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Part 306 of 308 in the series Wisconsin's Secret War MADISON, Wisconsin - Conservatives who sued the state's political speech cop for helping to drive a politically motivated investigation picked up a huge victory in court Thursday. Conservative activist Eric O'Keefe and the Wisconsin Club for Growth resolved their lawsuit against the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board, with the GAB agreeing it will refrain from funding and assisting future criminal prosecutions in violation of its statutory authority. The victory for conservatives targeted in the unconstitutional John Doe investigation was announced a day after Gov. Scott Walker, himself a target of the...

Part 308 of 308 in the series Wisconsin's Secret War MADISON, Wis. - In the wake of Wisconsin's notorious John Doe investigation, lawmakers unveiled a bill Thursday that would create a legislative committee armed with subpoena power to investigate closed John Doe proceedings. The legislation, authored by state Rep. Dave Craig, R-Town of Vernon, and Sen. Van Wanggaard, R-Racine, delves into the broader, scarier reaches of secret investigative technologies and techniques, creating a committee that would have oversight of law enforcement and investigations at large. "One of the constitutional duties and powers of the Legislature is to make sure that...

Part 305 of 305 in the series Wisconsin's Secret War MADISON, Wis. - Ding dong, the witch-hunter is dead. More than a month after the Republican-led Legislature passed a bill dismantling the state Government Accountability Board, Gov. Scott Walker on Wednesday finally signed the bill into law - with a partial veto. The bill's supporters, including conservatives targeted by the GAB and Milwaukee County prosecutors in the unconstitutional and politically driven John Doe probe, rejoiced while the left prophesied biblical-proportion campaign finance and election law disasters. "Reform to this broken agency was long overdue and I'm proud of today's accomplishment,"...

Part 292 of 292 in the series Wisconsin's Secret War MADISON, Wis. – The state’s political speech cop again is resisting a lawmaker’s request for information about the costs of a secret John Doe investigation into Wisconsin conservatives. State Government Accountability Board director and general counsel Kevin Kennedy has “partially denied and partially fulfilled” an open records request by state Rep. Dave Craig, R-Town of Vernon. At least Kennedy insists as much in a seemingly conflicted response to the lawmaker’s request for information on the costs incurred by the GAB in the political investigation dubbed “John Doe II.” Craig, in...

Part 274 of 272 in the series Wisconsin's Secret War By M.D. Kittle | Wisconsin Watchdog MADISON, Wis. – As Kevin Kennedy goes about trying to save his job and his rogue state agency, the director of the state Government Accountability Board is twisting, if not torturing, some facts. In his supplemental testimony on the agency released this week, Kennedy takes issue with state Sen. Leah Vukmir’s question on the GAB’s early involvement in a political John Doe probe into 29 conservative organizations and the campaign of Gov. Scott Walker. The Supreme Court in July ruled the investigation unconstitutional and...

Part 271 of 269 in the series Wisconsin's Secret War MADISON, Wisconsin — The authors of a bill reforming Wisconsin’s controversial John Doe law want answers from state Government Accountability Board director Kevin Kennedy about his conversations with the Internal Revenue Service regarding a now-dead, political John Doe probe. State Sen. Tom Tiffany, R-Hazelhurst, and state Rep. Dave Craig, R-Town of Vernon, are particularly interested in an email from former GAB staff counsel Shane Falk to Milwaukee County Assistant District Attorney David Robles. In the Feb. 28, 2013, communication, Falk tells Robles: “As you may know, things are really heating...

Part 270 of 268 in the series Wisconsin's Secret War MADISON, Wis. – Newly unsealed documents in a lawsuit against the state Government Accountability Board further reveal a rogue agency all in from the beginning of a political John Doe investigation into dozens of conservative groups and the campaign of Gov. Scott Walker – even as their hapless special prosecutor was “really questioning the validity of the case.” Thursday evening, Waukesha County Court released 182 pages of emails, transcripts of closed-door meetings and other previously sealed documents after attorneys for the GAB and the plaintiffs came to terms on precisely...

Part 267 of 265 in the series Wisconsin's Secret War MADISON, Wis. — Get ready for more fireworks Wednesday as the Assembly takes up two bills aimed at reforming Wisconsin’s troubled campaign finance law and overhauling its even more troubled political speech regulator. Under a Republican proposal, the state Government Accountability Board would be split into two commissions, an elections entity and an ethics operation. The six election commission members would be partisan, evenly appointed by both parties and the governor, and the directors of the commissions would be appointed to four-year terms, subject to reappointment. Created in 2007 with...

Part 263 of 262 in the series Wisconsin's Secret War MADISON, Wisconsin — The public will have to wait for trial to see the brunt of “hot documents” attorneys have said will be “very embarrassing” to the state Government Accountability Board. On Thursday, Waukesha County Judge Lee Dreyfus Jr. opted against lifting the protective order on 181 pages of records from a lawsuit alleging the GAB overstepped its authority at taxpayer expense in driving a politically charged John Doe investigation into dozens of conservative groups and the campaign of Gov. Scott Walker. Dreyfus said the documents would probably come out...

Part 262 of 260 in the series Wisconsin's Secret War MADISON, Wisconsin — Lost in the heated rhetoric of this week’s legislative hearing on a bill to overhaul the state Government Accountability Board (See: Joseph Welch impersonations), was an important question the GAB’s director has yet to adequately answer. State Sen. Dave Craig, R-Town of Vernon, still wants to know why the state’s election, campaign finance and lobbying law regulator used Gmail accounts to communicate about the secret John Doe investigation. “I find it very concerning that the GAB, which is charged with ethics and things related to open records,...

