Amy Karon stories from The Center for Public Integrity

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker grants significant access to companies, donors

Wisconsin,United States — 2012-05-20T01:03:01-04:00

You don’t have to be a campaign donor or corporate executive to get an audience with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. But it doesn’t hurt.

Walker received contributions from employees or political action committees at more than half of the 130-plus companies that appear in his official calendars, according to an analysis by the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism.

These employees and PACs gave Walker at least $1.5 million since May 2009, just after he declared his candidacy for governor.

“Wisconsin is Open for Business,” the Republican governor proclaimed in a press release on the night he was elected. His calendars from January 2011 through January 2012 bear out this stance, revealing a steady stream of contacts with top company officials.

Walker’s spokesman, Cullen Werwie, said the governor’s calendars reflect his priorities.

“Gov. Walker has been working hard to encourage job creators to expand in Wisconsin,” Werwie said in an email interview. “It should be no surprise that those interested in creating jobs in Wisconsin would meet with the governor.”

Center reporters pored through more than 4,400 calendar entries during this 13-month period to tally Walker’s contacts.

The analysis suggested that big donors got more access. Three-quarters of all PACs that have given Walker at least $20,000 are associated with companies that show up on his calendar. In contrast, about a quarter of the PAC donors that gave under $20,000 are listed.

Companies and their executives appear in Walker’s calendars in jobs announcements, factory tours, check presentations, phone calls and private meetings — sometimes labeled “no media,” as with 3M and Caterpillar Inc.

The list includes many big businesses, such as Harley-Davidson, IBM, Northwestern Mutual, Johnsonville Sausage, Walgreens and Uline. No one company dominated Walker’s time: Leading the list, with four contacts, was Ashley Furniture, based in Arcadia, Wis.

“This governor has long been known as being pro-business, which led to business people giving money to his campaign,” said Joe Heim, a political science professor at UW-La Crosse. “Whether the money was related to the access remains to be seen.”

Heim noted that, according to the Center’s analysis, Walker hasn’t received campaign contributions from two-thirds of executives who spent time in person or on the phone with him.

“You can have access to the governor without contributing, to be blunt,” Heim said.

Mike McCabe, executive director of the nonpartisan watchdog Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, disagreed, noting that just 1 percent of the population contributes to political campaigns. He said Walker’s calendars lend credence to citizens who believe that “politics is just a rich person’s game, and you have to have a lot of money to have a voice.”

McCabe added that direct giving to candidates is only a small part of the cash that major players pump into campaigns, with much of the rest coming from outside special interests.

“I guarantee you that the numbers you describe understate the companies’ involvement,” he said.

Does money equal access?

Former Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle was once billed as a participant in a “Meet and Greet” breakfast with the Dairy Business Association “exclusively for DBA members who have contributed to the DBA Conduit or Political Action Committee.”

In Walker’s calendars, the connection between money and access is never so explicit. And they rarely say what’s discussed.

For example, the calendars show Walker visiting roofing distributor ABC Supply Co. Inc. on Jan. 18, 2011, for a meeting of a Rock County economic development group.

Recently released video footage shows Walker at this meeting talking to Diane Hendricks, the company’s executive vice president, about his plan to curtail collective bargaining for public workers, which he described as the beginning of a “divide and conquer” strategy.

Hendricks later became Walker’s largest contributor. She gave Walker contributions at or near the maximum $10,000 limit in each of the last two election cycles, then last month wrote him a $500,000 check, taking advantage of a state law that removes the limit for officials facing recalls. Walker also met with Hendricks twice in April 2011, at least once in her capacity as a board member of WisconsinEye, the calendars show.

Another donor, John Bergstrom, who owns the state’s largest car dealership and has given Walker $4,000 since January 2010, received a call from Walker on Jan. 20, 2011, according to the calendars. It was the day after a state Senate committee introduced a bill at Walker’s request that would exempt a single parcel of land owned by Bergstrom from state wetlands rules. The exemption passed, in advance of a bill that eased restrictions on infilling of all wetlands.

Georgia Duerst-Lahti, a professor of political science at Beloit College who signed the Walker recall petition, said the governor’s meetings with corporations and donors “reflects the Republicans’ pro-business ideology, but also the governor’s astounding fundraising.”

Walker has raised more than $25 million since taking office. “How’s he going to raise that kind of money without courting corporations?” she asked.

Heim cited an example — Walker’s acceptance of a phone call in February 2011 from a blogger posing as billionaire supporter David Koch — to illustrate his belief that while money buys access, it does not always buy influence.

