Green's caucus scandal connections spotlighted in Jensen trial testimony

The headline says a lot, and it has to be Mark Green's worst nightmare. His old friend Scott Jensen has landed Green in the caucus scandal spotlight, and not in a good way.

The headline on today's Wisconsin State Journal story: Mark Green comes up in caucus trial.

Green has insisted he knew nothing about illegal activity by the caucus staff while he was in the legislature, but even some former colleagues have a hard time swallowing that.

The story includes a laundry list of Green's connections to illegal campaign work, making this radio commercial, which caused such ourtage from Green and the GOP when it started to air on Monday, seem a little tame.

The story:

In the past two days, the names of gubernatorial candidate Mark Green and two of his staffers have surfaced in the official misconduct trial of former Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen, adding fuel to the already heated debate over ethics in the governor's race.

Former Assembly Republican Caucus graphic artist Eric Grant testified Wednesday and Thursday that in the late 1990s he worked on campaign literature for Green while at his taxpayer-funded office, and documents introduced at trial show two staffers who now work for Green in Congress were involved in campaigning at the Legislature.

Despite this week's testimony and widespread, bipartisan acknowledgment that doing campaign work was common at the Capitol, Green says he knew nothing about state staffers doing campaign work on state time during his six years in the Assembly, including four as one of the highest ranking Republicans in the Assembly.

Green's campaign manager, Mark Graul, has labeled the Green Bay Republican "squeaky clean" when it comes to the scandal that resulted in fines and jail sentences after four of Green's former colleagues pleaded guilty to charges related to running private political campaigns at the Legislature. Jensen, R-Waukesha, is the only person charged in the scandal to go to trial.

"We had a strict rule: Nobody did campaign work on state time," said Green, 45, who is seeking to unseat Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle in November.

Green, an attorney, served in the Assembly from 1992 through 1998 and has served in Congress since then. He became the caucus chairman for Assembly Republicans, the party's fifth-highest ranking leader, two years after he was first elected, and he held that position until he left the Legislature.

Republican leaders above Green and more than two dozen Republican Assembly staffers are expected to testify in Jensen's trial that campaigning was common at the ARC when Green was there. Documents introduced in the trial and others obtained by the Wisconsin State Journal also suggest Green and two key aides, Graul and Chris Tuttle, were involved in campaign work at the Legislature.

Two legislators who served with Green questioned how the former leader could claim ignorance about the widespread campaign activity that has spawned the biggest political scandal in state history.

DuWayne Johnsrud, his former Republican Assembly colleague who retired in 2004 after 20 years in the Legislature, said everyone at the Capitol from lawmakers to staff to lobbyists and even reporters knew legislative and caucus staff were campaigning on state time.

"There are no angels in the Capitol on this issue," he said. "To say you didn't know what was going on - that's a big stretch." Referring to the old TV show "Hogan's Heroes," Johnsrud added, "To play Sgt. Schultz - 'I know nothing, I hear nothing, I see nothing' - come on. That doesn't seem very possible."

The issue of ethics is shaping up to be a large part of the governor's race, which pits incumbent Democrat Doyle against Republican challengers Green and Scott Walker, the Milwaukee County executive. Walker served in the Legislature from 1993 until 2002 and said through his spokesman, Bruce Pfaff, that he never participated in any campaign activity at the Capitol.

Doyle has been under fire for months over allegations that his administration awarded state contracts and a favorable regulatory decision in exchange for campaign cash. Both Green and Walker have tried to capitalize on the allegations, which Doyle has strongly denied.

Questions were also raised earlier this month after Jensen's attorney submitted previously secret investigative reports showing that Assembly Democrats, including Doyle's top campaign aide, Rich Judge, routinely worked on private political campaigns while at their state jobs. Judge was employed at the Legislature's Assembly Democratic Caucus at the time.

Grant also testified that when he worked for Jensen, Pfaff, who is now Walker's campaign manager, picked up campaign literature at the ARC office at 17 S. Fairchild St. Pfaff said he has no recollection of doing that.

Earlier this month, Green insisted that any campaign work he did occurred outside the Capitol and outside his congressional office, and that his staff in the Legislature and Congress always used leave or vacation time while on the campaign trail. State and federal laws prohibit campaigning on the taxpayers' dime.

Green also said he had nothing to do with running the now-shuttered ARC, a taxpayer-funded campaign machine whose operations resulted in criminal charges against Jensen and convictions for two other Assembly Republicans who served above Green.

