Crime Lab Continues to Plague Attorney General, State

This weekend’s report by The Associated Press shows that the backlogs at the state crime labs continue.

Our campaign has been focusing on the crime lab backlog issue for nearly a year.

While Lautenschlager requested four additional crime lab analysts in her last budget, she requested five full time positions to handle consumer protection. That’s outrageous.

While she spends 1,000 hours suing a cranberry grower who didn't even recieve a ticket, the backlog at the crime lab continues.

She has the wrong priorities and those wrong priorities are hurting our efforts to fight crime in Wisconsin.

As attorney general, I will take a different approach to DOJ in general and the crime labs in particular.

The Van Hollen Plan

Reorganize and reprioritize positions within the Department of Justice to put greater emphasis on forensics.

As long as the chain of custody can remain secure, look to out-source more of the work to reduce the backlog.

Help larger counties receive the resources and training to conduct computer forensics themselves.

Lautenschlager has the wrong priorities; rather than fixing the problem at the crime labs, she's using state resources to advance her political agenda.

Long time Waukesha County DA Paul Bucher’s answer is to throw more money at the problem. Like the continued violence in Milwaukee, his first instinctive reaction is to pump more money at the problem. That's not the conservative Republican way.

With 550 employees and a budget of more than $70 million, we must first ensure DOJ’s resources are being wisely used before automatically throwing more money at every problem that arises.

The continuing backlog at the crime labs is unacceptable and Attorney General Lautenschlager has proven to be incapable of eliminating it.

Calling on AG to Investigate of Kenosha Casino Deal

Today the campaign issued a release, wherin I state that several questionable events surrounding the possible construction of a new casino in Kenosha merit a probe by Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager and the Wisconsin Department of Justice.

There are certainly enough incidents regarding these negotiations that justify involvement of the State Department of Justice. The more the public knows about how the proceedings surrounding the Kenosha casino, the more questions arise

Specifically, there are several questionable developments regarding Indian gaming negotiations under Doyle in general and surrounding the Kenosha casino specifically. Among them:

• Doyle’s policy conversion coinciding with increase in donations from casino interests
• The hiring of outside counsel instead of the attorney general to represent the state, in violation of state law
• The participation of former Tribal lobbyists as negotiators for the state

Nearly a half million dollars of campaign contributions are tied to a deal that isn’t being negotiated in the traditional manner. So many red flags have been raised, if I was Attorney General, I certainly would be looking at this, regardless of the party affiliations of those involved.

While hundreds of thousands of dollars from casino interests are being dumped into Doyle's campaign to get him reelected, and the negotiations are under a cloud, the attorney general should not sit on her hands. As attorney general I would never sit on my hands while any official, the Governor included, flaunted the law, regardless of their partisan affiliation.

Find out more about my call for an investigation and my plans for ethics and state contracting reform here.

AG Should Lead the Way on Ethics

The Attorney General has the ability to investigate and prosecute the growing list of ethics complaints against Governor Doyle. Instead of engaging in baseless crusades against law abiding farmers and businesses, the AG should look at possible breaches of the public trust occurring just down the hall from her Capitol office.

As Attorney General, I will not turn a blind eye to allegations that under Jim Doyle, Wisconsin's government has been for sale. Attorney General Lautenschlager, even though she has the authority to investigate possible crimes of public officials, would rather devote resources to persecute law abiding cranberry farmers. She has the wrong priorities.

While the Legislature and the Governor can make some much-needed changes to Wisconsin law to address many ethical problem areas in state government, the Attorney General should be more aggressive investigating and prosecuting violations of the current laws on the books.

There are several alleged ethical indiscretions the Attorney General's office should investigate right now.

• Campaign donations to Doyle from HNTB which followed the granting of a no bid state contracts relating to the Marquette Interchange project
• Circumstances surrounding an April 2005 meeting in a state office between then-Administration Secretary Marc Marotta and Philadelphia-area attorney Richard Schiffrin, who gave Doyle $10,000, the maximum allowed under state law, the same day. Doyle’s fundraiser is also listed on official documents as participating in the meeting on state property.
• The acceptance of luxury suite use and game day tickets for the Governor and staff to a Green Bay Packers game at Chicago's Soldier field.
• Allegations in Ozaukee County Circuit Court that the Doyle administration steered a construction contract for the Kenilworth building at UW Milwaukee to a prominent Doyle contributor.

Today our campaign unveiled the The Van Hollen Procurement Integrity Plan

The Plan includes establishing a Multi-jurisdictional Action Team (MAT) whose focus is to investigate and prosecute cases regarding public corruption. This new unit within the Department of Criminal Investigation will work with local law enforcement to investigate and prosecute allegations of political corruption at the local and state level. Under my plan, the DOJ would also work with local officials to ensure prompt and professional delivery of legal opinions on matters affecting local governments to such officials.

In addition to the Public Integrity MAT, I propose to centralize the investigation and prosecution of violations of state laws affecting official conduct of state officers in the DOJ.

