New documents offer a rare glimpse at how candidates steer donors toward outside groups. Walker documents: 6 must-read parts

A fresh batch of emails emerged Friday night that shows Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker was deeply involved in raising money for an ostensibly independent group focused on fending off recall efforts.

They came in a court filing from a special prosecutor, who is pleading with a federal appellate judge to let him resume an investigation into what he thinks was potentially illegal coordination between the Wisconsin Club for Growth and Walker’s campaign. Walker denies any wrongdoing, and the special prosecutor said after a lower court judge halted his probe that the governor is not the target of his investigation.


The filing, coming just months ahead of a tough reelection fight and as the Republican gears up for a likely 2016 run, offers a rare window into the world of high-dollar fundraising and how candidates work to guide donors toward outside groups that can spend unlimited money on their behalf.

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Here’s a look at the six most revealing nuggets from the tranche of documents:

“There is certainly an appearance of corruption in light of the resulting legislation from which it benefited.”

That’s a reference to perhaps the most immediate and politically potent revelation in the latest documents: that mining company Gogebic Taconite LLC cut a $700,000 check to the Walker group. The firm wants to build a controversial open-pit iron mine in the state, and Walker signed a bill in 2013 that helped them by lightening environmental requirements.

The full quote from investigator Dean Nickel, speaking for the special prosecutor, in an April court filing was this: “Because Wisconsin Club for Growth’s fundraising and expenditures were being coordinated with Scott Walker’s agents at the time of Gogebic’s donation, there is certainly an appearance of corruption in light of the resulting legislation from which it benefited.”

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Interestingly, the page including this quote was initially included in the documents posted by the court Friday, but then was later redacted and is no longer available, according to the Wisconsin State Journal.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel’s coverage Saturday heavily emphasizes the previously unknown $700,000 contribution from the mining concern. A company spokesman defended the contribution, noting to the newspaper that the Club and Walker already favored the mine before the company made the gift.

“Get on a plane to Vegas and sit down with Sheldon Adelson. Ask for $1m now … Take Koch’s money.”

Walker’s approval took a hit after he passed the Act 10 reforms that decimated public-sector unions, which had prompted protesters to occupy the state capitol. Big Labor was pouring millions of dollars into efforts to recall Republican state legislators and laying the groundwork to try removing Walker the next year.

Walker’s fundraiser, Kate Doner, emailed the governor, Johnson and two other top advisers in September 2011 to brainstorm how they could capitalize on the governor’s growing national profile — especially when it came to filling the Club for Growth’s coffers.

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“Take Koch’s money,” she also wrote, adding: “Corporations. Go heavy after them to give.”

This email came seven months after Walker took a prank phone call from a liberal blogger impersonating David Koch. The governor talked with him for 20 minutes — the recording of which was subsequently posted online. The newsiest part was when the fake Koch brother suggested putting “troublemakers” in the crowd of protesters and Walker responded, “We thought about that.”

“As the Governor discussed … he wants all the issue advocacy efforts run thru one group to ensure correct messaging.”

“We had some past problems with multiple groups doing work on ‘behalf’ of Gov. Walker and it caused some issues,” Doner, the fundraiser, went on in an April 2011 email to Johnson.

This is by no means a smoking gun, but it shows that the governor personally made a very early decision that he wanted as much outside money to be funneled through a group that he had confidence in. It also shows that he had a personal hand in orchestrating the fundraising logistics of the opposition to the recalls.

“Paul Singer: Grab him.”

There are a handful of truly mega-donors who Republicans will go out of their way to get in front of. The New York billionaire is one. It had been a big deal a few months earlier, in October 2011, when the hedge fund executive signed on as a bundler with Mitt Romney.

In March 2012, Walker was flying to Georgia for a super-exclusive annual conference on Sea Island sponsored by the American Enterprise Institute. His fundraiser emailed him to make sure he saw Singer. And two months later, Singer transferred $250,000 to the Wisconsin Club for Growth.

Others didn’t chip in quite as much, but they made their contributions with less of a lag time. Walker called Home Depot founder Ken Langone, and he made a $15,000 donation to the outside group the same day. The governor met with Donald Trump, and four days later he gave $15,000 to the group.

Walker personally emailed his finance person on March 10, 2012, to say billionaire commodities trader Bruce Kovner and his wife Suzie “said they want to give more.” It’s unclear what follow-up happened, but less than two weeks later, Kovner deposited $50,000 with the Club. The memo line on his check said: “501c4-Walker.”

“Our efforts were run by Wisconsin Club for Growth … who coordinated spending through 12 different groups.”

Keith Gilkes, who managed Walker’s 2010 campaign and served as his chief of staff until leaving to manage the recall campaign, emailed the governor talking points for an August 2011 donor call. It was two days after five GOP state senators beat back their own recall challengers (only one had gone down) — a big win for Walker ahead of his personal test.

“Most spending by other groups was directly funded by grants from the club,” he suggested the governor say. “Wisconsin Club for Growth raised 12 million dollars and ran a soup to nuts campaign.”

The new filings explain that the main group was a conduit to transfer money to a dozen other groups. Citizens for a Strong America, for example, got $1.52 million from the Wisconsin Club for Growth. The Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce association got $2.5 million during the two-year period.

“Let them know that you can accept corporate contributions and it is not reported.”

That’s from a June 2011 email to Walker from Kelly Rindfleisch, his deputy chief of staff when he was Milwaukee county executive. She was forwarding him an itinerary for a fundraising trip that listed who he would meet with. Her talking points said to request money for “your 501c4.”

The quote gets to the heart of the legal issue about whether Walker’s team tried to illegally sidestep state campaign contribution caps.

As for what’s next, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago is scheduled to hear oral arguments on Sept. 12 from journalism groups that want to unseal more documents related to the probe.

Wisconsin law says an individual can donate only $10,000 to a gubernatorial campaign. The Wisconsin Club for Growth was a 501(c)(4), which meant it could take unlimited donations (including from corporations) and not have to report them. It was managed by R.J. Johnson, a confidant of the governor.

Filings show that Johnson was overseeing how the Club spent its money, including transfers to other groups that would later spend on Walker’s behalf, while being paid by the Friends of Scott Walker. That meant he was included on internal Walker campaign emails previewing upcoming TV ads. Johnson denies wrongdoing, arguing that his First Amendment rights to free expression have been infringed.

Walker himself actively solicited big checks from major donors to this outside group. Prosecutors point to emails between Walker and his aides, who would send him talking points. He’d respond with readouts on donor meetings.

Weeks after Walker met with an official at hedge fund SAC Capital Advisors, for example, founder Steven Cohen cut a $1 million check to the Wisconsin Club for Growth. That firm recently settled an insider trading probe by agreeing to pay $1.8 billion and get out of the money management business.

Correction: An earlier version described the Wisconsin Club for Growth as a Super PAC. It is set up as a 501(c)(4) social-welfare organization.