I’m J.B. Van Hollen and I’m running for Attorney General.

The AG’s job is to run the Department of Justice and fight crime. Both of the candidates for this post talk about fighting crime and being a law enforcement professional.

The difference? I have done it.

I was in my mid twenties when I prosecuted my first criminal case. Since then I’ve served as both a local and federal prosecutor.

While I’ve been building a career as a crime fighter, my opponent has been an activist…has been running for County Executive, and Governor. Now, at the behest of Jim Doyle, she’s running for this post.

The contrast between her and I is stark. I have a record of fighting crime. She does not.

She’s never even tried a single criminal. Not one.

My experience and my vision has made me law enforcement’s choice. 46 Sheriffs and 55 District Attorneys believe in my vision.  In fact, I have the support of more Democrat sheriffs and district attorneys than my opponent.

The International Union of Police Associations and the Wisconsin Sheriffs and Deputy Sheriffs, The State Troopers and the Wisconsin Professional Police Association support me because they know I am not a political activist, they know I am a law enforcement professional.

My plan… is to fight crime first.

And I’ve done it.

Under my watch as US Attorney I nearly tripled federal firearm prosecutions and I was recognized as having one of the toughest sentencing track records in the country.

I’ve put people away for life. I’ve worked to break up drug gangs.

I initiated Project Safe Neighborhoods in Beloit and Janesville and we took violent criminals off the streets and made sure they received harsh sentences

I’m not an activist; I’m experienced law enforcement professional.

I’ve run a civil, criminal and appeals division and I’m an effective administrator.

As US Attorney, I under spent my budget every single year, while the productivity of the office increased. During my final year we prosecuted 75 percent more criminal cases than the previous US Attorney.

I’m a proven prosecutor.

The Department of Justice has been headed in the wrong direction and while my opponent wants to step on the accelerator, I offer a new direction. A new vision. A new focus.

You deserve to know where I stand on the issues that matter to you. So, I’ve highlighted some of the most commonly asked questions I’ve been asked in the last few months.

Homicides in Milwaukee continue. What should the attorney general do about it?

We were the first campaign to have a plan, we were on the courthouse steps in Milwaukee in April, before the bloody Memorial Day Weekend.

For 30 years we’ve tried short term …expensive… reactive approaches. The state keeps throwing money at Milwaukee and thinking that it alone will solve the problems. We can do better. Milwaukee doesn’t need a 90 day plan. What happens on the 91^st day? Milwaukee needs and Milwaukee deserves pro-active leadership on the issue.

My plan involves bringing people together to take a unified, aggressive approach to cracking down on gang, gun and drug violence. It’s a plan that’s been proven to work.

I initiated Project Safe Neighborhoods in Beloit and Janesville where they were having problems with gang and gun violence.  It involved brining law enforcement together instead of taking a shotgun approach.  It worked.  We took violent criminals off the streets and made sure they received harsh sentences.  I’ve done it before and we can do it for Milwaukee.

Kathleen Falk has a bad track record when it comes to violent crime. First, she’s never prosecuted a single criminal in her life. Not one. Ever.

Second, Gang violence in Dane County skyrocketed with Falk as Exec.

According to a 2005 report by the Dane County Youth Commission, 1,300 of the 33,000 middle and high school students in Dane County identify themselves as gang members, a 30% increase from 10 years ago. Even fellow former Madison Mayor Paul Soglin, a fellow Democrat has criticized Falk, whom he said ‘did nothing’ about the explosion in gang related violence in the Madison area

The Van Hollen Plan:

I will create a Multi-jurisidictional action team (MAT) dedicated to the gang/drug/gun problem in Milwaukee.  I will launch the effort personally by bringing together chief of police, sheriff, DA federal resources...

