Major Republican donor Michael Eisenga didn't just enlist legislators in his brazen bid to change the state's child support laws for Eisenga's own benefit.

Eisenga also tried very hard — but unsuccessfully — to corral Gov. Scott Walker.

Newly released records show Eisenga lobbying the governor on the need to cap how much wealthy Wisconsin residents pay in child support.

Eisenga, president of American Lending Solutions in Columbus, even sent the first-term Republican governor an article in October summarizing an appellate court ruling on his divorce from earlier in the month.

"Hi Governor," Eisenga wrote. "I thought you may find this interesting given our conversation on child support reform last week."

He concluded: "I consider this a dangerous precedent for numerous reasons."

Then in December, the millionaire businessman donated $4,500 to Walker's campaign fund, bringing him to $9,500 for the year. Eisenga did not return repeated calls.

"Was Eisenga trying to pull the governor in on this?" said Michael Collins, an attorney for Eisenga's ex-wife. "Absolutely."

The records also suggest that state Rep. Joel Kleefisch, the husband of Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, met with Walker to talk up his legislation.

Kleefisch had to spike the bill in January after No Quarter and the Wisconsin State Journal documented Eisenga's role in drafting the proposal. Kleefisch said he will continue his six-year-long effort to improve the state's child support laws, noting that he was interested in the subject long before Eisenga's involvement.

Under current law, judges determine child-support payments based on a percentage of annual income and, in some cases, assets. Kleefisch's bill would have capped the amount of income subject to child support to $150,000 a year. Assets could not be used in the calculation. That would mean that no matter how high a person's income, or how much wealth he inherited or accumulated, or how many children he had, a judge could never require him to pay more in child support than a person making $150,000 a year with no additional wealth.

Contained within the bill was a financial trigger that could have allowed Eisenga to reopen his case. Based on his assets and annual income of nearly $1.2 million in 2010, Eisenga had his support payments set at $18,000 a month for his three sons. His payments can't drop below $15,000 a month.

All three children have special needs and receive such help as occupational, speech and vision therapy.

Other newly released records include an agenda for a meeting that Kleefisch was to have with Walker in early November. The first item on Kleefisch's list of upcoming legislation was "child support calculation reform."

Kleefisch's office then provided a Walker aide with two versions of the child support bill.

Collins, the attorney for Eisenga's ex-wife, said it's not surprising that Eisenga gave the donation in the middle of these discussions.

"Money talks," Collins said.

Eisenga has given $51,760 to Republicans since 2005, with $19,500 going to Walker's campaign and $10,000 to Kleefisch and his wife.

"Once again, we find emails that show the governor fully engaged on an issue and special access seemingly granted to major campaign donors," said Scot Ross, head of the liberal group One Wisconsin Now.

But Walker spokesman Tom Evenson said it's "absolutely not" true that Eisenga had any special access to the governor. Evenson said Walker and Eisenga's conversation occurred at some event.

Besides, Evenson said, the governor has not proposed any changes in the state's child support laws and isn't planning to do so.

"This issue was and is not on the governor's radar," Evenson said, "and we did not do anything with it."

Benefits of hindsight

State Rep. Bill Kramer's remarks to the Waukesha County Business Alliance earlier this year were offensive at the time.

Now they're illuminating.

A month before he was ousted as Assembly majority leader for sexual misconduct, Kramer said Walker might face a tough fight against Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke later this year.

In making his point, the Waukesha Republican thought it a good idea to focus on Burke's appearance, according to the Waukesha Freeman.

"She's innocuous, she has no record to beat him with and now that she's had her makeover, she's attractive, she's a woman." Kramer said on Jan. 31. "But maybe it doesn't matter who she is. People already know what they think of Walker: love or hate."

Burke's campaign had no comment on the remark.

Republicans booted Kramer as their majority leader after he was accused of groping a legislative staffer and making sexually offensive remarks to a lobbyist. He is currently in rehab for unspecified treatment.

One GOP lawmaker, Rep. Jim Steineke (R-Kaukauna), has come forward to say he witnessed the incidents. The Legislature's human resources manager is investigating Kramer's actions.

Road trip

Burke went to New York last week for a big-dollar fundraiser at the swanky Park Ave. residence of a top executive with a private equity investment firm.

Afterward, Burke appeared on theMSNBC show "All in With Chris Hayes" on Thursday night.

The fundraiser was held Thursday at the Manhattan home of Quentin Van Doosselaere, co-chief executive of Bregal Investments in New York. Co-hosting the event were Allen and Claudia Sperry.

Burke and Allen Sperry founded the firmManhattan Intelligence in the late 1980s. Burke sold her share in the company to Sperry in April 1990 before taking a job at her family-owned Trek Bicycle, according to her campaign.

Van Doosselaere — a longtime Burke friend — began his career at Drexel Burnham Lambert, the major Wall Street investment banking firm that later collapsed as a result of the illegal activities of Michael Milken and others in the junk bond market.

Since 2009, Van Doosselaere has held top-level management posts with Bregal Investments, the corporate investment arm of the wealthy German-Dutch Brenninkmeijer family.

Joe Fadness, executive director of the state Republican Party, pointed out that among Bregal's many investments is Bravo Sports, a global sporting goods company.

Federal administrators found in 2005 that Bravo was outsourcing jobs to China. Also, Fadness noted, Bravo recalled nearly 500,000 Chinese-made trampolines and pogo sticks since 2010.

"Mary Burke made her millions by shipping Wisconsin jobs to China, so it's only fitting that this New York City fat cat — who cut his teeth at a firm charged with stock fraud and made his riches by outsourcing jobs — would support her campaign," Fadness said.

Other conservatives were playing up Bregal's ties to a New York energy company involved in a fracking controversy.

Joe Zepecki, spokesman for Burke's campaign, declined to comment.

Over the years, Walker has tapped the New York fundraising market on several occasions. He has been to events hosted by theNew York State Republican Party, former AIG CEOHank Greenberg, New York JetsownerWoody Johnson and billionaire political activist David Koch.

Financial hole

It appears that onetime Walker aide Kelly Rindfleisch has run into some financial trouble.

Rindfleisch, who was Walker's deputy chief of staff at the county, is listed on the state Department of Revenue's website for delinquent taxpayers. She owes $6,218 in state income taxes. She is under investigation in a five-county investigation into the recall elections.

Rindfleisch's attorney, Franklyn Gimbel, had no comment on the debt.

The 45-year-old Republican pleaded guilty in 2012 to one felony count of misconduct in office for doing campaign work while at the courthouse for Brett Davis' failed bid for lieutenant governor.

She was sentenced to six months in jail and three years of probation.

Rindfleisch is now appealing the conviction in the John Doe investigation, arguing that prosecutors violated her constitutional rights with overly broad search warrants.

Rindfleisch is now a target in a new John Doe probe into possible coordination between Walker's campaign fund and conservative interest groups during the recall elections. A John Doe investigation allows prosecutors to gather evidence and testimony in secret.

Contact Daniel Bice at (414) 224-2135 or dbice@jrn.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanielBice or on Facebook at fb.me/daniel.bice.