Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this column are editorial in nature and are expressed by, and are attributed only to, Terrence Wall. As an editorial by a contributing writer, it does not imply or express the views of In Business magazine or IBMadison.com. Also, Terrence Wall has his own legal counsel advising him in regard to what he has chosen to divulge, and challenges to that should be appropriately communicated to him directly.
The following is an account of my experiences on the campaign trail. At first I wasn’t sure that I should share the experience since political operatives inside both parties will cry foul. For weeks, I thought about not speaking out, but when I remembered why I ran in the first place, which was to help get this country turned around before the U.S. ends up bankrupt like the Soviet Union, I realized I had an obligation to disclose. For if I don’t disclose, nothing will change and businesses will continue to suffer from this economy. And as someone recently reminded me; I’m an American and a conservative first; a Republican second. How do we Republicans change what’s wrong unless we first admit and correct our own mistakes? And how can we win over a broader base of business people to join our cause?
This is a tale of democracy, of meeting a lot of honest, hard working Americans and small business owners, and of funny experiences, but it’s also a tale of deceit, corruption, and buy offs. It’s also an admission of my own mistakes.
The Convention
Let’s fast forward to the weeks just before the Republican Party of Wisconsin convention, which was held May 22. I am still receiving hundreds of inquiries from business people all over the state wondering how the convention endorsed a candidate who had just announced less than a week before, and that is another reason I share this with you.
While I was busy shaking hands and greeting people around the state, Ron Johnson’s team was readying its bag of dirty tricks, starting with hiring away my direct-mail vendor, who told my manager: “Financially, I stand to make a lot more from Johnson.” (Here was my first mistake; not insisting that my manager follow through on my request to have my vendors sign non-compete contracts.)
The next dirty trick came in the form Johnson’s team trying to hire away my staff while at the convention with job offers that just might come with above-market compensation, backed by rumors that Johnson committed to spend $8 million of his own money.
Then there was the chaos during the balloting, which is critical to understanding this tale. Here’s how it works; all votes for a county are cast regardless of the number of delegates. Once each delegate’s vote was cast, they are counted at the county level by the county party Chairman and the county’s total allotment is divided by the number of delegates to get the vote count by delegate. For example; on the first round of balloting, with only three delegates present on Sunday, Brown County voted all 225 votes for no endorsement (that’s 75 votes per delegate). However, on the second round of voting, Brown County cast all 225 votes for Johnson. What’s interesting about this is that one of the three delegates who cast 75 votes for Johnson was one of my own campaign staff, who is a young, impressionable College Republican.
What happened? Today, we do know that he has a job with the Johnson campaign! We did witness Johnson’s campaign manager talking to my staffer and later learned that a Brown County party official ordered my staffer to vote for Johnson, telling him he was not allowed to vote how he wanted. He obviously felt terribly torn and not knowing the rules (which allow delegates to vote as they wish), he did what he was ordered to do. Brown County’s votes threw Johnson over the top for the endorsement. If my staffer had voted for his boss (me), and if the party official followed his county party rules by voting “no endorsement” (he told me himself that his Brown County Constitution prohibited him from voting to endorse any candidate), the overall vote would have been a hung jury, i.e. no endorsement.
But this wasn’t the only time coercion was deployed and rules were broken. I received dozens of calls from delegates who were disgusted with what went on that day. One delegate told me how he voted for me, but was then handed his ballot back and instructed to change his vote for Johnson. After some argument, he admitted to switching his vote (and felt ashamed enough to call and tell me so).
Another delegate called and told me about how after he voted for me during the first round, a woman came up and sat down next to him and said, “What do we need to give you to get you to switch your vote?”
In Dane County, one of my staff caught a stranger with no credentials standing next to the balloting. She went up to him and confronted him (given that only delegates and guests with credentials were allowed on the convention floor). After some arguing, he finally left. In another similar case, my staff caught a man with a woman’s credentials trying to vote.
In one of the other counties, a senior county party told me in a phone call that he observed two individuals voting in their county whom he didn’t recognize and had never seen before.
In another case, a Chair of a county sent out an e-mail talking about how disgusted he was with the whole process at the convention, but was then quickly told to keep his mouth shut.
I’ve heard from many good, honest, hard-working Americans from around the state that are also speaking out. Too many are suffering from the current economic mess to stand by and say nothing; to let a corrupt process prevail. We business people who are not involved in politics on a daily basis need to stand up and call out the others; for if we remain silent, and the professional political class wins, again, and nothing will change.
And in response to those that will claim we leaked the pedophile-priest story on Johnson, you’re wrong. While we had that information long before the convention, I instructed my staff not to release it, naively believing that we would win by avoiding negative campaigning. (My second mistake.) As proof of that, we continue to hold other negative information on Johnson in confidence. (No doubt the Democrats will take care of that.)
I entered the race for the Senate to help fix America; to help fix the economy and get people back to work. Unfortunately, others have entered the race simply because they want to be Senator, and they’ve gotten into bed with national political consultants who are also in it for themselves – and who are motivated to keep the whole political mess churning for their own enrichment.
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