Congressman Green: A Property That's Been On The Market For A Long Time

I guess the housing market really is a buyer's market right now. In fact, if you have been bankrolling the right politician for a over a decade, you can buy an entire housing plan for about $100,000.

Earlier this week the AP revealed that Congressman Mark Green took in about $100,000 in campaign donations from real estate and building interests on the day before and the day after he outlined a plan that would be very beneficial to the industry. But a One Wisconsin Now press release shows that the real estate industry put a sold sign on Congressman Green a long time ago. They got in on the ground floor.

In January 1994, Green received $1,220 in Wisconsin Realtors Association PAC and conduit money and then was the main author of a bill to give real estate agents a partial exemption from a fraudulent sales representation law. The bill, which passed the state assembly in November of 1995, would only make real estate agents legally responsible only if they knowingly gave false information to a client, unlike other sales representatives who are responsible even if they did not know the information was false. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, “Assembly Sold on Realtors Bill,” November 15, 1995; Wisconsin State Journal, “Assembly OKs Bill to Protect Real Estate Agents from Lawsuits,” November 15, 1995)

I mean really, why should real estate agents have to live by the same rules as everyone else?

And let's not forget, this is the standard that the Republicans have set for donations so they will have no trouble admitting that they aren't living by the standards they have demanded for Governor Doyle, right?

Of course not. When the Green Team was asked about the timing of the donations, they said there was no connection and the group just supports Congressman Green's agenda. The real estate industry said the donations are ok because their support of Green goes back fifteen years.

But when a Wisconsin business that has known and supported Governor Doyle for years gives money to his campaign, the Republicans think state employees should go to prison.

Time will tell if the standard the Republicans have set will come back to bite them harder. Live by the sword, die by the sword.