I will assist communities in developing anti-gang ordinances.  Milwaukee and other communities have struggled with developing anti-gang ordinances.  While there are legitimate policy and constitutional issues to be addressed, that is exaclty where the AG should be providing leadership.  The AG should help develop model legislation and programs for municipalities struggling with difficult legal issues like cruising and gang related loitering.

We need long-term approaches, not band-aid solutions.  While resources may need to be better used or deployed, more money is not the first answer to every question.   Neither is the current MIA approach, or an AG that is not focused on fighting violent crime.

 

How will you fight identity theft and other crimes against consumers?

For one, I believe the state can help train local law enforcement in the area of computer and electronic forensics. In my travels across the state, the local men and women of law enforcement have requested this and I believe it makes sense for the state to assist locals in this manner.

Consumer protection should not take priority over fighting violent crime. But surely, the attorney general should vigorously pursue any violation of Wisconsin's consumer protection laws...particularly on items that have such a deep impact on our economy and on all citizens. 

For example, I will aggressively pursue any evidence of illegal price manipulation be it cases of price gouging on gasoline or other products or services.

The state has seen the worst kind of political demagoguery on this issue, with Governor Doyle’s worthless dog and pony show of a hearing and taxpayer-paid web petition that he didn't even bother to turn in when he said he would. The Attorney General merely sat by and allowed consumers to believe this showboating mattered.

Real investigations that produce results are never political shows. 

However, as long as I am Attorney General, you would never see me do as Peg Lautenschlager did, when in the last budget she requested five positions to be added to the consumer protection area while only requesting four new analysts for the crime lab.

Let’s fix the crime lab backlog first.

What will you do about election integrity?

Integrity has been a cornerstone of this campaign, and voter integrity has been one of the fundamental issues in this race and one I highlighted on the day I announced my candidacy. In June we detailed our Voter Integrity Plan.

Peg Lautenschlager and Jim Doyle’s lack of leadership on this issue has been shameful. The Attorney General is the state’s top lawyer, and as such has a responsibility to act when an agency’s actions put the state in legal jeopardy of a federal lawsuit and undermines the integrity of our elections. Instead, she has done nothing."

The State Elections Board has decided to ignore federal law, which requires that if new registrants have been issued a drivers license, they present that drivers license to register. Instead, the State Elections Board, against the legal opinions of its own counsel, the Federal Department of Justice and Federal Election Commission, has placed the state in legal jeopardy by allowing use of the last four digits of a social security number for identification, even for registrants who have been issued a drivers license.

For the Department of Justice to sit idly by in the face of all of the evidence of problems with elections and potential fraud is a clear neglect of duty. This is just another example where politics, and not the public interest, drives the Wisconsin Department of Justice.

In addition to calling upon the attorney general to fulfill her duties over the Elections Board’s disregard of the law, I also outlined my Election Integrity Plan.

The Van Hollen Election Integrity Plan

            1. I will create a new Elections and Public Integrity Unit within the Wisconsin Department of Justice and would make enforcement of state elections law one its principal assignments.

            2. I will assist the Legislature in drafting meaningful election reform, including a provision to require voters to show photo identification prior to obtaining a ballot.

            3. I will assign DOJ staff to monitor an Election Day Hotline and would dispatch personnel to polling areas that experience problems within an hour of reported incidents.

            4. Finally, I will create and lead Multi-jurisdictional Action Teams (MATs) to address unique election integrity challenges in different regions of the state.

The Election Integrity Multi-Jurisdictional Action Teams would:

Ø       Effectively coordinate state, federal and local law enforcement and prosecution resources to properly police both Election Day activities and the increasingly important pre-election activities.

Ø       Organize and recruit off-duty and retired law enforcement personnel to assist regional MATs in election monitoring.

Ø       Closely monitor the "deputy registrar" efforts of groups that criminally violated the statutes in the past, with a particular focus on groups that pay for registration efforts.

The Attorney General should be Wisconsin’s number one champion for integrity, especially integrity in our elections. That has not been the case for 16 years but will change if I’m Attorney General.

