One day before U.S. Congressman Mark Green, R-Green Bay, appears in court to appeal a State Elections Board ruling ordering him to give back almost $468,000 in contributions deemed illegal, the nonpartisan Wisconsin Democracy Campaign identified an additional $48,000 taken from individual contributors in violation of state election law.
According to state law, individual campaign donations are capped at $10,000, which makes the amount Green accepted from 30 donors illegal.
Jay Heck, director of Common Cause Wisconsin, a non-partisan government reform group, said these new allegations keep the question of Green's money an issue in the race, as seen by Gov. Jim Doyle's newest ad titled ""Give It Back.""
""Green was trying to run as a candidate who is somehow cleaner than Jim Doyle, in the sense that Doyle had a lot of questions about his money from state contractors,"" said Heck. ""He is apparently not doing a good job of watching where his money is coming from.""
Doyle's newest ad claims Green used distorted facts about him to draw attention away from his campaign finance violations. The Green campaign has dubbed the Doyle campaign ""the most negative campaign in Wisconsin's history.""
In response to these accusations, Luke Punzenberger, spokesperson for Green, said in an e-mail statement, ""[Green] followed every rule and worked directly with the State Elections Board in doing so. He followed to the letter exactly what Tom Barrett did four years earlier.""
Anne Lupardus, deputy spokesperson for Doyle, said the new violations are just another example in a long list of Green refusing to follow state campaign finance laws.
""The Congressman's actions give voters a window into his values. This is a man who wants to hold the highest public office in Wisconsin, and his refusal to follow Wisconsin law is appalling,"" said Lupardus. ""Those kinds of values might work in Washington, but they're not going to fly in Wisconsin.""
UW-Madison political science professor Charles Franklin said the timing is unfortunate for Green, who now has to address these new charges in addition to criticizing Doyle's own finances.
Franklin said the negative issue about campaign finance is being used by both sides against each other and shows the issue is ""not particular to one candidate or one party.""
