/01
Dee J. Hall Wisconsin State Journal
A former legislative caucus staff member said she and other state workers secretly helped a private group coordinate attack ads against Assembly Democratic candidates last fall, in possible violation of state campaign finance laws.
Lyndee Wall, former executive assistant to the Assembly Republican Caucus, said she and at least two other caucus employees helped a group funded by the state Republican Party to produce, address and mail controversial campaign radio ads before the Nov. 7 election.
Much of the work took place in the caucus's state office at 17 S. Fairchild St.
The ads, run in 12 races statewide by the group Project Vote Informed, included one highlighting a candidate's past marital problems that was so controversial some radio stations refused to air it. The ad, directed against Rep. Lee Meyerhofer, D-Kaukauna, set off renewed calls to further regulate so-called "independent expenditure groups" such as Project Vote Informed.
If Wall's allegations are true, the implications could be "monumental," said Jay Heck, director of Common Cause in Wisconsin, which advocates further restrictions on spending by independent political groups.
"This would demonstrate, at the very highest level of legislative leadership, collusion in violation of Wisconsin statutes," Heck said.
In recent months, the state Elections Board signaled it intends to punish campaigns and independent groups that coordinate election efforts. It collected $60,000 in fines, the largest such payment in state history, to settle a state lawsuit that alleged illegal, secret coordination between Supreme Court Justice Jon Wilcox's 1997 election campaign and a group that worked on his behalf.
Wall's allegations, uncovered as part of a Wisconsin State Journal investigation into the taxpayer-funded caucus system, provide further support to claims that the caucuses frequently engage in campaign activity, contrary to the state Ethics Board's interpretation of Wisconsin ethics law.
The four legislative caucuses were created in an era when legislators had little staff or other support agencies to rely on. They are supposed to provide legislators with partisan advice on issues and help communicate with constituents and the media. The Ethics Board has advised legislators and their employees that it is illegal to campaign on state time or with state resources.
In its editions Sunday, however, the State Journal cited hundreds of documents and accounts by legislators, candidates and former caucus members suggesting staffers from all four caucuses flout those rules.
In the case of the Assembly Republican Caucus, Wall said staffers went even further by working directly with Project Vote Informed. Like other independent groups, Project Vote Informed was required to file an oath with the Elections Board that it would operate independently of any candidate in the races it targeted.
Wall was the Assembly Republican Caucus's lowest-ranking employee from July 17, 2000, until her resignation March 5 of this year. She said she left because of what she viewed as the caucus's consistent abuse of the law.
The caucus is led by a director, Jason Kratochwill, who reports to Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen, R-Waukesha. Neither would comment for this story.
Todd Rongstad, director of Project Vote Informed, also declined to be interviewed but denied any connection between his group and the caucus, where he worked from 1994 to 1997, including a stint as deputy director.
"Any suggestion that Project Vote Informed coordinated its activities or acted in conjunction with any partisan caucus, affected candidate or agent of a candidate's committee is false," Rongstad said in a brief e-mail statement.
So-called independent expenditure groups such as Project Vote Informed are prohibited from acting "in concert with, or at the request or suggestion of" candidates or people working on their behalf, according to state campaign finance law.
Kevin Kennedy, executive director of the Elections Board, which regulates campaigns, said Wall's allegations "certainly raise some questions that merit looking into and might be the grounds for a complaint."
Kennedy said the key question would be whether the Assembly Republican Caucus staff members who allegedly helped Project Vote Informed played important roles in any of the 12 races targeted by the radio ads.
Wall provided the State Journal with hundreds of pages of documents showing that the Assembly Republican Caucus helped organize campaigns across the state during the last election, including the 12 races targeted by the radio ads.
She said the two employees who enlisted her help with the Project Vote Informed ads - deputy director Mark Jefferson and media director Heather Smith - worked as key advisers in many races, acting "like overseers" across the state.
"They helped everybody," Wall said of Smith and Jefferson. "Everyone (candidates) called them with help in pulling together ads. They (Jefferson and Smith) proofed all the lit. They proofed all the radio spots. They wrote press releases. They were kind of like the issue people for all the campaigns."
Both Jefferson and Smith declined to comment for this story.

