Sen. Kapanke cleared of wrong-doing involving his business

• Dan Kapanke

Dan Kapanke

Talk about it

The Wisconsin Government Accountability Boardhas cleared state Sen. Dan Kapanke (R-La Crosse) of allegations of money laundering.

The Democratic Party of Wisconsin filed its complaint with the GAB, accusing Kapanke of using money from a charitable foundation he founded but left later. The money was used to pay the city of La Crosse back for work on the stadium where Kapanke's collegiate level team, the La Crosse Loggers, plays. The complaint said some groups that donated to the La Crosse Loggers Foundation employed lobbyists.

The Democrats filed their complaint during Kapanke's Congressional bid last fall against incumbent Ron Kind. The complaint maintained Kapanke's use of the foundation's money violated state statutes because an elected official running for office can't accept anything of monetary value from a lobbyist.

But Kapanke said the GAB found it wasn't that simple and that he can use foundation dollars.

“The bottom line is as long as I'm doing business on a regular basis with lobby principals and non-lobbying principals, and I'm not doing anything special on either side, then I can use this money.”

An attorney for the DPW said the GAB took a long time to investigate Kapanke's case, so it likely wasn't as “open and shut” as Kapanke would lead people to believe.

Tags: news, legislature, wisconsin, politics