Minnesota Republican congressional candidate Stuart Mills has ties to Wisconsin Republican corruption

Stuart Mills, the Republican candidate in the 8th Congressional District of Minnesota who is running against Democratic incumbent Rick Nolan, recently hired Keith Gilkes, who has been implicated in two criminal investigations into violations of campaign laws by Republican Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, as a consultant:

GOP 8th District congressional candidate Stewart Mills has tapped into Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s political organization for his race against Democratic U.S. Rep. Rick Nolan. 

A story on Minnesota’s 8th District race from the Rothenberg Political Report (behind a paywall) reported Mills has hired Keith Gilkes to serve as a general consultant for his campaign. A campaign spokeswoman said Gilkes is working with another group to “provide media and general consulting services to the campaign.”

Gilkes has a long track record of being associated with Walker and his long track record of corruption and cronyism. When Walker was the county executive of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Gilkes was one of several people (which also included Walker) who were implicated in Walker's corruption and cronyism, and, although neither Gilkes nor Walker were charged with any crimes from that investigation, six people connected to Walker were either convicted of, or plead guilty to, various criminal charges as a result of the probe. An ongoing, but officially stalled, investigation into Walker's corruption while Governor of Wisconsin has found that Walker, Gilkes, and two other people connected to Walker illegally coordinated with Republican/conservative outside groups, although neither Walker nor Gilkes have been charged with any crimes at this time.

Furthermore, Gilkes, then Walker's chief of staff, was one of two people, the other person being Walker, that fell for a prank caller who pretended to be David Koch, one of the Koch Brothers who have bankrolled Republican and conservative causes (including Walker's gubernatorial campaigns in Wisconsin), but was actually Ian Murphy, the editor of the online alternative newspaper The Beast. Gilkes, not realizing that the person on the other end of the line was a prank caller, forwarded Murphy's prank call to Walker, and Walker, also not realizing that the person on the other end of the line was a prank caller, admitted to using and planning to use vindictive, Nixonian tactics against Democratic members of the Wisconsin State Senate and also admitted to planning to illegally coordinate with Republican front groups:

Mills's ties to Wisconsin Republican corruption don't stop there. Earlier this year, Mike Ellis, the Republican Wisconsin State Senate President, admitted to planning to start his own SuperPAC in order to run attack ads against Penny Bernard Schaber, the Democratic candidate for the Wisconsin State Senate seat currently held by Ellis, and Ellis named Mills as one of the big-money donors who would have funded Ellis's planned illegal SuperPAC:

Ellis ended his re-election campaign not long after his plot to violate campaign finance laws became public knowledge.

Stuart Mills, who is a Republican candidate for Congress in Northeastern Minnesota, has extensive ties to flagrant political corruption that is rampant in the Republican Party of Wisconsin. The fact that he's hiring campaign operatives who once worked for Scott Walker, one of the most corrupt, vindictive politicians to have ever held public office in this country's history, is more than enough for me to say that a Mills victory would be an absolute disaster for Northeastern Minnesota.