“Walker promised nothing,” Heim said. “It was simply a friendly conversation. I bet if I called, he wouldn’t answer. But access is not necessarily influence.”

Few union contacts

While the calendars documented many corporate encounters, the Center found scant evidence of contacts between Walker and organized labor. On April 21, 2011, Walker met with Terry McGowan and Robb Kahl of Local Operating Engineers 139, a union that endorsed Walker for governor and made $12,000 in PAC contributions to his campaign.

McGowan has since expressed discomfort with Walker’s remarks to Hendricks. The union is not endorsing a candidate in the current recall election.

Mary Bell, president of the Wisconsin Education Association Council, the state’s largest teachers union, confirmed that she spoke briefly with the governor on Feb. 9, 2011, as his calendar reflects. But Bell said the requested follow-up meeting never happened. She accused Walker of being more interested in “putting up a front than trying to work with us in a productive way.”

Spokesman Werwie declined to comment on why Walker has seldom met with union officials. But he did say the governor’s schedule “is set and based on how to best create private sector jobs in Wisconsin, which is why (he) met with private sector union representatives, who have largely been a partner in economic development.”

Walker faces Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett on June 5 in a nationally watched recall election.

This three-part series, The Walker Calendar Files, including an interactive graphic of calendar entries, is available at: wisconsinwatch .org /walkercalendars.

The nonprofit and nonpartisan Center (WisconsinWatch .org ) collaborates with Wisconsin Public Television, Wisconsin Public Radio, other news media, MapLight and the UW-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Works created, published, posted or disseminated by the Center do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of UW-Madison or its affiliates.

Wisconsin Gov. Walker’s conservative media appearances pay off as he raises millions from out-of-state donors

Wisconsin,United States — 2012-05-18T16:23:01-04:00

On Nov. 10, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker gave the keynote address at the annual dinner of the Goldwater Institute, a conservative think tank in Phoenix with ties to the powerful, corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council.

“Tonight, you might say I’m preaching to the choir with a bunch of fellow conservatives,” Walker, the son of a minister, told more than 1,000 supporters that night. “I preach to the choir because I want the choir to sing. So tonight I’m asking you to sing.”

His message: Spread the word “in Arizona and all across America that we can do things better.”

The high-profile event was no anomaly. Two days later, Walker addressed students at a conference at the Reagan Ranch in Santa Barbara, Calif., where he was billed as one of America’s “top conservative leaders.”

Walker’s official calendars from his first 13 months in office chronicle these and scores more hours he spent building credentials with conservatives in Wisconsin and across the nation.

The governor granted more interview time to the national, conservative-leaning Fox News cable channel than any other media outlet — nearly twice as much as to his hometown newspaper, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which had endorsed him in 2010.

Walker’s spokesman, Cullen Werwie, said the governor “has multiple media availabilities every week where he is available to answer questions from any legitimate news organization who chooses to attend, liberal or conservative.”

Last fall and winter, Walker halved his overall work schedule, but his PR time hardly changed even as he raised unprecedented millions in response to a recall campaign. Since taking office in January 2011, he has raised more than $25 million -- more than half from other states.

Prime time for conservative hosts

Fox News isn’t the only conservative-leaning outlet Walker favors. Charlie Sykes, a radio host of Milwaukee’s WTMJ, was scheduled for more interview time with Walker than any other media professional in his first 13 months in office. Sykes donated $500 to Walker’s 2010 campaign, records show.

However, Mike Gousha, a television news anchor of Milwaukee’s WISN whose work long has been respected by conservatives and liberals alike, was scheduled for nearly as much time as was Sykes.

Conservative-leaning Vicki McKenna, a radio host on Madison’s WIBA, accrued the third-most time with Walker.

Overall, five of the seven radio and TV talk show hosts with whom Walker spent the most media time are conservatives. (The seventh, Greta Van Susteren of Fox News, has said her stance “depends on the issue.”)

Sykes and McKenna didn’t respond to emails seeking comment.

Walker’s time with media was tallied using a database the Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism created from Walker’s calendars.

Katherine Cramer Walsh, political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said the Center’s findings matched her own assessment of Walker’s strategy: “To shore up his base, spend time with his supporters, and not necessarily build bridges, compromise or reach out to opponents.”

Although politically charged radio hosts such as Sykes and McKenna are popular, their programs are heard by a relatively small slice of the population, said Michael J. Flaherty, who runs a Madison public relations firm and is a former Capitol reporter for the Wisconsin State Journal.

