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For Jensen, 3 felony counts
10:30 AM 10/18/02
Dee J. Hall and Phil Brinkman Wisconsin State Journal

Republican Scott Jensen, the Assembly's top leader, was charged Friday with three felony counts of misconduct in office and one misdemeanor for allegedly converting the taxpayer-funded Assembly Republican Caucus and his own Capitol office into powerful campaign machines aimed at assuring his grasp on power.

Jensen, who is the Assembly speaker, and the No. 2 person in the Assembly, Majority Leader Steve Foti, also were charged with felony misconduct for allegedly placing a full-time campaign fund-raiser on Foti's government payroll for 2 years. The fund-raiser, Sherry Schultz, who earned $65,000 a year, also was charged with felony misconduct in Dane County Circuit Court by District Attorney Brian Blanchard.

The charges against Jensen, 42, and Foti, 43, come just one day after the Senate's top leader, Majority Leader Chuck Chvala, D-Madison, was hit with 20 felony counts including extortion, filing false campaign reports and illegally using the Senate Democratic Caucus to run political campaigns in his battle to keep control of the Senate.

The one-two legal punch aimed at the highest echelons of the Wisconsin Legislature late this week left commentators shaking their heads and the state's once well-deserved reputation for clean governance in tatters.

Jensen also was charged with a felony for allegedly using his Capitol office to run his personal campaign committee, Taxpayers for Jensen. Jensen even moved one of his aides to the Republican Party of Wisconsin headquarters for six months in 2000 to hide the campaign work she did at state expense for Jensen's re-election campaign, the complaint said.

The felony counts filed Friday, although less serious than those levied against Chvala, could pose re-election hurdles for Jensen, R-Waukesha, and Foti, R-Oconomowoc, who will face the voters in just 2 weeks. Each felony count carries a five-year maximum sentence and $10,000 fine.

Jensen also faces a misdemeanor charge along with Assistant Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Ladwig, R-Mount Pleasant, for allegedly using staffers from the Assembly Republican Caucus and Ladwig's office to run the Republican Assembly Campaign Committee (RACC). That charge carries a maximum $5,000 fine or one-year jail term.

Ladwig's attorney, Mark Nielsen of Racine, said his client is "saddened to have her name included in this affair. She does not believe she has done anything wrong."

The complaint alleges that Jensen, Foti and Ladwig assigned dozens of employees to do campaign work on state time and with the resources of the state under the guise of working for RACC and Taxpayers for Jensen. Some state employees quoted in the complaint estimated 99 percent of their time was consumed by their work on Republican Assembly campaigns.

Ray Carey, who was ARC director from 1995 to 1999, said during his entire time as a state employee under Jensen, campaigning was his primary duty, the complaint said.

"Carey knew that his responsibilities in that job would include recruiting candidates to run for office, being chief manager of campaigns of candidates for the Assembly on the Republican side, being executive director of RACC, and helping vulnerable incumbent Republicans keep their seats," the complaint said. "Carey's main function was to 'get the majority elected or re-elected.'"

The charges against the Republicans and Chvala are the result of an ongoing John Doe investigation, now in its 17th month, into illegal campaigning and fund raising at the Legislature. Friday's complaint ends the investigation into the Assembly Republican side of the Legislature, Blanchard said. But he made clear his probe into the activities of Assembly Democrats and Senate Republicans continues.

Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael McCann, who handled the investigation into Chvala and the Senate Democratic Caucus, said he didn't anticipate any more charges against elected officials in that caucus but didn't rule out others being charged.

Like Chvala the day before, Jensen on Friday announced he would step down as leader. Jensen issued a strong denial to the charges, vowing to Republican colleagues: "I intend to prove my innocence and fight for our honor."

Said Foti: "I am confident that after a full public trial I will be found not guilty of any criminal wrongdoing."

Jensen and Foti complained that the charges, filed by a Democratic district attorney less than three weeks before the Nov. 5 election, were politically motivated.

"It appears that the timing of these charges has been blatantly and cynically manipulated for maximum political effect and not driven by any necessity of law," Jensen said in a statement.

Blanchard dismissed that criticism, saying he filed the complaint as soon as it was ready.

