On Friday we touched ever so briefly on a nascent potential pay for play story in Wisconsin. 

Now apparently, the issue has grown, and is under investigation by the state Ethics Board.

What’s at issue are a $10,000 contribution to Democrat Governor Jim Doyle, and a $5,000 contribution to Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager – both Democrats and both running for re-election this year – from Barbara and Richard Schiffrin.    

Apparently:

“Schiffrin met with Lautenschlager and Doyle at their campaign functions April 5, 2005. He gave Lautenschlager's campaign a $5,000 check from his wife, and donated $10,000 to Doyle's campaign, credited on campaign finance reports the following day.

That same day, Schiffrin met with the state Investment Board, which manages the state pension fund, to solicit business representing the state in shareholder lawsuits. The board ultimately didn't hire his firm, Schiffrin & Barroway.

Records released by the board indicate Lautenschlager aide Mike Bauer had weeks earlier referred the firm to the board's chief legal counsel. The day after his meeting at the board, Schiffrin also met with former Administration Secretary Marc Marotta, then a member of the board. The meeting was arranged by Doyle's chief fund- raiser, according to Marotta's calendar.”

This is politics – and perceptions are HUGE.  Politics, especially in campaign season, isn’t always black and white.  You don’t have to have done anything illegal to be convicted in the court of public opinion – you just have to get caught in that gray area – and that gray area is made all the more sticky when your opponents are blasting away with statewide TV and radio ads questioning your ethics, virtues, and shoe choice.  The political conviction standard is so much lower than the legal standard. 

What happens here – maybe nothing, but you do have good campaign commercial fodder.

Oh, and to make things that much more interesting:  Dem AG Lautenschlager is assisting in a wide ranging campaign fundraising investigation of Dem Governor Doyle.

Weee!