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Madison – Top executives of the company the state is paying
nearly $80 an hour to maintain a road sign inventory after eliminating
the job of a state employee who did the work for a fraction of that
amount have made over $140,000 in campaign donations to Wisconsin politicians
in the past decade but kicked their giving into high gear three years
ago, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign has found.
Employees of HNTB Corp. made contributions averaging a total of $3,648
a year from 1993 to 2000, most of it going to former Governor Tommy
Thompson. But executives of the firm from 12 different states got heavily
involved in the 2002 race for governor, making $29,968 in donations
in 2001 and $67,848 in 2002. The company continued making donations
after the election, giving $13,375 in 2003.
HNTB carefully hedged its bets in the 2002 race for governor, giving
to four major-party candidates – Republican Scott McCallum and Democrats
Jim Doyle, Tom Barrett and Kathleen Falk. The top recipient of contributions
from HNTB is Governor Doyle, who received $46,275 from employees of
the company through the end of 2003. A preliminary review of Doyle’s
campaign finance report covering the first half of 2004 shows the governor
received two more contributions totaling $1,000 from HNTB executives
during the period.
Of the $140,374 in donations from HNTB employees from 1993 through
the end of 2003 (see table below), 69 percent
went to Democrats and 31 percent went to Republicans. HNTB employees
located in Wisconsin gave $76,274 or 54 percent of the donations, while
company employees from outside of Wisconsin gave $64,100 or 46 percent
of the total. Out-of-state contributions came from Massachusetts, New
Jersey, California, Kansas, Virginia, Missouri, Michigan, Washington,
Florida, Texas and Indiana.
In addition to their contributions to candidates for governor, company
executives have made targeted donations to legislative leaders such
as Assembly Speaker John Gard and Senate Majority Leader Mary Panzer,
as well as convicted ex-senator Gary George and indicted current and
former lawmakers Chuck Chvala, Scott Jensen, Brian Burke and Steve Foti.
One HNTB executive, Harvey Hammond Jr. of Mequon, gave so generously
in 2002 that he exceeded the state’s $10,000 limit on campaign contributions
and was fined by the state Elections Board in July 2003. According to
a formal complaint filed by the Democracy Campaign that triggered the
enforcement action, Hammond made $18,500 in contributions to state candidates
in 2002. Under Wisconsin’s campaign finance laws, he could have been
fined as much as $26,000 but the Elections Board settled on a $950 fine.
Hammond is a top Doyle donor, giving the governor $2,000 in January
2003 after making a $2,000 donation in September 2002. He also made
two contributions in 2002 to Doyle’s opponent, former Governor Scott
McCallum, totaling $7,500.
Hammond’s first donation to Doyle was one of 11 contributions from
HNTB executives from seven different states made on the same day – September
4, 2002 – and these marked the first campaign donations from HNTB employees
to Doyle despite the fact Doyle has been a fixture on Wisconsin’s political
scene for more than a decade, having served three terms as state attorney
general starting in 1990.
"HNTB has been making campaign contributions in Wisconsin since
at least 1992 but the company wasn’t interested in Jim Doyle until it
became clear to them he stood a good chance of becoming governor,"
WDC executive director Mike McCabe said.
Other top HNTB donors to Doyle include Jamie Hammond of Mequon; Kenneth
Graham of Delafield; Ed McSpedon of West Hills, California; Charles
O’Reilly of Woburn, Massachusetts; and Paul Yarossi of Ringwood, New
Jersey. Each gave Doyle $5,000 in October 2002.
HNTB was later given a $164,692 contract to keep track of signs on
state roads. The state contracted out work previously done by a temporary
state employee making $11.38 an hour. Using a Department of Transportation
budget formula, it is estimated that the total cost to taxpayers of
paying a permanent state employee with full benefits to do the work
is about $51,700.
"This is just the latest example of how taxpayers pay dearly for
the way election campaigns are financed in Wisconsin," McCabe said.
"As long as we have donor-owned elections instead of voter-owned
elections, this is what we can expect."
Last year, the Democracy Campaign released a series of reports that
put a price tag on the political favors special interests get in the
form of tax breaks, pork barrel spending projects and lucrative state
contracts. WDC identified dozens of perks worth $5.2 billion a year,
or $1,358 per taxpayer annually.
TOTAL
LARGE INDIVIDUAL CONTRIBUTIONS
FROM
HNTB CORP. EMPLOYEES TO CANDIDATES
FOR STATEWIDE OFFICE AND THE LEGISLATURE
1993 – 2003
|
CANDIDATE
|
PARTY
|
TOTAL
CONTRIBUTIONS
|
|
Doyle, Jim
|
D
|
$46,275.00
|
|
Barrett,
Tom
|
D
|
$30,612.00
|
|
Thompson,
Tommy G
|
R
|
$21,695.00
|
|
McCallum,
Scott
|
R
|
$14,802.34
|
|
Riley, Antonio
|
D
|
$5,300.00
|
|
Plache,
Kimberly
|
D
|
$5,100.00
|
|
Falk, Kathleen
|
D
|
$3,100.00
|
|
Christenson,
George L
|
D
|
$2,000.00
|
|
Rosenzweig,
Peggy
|
R
|
$1,700.00
|
|
Plale, Jeffrey
|
D
|
$1,250.00
|
|
Stone, Jeff
|
R
|
$850.00
|
|
Jensen,
Scott R
|
R
|
$732.00
|
|
Burke, Brian
|
D
|
$650.00
|
|
Kedzie,
Neal
|
R
|
$500.00
|
|
Foti, Steven
|
R
|
$500.00
|
|
Farrow,
Margaret
|
R
|
$500.00
|
|
Krug, Shirley
|
D
|
$500.00
|
|
Leibham,
Joseph
|
R
|
$500.00
|
|
Lazich,
Mary
|
R
|
$500.00
|
|
Sykora,
Tom
|
R
|
$300.00
|
|
Erpenbach,
Jon
|
D
|
$300.00
|
|
Gard, John
|
R
|
$200.00
|
|
Panzer,
Mary
|
R
|
$200.00
|
|
Springer,
Tom
|
D
|
$200.00
|
|
Kreibich,
Robin
|
R
|
$200.00
|
|
Baumgart,
James
|
D
|
$157.35
|
|
Nelson,
Lisa B
|
R
|
$150.00
|
|
Richards,
Jon
|
D
|
$150.00
|
|
Shibilski,
Kevin
|
D
|
$150.00
|
|
Ament, Christopher
T
|
D
|
$100.00
|
|
Kapanke,
Dan
|
R
|
$100.00
|
|
Chvala,
Chuck
|
D
|
$100.00
|
|
George,
Gary
|
D
|
$100.00
|
|
Breske,
Roger
|
D
|
$100.00
|
|
Mistele,
Nancy
|
R
|
$100.00
|
|
Walker,
Scott
|
R
|
$100.00
|
|
Skindrud,
Rick
|
R
|
$100.00
|
|
Wirch, Robert
|
D
|
$100.00
|
|
Duff, Marc
|
R
|
$100.00
|
|
Foeckler,
Al
|
D
|
$100.00
|
|
Darling,
Alberta
|
R
|
$100.00
|
|
Kelso, Carol
|
R
|
$100.00
|
|
TOTAL
|
$140,373.69
|
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