State Senators Motivation for Fleeing Revealed in Secret Emails

The real motivation for the 14 Democratic State Senators may just have been revealed by secret emails between Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller and the Democratic Mayor of Madison, Dave Cieslewicz on February 15, 2011, just days before the Wisconsin Emergency Budget Repair bill was scheduled for a vote.

Investigative Reporter, Bryan Polcyn, of FOX 6 News, revealed emails from Cieslewica, who asked if Miller could talk to Secretary of State Douglas LaFollette to see if the bill could be delayed by going to the senate floor for a vote so that union contracts could be done prior to passage.  LaFollette was reluctant to delay the bill for more than a day or two in his response.  A staffer for Miller then wanted to know if there were other communities that were in the same situation.  It took Miller two days to respond to Polcyn to deny the allegations.  It was soon after the series of emails that all 14 Democratic Senators fled to Illinois in an effort to delay the vote.

Soon after, unions, municipalities and school districts rushed to get deals done, while the 14 Senators hold up passage to delay the impact of the bill.  The list includes the City of Racine, RUSD, Madison, the Madison School District and MPS.  Most of these contracts extend the fringe benefits through 2013.

Why would getting these contracts done be so important?  Because the language of the bill regarding collective bargaining and pension and health insurance contributions don’t kick in until the current contracts expire.  And this has become the motivation for the senators to stay away as long as it takes so these contracts can get done before the bill passes.  This is hardly the reason that the 14 have been giving their constituents.

After reviewing the top 20 contributors over the years to Mark Miller’s campaign, it is clear why Miller would flee.  His largest donations came from the Madison Teachers Union, the Association for State, County and Municipal Employees, South Central Education Association, the Service Employees International Union and the Wisconsin Nurses Association.  All of these are affected by the bill.  Miller is not alone. All of the AWOL Democratic senators can list most or all of these unions in their top 20 donors in their political lives.  And let’s not forget that WEAC has contributed to most of their campaign coffers.

It’s only fitting that these 14 senators fled to Illinois, where unions buying votes is so famous.  This smells of Chicago-style politics draped in scandal and arrests.

Remember these 14 when layoffs occur.  I hope the teachers and public employees understand that the 14 are to blame, not Walker.  And to those who live in their districts, you can help clean up Wisconsin by signing a recall petition.