 

How do you think the Department of Justice has performed in the fight against methamphetamine? What more can the agency do?

Unfortunately, the state’s new Methamphetamine Initiative can be characterized best as uncoordinated and “too little, too late.”  Over the past year, attorney general Lautenschlager has treated methamphetamine as if it was a new problem, and Kathleen Falk simply has failed to understand the scope of the problem.  In fact, methamphetamine is a crisis, which arose in Wisconsin almost a decade ago. 

If not a reelection ploy, her methamphetamine initiatives really pointed to Lautenschlager’s inability to anticipate and respond to problems before they become crises.  CLEAR, for example, focuses on methamphetamine laboratories which are now on the decline in Wisconsin—due to the rise in less expensive imported methamphetamine and the effects of Wisconsin’s “Crackdown on Meth” law—rather than on the proliferation of imported methamphetamine into Wisconsin.

As US Attorney, I used my office to aggressively prosecute methamphetamine cases and quickly became a critical resource for local law enforcement.

As Attorney General, I will create a Multi-jurisdictional Action Team to address Methamphetamine production, distribution and use in Wisconsin

However, what Lautenschlager didn’t grasp and Kathleen Falk fails to comprehend is that  this is a serious and complicated issue that will take the full attention of all levels of law enforcement working together. The AG can take the lead to make sure law enforcement can combat this new wide-scale importation of this drug. It’s not merely being cooked in small local labs any more.

We need to provide law enforcement across Wisconsin the training, tools and resources to combat this problem. We need to coordinate efforts in Wisconsin to help the feds work their way up to the multi-state dealers.

The Van Hollen Plan:

I propose a MAT to coordinate state, federal and local law enforcement. 

Ø       DOJ will launch a new cooperative effort to partner with the Drug Enforcement Agency due to the shift of the drug to international trafficking.  Cutting off the supply is an integral part of combating a drug that went from being cooked up in make-shift labs in rural Wisconsin to a drug that is being smuggled in from Mexico and other sources such as California.

Ø       New training and resources.  The last thing Wisconsin needs is a new Blue Ribbon Task Force.  Instead, local law enforcement must be trained and given the resources it needs to identify methamphetamine rings, users, distributors and production facilities.  Comprehensive training must include a partnership will all 72 counties as methamphetamine use is spreading to traditionally non-affected counties.  Belief that this drug is limited to a certain geographic area of the state is a failure to understand the history and potency of the drug.

Ø       Inter-state tracking of the sale and theft of products used to make methamphetamine.  Producers have moved from small labs to large scale thefts of products used to make this highly dangerous and addictive drug.  Earlier this year, the federal Combat Meth Act was sign into law.  Under that law the DEA created a new classification for methamphetamine precursors to impose tougher penalties for methamphetamine producers. Exports of pseudoephedrine, a methamphetamine precursor, to Mexico increased five-fold between 1998-2004, which finds it way into methamphetamine production and trafficking into states like Wisconsin.

Ø       Expand regional multi-state Attorney General’s Task Force to include border states and states that serve as “gateways” to wider trafficking such as California.

Ø       AG’s office will partner with other community anti-drug organizations and spearhead educational programs and campaigns, develop tipster hotlines with monetary rewards.

 

The backlog of cases at the state crime labs more than doubled between 2003 - 2005. How can the Justice Department expedite tests?

With 550 employees and a budget of more than $70 million, the Department of Justice must do a better job with the resources it has before asking state taxpayers for more funding. I will therefore immediately run the Department on the principles of zero-based budgeting and prioritize real crime fighting.

As a DA, I was frustrated by the crime lab backlog under then Attorney General Jim Doyle. Now, my opponent stands with Doyle and claims to have the solution to the crime lab backlog? That’s just not credible. The backlog demonstrates a dramatic lack of leadership and a lack of focus on law enforcement needs.  Although the DNA backlog is expected to rise 18 percent this year Lautenschlager requested just four additional crime lab analysts in her last budget, while at the same time requesting five full-time positions to handle consumer protection.

