Articles
Ethics Board - Walker Campaign Railroads Opponents
- Monday, Apr 11 2011
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Wisconsin Railroaded
Bill Gardner, president and CEO of Wisconsin & Southern Railroad is being charged with at least 2 felony counts today. It seems Mr. Gardner was making illegal contributions last year to our now Governor Walkers campaign. The complaint that was filed today is alleging that 63 yr old Gardner went way over the state's $10,000 limit that is set for gubernatorial candidates and he also asked him employees to contribute to Walkers campaign. Then he turned around and reimbursed his employees for this. Apparently the complaint says that Mr. Gardner asked several people employed by him to give $5000 to the Friends of Mr. Walkers campaign and then gave the money back to those employees.
It seems to appear that back in May of 2010 Mr. Walker returned more that $40,000 in donations to the campaign to Mr. Gardner. From what it shows it looks like the transaction had taken place around the time that the state Government Accountability Board started the investigation of the campaign funding activities of Mr. Gardner. Prosecutors and officials of the Government Accountability are supposed to comment on the charges this afternoon.
Now the strange thing here is everyone is asking why Gov. Walker is not being charged along with Mr. Gardner when he had a hand in this by giving money back to Mr. Gardner. Why should he be protected from being charged when it is clear he had a part? The other question on all of our minds is where did the $40,000 come from that Gov. Walker gave back to Mr. Gardner? I highly doubt that he took this out of his personal account. I along with many others really want some answers and for Gov. Walker to be looked at the same way that Mr. Gardner was.
Wisconsin state law states that, “No person may, directly or indirectly, make any contribution other than from funds or property belonging to the contributor. No person may, directly or indirectly, furnish funds or property to another person for the purpose of making a contribution in other than the person’s own name. No person may intentionally accept or receive any contribution made in violation of this subsection.” Furthermore, the law elaborates, “The unit of prosecution under sub. (1) Is every transfer of funds to another person accompanied by the false listing of any single contributor? An individual illegally furnishing funds from a corporate account may be convicted under sub.”
Update: Today, the state’s Government Accountability Board and the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office announced the conclusion of a months-long joint investigation into money laundering allegations involving campaign contributions by William Gardner and the Wisconsin & Southern Railroad Company (WSOR). Mr. Gardner has agreed to plead guilty to two felony counts, and the corporation has paid a civil forfeiture of $166,900. Seven employees of WSOR will also pay forfeitures of $250 each.
Included or should I say not included in this release is that King Walker again has his hands washed of any wrong doing even though he contributed to his own campaign and was reimbursed for doing so. Didn’t Walker have something against railroads? Oh, wait now it makes sense! Walker didn’t want to give them a tax break for their donation; he made sure this rail company had no competition. Then later on down the line Walker wants to ask for money to improve the railway from Wisconsin to Chicago. Interesting web Walker is weaving and how details come out at interesting times.