Sympathy for the Devil

I never thought I’d say this, but I actually feel sorry for Chuck Chvala, and there are few less sympathetic political figures in Wisconsin.

Chvala is scheduled to begin a nine month jail sentence on February 13th for corruption charges. Last year Chvala plead guilty to two felony counts for using state workers and resources for political purposes, and for illegally running a third party organization that was active in the 2000 re-election campaign of State Senator Mark Meyer.

While prosecutors agreed to drop seventeen other felony counts against Chvala, including charges of extortion, documents released Tuesday reveal that Chvala’s counterpart in the Democratic Assembly, Shirley Krug illegally operated an independent expenditure organization from her own office in the State Capital during the 2000 election cycle. Krug has never been charged.

The evidence that former State Representative Shirley Krug engaged in political activities using state resources and state employees is solid. Page after page of testimony given by former Democratic Assembly Caucus staff describes how Krug used her office for fundraising and directing state paid campaign workers.

Testimony further explains that Krug was operating a political action committee (PAC) to conduct independent campaign expenditures in four targeted Assembly races. This activity would have been illegal whether Krug was on state property or not. Election laws prohibit campaigns from coordinating with third party independent expenditures. Krug’s testimony that she was unaware she was breaking the law is completely implausible and totally irrelevant.

When the Caucus investigation began in 2001, people described Dane County District Attorney Brian Blanchard as a dedicated yet somewhat naïve public servant on a mission to weed out corruption in the State Capital no matter what the political cost to himself or his party. After pouring through the recently released John Doe testimony, I see Brian Blanchard in a completely different light.

As the top law enforcement official in Wisconsin’s second largest county, Blanchard has tremendous power to decide who will be forced to answer for their actions and who will not. Last summer, Blanchard used his discretion to determine that a woman who left her infant in a hot car all day should not be charged in the child’s death.

If politics is organized hatred, Chuck Chvala was the Grand Master, using his power relentlessly to choose winners and losers based on what they were willing to do for him. In the end, Chuck Chvala is just another flawed politician corrupted by his power. What’s Brian Blanchard’s excuse?