The Loftus Files

The media has paid little attention to the fact Scott Jensen's attorney Stephen Morgan says he still plans to call Former Assembly Speaker Tom Loftus to testify.

Supreme Court Justice David Prosser and former State Senate Majority Leader Joel Strohl have provided very candidate statements about their own activities as legislative leaders and the role of the partisan caucuses during their tenure.

Tom Loftus has been silent, so I started looking for comments he might have made since the Caucus investigation began in 2001. What I found was a remarkable disparity between the Tom Loftus of 80’s and 90’s and the new millennium version.

Now, I have no doubt that Tom Loftus is a decent man.

I met him once in 1990, he was running for Governor and I was working on Governor Thompson’s campaign. He spotted a co-worker and me wearing campaign t-shirts and he crossed the street to introduce himself. I doubt either of Tommy Thompson’s subsequent opponents would have done that.

I remember thinking that Loftus’ heart wasn’t really in the race which was easy to understand. There was no taking on the indefatigable Tommy, especially in his first re-election campaign.

Recently I looked through Loftus’ state office file from the State Historical Society, and it occurred to me that most people have either forgotten or never realized that this ineffective gubernatorial candidate and mild- mannered statesman was once one of Wisconsin’s most formidable political leaders. A leader who used the full power of his position, his state office and the Assembly Democratic Caucus to maintain the Democratic Majority in the Assembly during his reign as Speaker, and to support his gubernatorial race in 1990.

Consultant Bill Christofferson would have us believe that Loftus’ political operation was minor compared to the Assembly Republican Caucus under Scott Jensen, yet in his own words, Loftus admits that he raised the bar for the partisan caucuses and the political role of the Speaker.

In a 1986 State Legislatures article titled, “The New Age Legislature Flexes its Muscle,” Loftus said it was necessary to for him to become a fund raiser because political parties had left legislative candidates to fend for themselves. Loftus reported that the Assembly Democratic Campaign Committee raised around $150,000 in 1984 to retain the Democratic majority in the State Assembly. That wasn’t exactly chump change then--- and much of it was raised right under the Dome.

Loftus also described the myriad of campaign services the Assembly Democratic Caucus provided to vulnerable Democratic incumbents and challengers in marginal seats.

“In most cases committee members recruited the candidate and provided training through campaign schools. The also provide personnel and logistical support, issue papers, press releases, speakers for fund raisers, fundraisers themselves and phone banks.”

“We pay for the recount if it’s a close race; we pay for the lawyer if it goes to court. If they have kids, we pay for the babysitter,” he said.

Loftus elaborated further in a partisan political speech in 1984. He told the crowd that the purpose of both the partisan caucuses and the caucus committees were “to fight for the rather abstract goal of partisan control.”

“It works because people want access, influence, or insurance. It changes a lot a little. Political action committees have money. If, as previously, they give it all to incumbents of whatever party, nothing changes. If they have to give some of it to a campaign committee headed by the Speaker or the minority leader, some things change.”

And Loftus was a crass political fundraiser who quipped:

“The Wisconsin Manufacturers Association recently complained that business related groups were contributing to Democrats by a margin of 4 to 1 over Republicans—that they weren’t putting their money where their ideology was. I told them not to worry—we didn’t want their ideology.”

Yet Loftus, who recently agreed to serve as Chairman of the Wisconsin Eye Board, sounded somewhat surprised and rather disgusted by "revelations" that campaigning and fundraising was taking place in the Capitol after his departure.

“I think the two of us agreed to be shills for WisconsinEye because we believe that this state's politics is in dire need of a swift kick in the pants," Loftus said.

"Things are bad here. Now in Washington when people ask me where I am from, I say Chicagago" Loftus said.

Now the kinds of things Loftus talked about in speeches and interviews were no different than the activities described in the felony charges against Scott Jensen.

I wonder what Tom Loftus would say if he were asked about these documents which clearly illustrate a history of systematic political activity in our state Capitol. A system he helped to nurture and grow.