(8-26-10) Republican U-S House candidate Dan Kapanke said he made a mistake, by having his charity help pay for new lights at a stadium for his La Crosse Loggers baseball team.
State Democrats filed a complaint yesterday, saying Kapanke illegally spent money donated by groups that employ lobbyists to pay off a personal debt.
Kapanke, a state senator from La Crosse, is one of two Republicans running for Ron Kind’s House seat. And he owns the La Crosse Loggers Northwoods League baseball team.
He had the Loggers’ Foundation pay almost 17-thousand dollars toward a loan he and his wife took out for the new stadium lights.
Once the complaint was made public yesterday, Kapanke admitted a mistake – and he said the Loggers would reimburse the foundation for what it paid on the loan. He also said he made a good faith effort to follow the law.
Kapanke and financial adviser Bruce Evers are running in next month’s G-O-P primary for the right to oppose Kind in November.
The state Government Accountability Board says it has received the Democrats’ complaint, but has not said what it would do with it.