The inexcusable backlog at the state crime lab is not only jeopardizing prosecutions, it is costing lives. For sixteen years those in charge of DOJ have had the wrong priorities, and they have wasted resources harassing farmers and businesses while they could have eliminated the backlog at the crime labs.

The Van Hollen Plan

Ø       On the first day in office, dismiss frivolous lawsuits and eliminate the Solicitor General position. Reorganize and reprioritize positions within the Department of Justice to put greater emphasis on forensics.

Ø       As long as the chain of custody can remain secure, look to out-source more of the work to reduce the backlog.

Ø       Help larger counties receive the resources and training to conduct computer forensics themselves.

Lautenschlager had the Department heading in the wrong direction; rather than fixing the problem at the crime labs, she's using state resources to advance her political agenda. Falk does not want to change directions. She wants to step on the accelerator. This isn’t a matter of conflicting ideologies; it’s a matter of life and death.

 

Corruption in state government has dominated the political headlines lately. What more can the Department of Justice do to combat it?

My campaign was first to raise the issue of government ethics in regards to the caucus scandal, Doyle’s casino interests and the Travelgate issue, as well as Lautenschlager’s ethical problems.  When I announced my run for attorney general I specifically referenced ethics reform as a high priority issue.   If you remember, I was joined by legislative leaders months ago in asking for an Ethics Board investigation on what Lautenschlager was doing with settlement monies. I’m also the only candidate that has outlined a procurement plan for the attorney general’s office that includes watching the connections between donations and contracts.  My plan will help restore integrity and clean up the system.

I have called on incumbent Peg Lautenschlager to activate the Department of Justice’s so-called ‘public integrity unit’ to investigate a series of ethics complaints against Governor Jim Doyle.

The Attorney General has the ability to investigate and prosecute this growing list of ethics complaints against Governor Doyle. Instead of engaging in a baseless crusade against law abiding farmers and businesses, the AG should look at possible breaches of the public trust occurring just down the hall from her Capitol office.

I have listed several alleged ethical indiscretions the Attorney General’s office should investigate.

Ø       Campaign donations to Doyle from HNTB which followed the granting of a no bid state contracts relating to the Marquette Interchange project

Ø       Circumstances surrounding an April 2005 meeting in a state office between then-Administration Secretary Marc Marotta and Philadelphia-area attorney Richard Schiffrin, who gave Doyle $10,000, the maximum allowed under state law, the same day. Doyle.s fundraiser is also listed on official documents as participating in the meeting on state property.

Ø       The acceptance of luxury suite use and game day tickets for the Governor and staff to a Green Bay Packers game at Chicago’s Soldier field.

Ø       Allegations in Ozaukee County Circuit Court that the Doyle administration steered a construction contract for the Kenilworth building at UW Milwaukee to a prominent Doyle contributor.

As Attorney General, I will not turn a blind eye to allegations that under Jim Doyle, Wisconsin’s government has been for sale. Attorney General Lautenschlager, even though she has the authority to investigate possible crimes of public officials would rather devote resources to persecute law abiding cranberry farmers.

The Van Hollen Procurement Integrity Plan for the Department of Justice includes establishing a Multi-jurisdictional Action Team (MAT) whose focus is to investigate and prosecute cases regarding public corruption. This new unit within the Department of Criminal Investigation will work with local law enforcement to investigate and prosecute allegations of political corruption at the local and state level. Under my leadership, the DOJ would also work with local officials to ensure prompt and professional delivery of legal opinions on matters affecting local governments to such officials.

While the Legislature and the Governor can make some much-needed changes to Wisconsin law to address many ethical problem areas in state government, the Attorney General should be more aggressive investigating and prosecuting violations of the current laws on the books.

