Milwaukee World: GAB RULING ON KAPANKE CASE HERE & MORE E-MAILS, TOO

MORE E-MAILS SURFACE, YET NONE WERE GIVEN TO DEM LAWYERS
NON-PARTISAN FORUM JULY 24th FEATURED TOMMY THOMPSON

Special to the Readers of Milwaukeeworld.com

By Michael Horne

And The Milwaukee World Hound Dog Team

The Wisconsin Government Accountability Board sent a letter of ruling to Sen. Dan Kapanke yesterday, Thursday, August 13th, 2009, saying his use of his campaign account as a conduit for revenues and expenditures related to two "Economic Forums" earlier this year was appropriate "under the circumstances."090813.GAB%20Kapanke.pdf The board also fined staffer Hannah Huffman for failing to report a vacation day when she worked the forum until after the fact. This is an old Senate trick that has since been prohibited. Apparently it is being observed in the breach.
Kapanke released this statement to the Associated Press:
"The culture in my office is open, transparent and responsive to the public," he said. "If we failed anywhere along the way, we will make corrections and adjust."

OOPS!
Here is another e-mail communication between the Senate Clerk Robert Marchant and the staff of "open, transparent and responsive to the public" Sen. Dan Kapanke that was not produced at the request of the Democratic Party when it made its Public Records request. Failure to provide documents is one of the key points of the party's lawsuit against Kapanke. This letter will now be added to the case evidence by the party's attorney, Michael Maistelman, according to yet another e-mail received by Milwaukeeworld.

From: "Smyrski, Rose"
To: "Marchant, Robert"
Date: Thu, 7 May 2009 12:22:30 -0500
Subject: RE: District meetings

Thanks Rob for following up on this matter, we greatly appreciate it. Any further questions I will direct them to Jonathan Becker. Thanks again!

Rose Smyrski

Chief of Staff

Senator Dan Kapanke

Toll Free 800-385-3385

MORE OOPS!

Here is yet another communication between Sen. Kapanke's office and the Senate Clerk about yet another Business Healthcare Forum, held on July 24th, 2009 at Logistic Health, Inc. The non-partisan event featured former Republican Governor, Secretary of Health and Human Services and Logistic Health President Tommy Thompson. (The clerk says the event is "fine, provided this event is legitimate Senate business and not campaign activity.") Notice, as usual, Clerk Marchant tells Kapanke's staff to bring this matter up with the GAB:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Marchant, Robert"
To: "Huffman, Hannah"
Date: Mon, 13 Jul 2009 12:14:26 -0500
Subject: Re: Kapanke Invites to July 24 LHI Business Healthcare Forum

Hannah
This looks fine, provided this event is legitimate senate business and not campaign activity. I recommend getting GAB approval in writing before proceeding, just to be safe.
Rob

From: Huffman, Hannah
To: Marchant, Robert
Cc: OBrien, Kyle; 'kapankefi@charter.net' ; Lhatsang, Sherab
Sent: Mon Jul 13 12:00:28 2009
Subject: Kapanke Invites to July 24 LHI Business Healthcare Forum

Hello Rob,

Hope you’re well! Please find attached the invites that Senator Kapanke’s office will be sending out for the Logistics Health Inc. Business Healthcare Forum on July 24^th. We would appreciate your review. Thank you!