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12/18/2006
The Inauguration and the Boys and Girls Club
It’s all legal. Governor Doyle’s campaign starts out with a poster contest for Boys and Girls Club kids and ends up with an elaborate inauguration gala. Come to find out the inauguration is simply a huge fundraiser for the Boys and Girls Clubs of Wisconsin. Hmmm.
The Journal-Sentinel article December 14 explains it all pretty well. Contributors ante up big for the inaugural festivities, outside of restrictive campaign finance laws. And big means big. The maximum contribution this year is $50k, and was a mere $25k last year.
Certainly inaugural funds and luxurious celebrations are not at all uncommon – everybody who’s anybody wants to host great inauguration festivities to celebrate of course, and to allow an opportunity to thank campaign friends, volunteers and very big campaign donors. And to be fair, the Doyle folks are encouraging the big bucks for two days worth of gatherings, but are also selling $25 tickets to the public for the evening gala. See the Doyle inauguration web site for the specifics.
But the way the Doyle folks are doing this is pretty creative. Miller Brewing and all of the state’s gaming interest and everybody else in town will give their big bucks to the Boys & Girls Club (BGC), the BGC hosts the inauguration festivities, then BGC keeps the change ($233,000 after Doyle’s first inauguration).
Here’s a classic line, from the AP article printed in a number of papers: “Doyle will not profit from the donation.” Here’s another one. Evan Zeppos, a spokesman for Dennis Troha, casino developer and Doyle financial supporter extraordinaire, said about Troha’s anticipated $50,000 “gift,” “the donation by Troha and his wife, Natale, had nothing to do with the push to build a new casino.” Right.
Now, the Boys & Girls Club is a very worthy organization. And certainly, many of the corporations that contribute to the inauguration also contribute generously to the BGC outside of this special inauguration fundraising event (including Mr. Troha, a major contributor to BGC in Kenosha). But you’ve got to admit it’s pretty creative. Is there anything better than to combine do-gooder giving with influence peddling?
These Doyle folks are brilliant.
COMMENTS
You are right, Doyle & the Doilies are brilliant with this maneuver. They found a way to set the cost for access to the governor high while helping to support a good cause.
As I said at the BBA, if Mark Green would put on a similar event there is no doubt A Developer would not be paying $50,000 to attend.
As long as we don't start seeing shady loans or donations from the Boys & Girls Club (or other such activities) in favor of the Democrats I am okay with this.

Marcus Auerlius (Sun Dec 17 07:12:56 2006)
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