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Congressional candidate, campaign director allegedly committed fraud
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A Milwaukee area attorney filed a complaint Friday charging Wisconsin 3rd Congressional District candidate Tom Nelson and former University of Wisconsin-River Falls student Joey White with campaign fraud.
According to the report filed by Attorney Michael Maistelman, Nelson and White — Nelson's campaign director — inappropriately used university property and computers in their campaign efforts against incumbent Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis.
At the time of the activities in question, White was serving as chair of the UW-River Falls College Republicans.
White denies any wrongdoing, however, and said he did not illegally use state resources for political purposes.
"I was simply volunteering in my role as a College Republican and that's it," White said, adding his two positions as campaign director and CR chair were not concurrent.
According to White, he entered data into a database for Nelson, but did not fundraise in any way, and therefore did not violate state statutes.
However, the report issued by Maistelman includes an e-mail sent by White to the College Republicans' list-serv group in which White promoted a conference and said Nelson would pay any needed expenses.
White said that if any statutes were violated, he would stand up and take the blame.
"Paul Nelson didn't know we were using the university resources," White said. "[It] would be my responsibility if there was any wrongdoing."
When asked whether he knew he would become campaign director at the time he was serving as CR chair, White said he did not remember.
Though Rep. Kind has not been linked with the complaint, adversaries suggest he held a part in the allegations.
"I believe he is [connected] because Ron Kind has a history of not wanting to debate any of his opponents," 3rd District Republican Party Chair Gary Arneson said, "and now he apparently wants to short-circuit his opponent's campaign."
Skeptics also questioned Kind's suspicious timing, as complaints have recently surfaced challenging campaign donations from out-of-state Native American tribes.
"I just find it somewhat ironic that just a few days after a press release went out exposing the out-of-state funds … this [complaint] is released," White said. "I think it is somewhat coincidental."
Kind's campaign office did not return calls as of press time.
Former 3rd District Democratic Party Chair Karen Maidana Dahl, however, said that the ethical lapse of judgment belongs to the Nelson campaign.
"Gary Arneson obviously doesn't understand what ethics is," Dahl said. "It is absolutely against the law to do any type of misuse of state facilities and services. They wouldn't know ethics if it was staring them in their eyes."
Dahl added the appearance of unethical activity is as serious as the real thing, charging Nelson and White's actions may not have breached the "letter of the law" but did violate the "spirit of the law."
"What they do is they spend a long time smearing other people," Dahl said, referring to the alleged Republican efforts to undermine Democrats.
Maistelman's complaint came after the Republican Party of Wisconsin charged the Pierce County Democratic Party and the UW-River Falls College Democrats with misusing the university's e-mail list.
In response to the complaint, Maistelman said Nelson and White instead used the university's e-mail list inappropriately.
As each party continues to defend its actions, the state Elections Board is awaiting a response from the Nelson campaign, after which it will issue a decision.
2/2/06: Due to a reporting error, this article should have stated Mr. Nelson’s first name as Paul.
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To Karen Maidana Dahl: You are mistaken to say that Joey White would “not know ethics if it was staring (him) in (the)eyes.” It is very reasonable that a college student sending out an email from his own computer in his campus dorm room might not even consider that it could be considered a misuse of university property in connection with campaign laws. Joey has said he would take any responsibility for wrongdoing. And he would. That would require both personal integrity and a code of moral ethics, both of which Joey White DOES have. How do I know? I raised him.
The candidate discussed in this story is wrongly identified as Tom Nelson. The correct name is Paul R. Nelson. Tom Nelson is a Democratic State Representative from the 5th Assembly District. Who is pictured in this article? It is neither Tom Nelson or Paul R. Nelson.
You need to fix your first paragraph. Paul Nelson is the congressional candidate. Tom Nelson is a state representative from Kaukauna who probably doesn’t want to be associated with this.
Joey White and Candidate Paul Nelson can attempt to spin and hide from the truth but the emails generated by Mr. White speak for themselves and are available for the public to review on the UW-River Falls List-Serv. See http://www.uwrf.edu/pipermail/crs/
I draw your attention to the October and December emails.
Lastly, the guy under investigation is Paul Nelson and not Tom Nelson. Tom Nelson is the Blue Dog Democrat from the 5th Assembly District - Kaukauna who was the only candidate in the 2004 election to unseat an incumbent Assembly-person. See http://www.legis.state.wi.us/assembly/asm05/asm05.html
I hate it when people spin or hide from the truth, and am insulted that Michael Maistelman has accused me of that. If Maistelman and Wanda Brown had done their research, they would have discovered the following:
I did not become Paul Nelson’s campaign director until after I graduated (I have a signed contract proving that).
I have not been on the executive committee of the 3rd District Rep. Party since spring 2005 (their website is outdated).
No fundraising was ever done on university property, in computer labs, or otherwise.
Paul Nelson was never aware of where we were doing any campaign data entry (which constituted entering data of known supporters into a database). He simply gave me the data and asked me to see that it was entered. Most of it (including the majority of what was discussed in my email communication) was done in my own apartment on my personal computer and laptops.
We never reserved a university computer lab.
I could go on, but it’s not worth it. I feel that no matter how much I say, Maistelman believes I’m lying and twisting the truth. And it’s his right to believe that. That’s what a lot of partisan people believe and that’s how they act.
I hope that once he sees the truth, he’ll quit accusing me of spinning and hiding from the truth. I encourage you to read any email I ever sent. Futhermore, I encourage you to see if what’s alleged in Maistelman and Brown’s complaint is actually true.
It’s discouraging to see people playing what I feel are political games, but I suppose that’s the nature of politics. It doesn’t have to be, but right now, it is. I just hope that I’ll be able to remain free of that mentality as I enter the political world.
If a college student, acting in his role as a student member of a student organization, cannot do what I did, then I should be punished. However, I find our country in a sad state if College Democrats and College Republicans are prohibited from being active in the political process on campus.
One last thought: When interviewing me for this story, Ann Babe asked me if I thought Ron Kind was involved in this complaint or was the one who brought it against me. I answered “No.” Politically, I should have said yes. Afterall, I’m running a campaign against the guy. But I thought that was a bit low, considering I didn’t believe it to be true.
I just thought you all would like to know the truth.
And the Spinning Continues…
Actually, Tom Nelson wasn’t the only person to unseat an incumbent in ‘04. Andy Lamb unseated Joe Plouff in my district, the 29th.