I also support bi-partisan legislation to change Wisconsin law to:

• Expand Wisconsin’s lobby law to cover procurement as a regulated lobbying activity.
• Require any organization that submits a bid for any state contract over $25,000 to disclose whether any management employee of the organization has made a political contribution to a constitutional executive officer in Wisconsin over the last two years. Such disclosure would be made on a form included as part of the standard Bid Package.
• Prohibit political contributions by company board members and management personnel of a bidding vendor to an executive officer during the period of time that a competitive bid is being reviewed for award. Just as lobbyists are restricted from making political contributions during the active period for consideration of state legislation, contract vendors should be similarly restricted during active review of pending bids.

The Attorney General should be the leader when it comes to ethics in Wisconsin. There is no excuse for the current lack of leadership and vision from the incumbent.

Wisconsin deserves better. We can have better, soon.

Forward!

Current Snapshot

Available Cash on Hand

	July 1, 2005	July 1, 2006
JB VAN HOLLEN	$ 83,780	$417,254
PAUL BUCHER	$ 80,579	$ 85,397

Legislative Endorsements
VAN HOLLEN 41
BUCHER 7

County Sheriff Endorsements
VAN HOLLEN 26
BUCHER 3

District Attorney Endorsements
VAN HOLLEN 29
BUCHER 12

WisPolitics Republican Party 2006
Straw Poll of Grass Roots Activists
VAN HOLLEN 72%
BUCHER 28%

-Blog Adminstrator

Progress

While I enjoy continuing to travel Wisconsin sharing my plan to implement Multi-jurisdictional Action Teams to fight crime in this state, today is one of the days during the campaign that political junkies eagerly anticipate for a completely different reason.

Today is the day that campaign finance reports are due at the State Elections Board.

Our report shows our campaign is in great shape. Each reporting period our campaign has raised more money from more individuals.

Like Mark Neumann, Tim Michels and many other candidates, my wife and I have invested in my own campaign. The report will indicate we've personally invested in our efforts to fight crime and restore integrity to the Department of Justice. You'll likely hear comments from my Primary opponents' campaign and from Democrats that I'm trying to buy this election. You know that's not true, and so do they. I'm not the first candidate to put some of my own money behind my campaign, and I won't be the last. So, while candidates contributing to their own campaigns is hardly new (heck, even my primary opponent gave his campaign a significant loan last year) it will likely be the focus of some media attention.

One thing is clear. Our campaign is clearly emerging as the organization with the financial and grassroots resources to win the race.

Organizationally, ours is the only campaign in the race to receive the endorsement of the Wisconsin State Troopers Association (the sole statewide law enforcement organization to weigh in on the race). In addition, we have the support of 26 county sheriffs from across Wisconsin and are endorsed by 41 state legislators (including my Primary opponent's own State Representative) and 29 district attorneys, by far the most of any candidate for attorney general. I am humbled and quite appreciative of this outpouring of support.

This grassroots organization is paying off every day (see my blog entry below regarding our Independence Day activities).

And thanks to hundreds of folks across Wisconsin who contribute to the campaign every month, we also will have the financial wherewithal to compete against the eventual Democrat nominee this fall. We enter the final months of this race with more than $417,000 on hand. As you know costs for brochures, yard signs, radio and tv commercials go up every year. This money will help us get our message out as the campaign reaches the home stretch.

I am appreciative of all the support I have received so far. If you'd like to join us, either as a volunteer or a financial contributor, please do so today by going to www.vanhollenforag.com.

Together, we can continue to build upon our successes and finally end 16 years of Democrat mismanagement at the Wisconsin Department of Justice.

-J.B.

Thank You

I have to admit, I've let the blog slip in the last month. My only excuse is that we've been so busy on the campaign trail! We'll update things more frequently in the future.

But I'd like to take this opportunity to particularly thank the hundreds of volunteers who have walked with me in parades, helped introduce me to their families and friends during local civic festivals and have continued to call our office with offers of assistance.

We're building a great team.

While I am proud of the support I've received from law enforcement and public officials, you are the heart and soul of our efforts.

With out you, the Van Hollen team couldn't cover as much ground as we are.

We're the only campaign in this race with a true statewide grassroots organization and for that I am extremely grateful.

-J.B.

P.S. For an example of just how fantastic you all have been, take a look at the kind of ground we were able to cover over the Independence Day Weekend. Thanks again!

Over the Independence Day Weekend, I walked in the following parades: Mequon-Thiensville, Oconomowoc, Grafton, Hartland, Menomonee Falls, Oak Creek, Merton/Stonebank and Hartford.

However, our efforts did not stop there. Our team had volunteers working in the following communities: Eastman, Boscobel, Hudson, Cudahy, Sun Prairie, West Allis, Racine, Town of Brookfield, Wauwatosa, West Bend, City of Brookfield, Glendale, Greendale, Waterford, Raymond, Waukesha, New Berlin, Delavan, Campbellsport, Prairie du Chien, Cedarburg, Bailey's Harbor, Superior, Mercer, Augusta, La Crosse, Chetek, Franklin, St. Germain and Eagle River.