Rick Ungar's blog at Forbes on the "vast right-wing conspiracy" outed by Hillary Clinton way back when, and how it operates, has a lot to say about Wisconsin:
Nowhere has the impact of the right-wing conspiracy been felt more deeply than in the State of Wisconsin – for now.
I have written, in some detail, of the involvement of the Koch Brothers and their front organizations – such as Americans For Prosperity – in the effort to destroy the Wisconsin state employee unions.
But they have not acted alone.
Take, for example, the Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, who ante upped big for the fight in Wisconsin. The organization, founded by John Birch Society co-founder Harry Bradley, (another co-founder of that organization was Koch Brothers father, Frederick Koch) has $460 million in the bank, available for the fight against America’s unions.
They have used that money to fund some of the key backers of Scott Walker’s efforts to destroy the Wisconsin unions. Bradley has contributed $300,000 in the past three years to The MacIver Institute, the non-profit that took the lead in producing the rapid-response videos attacking the Wisconsin protesters attempting to stop Gov. Walker’s actions. But that’s nothing compared to the $10 million Bradley has given to the conservative think tank, The Wisconsin Policy Research Institute. Not only did the institute use the Bradley money to fund polls designed to back Walker’s position, the alleged ‘think tank’ produced a number of attack advertisements directed against Scott Walker’s adversaries, an incredibly unusual practice as think tanks rarely get involved with negative politicking via television advertising.
The Bradley Foundation is also a major contributor to the Koch Brothers’ Americans For Prosperity group which not only helped Scott Walker be elected, but bussed in Tea Party protestors to show the world that the pro-collective bargaining forces in Wisconsin were not the only ones capable of staging a protest.
And, as luck would have it, the CEO of the Bradley Foundation happens to have served as Chairman of the Walker For Governor effort and also oversaw the Walker transition team.
Go figure.
But the Bradley Foundation is not the only member of the right-wing conspiracy to insert itself into the Walker campaign.
Also well represented was the Club For Growth – the organization described by John McCain as the “bagman for the ultra rich” who provided R.J. Johnson to serve as a primary political advisor to the Walker For Governor election effort.
John Nichols of The Nation nicely summed up this group when he pointed out that the Club for Growth is “an organization funded by extremely wealthy conservatives to carry out their budget-stripping goals,” and “has been a key player in Republican Governor Scott Walker’s move to take out the state’s organized workers.”