Posted on 03/25/2015 5:57:13 AM PDT by sickoflibs
John Menard Jr. is widely known as the richest man in Wisconsin. A tough-minded, staunchly conservative 75-year-old billionaire, he owns a highly profitable chain of hardware stores throughout the Midwest. He’s also famously publicity-shy — rarely speaking in public or giving interviews.
So a little more than three years ago, when Menard wanted to back Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker — and help advance his pro-business agenda — he found the perfect way to do so without attracting any attention: He wrote more than $1.5 million in checks to a pro-Walker political advocacy group that pledged to keep its donors secret, three sources directly familiar with the transactions told Yahoo News.
Menard’s previously unreported six-figure contributions to the Wisconsin Club for Growth — a group that spent heavily to defend Walker during a bitter 2012 recall election — seem to have paid off for the businessman and his company. In the past two years, Menard’s company has been awarded up to $1.8 million in special tax credits from a state economic development corporation that Walker chairs, according to state records.
And in his five years in office, Walker’s appointees have sharply scaled back enforcement actions by the state Department of Natural Resources — a top Menard priority. The agency had repeatedly clashed with Menard and his company under previous governors over citations for violating state environmental laws and had levied a $1.7 million fine against Menard personally, as well as his company, for illegally dumping hazardous wastes.
“This, in a nutshell, is what’s wrong with the dark-money world we live in,” said Bill Allison, senior fellow at the Sunlight Foundation, a Washington-based based nonprofit group that tracks the influence of money in politics. “Here’s somebody who obviously has issues before the state, and he’s able to make a backdoor contribution that nobody ever sees. My sense is [political] insiders know about these contributions. It’s only the public that has no idea.” Menard did not respond to email and phone requests from Yahoo News for comment about his contributions. (His company’s spokesman, Jeff Abbott, said he was not authorized to speak for the company’s owner and could not respond, either.)
Thats OK because they are public servants whose #1 priority is our kids well being, its greedy corporatists like Menard who we have to watch.
I bet he denies global warming...
where are these money probes when 0bama was getting hundreds of millions from the middle east??
No?
Let's move on.
It's just the Liberal Slime Machine at work again.
Yes, but it sounds seedy.
Maybe we need someone with a pure unchallenged record to go up against someone who has a clean a background as Hillary does.
Rant:
The left is incapable, or unwilling, to be honest. Stupid is one thing but if you do not have basic honesty your whole existence, and everything you stand for, is born of a lie?
To constantly be intellectually dishonest you have to, at conscious level, be willing to ignore reality?
I know i am not saying anything new but sometimes it just that you still help but think how someone could let themselves be so off the track?
I guess for some its power and others it the “freebies” and the lack of drive?
Kind of sad, in a way, because life really only take a half an effort. And a sizable portion of the population can’t even muster a half an effort.
People give money to politicians who see the world as they do. That's the system. It doesn't always imply that they been "bought".
Isikoff fails to mention that campaign donation rules in WI are different for recall elections.
...and then suppose the individuals who gave the $$$ to the abortion group got a special Obamacare wavier?
Megyn Kelly might report it on her show, but thats about it.
“Dark money” is that money with Obama’s picture?
What’s the right denomination for him? I’d say the 3 dollar bill, as in “queerer than a”.
NATO members wink.
Personally, I resolve to shop at Menard’s MORE, now that I know that he supports our governor!
FReep Mail me if you want on, or off, this Wisconsin interest ping list.
Never heard of him, but God bless him.
He owns a chain of discount hardware and home improvement stores — a chief competitor in Wisconsin to Home Depot.
That’s great! I despise the politics of Home Depot!
Thanks so much for telling me.
From another story: "Previously, the company had received 13 citations going back to 1976, more than any company in the state, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported in 2005. That included a $1.7 million fine in 1997 for illegally dumping hazardous waste in private trash containers. In a separate case, a judge ordered the company pay $2 million for illegally polluting Wisconsin waterways in 2001 and 2002."
Yep, Blue Wisconsin hates businesses, especially those owned by conservatives. That’s why Walker has put a collar on the rabid dog DNR…….
The company did not know the malfunctioning drain existed, sealed the drain when notified of the problem and pleaded guilty to take responsibility, she said.
Dawn Sands, Menard’s general counsel, said the company has not decided whether to appeal. She said the company has 60 days before it would have to pay the fine. Sands called the case the most striking example
of overzealous enforcement of environmental laws by state agencies, which she said refuse to work with corporations.
http://dailyreporter.com/2005/08/09/menard-fined-for-violating-water-pollution-laws/
I love Menards. It’s a big toy store for home improvement!
Which is why Marxists hate it.
Pray America is waking
+1
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