Although the new documents would undercut his argument, Gov. Scott Walker has stressed that two judges ruled against prosecutors. Credit: Associated Press

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Madison — A newly released document alleges Gov. Scott Walker's campaign illegally coordinated with two national groups on political advertising in a way that went further than what had been previously known.

The court filing by prosecutors alleges that the governor's campaign crossed a bright legal line by coordinating with independent conservative groups that expressly called for the election of specific candidates in the recall elections for governor and state Senate in 2011 and 2012.

If proved, prosecutors' claims would undercut the argument by conservatives that Walker and his allies did nothing wrong because they coordinated not on these so-called "express advocacy" ads but only on ads dealing with issues in the race. Walker has stressed that two judges have ruled against prosecutors,that he has done nothing wrong and that he is not a target of the probe.

One group highlighted in the filing unsealed Friday is an arm of the Republican Governors Association that has run ads backing Walker since 2010. The other, the Republican State Leadership Committee, ran ads in 2011 against then-Sen. Jim Holperin (D-Conover), who survived a recall election that year and then retired the next year.

In statements filed with state election officials at the time, both groups said they were independent and not working in conjunction with recall candidates, but special prosecutor Francis Schmitz contended in court documents that the groups had shared information with Walker's campaign.

Prosecutors have been investigating whether the Republican governor's campaign colluded with the Wisconsin Club for Growth and other conservative groups in the 2011 and 2012 recall elections. The probe was halted in May by a federal judge who said nothing illegal had occurred, in part because no express advocacy was involved.

In hopes of restarting the probe, prosecutors are appealing that decision by U.S. District Court Judge Rudolph Randa in Milwaukee to the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago. The latest documents came to light as part of that appeal.

In recently released documents, prosecutors contend Walker encouraged outside groups and individuals to funnel millions of dollars to the Wisconsin Club for Growth. The investigation has centered on Walker's campaign, though an attorney for the special prosecutor has said the governor himself is not a target of the probe.

Walker and the club have said they followed the law, and they argue that any consultation between them was allowed because the club engages only in "issue advocacy." Its ads may praise or criticize candidates, but they don't flatly tell people to vote for or against those candidates.

Prosecutors allege such activities can be illegal if the coordination is done to help a candidate's chances at the polls.

The newly released filing shows Schmitz contends there is evidence Walker's campaign had worked with the Republican State Leadership Committee and the Right Direction Political Action Committee, which is run by the Republican Governors Association.

Unlike the Wisconsin Club for Growth, those groups explicitly back candidates and have acknowledged doing so in filings with the state Government Accountability Board.

R.J. Johnson served as a consultant to both the Wisconsin Club for Growth and Walker's campaign. According to prosecutors, Johnson sought and received campaign strategy from an unnamed representative of the Republican State Leadership Committee.

"Need to know what you are up (to) and the content of your spot. We are drafting radio to complement. Also need to know if you plan to play any further in WI beyond Holperin," Johnson wrote.

The plans were then shared in July 2011 — just before Holperin's recall election — with Walker; Keith Gilkes, Walker's campaign manager; and Kate Doner, a consultant for both Walker's campaign and the Wisconsin Club for Growth, according to prosecutors. The filing did not say whether that information was also given to Holperin's opponent, Kim Simac, or the campaign operation used to elect Republicans to the state Senate.

Other emails show Walker's campaign regularly discussed campaign strategy and polling with the Republican Governors Association, according to Schmitz. The group ran at least eight ads critical of Walker's opponent in the 2012 recall, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett.

Walker and the Committee to Elect a Republican Senate in Wisconsin used the same pollster during the recalls, the Tarrance Group in Washington, D.C. The Republican Governors Association also uses Tarrance, though in filings with Wisconsin officials at the time the Right Direction PAC reported spending money on surveys from three different firms.

A spokeswoman for Walker's campaign didn't address the latest allegations specifically but repeated statements from Friday that the governor and his advisers had done nothing wrong. The two conservative groups and Tarrance had no immediate comment Monday beyond a statement by the Republican State Leadership Committee that the group is not a party in the current federal lawsuit against prosecutors.

