Tim Michels' Mafia benefactor?

[phaseolus]

I've been around the food & dairy industry for a decade now, and it's been kind of an open secret that Brownsville, WI based Grande Cheese Company has Mafia ties. A quick google search ("grande cheese" and mafia) shows that it's been like that since Joe Bonnano was alive; an article from a couple weeks ago in the San Diego Reader quotes a 1980 NYTimes article that states

"The Pennsylvania study listed 23 cheese companies it said had ties to organized crime, many to the Gambino and Bonanno groups, and it traced in particular ties between one of the 23, Grande Cheese of Brownsville, Wis., and Roma Food Enterprises of New Jersey."
http://www.sdreader.com/php/cover.php?mode=article&showpg=2&id=20030925

...which documents that the ties have continued through the early '80s. Maybe they still are mafia-connected, maybe they aren't, more research needs to be done; At the very least, they do use their reputation for being mobbed-up to get their way when acquiring land or dealing with vendors, according to stories I've heard.

And since they're from Brownsville, Michels' home town, I wondered...

Here's the opensecrets page -- Grande's president has given Michels $6,000 in the past 12 months.
http://www.opensecrets.org/indivs/search.asp?NumOfThou=0&txtName=candela&txtState=WI&txtZip=&txtEmploy=&txtCand=&txt2004=Y&Order=N

Maybe we can ask Tim some pointed questions about this next time he's on a WPR talk show??

I will admit Grande makes great cheese. It's where the best NYC pizzerias get their mozzarella from...

[theshadow]

1. My recollection...

... is that when the mob had control of the mozzarella market, even Kraft wouldn't manufacture it. It appears now that the mob's hold is gone, as Kraft and everyone else is making it. I thought Grande changed hands a number of years ago, but can't confirm that on Google or Yahoo.