I just submitted a formal complaint to the Wisconsin Ethics Commission after research revealed potentially thousands of violations of ethics laws by state Representative Steve Doyle tied to his work as a private attorney providing legal services directly to state lobbying organizations, something that state ethics law prohibits.

For several months our team has been looking through public records and scrutinizing legal documents uncovering case after case of unethical behavior that appears to violate Wisconsin state law by Representative Steve Doyle. In every year of his legislative tenure, Doyle has served as attorney of record in numerous court cases representing clients who employ lobbyists. Every legislator receives training, so they understand the laws that prohibit them from taking so much as a cup of coffee from a lobby group, much less a paycheck, but over and over our team found cases where Doyle went to court serving as lawyer for the same folks who want to influence his vote in Madison.

Employment arrangements between a lobbying group would seem to violate Wisconsin’s ethics and lobby laws meant to prevent corruption among elected officials. These laws clearly state that ‘no state public official may solicit or accept from any person, directly or indirectly, anything of value if it could reasonably be expected to influence the state public official’s vote, official actions or judgment, or could reasonably be considered as a reward for any official action or inaction on the part of the state public official.’ These statutes are backed by decades of opinions from enforcement agencies which have advised legislators that the law does not allow employment arrangements where a legislator receives payment, directly or indirectly, for work they do specifically for lobby groups.

Public records provide ample evidence that Doyle has been doing work for a lobbying principal. I am filing this formal complaint so the Ethics Commission launches an investigation into what appears to be Doyle’s repeated violations of these laws. Our research shows thousands of cases across multiple counties where Doyle served as attorney for a lobby group; fines for these violations could easily top $1 million.

*** UPDATE *** I recieved the following email from the WEC Staff
----- BEGIN WEC RESPONSE -----
Commission staff has conducted a preliminary review of your complaint as required by Wis. Admin. Code ETH § 21.03(2). Upon review, your complaint exceeds the 10-page limit imposed by Wis. Admin. Code ETH § 21.03(1) and upon consulting with our Administrator, he indicated that no pre-approval to exceed this limit was granted. As such, your complaint is being dismissed pursuant to Wis. Admin. Code ETH § 21.03(2). If you wish, you may re-file your complaint after reducing it down to 10 pages or less.

I would also note that upon review, it appeared that Exhibits A-K and Exhibit O document activity from more than three years ago. Pursuant to Wis. Stat. § 19.49(2)(f)1., the Commission cannot act upon any complaint made more than three years after the violation is alleged to have occurred. Additionally, I noted that Exhibits M and N appear to document Rep. Doyle representing clients other than Gundersen and who do not appear to be lobbying principals themselves, so those exhibits would not support your allegations without further factual representations as to their association with a registered lobbying principal.