WASHINGTON D.C. (WTAQ) – Supporters of U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin paid just over $45,000 to have a law firm review her office’s handling of the controversy over the VA Medical Center in Tomah.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said the Wisconsin Democrat’s election campaign paid the Seattle-based Perkins Cole to assess the matter.
Baldwin later said it turned up mistakes by her senior staffers and constituent services team in the way they failed to act on an unreleased inspector general’s report from last year. It cited drug overprescriptions to veterans at the Tomah VA hospital.
A whistleblower tried for months to get the senator to take action — but she didn’t until after the Center for Investigative Journalism exposed the matter in January.
After the law firm’s review, Baldwin demoted her state director, and docked a month’s pay from her chief of staff. Deputy state director Marquette Baylor was fired in the aftermath, but an attorney said she had other problems as well.
Baylor has filed an ethics complaint against Baldwin, claiming she was a scapegoat. A Baldwin aide called the complaint a “political hit job.”
As for the cost of the investigation, a spokesman said Baldwin has relied on Perkins Cole for legal advice since 2011, and the representation will continue.
(Story courtesy of Wheeler News Service)