Bulky envelope
Wall's chronology of events closely matches the account of its activities that Project Vote Informed gave in its spending reports on file at the Elections Board.
Wall said her involvement with Project Vote Informed began last October, when a fax arrived at the caucus office from Jensen's Capitol office. The material included an Outagamie County Circuit Court transcript and an Antigo Police Department report, parts of which later showed up in Project Vote Informed ads against Democratic Assembly candidates Meyerhofer and Sarah Waukau of Antigo.
Wall said that shortly after the material arrived, Smith and Jefferson asked her to deliver a sealed envelope from the caucus office to Project Vote Informed director Rongstad at his office at 10 E. Doty St.
She said she made the delivery at the request of Smith, who is Rongstad's ex-wife. Wall said she didn't look inside the bulky envelope, so she couldn't say whether it contained the faxes from Jensen's office. The information in the faxes eventually showed up in Project Vote Informed ads against the two Democratic candidates.
"Heather didn't want to be seen delivering anything to that office, and neither did Mark," Wall said, referring to Smith and Jefferson. "They thought I was a face no one would recognize."
After the delivery, Wall said, Smith spent two days producing a series of radio ads for Project Vote Informed at Abella Audio Productions Inc., 2302 W. Badger Road in Madison. The group's campaign spending report shows payments to Abella and several people who provided "radio voices" for the ads on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1.
Both Smith and Jefferson took some vacation days in October and November, but they weren't required to report which days they took off. Wall said she was not on vacation or leave. Even if they were on their own time, Wall said, some of the work was done in the office. The Ethics Board's interpretation of the law extends to prohibiting the use of state offices, equipment and supplies for campaign work.
After the ads were finished, Wall said Smith asked her to help address envelopes containing audiotapes to "30 or 40" radio stations in and around Wisconsin with the return address listed as Project Vote Informed. She said Jefferson provided the addresses, the cost of buying the radio airtime and instructions for running the spots.
Wall said Smith placed checks in each envelope written from a Project Vote Informed checkbook.
"The checks themselves - the payments - were written out of Todd's checkbook," Wall said. "I watched her (Smith) write them out." Wall said Assembly Republican Caucus staffers used her personal cellular phone to call Rongstad and radio stations to avoid having those phone numbers show up on state telephone bills. She provided copies of her cell phone bills to the State Journal showing five phone calls to Rongstad's home and office in October and early November and four phone calls to radio stations that aired the radio ads.

Photos involved
The State Journal's investigation also found two instances in which photographs from the Assembly Republican Caucus archives ended up in supposedly independent print ads produced by Rongstad. The ads attacked Rep. John Ryba, D-Green Bay, and supported Rep. Mark Pettis, R-Hertel.
Although the photos are public records and available to anyone who asks for them, their appearance in the ads raises questions about how Rongstad even knew the photos existed, the Elections Board's Kennedy said.
If someone from the caucus approached Rongstad or knew he planned to use the photos in independent campaign ads, and that person played a key role in those same races, it could be evidence of cooperation, Kennedy said.
ARC photographer Jay Salvo said he doesn't know how his photos showed up in the ads. Rongstad and Kratochwill, the Assembly Republican Caucus director, didn't respond to requests to explain how Rongstad obtained the photos.
Documents obtained by the State Journal show ARC staff members worked on the campaigns of both Brent Weycker, who ran unsuccessfully against Ryba, and Pettis, who was re-elected.
Wall said she came forward because "he (Rongstad) completely relied on the people paid by the state to do this. . . not even doing it himself."
Wall said she would be willing to cooperate with investigating agencies if it would lead to an end to the activity she witnessed and participated in during her 7 months in state government. She said she hoped regulators would consider her role in any violations as relatively minor, but added, "If I'm going to be punished, at least I want something to change."
While Jensen provided no formal response to Wall's allegations, his spokesman, Steve Baas, said: "Sounds like Lyndee was pretty involved with Todd Rongstad. If Lyndee was behaving inappropriately, then she should have to answer to that."
In response, Wall laughed and pointed out she was the caucus's lowest-ranking employee.
"I'm the one they send downstairs to get a Coke for Jensen when he comes for the staff meetings," Wall said. "What say did I have in anything? This is just them, one more time, spin-doctoring things."

Necktie grabbed
Wall's allegations follow revelations by a Green Bay television station that copies of the Outagamie court transcript highlighting Meyerhofer's past marital problems were distributed from Speaker Jensen's office. The transcript was used in the anti-Meyerhofer radio ads by Project Vote Informed.
Last winter, Jensen staffer R.J. Pirlot acknowledged obtaining the transcript but denied supplying it to Project Vote Informed. Pirlot made the admission after a Jan. 30 incident in which Jensen spokesman Baas grabbed WBAY-TV photographer Steve Cady by the necktie at the Capitol while he and a reporter were investigating the source of the transcript.
Baas pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in Dane County Circuit Court on April 25 and was ordered to participate in a first-offender program.
Baas said he doesn't know whether anyone at Jensen's office faxed the documents to the Assembly Republican Caucus, as Wall alleges.
"The Meyerhofer transcript we shared with many people. It wouldn't surprise me if they (the Assembly Republican Caucus) got it out of this office," Baas said, adding that he doesn't recall seeing the Antigo police report. "Public documents shared with staff, media is part of the job here."
But he denied any involvement with Project Vote Informed.
Campaign documents obtained by the State Journal, however, indicate Baas still played a role in Republican challenger Tom Sanders' race against Meyerhofer.
The documents show Baas wrote a radio ad titled "Lee (Meyerhofer) is a liar" that ran on four stations. Baas said he didn't write the ad but said, "It was not uncommon for staff in the field to ask advice of me away from the office" and speculated one of them might have written a script based on suggestions he gave over the phone.
Sanders did not return several telephone calls seeking comment.
Meyerhofer said he is suspicious of connections among Jensen's staff, the Assembly Republican Caucus, Project Vote Informed and the Sanders campaign.
"It just shows the four are working hand in hand," Meyerhofer said. "How you tie it together exactly, I'm not sure."

State Journal reporter Phil Brinkman contributed to this report.