Wisconsin Resistance RadioBoycott

[madmax]

This was posted on a FB page

Wisconsin Resistance RadioBoycott Scott Walker Contributors
Solidarity, Voice here. I need to contact the owner of this FB page, could you kindly shoot me an e-mail at [e-mail]? We've received some interesting information that'll be more useful in your hands than in ours.
56 minutes ago · 313 ·Unlike Like
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I replied to the above email and received this:

Thanks for getting back to me. We received an inside tip from a man who works at a local auto dealership, and this info is really more up your alley than ours. He's apparently gone to some risk to provide this information to boot.

Here is what he says in full:

"This could end my current career as a car salesperson, if so..so be it.

Looking at the donors to Walkers campaign fund you will find many of the larger auto dealerships in Wi have contibuted healthy amounts of money to his effort. I researched this and am sure you will find the same conclusion. The fact I thought most intersting was, and a fact a lot of people are not aware of is...guess who funds those dealerships floor plans??
M&I Bank currently funds many dealerships floor plans in the Madison area, and I am sure beyond. Not sure what this info is worth but felt I had to share as I saw M&I was under pressure today. Any more info you may need, feel free to contact me."

"A boycott of the dealerships M&I funds or the dealerships themselves would wake up a lot of people."

He says that M&I finances the floor plans of those dealerships. Now, since I know squat about car dealerships I had to look that up. You may know, but for completeness sake: "Floor plan financing is a revolving line of credit that allows the borrower to obtain financing for retail goods. These loans are made against a specific piece of collateral (i.e. an auto, RV, manufactured home, etc.). When each piece of collateral is sold by the dealer, the loan advance against that piece of collateral is repaid.In short, Dealer Floor Plan financing allows dealers to borrow against retail inventory. The dealer then repays that debt as they sell their inventory and borrows against the line of credit to add new inventory."

Wisconsin Resistance RadioBoycott Scott Walker Contributors: What do you think? Is this new and/or useful information? He seems willing to provide more information if needed, particularly about which specific dealerships we're talking about here. I just haven't written him back yet to inquire more.
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I have no idea what this all means. I know someone on DU will know what if any importance this may have.

[murielm99]

1. Someone who is going to be at the protests tomorrow

should print this and take it with them. There will be people there who understand what to do with this information.

On the other hand, it might just be easier to boycott the big car dealerships who contributed to Walker.

[madmax]

2. From the last paragraph it sounds like

the bank M&I is somehow involved, too. As you can see a brain trust, I'm not.

[murielm99]

3. So neither am I madmax, when it comes to finance.

There are other things I can do well, and I am sure the same is true of you.

[madmax]

4. Just thought I'd throw it out there.

So pissed off at these idiot teabaggers and Walker. Hope he gets recalled.

:hi:

[Scuba]

8. I got it. I'm going to try to speak on the "peoples mic" around 8:00. n/t

[madmax]

9. Ok, it's something ....

I don't know what it is but, whatever adds another nail... :bounce:

[starroute]

5. I've seen weird insinuations about car dealerships at times

I've never gotten enough details to say for certain, but the general impression I have is that it's possible for some form of money laundering to go on through auto dealers. This may be because there's no fixed price for car sales -- there's always room for negotiation and trade-ins. So just as with casinos (which the Mob is known to use to launder illicit profits), it's possible to move cash through these transactions without the actual sources becoming apparent. And auto loans provide a further opportunity for funny business with the bookkeeping.

Whatever might be going on, I really don't have a clear sense of what or how widespread it is. It's just something I've picked up around the edges -- that the old "would you buy a used car from this man" adage is based on a sense that some auto dealers may not merely be passing off shoddy goods but may be into something more criminal.

What would be essential to keep the system under wraps, of course, would be generous donations to local politicians -- which is why the sentence "Looking at the donors to Walkers campaign fund you will find many of the larger auto dealerships in Wi have contibuted healthy amounts of money to his effort" caught my eye.

Unlike firms that pollute or want to buy up state assets cheap or whatever, auto dealers wouldn't seem to need much in the way of political favors. And yet they do regularly seem to be significant political donors. That in itself suggests some kind of corrupt dealings.

[starroute]

6. I remembered where I got some of this -- and found the article

http://www.keloland.com/NewsDetail6162.cfm?Id=40886

Thune's Connection To Dan Nelson Automotive
By Don Jorgensen
Published: July 7, 2005

Sioux Falls Car Dealer Dan Nelson is turning his dealership over to his partner, Chris Tapken, after filing bankruptcy. But this may be more than a car dealership in financial trouble, because Dan Nelson has financial and political ties to US Senator John Thune. Nelson has been involved with the Thune campaign, beginning with Thune's first US House Race in 1996.

According to campaign finance records, Nelson has contributed at least $9,000 to Thune's campaign. Thune even leased cars and office space from Dan Nelson during his 2004 senate campaign. But it's Thune's service on the board of directors of the bank that loaned Nelson millions of dollars that's raising the most questions.

Following his defeat in the 2002 US Senate race, John Thune served on the board of directors of what is now known as Metabank, a publicly traded bank that serves 25,000 customers in the upper midwest. It's the same bank that loaned millions of dollars to the Dan Nelson Automotive Group through October, 2004. According to his personal financial disclosure statement, Thune received over $45,000 from Metabank for board services in 2003 and 2004. According to bankruptcy filings, Dan Nelson Automotive Group owes $28 million dollars on outstanding loans, a large portion to that to MetaBank. The money was used to buy cars for its dealerships in Sioux Falls, Des Moines, Council Bluffs, Rapid City and Sioux City.

The Iowa Attorney General's office says it began investigating Nelson in mid-2004, during the time he was approved for the loan. Nelson filed for bankruptcy five months after being sued by Iowa's attorney general for fraud. That lawsuit claims Nelson's dealerships charged more than the cars were worth and financed many at interest rates of 25 percent. That case is still pending.

[madmax]

11. You have a great memory nt

[Contrary1]

7. When I worked for a used car broker, we used a floor plan from a local bank.

It's pretty standard in the used car business.

Also, it makes sense to me that the bigger dealerships would contribute heavily to Walker (or any Republican), simply because they are worried about having to pay more in taxes.

I think a boycott of the dealerships would get their attention quickly. There is much more profit to be made in the selling of used cars versus new. It would put a crimp in the bank's profit too, when the dealerships borrow less.

My former boss was a liar, a cheat, a thief...and surprise, a Repub fundy who had religious pictures hung all around the building.

[madmax]

10. Hope this dealership has a large Public Employee

customer base and they boycott him.