MARC MAROTTA ZIPS IT

Wisconsin State Bird: The Robin


Wisconsin Dem State Bird: The Albatross
Jim Doyle's summer doesn't look to be getting any better.

The Travelgate scandal and the Dem Culture of Corruption in Wisconsin are a heavy weight for Doyle to bear.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- Gov. Jim Doyle's former top aide told lawmakers on Wednesday he was never involved in selecting companies for state contracts during his time in state government.

Former Department of Administration Secretary Marc Marotta, testifying in front of the Legislature's budget committee, declined to answer questions about his contacts with Adelman Travel Group during the competition for a state travel contract. He said investigators asked him to keep quiet on the matter.

The contract led to the conviction last week of a state purchasing official on charges she rigged the process to favor Adelman. Evidence at the trial showed Marotta met with Adelman officials in the months before the competition. His direct phone line also traded phone calls with Adelman executives on a key day of the competition.

...Marotta acknowledged he met with Adelman officials who were pushing a consolidation of the state's travel business in 2004, which he described as one of many meetings administration officials have with companies pitching ideas to the state.

"But as soon as that process begins to determine who is being selected, we stay out of that," said Marotta, who left his state job last year after nearly three years as Doyle's top deputy. "We turn it over to people who are procurement experts."

He said when he received inquiries from companies during a contract competition, he would always refer the calls to the purchasing experts. He said he followed that rule "without exception" during his tenure.

Marotta is doing his best to maintain the Georgia Thompson Lee Harvey Oswaldesque lone gunman façade.

Thompson acted alone.

The corruption supposedly stops with her.

I don't buy it.

It's not what Marotta said today that is damning. It's what he didn't say that suggests possible wrongdoing.

From WisPolitics:

Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, a co-chair of the committee, asked repeatedly whether Marotta had any contact with Adelman representatives during the RFP process for the partner travel contract. Marotta said while he could not talk specificially about the Adelman contract because prosecutors asked him not to, he did say that in all cases he was quick to refer calls to staff.

Mark Green and Republicans don't have to create an aura of Dem corruption to challenge Doyle, because it's there. It's real.

It's an albatross that's not flying away.