Tommy Thompson: No One's Senatorial Candidate But The Lobbyists
Coverage thanks to Cognitive Dissidence.
Thompson, who has cashed in making millions working for Washington DC lobbyists and now has a net worth of over $13 million dollars, will "kick off” his general election campaign at Washington’s most elite lobbying firm, Barbour, Griffith, Rogers, with over 33 Washington D.C. lobbyists that work for special interests, including - Koch Industries, drug companies, insurance companies, and many of the same special interests Thompson has cashed in with.
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Thompson admitted, and then denied lobby law violations. While criticizing the current lobby law, Thompson admitted he was "quite sure" he violated the law as a legislator. Thompson declined to provide specifics of his lobby law violations, but described a typical example, saying, "If two or three or a half dozen of you are having a sandwich and you each have a bottle of beer and one person picks up the tab, that person might have been a lobbyist .... That's happened lots of times." Thompson's remarks sparked an investigation into whether Thompson had violated the lobby law within the previous three years, and Thompson later claimed the newspaper misrepresented his remarks. After reviewing two tapes of the interview, the newspaper's managing editor concluded the story quoted Thompson accurately. [Wisconsin State Journal, 12/12/88;12/14/88; 12/15/88]
Thompson accepted $44,000 in illegal campaign funds. In 1992, Thompson's campaign fund accepted $44,780 in illegal campaign contributions from organizations that hire paid lobbyists. Groups that hire lobbyists may only donate after June 1 of an election year, and Thompson was not up for reelection until 1994. After a newspaper showed the governor's spokesman evidence of the donations, the spokesman promised the governor would return the money. [Milwaukee Sentinel, 10/28/93]
Thompson refused to return illegal donations. Thompson declined to return campaign contributions from insurance company executives who made the donations at a Blue Cross-organized fundraiser attended by his state Insurance Commissioner. It is against the law for a Wisconsin insurance commissioner to directly or indirectly solicit campaign donations. [Wisconsin State Journal, 1/14/94]
Sadly, there's more, much more, at the link.
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