Part 261 of 259 in the series Wisconsin's Secret War By M.D. Kittle | Wisconsin Watchdog MADISON, Wis. – It was only a matter of time before someone invoked the ghost of Joe McCarthy. This is politically hyperbolic Wisconsin after all, the home of the U.S. senator disgraced by his crusade against communists in federal government and wherever else he believed them to be. On Tuesday, it was Government Accountability Board director and chief legal counsel Kevin Kennedy resurrecting the long-dead senator. It was an interesting invocation for a guy who is accused by conservatives of helping to push a...

WAUKESHA, Wis. – It’s a battle for public disclosure, and the state Government Accountability Board is fighting to keep thousands of documents related to its role in the political John Doe investigation in the dark. Attorneys for conservative plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the GAB on Wednesday argued for their motion to open the records to public inspection. Their motion asks Waukesha County Judge Lee Dreyfus Jr. to lift a protective order that keeps the information under seal. “This is a matter of great importance about government misconduct,” said Eddie Greim, an attorney for long-time political activist Eric O’Keefe and...

MADISON, Wisconsin — Despite word that some members were getting weak-kneed about sweeping reform, GOP Assembly leadership is rolling out an overhaul of the state Government Accountability Board — a bill aimed at decentralizing a rogue agency its critics charge is run by left-leaning bureaucrats. Sources tell Wisconsin Watchdog the proposed bill, to be laid out Wednesday afternoon, will replace the existing accountability board with two separate and distinct commissions — ethics and elections. The GAB’s six presiding retired judges will be replaced. Under the proposal, the Legislature would appoint four citizen members of the Elections commission, two from each...

Part 254 of 252 in the series Wisconsin's Secret War MADISON, Wisconsin — A Waukesha County judge has ordered the state Government Accountability Board to turn over communications it had with liberal political groups. The GAB last month had argued against the release to the conservative targets of the unconstitutional John Doe investigation. But Waukesha County Judge Lee Dreyfus Jr. on Friday declared the GAB’s communications to and from the left-leaning groups, although shielded from public consumption at this point, must be turned over to the conservative plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the agency. Long-time political activist Eric O’Keefe and...

MADISON, Wis. — The state Government Accountability Board has long attempted to downplay its role in the political John Doe investigation. Documents obtained by Wisconsin Watchdog, however, show just how involved the rogue agency was in assisting John Doe special prosecutor Francis Schmitz and other partners in defending the unconstitutional campaign finance probe into Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign and dozens of conservative organizations. “It’s clear that the GAB continued to defend the bogus legal theories in the John Doe long after the board voted to shut it down … and after a federal judge enjoined the agency from continuing to...

Our liberal friends in Wisconsin are unhappy. They think someone is leaking emails that make the state’s partisan campaign regulators look bad. We’ll plead guilty to having sources, but the emails are news and they sure are revealing. Today’s installment from court documents concerns how a special prosecutor and regulators at the Government Accountability Board (GAB) targeted the state’s conservative Supreme Court justices. The partisan goal was to force some justices to recuse themselves from hearing a constitutional challenge to their probe of Governor Scott Walker and his political allies. In a Feb. 11, 2013 email, then-GAB staff counsel Shane...

The Wall Street Journal and Wisconsin Watchdog disclosed that the staff of the Government Accountability Board was engaged in partisan calculations during an investigation into the activities of the Wisconsin Club for Growth and various citizens. Kevin Kennedy responded to the disclosure with a statement that GAB staff members “feel passionately about ensuring that all parties comply with campaign finance laws.” “Passionate” is a strong word; here is the dictionary.com definition: Passionate: having, compelled by, or ruled by intense emotion or strong feeling; fervid. And this is the dictionary.com definition of its opposite: Dispassionate: free from or unaffected by passion;...

MADISON, Wis. – In January, testifying before the Legislature, Government Accountability Board director Kevin Kennedy called his agency a “Wisconsin success story.” “The Legislature should be proud of the Board, not only for its nonpartisan nature, but for its accomplishments and performance over the first seven years existence,” Kennedy said in defending the campaign finance, elections, and ethics regulator against a growing list of critics concerned that the agency was alarmingly partisan and less than accountable. SAVE MARY: An email obtained by Wisconsin Watchdog shows former GAB legal counsel Shane Falk worrying about what a prosecutor’s statement might mean for...

In an attempt to limit the damage to its viability, the Wisconsin Government Accountability Board (GAB) has issued two press releases since the state Supreme Court ruled last Thursday to terminate the agency’s secret investigation of conservatives. The releases contain a single truthful sentence: “The Legislature expected and intended the Government Accountability Board to operate in a professional, unbiased, and nonpartisan manner.” The rest is myth-making. Myth 1: GAB was a bystander in the John Doe investigation and ensuing litigation, and merely filed an amicus brief in the Supreme Court.The truth is GAB Director Kevin Kennedy and the GAB began...

MADISON, Wis. – The reaction from Republican lawmakers was outrage and the response was swift Friday following the Wall Street Journal’s bombshell revelations that the director of the state’s political speech regulator and the head of the IRS division accused of targeting conservative groups may have shared information about Wisconsin’s political John Doe investigation. Republican leadership called on the Legislature to “double down” on finalizing reforms to the state’s Government Accountability Board, the agency that oversees, election, campaign finance and ethics laws. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, and Rep. Dean Knudson, R-Hudson, called for a reform bill to be ready...