"We have not made this decision with any eye on the political calendar," he said. "If I had .

  • .
  • . decided to put it in my drawer for a month, then I think I would then be subject to criticism for sitting on it."

    Friday's criminal complaint against Jensen, Foti, Schultz and Ladwig mirrors allegations raised by the Wisconsin State Journal beginning in May 2001 that the $4-million-a-year caucuses were operating as secret campaign organizations in possible violation of state law; that Ladwig used her office to run RACC; that Jensen and other lawmakers used their offices for campaign purposes; and that Foti maintained Schultz on his taxpayer-funded payroll solely to raise money for Republican Assembly candidates.

    The criminal complaint relied on testimony from more than 30 witnesses, including Jensen's entire Capitol office staff and several former employees of the ARC, which along with the other three caucuses was closed on Jan. 1 as part of a settlement with the Ethics and Elections boards.

    Of the five felony charges, three refer to the employment of fund-raiser Schultz, 50, on Foti's government payroll. The complaint alleges that from January 1998 until October 2001, Schultz's only job was to coordinate fund raising for candidates and RACC. Prior to that, Schultz was the chief of staff for then-Lt. Gov. Scott McCallum; however, none of the charges stem from that employment.

    Although assigned to Foti, Schultz was located in the caucus office and appeared at the Capitol only to meet with Jensen and Foti to provide fund-raising updates. Jensen was fully aware of, and in fact told his Capitol staff, what Schultz's role would be, the complaint said.

    "No one was under the impression that Schultz engaged in any legitimate state work," the complaint said. More than a dozen former staffers, candidates and lobbyists confirmed Schultz's campaign role to investigators.

    In 1999, former ARC director Jason Kratochwill said he spoke with Schultz, Jensen and Foti about moving her operation to the state Republican headquarters. Schultz objected, saying it would look "too obvious" for a state employee to be working at the party, and Jensen, Foti and Ladwig said it would cost too much to rent space there. The group also rejected the idea of renting an apartment for Schultz.
    indentWhen investigators started looking into the caucuses in the summer of 2001, Schultz left state government to become a full-time fund-raiser for the Republican Party at an estimated cost to the party of $100,000 in salary in benefits, the complaint said.
    indent"If I'm going down, everyone's going down with me," she reportedly told a fellow caucus staffer at the time.
    indentThe complaint said Jensen told investigators last year that he didn't know what Schultz's duties were and that he understood she had "volunteered" her fund-raising help.
    indentThe complaint also alleges that over a three-year period, Jensen kept one, and at times two, full-time fund-raisers on his public payroll whose job was to raise money for his re-election.
    indentCarrie Hoeper Richard, who worked for Jensen from August 1997 until October 1999, said it was apparent when she received a call from Jensen aide Steve Baas about an open position in the speaker's office that fund raising would be part of her job.
    indentHer first assignment as a state employee was to organize a campaign fund-raiser for her boss, she said. Campaign work comprised about half of her job when she started working for Jensen but soon grew to 80 percent as Jensen's 1998 re-election campaign began heating up, she said.
    indentAmong her duties: receiving campaign checks Jensen brought in to his office and entering them into a donor database, preparing mailings and preparing fund-raising call lists for Jensen.
    indent"Everyone in the Jensen Capitol office knew that Richard was working on campaign finance reports in that office," the complaint said.
    indentStaffers considered moving Richard to the Republican headquarters but concluded that it would "raise more red flags than if she were to simply continue doing the work in Jensen's office," the complaint said.
    indentJust before the 1998 election, Jensen brought in another staffer, Leigh Himebauch, to assist Richard. Her job duties were "completely campaign-related," the complaint said.
    indentIn May 2000, Himebauch was moved to the Republican Party headquarters but she continued to stay on the state payroll for six months, until after the November election. She worked 100 percent of her time on Jensen's re-election campaign, the complaint said.
    indentIn a day that could be remembered for a long time, Chvala, Jensen and Foti - three of the state's top lawmakers - along with Schultz, are scheduled to make their first court appearances on Thursday.
    indent

    • Copyright © 2003 Wisconsin State Journal


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