The document describing the alleged coordination between Walker's campaign and the Republican Governors Association and Republican State Leadership Committee is from a once-secret filing made in February 2014.

Patrick Guarasci, an adviser to the Barrett campaign, said Monday that during the 2012 recall the mayor's campaign did not coordinate with independent groups on polling, fundraising or anything else and did not share their pollster, Fred Yang, or his firm with outside groups.

Documents taken down

Schmitz's filing is from a cache of hundreds of pages of records that were unsealed Friday by a federal appeals court. Within hours, the documents could no longer be accessed on the court's website after some claimed the court had inadvertently made public some of the records that were meant to remain sealed. (The documents are availableon jsonline.com.)

Prosecutors launched their John Doe probe in August 2012 in Milwaukee County and last year expanded it to four other counties. Among the records unsealed Friday were ones naming individuals who prosecutors were looking into as they widened the probe.

Named were Johnson, the consultant to both Walker's campaign and the Wisconsin Club for Growth, who lives in Dodge County; Gilkes, Walker's campaign manager in 2010 and 2012, who lives in Dane County; Eric O'Keefe, a director of the Wisconsin Club for Growth who lives in Iowa County; and Kelly Rindfleisch, a former Walker aide who lives in Columbia County. After an earlier investigation, Rindfleisch was convicted of misconduct in office for doing campaign work while working in Walker's Milwaukee County executive office.

The documents related to the initiation of the latest probe in Milwaukee County do not name a specific person, but say the investigation was expected to review records of Walker's official and campaign office.

This February, the Wisconsin Club for Growth and O'Keefe sued prosecutors in federal court alleging the investigation violated their First Amendment rights of free association. In May, Randa, the federal judge, sided with the group and shut down the investigation.

David Rivkin, the Washington, D.C., lawyer who brought the lawsuit for the club and O'Keefe, said Monday that these latest documents don't show any collusion between Walker's campaign and outside groups.

"The released documents confirm that no crime has been committed," Rivkin said in an email.

Jeremy Levinson, a Milwaukee election lawyer, disagreed, accusing Rivkin of a "not terribly subtle spinning of the facts." Levinson, a Democrat, represented Walker confidant James Villa in the earlier probe of Walker associates.

"What this sets forth is a substantial fusion of the (Walker) campaign and this supposedly independent organization in an institutional and ongoing way," Levinson said of the new filing.

The probe is being overseen by state Reserve Judge Gregory Peterson. He dealt a blow to prosecutors in January 2014 when he quashed subpoenas that had been issued to the Wisconsin Club for Growth and others.

Schmitz soon after asked the Wisconsin Court of Appeals to overturn the ruling quashing the subpoenas, including these latest allegations in his arguments. That filing was made in secret but was later submitted to the federal court and became public with Friday's temporary release of records.

Peterson and Randa — the two judges who have made major rulings on the key issues — concluded nothing illegal had occurred because the groups engaged in issue advocacy and did not tell people how to vote. Schmitz contended that doesn't matter and such coordination can still be illegal if the coordination with Walker's campaign was done with the intention of helping him politically.

"Ads were run on poll tested issues, including fiscal responsibility, tax hikes, wasteful spending and spending priorities that moved independent swing voters to the GOP candidate," Johnson wrote in one email, according to Schmitz.

That the ads were seen as ones helping persuade swing voters shows they were meant to help Republicans, Schmitz wrote.

Over the weekend, two unnamed targets hustled back to federal court to try to stanch the disclosures of more sealed documents. Their attorneys on Saturday asked to halt further deliberate or accidental disclosures in the case. The court should at least halt the disclosures until it considers the unnamed petitioners' reply to a request by media groups to unseal those records, lawyers for the targets argued.

The reply will make clear that the probe's uncharged targets "have a right not to have the details of that investigation made public," reads the filing by Madison attorney Dean Strang and other lawyers in Washington, D.C. and Milwaukee.