The Way I See It!

Sandy Pasch - Is She What You Really Want?

Posted by Randy Hollenbeck on Aug. 6, 2011

2011 Election, Democrats, Liberals, Wisconsin, Scott Walker, Public Sector Unions

Take note that again, the left is okay with breaking the law and doing dishonest things because things are too important.  Someone has to stop Walker and the Republicans they feel!

Also, please note how helpful and useful the GAB is.

We really need to do away of the GAB.  I myself have gotten nowhere in the past with them on local election issues, remember spring 2010 elections?

Pasch faces bribery and other campaign violation accusations

From Wisconsin State House News

MADISON — One week before election day, things are heating up in the hotly contested 8th Senate District recall race, where Democratic challenger state Rep. Sandy Pasch faces serious allegations of campaign wrongdoing.

The Republican Party of Wisconsin has filed formal verified complaints on behalf of state Sen. Alberta Darling, R-River Hills, with Wisconsin’s Government Accountability Board, accusing Pasch of illegal coordination and election bribery.  The allegations stem from the Whitefish Bay Democrat’s involvement with a third party and “block parties” the Republican Party says were voter inducements.

The GOP alleges possible collusion between Pasch and Citizen Action of Wisconsin.  Pasch has served as a board member for the labor-backed special interest group, which has dumped tens of thousands of dollars into ad campaigns targeting Darling.

More alarming, said Darling’s campaign manager Andrew Davis, is the allegation that the Whitefish Bay Democrat is sharing her campaign treasurer with the third-party nonprofit.

“We’re accusing them (Citizen Action of Wisconsin) of illegally colluding with the Pasch campaign,” Davis told Wisconsin Reporter on Tuesday.  “It’s going to be tough for Sandy to plead ignorance when she sat on the board of Citizen Action … and her campaign treasurer is knee-deep in with this organization.”

The Government Accountability Board, state’s election agency, could not be reached for comment.

David Kreisman, Pasch’s campaign manager, did not return a call and and an email request from Wisconsin Reporter for a comment.  As of late Tuesday morning, Pasch’s campaign website included no reference or response to the complaint.

Gillian Morris, spokeswoman for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, said that while Pasch is a member of the Citizen Action board, she has had no involvement in the board’s campaign strategy or planning.

“This is a desperate and laughable attempt to attack her,” Morris told Wisconsin Reporter.  “Sen. Darling is in trouble and she can see that.”

The most recent polls show Darling slightly ahead of Pasch, but the margin of error put the race at a statistical dead heat.

Morris said the Republicans and the Darling camp have made all kinds “absurd charges, but that doesn’t mean they’re true.”  She said she did not know whether Pasch’s treasurer is a member or involved with Citizen Action.

At a Milwaukee Press Club Newspaper luncheon Monday, Pasch told attendees she had no contact with Citizen Action concerning any political activities.

“We found that very hard to believe, and insulting to all of our intelligences,” Davis said.

“In recent weeks, Citizen Action has taken an unusual interest in attacking Alberta Darling, with nearly identical messaging as the Pasch campaign,” said Stephan Thompson, executive director of the Republican Party of Wisconsin, in a statement on the organization’s website. “We feel that it is only prudent to ensure that these circumstances are uncanny coincidences, not the result of illegal activity on the part of the Pasch campaign.”

The Pasch campaign, meanwhile, is being dogged by food-and-rides-for-votes allegations, stemming from weekend “block parties” in Milwaukee.

Local law enforcement officials reportedly were looking into the matter.

The charge is that at least five parties sponsored by Wisconsin Jobs Now, a coalition of big unions and community organizers that bills itself as nonpartisan, provided free food, prizes, school backpack giveaways, even face-painting for kids.  Then the block parties hit the road, with free rides to Milwaukee City Hall, where voters cast ballots in the 8th Senate District election, set for a week from today.

The Democratic Party’s Morris said Wisconsin Jobs Now is an independent group and has “nothing to do with Sandy Pasch and her campaign or the Democratic Party.”

The block parties “are part of the independent expenditure side of the structure, therefore neither Sandy or the party or anyone else from the campaign has any involvement in that and any claims that Sandy has any involvement in that is blatantly false,” Morris said.

But Wisconsin Jobs Now has a lot of powerful union friends and others galled about Darling’s support of Gov. Scott Walker’s budget reform and the big hits big labor has taken in the bargain.

The organization did not return a request for an interview.

On Tuesday, Wisconsin Jobs Now’s website continued to promote free early voting shuttles through Aug. 5, admonishing voters that “There’s too much at stake.

“A few hundred votes will decide good jobs vs. no jobs, good schools vs. bad schools, a future with a chance or one even worse than now,” the group’s site implores.  “We cannot remain silent.  They’re expecting us to stay home.”

Darling’s supporters and the GOP in general would argue Walker’s budget and programs have put the state back on the path of a brighter future, and they would point to the nearly 40,000 jobs created on the governor’s watch as strong evidence.

Wisconsin election law prohibits offering enticements to voters in elections.  Simply put, no freebies for votes — or to keep voters away from the polls.

Reid Magney, spokesman for the Government Accountability Board, could not be reached for comment late Tuesday afternoon, but he earlier told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that under state election law, it is legal to offer rides to the polls or free food at “block parties” to talk about issues, but not at the same event.

http://statehousenewsonline.com/2011/08/02/update-pasch-faces-bribery-andother-campaign-violation-accusations/