Posted on 06/15/2003 7:14:45 PM PDT by Libloather
Corruption Allegations Taint Milwaukee
Jun 15, 5:14 PM EDT
By JULIET WILLIAMS
Associated Press Writer
MILWAUKEE (AP) -- Wisconsin's once-clean political image, damaged by recent scandals in state, county and city government, could be further sullied this week as a trial begins for a Milwaukee alderman accused of extortion and fraud.
Paul Henningsen's trial follows guilty pleas from two former colleagues, who resigned their seats after being indicted on federal corruption charges.
"I think it's shaken up people in terms of Milwaukee not being the kind of city where this happens," said Alderman Fred Gordon, an 11-year council member who is not implicated. "Everything has been turned upside down. That's never happened in this state before."
Henningsen is scheduled to go on trial Monday on five federal charges of extortion and mail fraud.
Prosecutors say Henningsen, 56, pressured three developers to donate his campaign, one day before the committee he chairs voted on their housing project. He's also accuse of embezzling campaign money and falsifying spending reports.
The 20-year veteran politician has pleaded innocent. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison.
His attorney did not respond to a telephone message seeking comment, and Henningsen's City Hall receptionist hung up on a reporter's call.
A City Hall investigation started last summer amid reports that Alderwoman Rosa Cameron illegally used federal money from a nonprofit group she started before she ran for office. She resigned after pleading guilty to misappropriating $28,900 in federal funds and is serving eight months in prison.
In May, Alderman Jeff Pawlinski, 36, resigned his council seat and agreed to plead guilty to defrauding campaign contributors after accusations he deposited about $40,000 into a personal account, then spent it. Prosecutors said they will recommend eight months in prison.
U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic said none of the aldermen knew what the others were doing.
The scandals are among several at various levels of government in Wisconsin.
Five state legislators have been charged with felonies for alleged illegal campaigning at the state Capitol. Seven Milwaukee County supervisors were recalled from office and the executive resigned after a feud over pensions. And last year, Milwaukee Mayor John Norquist settled a lawsuit with a former aide who accused him of sexual harassment.
Milwaukee's former image as being above the sort of corruption that afflicts some other big cities is outdated, said Janet Boles, a professor of urban politics at Milwaukee's Marquette University.
"If Milwaukee has been missing from the scandal headlines for many years, suffice it to say we're now normal and average," she said.
Boles said Wisconsin's relatively lax campaign finance laws, which rely on honest reporting, are too tempting for some politicians.
Lawmakers passed a series of campaign reforms last year, but they were thrown out by a federal court. A new bill that would close one loophole in the law by banning pay-for-play, or the trading of campaign contributions for votes, is awaiting Gov. Jim Doyle's signature.
Milwaukee resident Shirley Loughlin wasn't surprised by the corruption allegations, saying she doesn't expect much from politicians, anyway.
"We need somebody that doesn't owe their soul to the company store before they get in there," said Loughlin, 61.
Does anyone know how many of these perps are RATS?
Absolutely. And let's remember who is in charge of the Mayor's office, city council and schoolboard in every one of the inner cities where the Black family is being destroyed: Dems in every one, with a few rare exceptions. And even those rare Republicans are mostly RINOs like Michael Bloomberg.
Read between the lines. Milwaukee means liberal newspapers. If they were Republicans, it would have been revealed in a very conspicuous manner.
Even though I no longer live in a clear water community & haven't for over a decade, y'all can get my dander up at the mere mention of MSD &/or how the DNR screwed over the flow communities to empower the big ugly city on the lake. The thumb screws are being put on South Milwaukee & it's like history repeating itself.
Heck, there was money spread around over 20 years ago in the awarding of Milwaukee's cable monopoly... The wire was ordered by the winning contractor well before the bids were even submitted... Graft in Milwaukee? Bwhahahahahaha It's nothing new. The only thing new about it is the teeny, tiny leaks about it in the "big" local media.
All 'Rats, even though Norquist is the only one that was elected to a partisan office at one point. City offices aren't based on political parties.
...seven Milwaukee County supervisors...
Supervisors were not elected by party, but I believe all of them were 'Rats. Unfortunately, only 6 of those supervisors were replaced by folks who at least paid lip service to reform; the 7th, over on Milwaukee's EXTREMELY lieberal East Side, was actually replaced not as a result of the pension scandal, but because she allowed a county park building that became overrun by junkies to be taken over by the best restauranteer in town. Worse, the 6 alleged reformers forgot what they spoke.
That list forgot the former county exec, who was an unidentified 'Rat. Odd thing is, the guy who won the election to replace him is still identified as a Pubbie every chance the lieberal newspaper can get.
five state legislators...
This requires a rather lengthy explanation here. Up until the end of 2001, each party had a state-funded caucus in each house of the Legislature, and the employees "blurred" the line between state and political work (a violation of state law). As part of a settlement between the State Elections Board (IIRC, that was the initial investigative body) and the Republican and Democratic leaders of both the Senate and Assembly (at that point, the Pubbies ran the Assembly and the 'Rats ran the Senate), they were disbanded.
At that point, 'Rat Dane County (Madison) District Attorney Brian Blanchard decided to pick up the ball and really go after the Assembly Pubblies to try to break the unbreakable hold they had on the Assembly. At the same time, he decided that because he shared staff and an office with 'Rat State Senator (and then-majority leader) Chuck Chvala, that he'd turn over the investigation of the Senate 'Rats to fellow 'Rat Milwaukee County DA E. Michael McCann, figuring he'd live up to his usual nickname of McCan't.
One slight problem, combined with the ongoing fight between the Milwaukee 'Rats and the Madison 'Rats upset that particular apple cart and resulted in the first indictment going against not a Pubbie but a 'Rat. McCann found a conflict of interest with Sen. Brian Burke (D-Milw., Senate head of the Joint Finance Committee and leading candidate for Attorney General to replace Jim Doyle, who would go on to unseat Scott McCallum as governor) and bounced his case back to Blanchard. Blanchard, upon realizing that there was a Madison RAT running for AG, unleashed about a dozen felony counts (I THINK it included a single pay-for-play charge, with the rest being misuse of caucus staff) on Burke, causing his AG campaign to sputter to a halt and running him out of politics.
Blanchard, meanwhile, kept on digging on the Assembly Republicans and finally unleashed a meager felony barrage just before the 2002 election (with all the Assembly seats up for grabs) against then-Speaker Scott Jensen, then-majority leader (and now Speaker) John Gard and another Pubbie that consisted of solely the misuse of caucus workers that had been settled. That backfired spectacularily, as all 3 Pubbies returned with massive majorities and the Pubbies actually strengthened their hold on the Assembly.
Meanwhile, E. Michael McCann wasn't taking the political destruction of his friend Brian Burke lying down. His office was leaking regularily to the local media about Chuck Chvala's pay-for-play, and about the same time that Brian Blanchard launched his indictments, McCann shocked the world with a 19-count indictment against Chvala, including several pay-for-play charges. While Chvala's seat was safe because he wasn't up for election until 2004, he was forced to give up his official leadership role, and the 3 Senators he had extensively campaigned for all lost, switching the Senate from 18-15 'Rats to 18-15 Pubbies. He also faced a half-hearted recall effort that fell short.
Despite the fact that the first indictments came down in summer 2002, and the last came down in October, none of these charges have come to trial yet. Interesting, isn't it?
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