Secret Iowa Campaign $$ Peanuts Compared to Wisconsin's

Someone's going to the pokey in Iowa for failing to properly report $73,000 during the 2012 campaign there, the Washington Post reports, and a prosecutor lays out why:

On Wednesday, [the defendant]pleaded guilty to one count of causing a federal campaign committee to falsely report its expenditures and one count of obstruction of justice. He faces up to five years in prison and a fine of $250,000 for the first count and up to 20 years in prison and a fine of $250,000 for the second count, but prosecutors plan to recommend he receive a reduced sentence for accepting responsibility, according to court filings.

 “Campaign finance reports should be accurate and transparent, not tools for concealing campaign expenditures,” Assistant Attorney General Leslie R. Caldwell of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said in a statement. “Lying by public officials – whether intended to obstruct the FEC or federal investigators – violates the public trust and the law, and the Department of Justice does not tolerate it.”

OK, OK. In Iowa, it was pay-for-endorsement, and in Wisconsin you could argue that what's been recently disclosed John Doe II documents was pay-for-play. 

You say tomato, I say tomahto, but set aside the apples and oranges and the rest of the low-hanging fruit and consider:

If $73,000 secret and unreported campaign bucks can get you you up to 25 years hard time in Iowa, some folks in Wisconsin or its 2012 recall campaigns might end up in Alcatraz.