In court documents, Jensen has acknowledged running political campaigns out of the Legislature, insisting that such work was a key part of his job when he was the top leader from 1997 until 2002. Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice David Prosser, who preceded Jensen as speaker, also acknowledged in a court document that during his seven years in leadership - 1989 until 1996 - state employees under his supervision often worked on private political campaigns at the Capitol.

Green, who served as a leader under both Prosser and Jensen, denied any knowledge of what went on at the ARC. Green said his duties were legislative, not campaign-related, including running meetings of Republican Assembly members and to plot strategy on legislation.

"I was not involved in the (Assembly Republican) Caucus operations," Green said. "That was not a function of the caucus chair."

But Marty Reynolds, a Democrat from Ladysmith who served with Green, said the fact that state staff and time were used for campaigns was known by virtually everyone in the Legislature.

"I can just say, if you didn't know what was going on, you weren't paying attention at all," said Reynolds, who served from 1990 until 2002. "And for someone in leadership to say they weren't paying attention is totally disingenuous."


The evidence

Documents obtained by the State Journal - and testimony and records from Grant over the past two days - indicate that Green's ties to the illegal campaigning were closer than he claims. According to the records:

Grant testified that while at the ARC, he designed campaign-related Packers and Badgers schedules for Green in 1997.

Grant also testified that he kept kept campaign materials on a separate disk from his official work. A handwritten log of work from one of the disks listed "Green stuff" that had been requested by Graul.

Green campaign spokesman Rob Vernon said Green's congressional campaign contracted separately with Grant for any campaign work, paying Grant $250 on Feb. 11, 1998, from Green's Assembly campaign and $50 on July 14, 1999, from Green's congressional campaign. Asked whether he knew Grant was using his state office, time and computer to produce the literature, Vernon said, "Mark Green did not know that."

Grant also testified that Tuttle, now chief of staff for Green in Washington, D.C., was one of three people at the ARC in charge of approving all campaign literature Grant produced. Tuttle also directed him to work on a special election in 1996, Grant said. Vernon said Tuttle didn't work for Green at the Legislature, and Green has said he never talked with Tuttle about the work Tuttle did at the ARC.

On March 13, 1996, Green had a fax line installed in his Capitol office, and his campaign committee, Green for Better Government, reimbursed the Assembly chief clerk's office $35.54 for the costs, Elections Board reports show.

Vernon said Green bought the machine for state business but paid for it with political contributions to get a nicer fax machine than was available through the Legislature. But Johnsrud said Assembly members at the time were allowed to have private phone lines installed in their Capitol offices for campaign work and personal business, and many did so.

A Republican Assembly group solicited volunteers for Green's 1998 congressional race in their taxpayer-funded offices, a possible violation of the state law that prohibits the solicitation of political donations or services on state property.

Two memos were distributed at the Capitol around Labor Day 1998 seeking volunteers for a "lit drop" for Green's congressional campaign. Green said he wasn't aware of any solicitation of volunteers at the Capitol on his behalf, but Johnsrud recalls Graul drumming up volunteers for Green's first congressional race at the Capitol.

Green was among the leaders thanking legislative staff for their work on campaigns in 1998 in a memo hand-delivered at the Capitol. The Nov. 5, 1998, memo thanks legislative staffers for entering "hundreds of thousands of records" into campaign databases, hand- addressing 20,000 envelopes and delivering campaign literature to "thousands of homes throughout the state."

The memo invited staffers to a party and to respond to the legislative office of Ladwig, who has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for using her office to run the Republican Assembly Campaign Committee. Green said his name was likely on the letter with the other Republican leaders only as a "courtesy" since all of his attention that year was focused on his own race for Congress.

A confidential memo said Graul was heavily involved in legislative races in 1996 while employed as Green's top legislative staffer.

The Feb. 17, 1997, memo from former ARC director Ray Carey described the taxpayer- funded agency's efforts in the 1996 campaigns, including the central role of Graul, who was named as one of the six regional coordinators overseeing races across Wisconsin that year. Graul said all of his campaign work took place on his free time or during leaves from his job at Green's legislative office. Records show he took a 50 percent leave that year, from Aug. 5 until Nov. 5.

However, the Carey memo said the duties of coordinators such as Graul "were primarily from April until after the September primary" - including roughly four months when Graul wasn't on leave. Carey singled out Graul as being "especially . . . very helpful" in recruiting candidates to run that year. Carey is scheduled to testify today in the Jensen trial.