Governor bars Doyle from suing Legislature over caucus attorney fees
10:56 AM 11/16/01
Scott Milfred State government reporter
Gov. Scott McCallum blocked Attorney General Jim Doyle on Friday from suing the Legislature over what so far amounts to $158,549 in private legal fees paid by state taxpayers.
Doyle wanted to sue to force the Legislature to stop paying private legal fees for Capitol staffers accused of illicit campaigning.
McCallum, in a sharply worded letter, told Doyle that constitutional questions and the potential cost of such a lawsuit convinced him to deny Doyle's request for legal action. Doyle and his attorneys at the state Justice Department can't sue on behalf of taxpayers without McCallum's OK.
The Republican governor also accused Doyle, a Democratic candidate running for governor, of using the issue the latest twist to the ongoing caucus scandal - for political gain.
"This matter is a political ploy cloaked in a disingenuous appeal to save taxpayer dollars," the governor wrote to Doyle. "I will not be a party to your effort to use a legal case to advance your political agenda."
Doyle said he's just doing what the attorney general is supposed to do - enforce the law. Doyle concluded last week that the payments are illegal because the employees are being investigated for possible criminal, not civil, violations, and the acts they are accused of committing were not part of their official job duties.
The Legislature, ignoring Doyle's advice, has continued to pay the legal fees of Capitol staffers accused of using state time and resources for partisan campaigning. The staffers were part of a legislative caucus system that sometimes operated as secret campaign machines, the Wisconsin State Journal reported earlier this year.
"The governor has decided that the lawyers will be paid without even a challenge," Doyle protested late Friday. "It's quite an argument to say I don't care whether they're breaking the law because somehow it's going to cost money to stop them from breaking the law. That's nonsense."
But McCallum cited an opinion by UW-Madison law professor Gordon Baldwin, who concluded that the Legislature has broad powers to pay legal expenses for its employees.
Jay Heck, executive director of Common Cause in Wisconsin, called the governor's decision "a serious miscalculation." Heck said his group may sue on behalf of taxpayers.