Foti lobbies at Capitol while on work release

Former majority leader serving 60-day term after his conviction in legislative caucus scandal
By PATRICK MARLEY
Posted: April 25, 2006
Madison - Just over a week into a 60-day jail sentence for an ethics violation, former Assembly Majority Leader Steven Foti spent Tuesday hobnobbing with his former colleagues as a Capitol lobbyist.
Former state legislative leader Steven Foti (left), now a lobbyist, talks with Rep. Dean Kaufert (R-Neenah) outside Assembly chambers Tuesday in Madison. Foti started a 60-day work-release sentence last week.
Quotable
Everybody in Huber is working today.
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- Steven Foti,
former Assembly majority leader, now a lobbyistThe Oconomowoc Republican pleaded guilty earlier this year to a misdemeanor count of directing an aide to campaign on state time and upon reporting to jail on Easter was assigned to the Waukesha County Huber Facility, which allows him work-release privileges.
"Everybody in Huber is working today," Foti said Tuesday when asked if it was appropriate for him to work in the Capitol.
He declined to say whom he was working for Tuesday or otherwise comment, saying the press had treated him unfairly. He represents Miller Brewing Co. and eight other clients.
Foti began his lobbying career last year, after his 23-year stint in the Assembly ended.
His conviction has had little bearing on his ability to attract business; two days after he was sentenced March 27, he picked up Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America as a client. Court documents filed before he took on that client said he was set to make $102,000 this year - more than twice what he made as a lawmaker.
Miller spokesman Pete Marino said the company did not consider dumping Foti because of the conviction.
"Certainly, Steve made a mistake that he shouldn't have, but that doesn't impair his ability to be an effective lobbyist," Marino said. "We are happy with his work on behalf of Miller Brewing Company."
Rep. Spencer Black (D-Madison) said Foti's presence highlighted the need for reforms.
"It is indeed ironic that we have a former lawmaker convicted of a serious crime lobbying the Legislature at the same time leadership is stalling any legislation to clean up the Capitol," Black said.
Republicans who control the Assembly have declined to say whether they will take up a bill that has cleared the Senate that would merge the Ethics Board and Elections Board and give investigators and prosecutors increased powers to uncover corruption. GOP leaders have pledged, however, to pass other reforms, such as a bill that would ban legislative aides from getting state-paid health insurance when they take leaves to work on campaigns.
Sen. Luther Olsen (R-Ripon) said he did not have a problem with Foti lobbying while serving his sentence, noting that a judge approved his work-release privileges and that Foti was convicted of only a misdemeanor.
"Misdemeanors and felonies to me are huge differences," Olsen said.
Prosecutors reduced a felony corruption charge to a misdemeanor in a plea deal with Foti. He has said he took the deal in part because of a pending bill that would bar felons from lobbying. That bill is now stalled in the Assembly.
Senate President Alan Lasee (R-De Pere), that bill's author, said Tuesday that he was disappointed the Assembly hadn't taken up the measure. He also said he didn't believe Foti should lobby while serving his sentence.
"I'm not comfortable with it, much as I like Steve," he said. "You break the rules, there's a price to pay, I think."
Foti was one of five members of the Legislature charged in 2002 as part of the state's biggest corruption investigation. Like Foti, the others - former Senate Majority Leader Chuck Chvala (D-Madison), former Sen. Brian Burke (D-Milwaukee), former Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen (R-Town of Brookfield) and former Rep. Bonnie Ladwig (R-Racine) - were convicted of telling aides to campaign on state time. Jensen and Ladwig are to be sentenced next month.
Burke also has worked as a lobbyist and remains a vice president with Zigman Joseph Stephenson. But he has not lobbied the Legislature since he was convicted in October of one felony and one misdemeanor. Burke is serving a six-month sentence under home confinement and declined to say Tuesday if he planned to lobby the Legislature in the future.
Foti's work-release privileges allow him to be out of the Waukesha County Huber Facility from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Friday for his job.