Jensen gamble puts Republicans at risk

If State Rep. Scott Jensen, R-Brookfield, does what his lawyer insists he will do, and goes to trial on charges that he abused his public office by running campaigns at taxpayer expense, he'll be taking a big gamble.

The other four legislators charged in connection with the far-reaching caucus scandal all copped pleas as their trials approached.

But Jensen is the only one who's still in office. He's been reelected twice since his indictment, and continues to be a force in the Republican leadership's inner circle, although he did step down as Speaker.

He's managed to delay the trial for more than three years, trying every argument under the sun: "This was all part of my job. "Everybody else was doing it, too." "I can't get a fair trial here."

It's all fallen on the deaf ears of Judge Steven Ebert. With Ebert on the bench and a Dane County jury that Jensen claims will be full of Dane County Democrats who've read negative stories about him, it's hard to imagine Jensen thinks he will be acquitted. Maybe he is hoping that some of Ebert's decisions will be reversible on appeal. Or maybe he just wants to drag it out until his term ends at the end of the year.

It is no secret in the Capitol that legislative Republicans do not want a trial.

Republicans are already reeling nationally from the Tom DeLay, Duke Cunningham, and Jack Abramoff scandals. Despite the GOP's efforts to make those bi-partisan, the polls clearly show Republicans have been hurt and are looking at losses in this year's Congressional elections.

Jensen, too, will try to make his defense bipartisan, threatening to call Democrats like former Speaker Tom Loftus as a witness.

But the trial, which could last three weeks, will feature one Republican witness after another, testifying about Republican misconduct and abuse of the system. The fallout could touch many GOP campaigns.

For example, the campaign manager for Attorney General candidate JB Van Hollen, Darrin Schmitz, is listed as a witness for the prosecution. Apparently, Schmitz will be testifying about the systematic abuse of taxpayer resources by state legislative Republicans he witnessed as a caucus employee, legislative staffer and executive director of the Wisconsin Republican Party.

Mark Green's chief of staff, Chris Tuttle, couldn't have been pleased to see that both of his supervisors from his days in the Assembly Republican caucus, Ray Carey and Todd Rongstad, and his subordinates, Eric Grant and R. J. Pirlot, were on the original prosecution witness list. But Rongstad and Pirlot didn't make the final cut, which is probably some relief.

Seems odd that everyone in the organizational chart except Tuttle was campaigning on state time, but maybe that will be explained on the witness stand.

Speaker John Gard, who's running for Congress, is on the list. So is State GOP Chair Rick Graber and convicted ex-lawmakers Steve Foti and Bonnie Ladwig, Republicans all.

If this becomes a three-week expose of Republican sins, Scott Jensen, while arguing that his job was to win elections and build a Republican majority, could be guaranteeing that Republicans lose legislative seats in the fall.

Today's Wisconsin State Journal story.

Prosecution witness list.