“Most folks don't listen to these people, but the folks who do tend to be fairly loud voices in their local communities,” Flaherty added. “It may look like the governor is talking only to himself half the time. But he’s reinforcing a message that has been multiplied many, many times by these storytellers.”

Walker faces Democrat Tom Barrett, mayor of Milwaukee, in a nationally watched election on June 5.

Distant with liberal media

During Walker’s first 13 months in office, he appeared at numerous press conferences, scheduled nearly 200 hours with media and granted interviews to at least 115 outlets. But not all media outlets had easy access to the governor.

“Gov. Walker skips interviews, does NYC fundraiser,” read a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel headline in January 2012 after a reporter was denied an interview. Walker was fundraising at the time for his recall election alongside Maurice “Hank” Greenberg, the founder of financial services giant American International Group.

Liberal-leaning media, such as Madison’s The Capital Times newspaper and The Progressive Magazine, attended Walker’s press conferences. But they weren’t scheduled for interviews, his calendars show.

Capital Times Editor Paul Fanlund said in one instance this winter when the governor was scheduling year-end interviews with many news media outlets — a common practice — Walker seemed to single out his paper for rejection. Fanlund said Werwie told a reporter that “he personally didn’t like our editorial about his role in the John Doe investigation and he didn’t think Walker would gain anything by talking with us.”

Werwie responded by email that it was “completely absurd” to cover a single denial and supplied four rejections to a Fox News producer. “I turn down tons of requests for interviews,” Werwie said, adding that the governor has rejected media requests from “across the ideological spectrum.”

Dean Pagani, a former press secretary for Republican Gov. John Rowland of Connecticut who now covers gubernatorial issues at GovernorsJournal.com, said he wasn’t surprised Walker didn’t “waste time” talking to people he’s unlikely to persuade.

“When I was (a press officer), our job was to get as much press as possible, regardless of who was asking the question,” he said. But now, “the press secretaries are much more protective, and they want to know where you’re coming from before they let you talk to their governor.”

Governor on the go

In a single day last November, Walker flew to Wausau for a jobs announcement, hopped to La Crosse to sign two economic bills, gave a radio address and headed to his home near Milwaukee, where he gave a Fox & Friends interview the next morning.

His calendars highlight what political scientists call a key political strategy — a constant public-relations focus in a 24-hour news world.

“Scott Walker is a modern politician,” said Geoffrey Skelley, political analyst at the University of Virginia Center for Politics. “He spends a lot of time in transit, doing public relations events, talking to people and trying to promote his agenda.

“As the population gets larger and people feel less connected to government officials, it’s a way to seem like you're still in touch with the people who put you in office,” Skelley said.

Walker spent about 530 hours on PR work. His top priority appeared to be his jobs agenda, at about one-fifth of that time, according to the Center’s analysis. Time spent networking with his base and with other politicians came in second.

During his first year in office, Walker visited at least two-thirds of Wisconsin’s counties and 12 other states, plus Washington, D.C. But he bypassed much of the northern third of Wisconsin.

Spokesman Werwie said, “While some counties are harder than others to visit given his hectic schedule, (Walker) has made it a priority to regularly have events and grant media interviews in all areas of the state.”

Pagani said Walker has leveraged his national attention well. If he wins the recall election, he’ll be a conservative hero. If he loses, he’ll be a martyr who can “travel the country saying, ‘I fought the good fight.’ ”

Explore interactive graphics of the governor’s calendars at www.wisconsinwatch.org/walkercalendars.

Coming Sunday, May 20: Who got access to Walker?

Walker’s official work time declines as national fame grows

Wisconsin,United States — 2012-05-18T16:23:01-04:00

Editor's note: Rightly or wrongly, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has come to symbolize the polarization of American politics in 2012. Walker, a Republican, has drawn intense national scrutiny since he shepherded a bill through the state legislature early last year that ended collective bargaining rights for many public employees. Opponents responded with a furious petition drive that has forced Walker into a recall election June 5 against Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. Spending on the race is expected to hit $80 million, much of it from groups outside the state.

On Jan. 28, 2011, two weeks before Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker unveiled his plan to slash public employee unions’ powers, he dined at the Washington, D.C., area home of Fred Malek, a wealthy Republican power broker.

It was a taste of what would become routine for Walker.

As protesters swarmed the state Capitol and a historic effort to recall him took shape, Walker crisscrossed the nation, breaking fundraising records and netting about half his donations from out of state. He logged more time with Fox News, a national, conservative-leaning cable channel, than any other news outlet.