In addition to the Public Integrity MAT, I will centralize the investigation and prosecution of violations of state laws affecting official conduct of state officers in the DOJ. I also support bi-partisan legislation to change Wisconsin law to:

Ø       Expand Wisconsin’s lobby law to cover procurement as a regulated lobbying activity.

Ø       Require any organization that submits a bid for any state contract over $25,000 to disclose whether any management employee of the organization has made a political contribution to a constitutional executive officer in Wisconsin over the last two years. Such disclosure would be made on a form included as part of the standard Bid Package.

Ø       Prohibit political contributions by company board members and management personnel of a bidding vendor to an executive officer during the period of time that a competitive bid is being reviewed for award. Just as lobbyists are restricted from making political contributions during the active period for consideration of state legislation, contract vendors should be similarly restricted during active review of pending bids.

 

How should the Justice Department approach environmental enforcement? How high of a priority should it be?

Real environmental enforcement should be a high priority.  I grew up in our great outdoors. I'm a hunter.  I love Wisconsin's land and our beautiful waterways and the attorney general has a important role in protection it. 

As a District Attorney and as United States Attorney, I directed prosecutions of environmental violations. As US Attorney, much as I will have as attorney general, I directed a civil litigation unit that handled these matters as well.

But I will enforce the laws and regulations on the books. I will not engage in political crusades. For example, I would not spend nearly a thousand hours and tens of thousands of tax dollars in a politically-motivated lawsuit against a cranberry farmer who hasn’t even violated the law. This is a waste of resources that detracts from honest and needed environmental enforcement.

I would not spend a thousand dollars to send a DOJ employee to a “Global Warming Retreat” in New York, which was nothing more than a seminar on how to harass law abiding businesses.

What role, if any, should the attorney general take in the debate over immigration and border security?

I spent my career prosecuting illegal aliens who have committed crimes and referring them for deportation.

My opponent is pandering to illegal alien advocates and are purposely blurring the line between legal and illegal immigrants.

“I have opposed the congressman Sensenbrenner bill that I thought was mean spirited,” Kathleen Falk said at a Madison forum. “We serve a vast and growing immigrant population from all across the world, it means we are a better county for that, it means we have to change how we deliver the services in county government.”

Under Falk’s dictate, it is illegal for Dane County employees to inquire about the legal immigration status of anyone applying for government assistance; this ban is also applied in many cases to law enforcement and court personnel.

Kathy Falk wants Wisconsin to turn a blind eye to illegal immigration, period. That’s an outrageous position for someone running to head the Department of Justice.

As U.S. Attorney, I helped secure additional resources from Immigration and Custom Enforcement for the state, and then after the illegal aliens were prosecuted and served their time, they were turned over to ICE for deportation, regardless of who they were or the crime they committed.

I believe illegal aliens who commit further crimes should be deported after serving their sentences.

Do you support bringing back the death penalty in Wisconsin? Why or why not?

Yes. In my opinion our most heinous murders deserve to face the ultimate punishment. The sentence should only be applied when there is DNA evidence to corroborate the verdict. This is yet another reason why we need to eliminate the crime lab backlogs.

How much of a threat does Wisconsin face from terrorists? Has the Justice Department done enough to protect the state? What more needs to be done?

In this race, Kathleen Falk has been silent on the State’s role as a partner in the war on terrorism. That’s dangerous.

I have long said law enforcement at every level of government must remain vigilant to the threat of possible acts of terrorism. Wisconsin citizens should not be paranoid, but they should not assume that only the big cities on either coast of the United States are the only possible targets for terrorists.

I do not believe terrorism is merely a federal issue and I believe it is naive and dangerous to assume terrorists are not in Wisconsin. As Attorney General, I will work every day with federal and local law enforcement on terrorism surveillance and prevention. I understand that the risk is real and that, much as we would hope otherwise, Wisconsin is not immune from the reality of terrorism.

