School Voucher Lobbyists Fingerprints on Redistricting Maps

Madison – Last week a panel of three federal judges ordered Wisconsin Republican lawmakers to turn over 84 emails in regard to the new election maps. Republicans fought tooth and nail in an attempt to keep those documents from the public eye. After reading the emails something caught our attention. We followed the money and can now see why Republicans were so adamant about keeping them secret.

A name that kept appearing in the released emails was that of Scott Jensen. In 2002 Jensen was charged with misuse of public workers and state resources as part of a large state scandal. Jensen ended up resigning from office on March 21, 2006.

Prior to this, Jensen was a lobbyist for Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce from 1984 to 1987. (Mining anyone?) More recently Scott Jensen operates as a lobbyist for American Federation for Children (AFC) and in that capacity consulted Wisconsin Republicans on redistricting maps?

Fast-forward with a bit of Rewind

Scott Jensen is currently a senior adviser for the government affairs team for the American Federation for Children. AFC is the new face of “All Children Matter”. All Children Matter may ring a bell with you if you are from Ohio but they are less well known in Wisconsin, so I will fill you in.

In 2008, the Ohio Elections Commission ruled unanimously that All Children Matter had illegally funneled $870,000 in contributions from its Virginia political action committee to its affiliate in Ohio.

The payment violated a $10,000 cap on what Ohio-based, political-action committees could accept from any single entity. All Children Matter was also fined $500 in Wisconsin for providing media support for candidates without registering as a PAC. (SourceWatch.org) All Children Matter was headed by former Michigan Republican Chairwoman Betsy DeVos. Three years after the Commission imposed the record-breaking fine; the group had not yet paid it, according to the Ohio state attorney general.

An open letter was sent to the Wisconsin Legislature from Ohio asking for lawmakers to return money donated to their campaigns from All Children Matter.

The names on this letter include:

Brett Davis, Jeff Fitzgerald, Mark Honadel, Mike Huebsch, James Krueser, Stephen Nass, Scott Suder, Robin Vos, Leah Vukmir, Dale Schultz, Luther Olsen, Neal Kedzie, Alberta Darling, Sheila Harsdorf, Glenn Grothman, Robert Jauch, and Tim Carpenter. - Allcashmatters.org

American Federation for Children: Today

As we followed the money, we stumbled across a PDF file online and found the following excerpt that explains what the two group’s motivations are and their intentions.

The mission of these groups is to help elect state legislators of both parties that support parental choice. ACM (All Children Matter) was a very active participant in the 2004, 2006, and 2008 elections, and AFC (American Federation for Children) will be in 2010.

More recently AFC sponsored rob-o-calls, which urged Wisconsinites not to sign recall petitions for eight state senators who supported Governor Scott Walker.

Why is Scott Jensen as current chair of AFC, an organization with the mission to “elect state legislators that support parental choice” helping draw Wisconsin’s election maps! Is there a connection between redistricting maps and voucher schools?