But his calendars show the consequences of fame and fundraising.

By January 2012, Walker scheduled about 30 hours a week for state business — half as much work time as six months earlier. On some weekdays, eight- to 12-hour time blocks were simply marked “Personal.”

“Gov. Walker would be the first person to tell you that if it wasn’t for big outside special interests and union bosses trying to recall him, he wouldn’t need to be spending any time campaigning,” spokesman Cullen Werwie said in an interview last week.

Walker, much like former Gov. Jim Doyle, keeps his official calendar open to the public but reveals few details in advance. Other appointments — personal and political — generally aren’t disclosed.

To analyze how Walker has used his time as the state’s chief executive, Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism reporters created a database of the more than 4,400 entries in Walker’s calendars from his first 13 months in office, through Jan. 31, 2012.

The team labeled events with categories like travel time, public relations, and time with legislators or companies.

The public can explore every entry in Walker’s calendars on the Wisconsin Center's site here.

The calendars chronicle the life of a seemingly tireless governor. Some days list more than two dozen entries — phone calls, meetings, photo ops, speeches, travel and other work.

Walker visited at least 50 of the state’s 72 counties and numerous states. He spent a third to half his time each month traveling, often while speaking on the phone to reporters or company CEOs.

Selling policies a high priority

In August, one of Walker’s busiest months, the governor averaged 60-hour work weeks and – excluding travel time — spent a total of 42 hours on public relations.

He announced tax credits for Weldall Manufacturing in Waukesha, presided over the Governor’s Red White and Blue livestock auction at the Wisconsin State Fair in West Allis and held a “meet and greet” in his office with an Iraq veteran.

Political experts said Walker’s PR-heavy schedule wasn’t surprising, given the reaction to the collective bargaining bill.

“People were explicitly talking about recall as a measure right away,” said Dennis Dresang, founding director of the La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who signed a recall petition. “So right from the start he felt beleaguered and as if he had to maintain high positive visibility in order to retain his job.”

But Werwie had a different explanation: “It’s fair and responsible, and really (Walker’s) job to do his part to show what we’ve been doing for Wisconsin and the impact it’s had on our schools and on all taxpayers and citizens.”

Uptick in personal time

Walker’s official work schedule shrank in the fall and winter, when his calendars note less time spent meeting business leaders and staff, interviewing candidates for appointments and working on open records requests.

Meanwhile, far more time was labeled “PERSONAL 1.” Such entries lacked other details, but news reports from those days describe Walker jet-setting around the country for fundraising and other political events, such as the Republican Governors Association conference in late November, neoconservative Grover Norquist’s Christmas party in Washington, D.C., and Walker’s $2,500-a-person January fundraiser in New York hosted by Maurice Greenberg, founder of the insurance giant American International Group.

“The governor is a public servant,” said Dean Pagani, who covers gubernatorial issues from Washington, D.C., at GovernorsJournal.com and was chief of staff to Republican former Gov. John Rowland of Connecticut. “You want to know that he or she is paying attention to the problems of the state, not spending too much time promoting himself or herself and his own career.

“It’s a very basic question that should always be asked: Is he doing his job?” Pagani added.

Walker spent two grueling days in December giving 15- to 20-minute interviews with 25 news outlets. But the next month, the calendars clocked just two hours for media: two TV interviews in Milwaukee, an open press call and a conference on his children’s reading initiative, Read to Lead.

A handful of entries in the fall were blacked out entirely. Werwie described these as “haircuts, parent teacher conferences, family events, as well as other personal items.”

No mention of John Doe

The calendar entries are silent on one subject: the John Doe investigation that’s been swirling around the governor and his former aides.

Activities involving Kelly Rindfleisch, Walker’s fundraising director, appear in March and April 2011 but lack details. “Phone call to your CELL: Kelly will provide information,” reads one entry. Rindfleisch, who was Walker’s deputy chief of staff when he was Milwaukee county executive, was charged in January this year with four felony counts of misconduct in office for allegedly campaigning on county time. Walker has repeatedly declined to discuss the investigation, citing its secrecy.

Walker faces Democratic nominee Tom Barrett in a recall election scheduled for June 5.

Next: How Walker sold his policies — and himself — in and outside Wisconsin.

The nonprofit and nonpartisan Center (WisconsinWatch.org) collaborates with Wisconsin Public Television, Wisconsin Public Radio, other news media and the UW-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication. Works created, published, posted or disseminated by the Center do not necessarily reflect the views or opinions of UW-Madison or its affiliates.