This time maybe we can expect Marotta on the witness stand

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's Spivak and Bice are reporting on a lawsuit by a three member partnership alleging Marotta and the Doyle Administration showed favoritism for a campaign contributor in a $55 million building deal in 2004.

But an irate vendor, using newly discovered e-mails, is arguing in an Ozaukee County lawsuit that the long arm of Marotta reached into the bidding process for a $55 million-plus building deal awarded by the state in 2004, kicking it to a competitor.

Prism, a three-member partnership that bid on the deal, is pulling no punches in the allegation it is leveling against Gov. Jim Doyle's administration and Marotta, who left the governor's cabinet last year and is now his campaign chairman.

"The State simply opted for a Mulligan, or do-over, when the winner, Prism, was not politically popular with the person who made the key decision," Prism argues in court documents filed last week. "Such is exactly the behavior which the statutes and regulations are intended to bar."

Elsewhere in the filing, Prism charges: "It was Marc J. Marotta . . . who made the improper decision to abandon the selection of Prism."
Not mentioned in the suit are campaign finance records that show execs from the eventual winning group - which didn't even compete in Round 1 of the bidding process - contributed $51,000 to Doyle's campaign, including $13,000 in the two months after the pact was awarded and $1,000 days before the final vote.

By contrast, the folks with Prism donated no money to the Democratic governor.