The Democratic Party of Wisconsin revealed its plans Thursday to file a complaint with the Government Accountability Board that calls for an investigation into the election donations made by conservative financier David Koch. 

According to a statement released by the party, the complaint will be submitted because of statements Koch recently made to the Palm Beach Post regarding his organization Americans for Prosperity. Koch told the Post AFP has contributed to Gov. Scott Walker’s campaign, and they plan to spend more. 

In the statement, Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate said Koch’s interview with the Post was “disturbing.” He asked Koch to leave Wisconsin politics alone.  

The party launched a fundraiser on their website last week called “Defeat Walker: Money Bomb,” calling to fight back against the Koch-backed Tea Party. As of Sunday night, more than 207,000 independent donations had been received.  

The Wisconsin GOP declined to comment on the complaint. 

AFP and the MacIver Institute released a joint statement following the Democrats’ announcement, which said the complaint had no merit and should be thrown out. 

The statement said the complaint is a “desperate tactic by power-hungry special interests” that have ignored the real issues.
AFP added they look forward to working with Wisconsin in the future, emphasizing their work with the state last year to create the Working Wisconsin educational effort. 

University of Wisconsin political science professor Barry Burden said it seems unlikely that Koch or his organization will be found in violation of the law. 

“Koch didn’t exactly say that he would be intervening in a campaign or on behalf of a candidate,” Burden said. “Of course, Walker, like many other politicians, is both a government official and a candidate at the same time.”

Burden said everyone knows the Koch-funded organizations will be assisting with Walker’s recall reelection effort, but said it is less known that they manage to get classified as a nonpartisan or nonprofit group. 

He added that pushing the complaint is also a campaign event by the Democrats, who want to remind voters of the link between Walker and Koch, especially from a prank phone call a year ago.

The Democratic Party of Wisconsin filed a similar complaint with the GAB on March 7 of last year regarding the prank phone call made by left-wing blogger Ian Murphy, who identified himself as David Koch in a conversation with Walker.  

The complaint argued Walker violated campaign finance and state ethics laws during the call by illegally soliciting coordination for independent expenditures. The GAB dismissed the complaint two months later, along with a number of other complaints filed during last spring’s budget repair bill protests.

In an email to The Badger Herald, United Wisconsin spokesperson Erik Kirkstein said the recent admissions by David Koch call into question whether there has been collusion between Walker and Koch-funded organizations like AFP. 

The Koch brothers’ political action committee gave $43,000 to the governor’s campaign in 2010, the highest amount allowed from a PAC.