Story Shows Pro-Mining $$ Helped Defeat Key WI State Senator

Props to the Journal Sentinel's Lee Berguist for explaining how heavy, third-party pro-mining spending in a single State Senate 2012 race ensured the passage of legislation that was influenced by Gogebic, the mining company pitching the controversial massive open-pit iron ore mine which Scott Walker wants dug in a NW Wisconsin watershed near Lake Superior.

Court records disclosed on August 22nd showed the mining company gave Wisconsin Club for Growth an unreported $700,000 to quietly assist Walker's 2012 recall campaign.

Berguist's story shows that getting the mining company's legislation adopted required adding one more solid, pro-mining vote State Senate vote to the mix, and that was accomplished with the targeted infusion of enormous sums of outside money against State Sen. Jessica King, (D-Oshkosh):

The $1.5 billion project quickly drew support from Gov. Scott Walker, Republican lawmakers and Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, the state's largest business group. 

In 2012, WMC used an issue ad to attack Sen. Jessica King (D-Oshkosh) for voting against the first of two mining bills. She was defeated by Republican Rick Gudex by 600 votes...

King provided the Journal Sentinel data from her campaign consultant in the race. It showed TV spending against her from outside groups totaled just under $2 million in the last three weeks before the November election.

The spending included $964,603 from WMC and $919,400 from Wisconsin Club for Growth, the records show.