A secret recording by the conservative group Project Veritas shows Republican Sen. Mike Ellis talking about fundraising, Gov. Scott Walker and the John Doe probe. Credit: Video screenshot

SHARE YouTube Video Loading... YouTube Video Loading...

By of the

Madison — Secret recordings released Wednesday by a nationally known conservative group revealed state Senate President Mike Ellis discussing setting up an illegal political action committee to attack his Democratic opponent.

Ellis, a Neenah Republican facing his first challenger in 16 years, in an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel acknowledged he made the comments about two weeks ago at a hotel bar across the street from the Capitol. He said he had learned the next day his proposal was illegal and did not pursue it.

"Ellis has been pretty vocal on this issue (of campaign finance reform), and the hypocrisy was pretty out in the open," said conservative activist James O'Keefe, head of Project Veritas, which made the recording. "He was talking in a bar, and it was something that was easy to catch."

In the video, Ellis discussed having his fundraiser, Judi Rhodes Engels, help run the supposedly independent group. But in the interview, Ellis said he had never spoken to her about the matter.

Rhodes Engels also said she had never discussed the idea with Ellis — and quit working for his campaign just hours after the recording of Ellis' barroom comments was posted online.

Ellis' opponents pounced on the recording, calling it hypocritical for a longtime champion of campaign finance reform to talk brazenly of setting up such an operation. They said it was implausible Ellis wouldn't have known such a move would be illegal given how long he has worked on campaign finance legislation.

"I think Ellis is being a little bit like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," said Mike Maistelman, a lawyer who advises Democrats on campaign finance law.

Project Veritas posted online a five-minute version of the recording, as well as an unedited version that runs more than an hour.

O'Keefe has drawn national attention for secret recordings of officials with National Public Radio and the now-defunct liberal group ACORN, or the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now. He has faced criticism for the way he has edited his tapes, and last year he agreed to pay $100,000 to a former ACORN employee who sued over how he was portrayed.

Project Veritas also has gone after Republicans, including U.S. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner of Menomonee Falls because of his support for rewriting the Voting Rights Act after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down part of it.

Group sees hypocrisy

In an interview Wednesday, O'Keefe declined to say why his group has focused on Ellis, saying it has called out politicians from around the country for their hypocrisy. O'Keefe declined to say whether Project Veritas was involved in secretly recording the veteran Republican lawmaker in 2012 when he was caught at the same bar calling a Green Bay high school a "sewer."

Some conservatives have called for a primary challenge to Ellis, who has been at odds with other Republican leaders on issues such as expanding voucher schools.

Ellis talked in the recording about having a separate political operation with $400,000 to $500,000 to help him. Campaign law precludes candidates from working with groups that are set up to independently run ads aimed at helping them.

"I am putting together my own super PAC," Ellis said in the recording.

He named as a key consultant for the group Rhodes Engels, who has long raised money for Republicans, including Ellis.

"I have a $400,000 committee and Judi Rhodes will — I'm raising the money, she will manufacture the crap," he said.

"I want Judi, somebody else, to attack," he said.

In a statement, Rhodes Engels said she had never talked about the matter with Ellis, would not do anything like that and had quit working for Ellis' campaign, which is dubbed the Ellis to Madison Committee.

"I have never set up any 'super PAC' nor have I had any intention of doing so nor have I ever had any conversation with Senator Ellis about it," her statement said. "I will not work for any committee that would imply that I would improperly do so. I have terminated my contract with the Ellis to Madison Committee."

Ellis faces Rep. Penny Bernard Schaber (D-Appleton) in the Nov. 4 election. Democrats consider the race one of their top targets.

Senate Minority Leader Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee) said it was "interesting to see Republicans going after Republicans."

"It's obvious that this is just one example of many Republicans, you know, who are looking to do whatever they can to remain in power," Larson said.

Schaber said she hadn't seen the video and couldn't comment on it in detail.

"That's unfortunate," she said of the video. "That seems to be the nature of campaigning these days that they seem to get negative."

The unedited video shows Ellis responding favorably to remarks critical of Republican Gov. Scott Walker. The individual secretly recording the interview for Project Veritas accuses Walker of focusing all of his efforts on a possible presidential bid.

"Amen," Ellis responded, later applauding comments about Walker not caring about Wisconsin. Ellis added, "I think Walker's working for Walker."

In the video, Ellis initially discussing the need to reduce special-interest involvement in elections in a chat at the Inn on the Park bar.

He then raised the idea of having certain people give $50,000 each — 50 times what they could legally donate to Ellis — to a political action committee that was designated as independent.

In the interview with the Journal Sentinel, Ellis argued such donations couldn't be considered special-interest money because they would be coming from friends from the area, rather than those who want to curry favor with the state.

Idea was scrapped

Ellis said in the Journal Sentinel interview he later discovered his plan wasn't legal and scrapped the idea. He never talked to Rhodes or the potential donors about it, he said.

"This was in the think stage," Ellis said.

A decade ago, Ellis criticized then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Chvala, a Madison Democrat convicted in 2005 of misconduct in public office and illegally controlling what was supposed to be an independent campaign committee.

Despite those past comments, Ellis said Wednesday he did not know at the time of the recent recording that he was barred from working with a political action committee like the one he proposed.

Ellis said he regretted his comments and was frustrated they had been recorded.

"I guess I have to learn to put duct tape over my mouth because any time you're out in public you're fair game," he said.

O'Keefe described Ellis as one of his easiest targets, likening him to a California official who openly discussed on a public sidewalk how to go about voting in others' names.

"Generally, you can't con an innocent person in this type of reporting," O'Keefe said.

O'Keefe said he will be releasing video from the second part of his group's investigation on Thursday. He declined to provide details.

Jason Stein of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.