AT&T is continuing to plow their way into the cable market, handing out large piles of cash to elected officials in advance of the upcoming vote on cable franchising. If the bill passes, one of these decorative boxes could soon be arriving on your front lawn, and there will be
nothing the Village government can do to stop it.
The details of the franchise, and who pays what to whom are now being closely scrutinized by various media outlets. On the other hand, nobody seems to be paying much attention to the fact that the delivery of this service requires the placement of huge numbers of massive grey boxes in the Village right-of-way.
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Doyle, lawmakers say money won't affect stands on deregulation legislation
JSOnline, 4/22/07Communications giant AT&T pushed a controversial bill to have state government license cable systems by showering more than $54,000 in campaign cash on dozens of lawmakers and Gov. Jim Doyle over the past 15 months.
Campaign-finance records show that AT&T's political action committee gave a total of $10,000 to four legislators and the Assembly Republican Campaign Committee in the past two months, when legislators negotiated details of the complex package with AT&T's 15 registered lobbyists.
AT&T is launching its own Internet-based television service, called U-Verse, to compete with cable systems.
It's unusual for one special-interest group to donate so much after November elections. The next partisan elections are 18 months away, and $1,000 went to the chief Senate sponsor of the bill, Sen. Jeff Plale (D-South Milwaukee) five weeks ago, even though Plale won't need the money until his re-election in 2010.
Three other senators each got $1,000 donations on Feb. 19 from AT&T's political action committee: Democrat Jon Erpenbach of Middleton, who also isn't up for re-election until 2010; and Roger Breske (D-Eland) and Alberta Darling (R-River Hills), both of whom are up for re-election next year. (
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