 

Openness in Government is important to all of us. Here are my answers to the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council survey which reflect my thoughts on these matters.

1. Do you believe Wisconsin's open records and open meetings laws provide sufficient public access to governmental activities? What new steps, if any, will you take to improve the state's commitment in this regard?  As attorney general, my job will be to enforce the laws on the books - including open records and ethics laws. Any violation of those laws will be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent.

2. Are the penalties for violating Wisconsin's open records and open meetings laws sufficiently stringent to deter violations?  I believe so, however, I think the process to obtain information should be faster and more efficient. It is the job of the Legislature, not the AG, to make changes to Wisconsin's open records laws. However, most records are now kept in electronic format, but the system is often stuck in old paper-based technology. Just as electronic discovery is coming of age in our civil system, government should catch up and achieve savings through better use of electronic document search and production.

3. Do you agree that draft versions of legislation bills ought to be exempt from disclosure even when they are distributed to special interest groups and others outside of the Legislature? Again, it is the state Legislature's job to address the issue of disclosure through changes in statutory language. In my opinion and according to Wisconsin law, draft legislation is just that; a "draft" and not considered a public document until it no longer has draft status. This is an issue made much more complex by the inherent constitutional/separation of powers issues involved. The Legislature is a co-equal branch, and has inherent abilities to make decisions about its own internal operations. It is directly accountable to the voters, just as the AG. That does not mean the Legislature can violate the law, but it does mean that an effective and judicious AG should recognize its status as a co-equal branch.

4. In your opinion, is it ever appropriate for the Attorney General to bring a lawsuit against a member of the state Legislature regarding an open records or open meetings issue? If so, explain what circumstances might warrant this. Yes, if they clearly violated state law.

5. To what extent should government documents relating to the performance of public employees be available to the public? Is there a level of responsibility and authority at which public employees should expect greater public review? I believe taxpayers have the right to obtain government documents regarding the performance of public employees, period.

6. Will you continue the periodic seminars and other outreach programs that the Department of Justice has sponsored to help local communities understand the state's commitment to open government? Yes. Understanding and fulfilling the role government plays in relation to open records requirements is important to clean, ethical representation.

7. Experience suggests that the greatest of violations of the open records and open meetings laws occur at the local level. What can the Attorney General do, in addition to periodic workshops, to reduce the potential for violations? The relationship between local government and the DOJ must be improved. The DOJ is essentially the state's "law firm" and a working relationship must exist to foster better cooperation. In the past, municipal legal counsels used the DOJ for opinions to help direct legal actions or proceedings. But under the direction of attorneys general Doyle and Lautenschlager this has not been a priority. Greater cooperation on many levels will allow the DOJ to be more effective on issues such as open records and meetings laws.

8. Should the open records/meetings law be amended? If so, what changes would you support? I support efforts to ensure clean, open government but the job of the Attorney General is to enforce the law. It is the job of the Legislature to draft statutory language to address perceived shortcomings of current law.

Internal DOJ Reform: How would you want to see to the agency's budget, sources of funding, structure, change?

We know there is incredible waste in the Department of Justice. On day one I would eliminate, for example, the newly-created position of solicitor general. 

I will institute zero based budgeting, which forces us to examine all of our spending every budget cycle to determine what works and what does not.  I would immediately institute a review of all spending based on fighting crime and restoring integrity.  The crime lab is a key example.  We may need more resources in some areas, but I'm not prepared to say 550 people and $70 million plus budget is not enough.  I will recommend increased investment where necessary, but only after looking to redirect and re-prioritize. 

A fiscal conservative, I under spent my budget during all three years as U.S. Attorney. During this time, the number of criminal cases filed by my office increased by 53 percent.

 

As US Attorney

Ø       Federal Firearms Prosecutions nearly tripled under my watch

Ø       Criminal Prosecutions increased by nearly 75 percent

Ø       My district was one of the three toughest in the nation in terms of sentencing