Grand Jury Looks Into Wisconsin Travel Deal
In Under Investigation
No Agenda
A federal grand jury will review whether campaign donations to Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle had anything to do with the state awarding a $750,000 contract to Adelman Travel. The investigation also will look into political contributions that were made around the same time the state approved the sale of a nuclear power plan.
<<< Initially, Omega World Travel beat out Adelman Travel by 21 points on a 1,200 point scale for the contract, but Department of Administration officials said the deals were so close the two companies should be asked to give "best and final" offers. Some University of Wisconsin-Madison officials who were on the review committee said they believed Omega was the clear winner and that they did not need to solicit another round of bids.
Adelman was selected after the second round of bids.
Over a 10-month period, Craig Adelman, the company's chief executive, gave Doyle $10,000, the most allowed under state law. Doyle and Adelman have said the donations were not linked to the state contract. >>>
Yeah, I bet they weren't. And what about the power plant deal?
<<< Employees of Madison-based Alliant Energy Corp. and Green Bay-based Wisconsin Public Service Corp. donated $43,650 to Doyle around the time the commission approved the sale of the plant to Dominion Resources Inc. of Richmond, Va. Alliant Energy and Wisconsin Public Service Corp. were joint owners of the plant.
Many of the donations were made at a Nov. 18, 2004, WPS-sponsored fund-raiser. The next day, the commission rejected the sale 2-1, but spelled out the terms of a deal that would be acceptable.
After the utilities changed the deal to meet those terms, the PSC approved the sale March 17, 2005. Nearly $16,000 of the donations from employees of those utilities came between March 9 and April 8, according to campaign figures compiled by the non-partisan Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. >>>
If Doyle was a Republican, you can imagine how many Democrats would be saying "This is just like Halliburton!"
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