Posted on 12/21/2005 7:18:01 AM PST by Diana in Wisconsin
Authorities investigating a state travel contract given to a major donor to Gov. Jim Doyle's campaign are also looking for links between donations from utility executives and state regulators' approval of the sale of a nuclear power plant, sources said.
The probe began after a utility company whistleblower complained to the state attorney general's office in November about possibly improper contacts last year between one of the utilities and top aides at the state Public Service Commission.
Heading into a re-election campaign next year, the Democratic governor is facing increasing scrutiny over campaign donors' influence.
Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager earlier this month said her office was looking into the complaint about the contacts, which PSC officials acknowledge but say were not improper. Lautenschlager has requested records about the contacts but declined to comment on what else she might be examining.
But two sources who have spoken with investigators said state and federal authorities looking into possible influence-buying in the state travel contract are asking similar questions about the controversial $191.5 million sale in July of the Kewaunee nuclear power plant.
The information obtained by Lautenschlager's office is being shared with U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic in Milwaukee, the sources said.
"They're asking for chronologies, events, names," said one source. The three sources who spoke about the investigation requested anonymity either to protect their jobs or professional relationships.
Biskupic and Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard, who are working with Lautenschlager in the travel contract investigation, declined to comment.
PSC officials said campaign donations to Doyle simply don't influence rulings by the three-member commission, which is controlled by two Doyle appointees but officially is independent.
"Political and campaign considerations don't enter into our decisions," said Dan Schooff, an aide to PSC chairman Dan Ebert. "The public should have full faith in this process."
Doyle spokesman Dan Leistikow said the governor doesn't influence the commission's decisions.
"The PSC is totally independent of the governor and operates much like a court," Leistikow said. "If somebody has a concern with their decision, they have to take it up with the PSC."
In October, Biskupic, a Republican appointee, said he and Lautenschlager, a Democrat, were launching a joint investigation into the $750,000, three-year state employee travel contract that was awarded to Adelman Travel Group of Milwaukee after an evaluation committee initially scored a competing company slightly higher.
Adelman's chief executive and a board member each gave Doyle's campaign a total of $10,000 - the maximum allowed - in the months before and after the contract was announced in March. The firm eventually beat out Omega World Travel of Fairfaix, Va., after the state challenged the two to submit a "best and final" offer.
Doyle has said that he had nothing to do with awarding the contract and that he welcomes the investigation.
Now attention is also focusing on the Kewaunee nuclear plant. The plant's owners - Wisconsin Public Service Corp. of Green Bay and Alliant Energy of Madison - sought the commission's approval to sell it to Dominion Resources of Richmond, Va. The case was controversial, with citizen groups arguing that selling the plant would reduce state control over the aging reactor, while utilities said the sale would lower the financial risks to state ratepayers.
Campaign finance records analyzed by the nonpartisan Wisconsin Democracy Campaign show WPS and Alliant executives contributed more than $43,000 to Doyle around the time the commission was deciding whether to OK the sale of the plant.
Larry Weyers, the chairman and chief executive of the parent company of WPS, and Alliant chairman Errol Davis separately hosted fundraisers for Doyle during the time the proposed sale was before the commission. Alliant and WPS officials denied the fundraising was an attempt to influence the PSC through Doyle.
"It's a real stretch to make a case that there's some kind of correlation between the two," said WPS spokesman Kerry Spees, who added that Lautenschlager's office has not contacted WPS.
Davis also said he has not been approached by investigators.
Attention first focused on the Kewaunee deal after the whistleblower told investigators of meetings in 2004 between WPS executives and top aides to PSC commissioners, sources said. At issue is whether it's proper for utilities and the PSC executive assistants to discuss a contested case such as Kewaunee without ratepayer groups present.
In October, the PSC reached an agreement with Lautenschlager's office in a dispute over a different case in which PSC officials shared a draft decision with representatives of Milwaukee utility WE Energies without also showing it to ratepayer groups. Because of the role played by executive assistants in that case, the agreement prohibits the PSC aides from talking about the merits of a contested case with utilities.
But Schooff, PSC chairman Ebert's aide, said that during the Kewaunee case in 2004 it was still accepted practice for the aides to talk with both utilities and ratepayer groups in a case.
Ratepayer groups and the attorney general's office said the PSC even then had an obligation to avoid appearing too cozy with the utilities it regulated.
"Even the look of impropriety is something that diminishes the public's confidence," said Lautenschlager spokesman Kelly Kennedy.
At its November 2004 meeting, the commission actually rejected the Kewaunee sale. But after WPS, Alliant and Dominion revised their proposal, the commission's two Democratic appointees, Burnie Bridge and Mark Meyer, reversed their earlier decision and approved the sale in March.
'The Net Widens for Wisconsin Democrats' Ping! :)
Oh, what a tangled web we weave....
He's either an extremely corrupt "good Democrat" or an run-of-the-mill DINO to get such attention.
If she had been Republican she would have resigned. Amazing how the press never expects a Democrat to do the right thing.
I'm not from Packerland. Will someone from there please let me know if this can really blow up into something?
And there you have it folks...why Doyle protected Peggy 'the keg' after she crashed a state car (she was not authorized to use in the manner she was) after popping pills..getting drunk in a Madison tavern...then trying to drive home to Fond du Lac 100 miles or so...
Her integrity (cough cough) has been compromised and she should step asside in order that justice might be served
But being a dem ...she is under the gun to produce for her handlers
IMO
Probably not; more wishful thinking on Wisconsin Republicans. Our state politics are a mess right now.
It's going to take a "good scrubbing" as President Bush said of the Oval Office, to get rid of the stench.
First stop...2006! :)
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