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Plea Deal In Wisconsin For Illegal Walker Donations

Posted by: Linda Carbonell on May 6, 2011.

05-06-2011 by L. S. Carbonell

William Gardner

Things just keep getting better and better in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin & Southern Railroad Company CEO William Gardner has reached a plea agreement on one felony count of excessive political contributions and one felony count of unlawful political contributions.

Gardner was charged with asking his employees to contribute tens of thousands of dollars in political contributions, for which he then reimbursed them. Included in those contributions were ones for now-Governor Scott Walker. The plea bargain called for a guilty plea to both counts in exchange for two years on probation. The probation is a prosecutor’s recommendation only. The judge may choose to ignore it if he feels it is insufficient for the crime. The normal punishment for a Class I felony is six months in jail and a $1,000 fine. Sentencing is set for July 7.

The violations took place during Walker’s primary campaign, and the investigation was prompted by a little tiff between Gardner and a female “friend” named Stacie Long. At Gardner’s urging, Long had written a check for the Walker campaign. When they had a “falling out” she went to prosecutors with her story. When questioned by investigators, some employees said that they had refused to write the checks because they were concerned about the legality. A month later, on May 19, 2010, Garner admitted to “suggesting” to employees that they write $5,000 checks to Walker’s campaign, and he reimbursed them from company funds. Even with the step in between, Gardner was in violation of Wisconsin law forbidding the use of corporate funds for political contributions. Walker’s campaign returned a total of $43,000 to Gardner and his employees just as Gardner’s illegal contributions were disclosed.. E-mails show that the Walker campaign was aware that the money, even though it was coming from a variety of checking accounts, was still the $30,000 Gardner had pledged. The state Government Accountability Board fined Gardner and the Wisconsin & Southern $166,900, a state record. Seven employees have been fined $250 each. So far, Walker is getting off (pardon the pun) scott free because he returned the money.

But that was just the beginning. Gardner also made contributions in November of 2009 which were in excess of state limits to Democratic Assembly Speaker Mike Sheridan and the Assembly Democratic Campaign Committe, $2,000 each. The limit for an Assemblyman is $500 from a single donor. Gardner eventually replaced those checks with one for $500 for Sheridan and one to the ADCC for $3,500.

Back in 2005, the GAB fined Gardner $1,000 for making a $5,000 donation to Walker during that primary race, while he was a registered lobbyist. Walker returned the money the same day he received a $5,000 contribution from Gardner’s daughter.

And yet, with these run-ins with campaign financing laws in his past, Gardner insists that he didn’t know he was violating the law when he solicited the contributions from his employees.

Under Gardner, the Wisconsin & Southern has created a profitable relationship with the state. In fact, just last month, Gov. Walker awarded the railroad $14 million of the $25 million available in grants or freight rail infrastructure preservation or upgrade.

In some twisted piece of prosecutorial logic, the fact that Walker returned the funds and the manner in which Gardner co-operated is justification for Gardner not doing jail lime.

Gardner met personally with Walker in April, 2010, and afterwards sent an e-mail saying “Keep up the good work and I will do everything I can do to get you in the Governor’s Mansion.” Gardner also made it clear that his company operates hundred of miles of state-owned track.

Gov. Scott Walker

Though one of Walker’s first acts as governor was to cancel the $180 million from the Federal government to build a high-speed rail system, Gardner’s rails have done very well. There is a deal being worked out now in which the state would buy a total of 70 miles of track from the W&S, who would then operate them. The company would be eligible for a potential grant between $35 million and $60 million to rebuild the Merrimac Rail Bridge. The W&S’s CFO has made it clear to the investigators that continued revenue from the state is necessary to the railroad’s survival and they employ a “government liason” – lobbyist – to deal with both federal and state agencies.

With 8 Republican Senators facing recalls, it is not a good time for people to be reminded just how cozy Scott Walker is with millionaires and billionaires. Though Walker has done everything he could to ignore the prank phone call that showed how deeply he was in with the Koch brothers, the voters of Wisconsin have not forgotten. The timeline disclosures in the Gardner case are just going to add to the bile Wisconsin voters are tasting. Walker’s anti-collective bargaining law, and the rest of the measures he had in his Budget Repair Bill, were supposed to make it possible to bring Wisconsin’s budget deficit under control. Instead, Walker is proposing a budget that gives tax breaks to corporations and the rich, while cutting a billion dollars from the budgets of counties and municipalities. His proposed budget doesn’t actually make a dent in the deficit, just makes the usual Republican promise that all will be well when those rich folks trickle down their riches.

History shows that the only thing that ever trickles down from the mansions on the hill is sewage.