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Who is Nick Hurtgen?

He started out in Tommy Thompson’s administration and quickly became the top deputy to James Klauser, Thompson’s most important aide. Wherever Klauser was, Hurtgen was. The two had total access to the governor and his full trust. Both eventually left the administration to enter the private sector. Hurtgen became a major player at Bear Stearns, the giant investment banking firm that does thousands of government bond issues.

Both before and after Hurtgen got to Bear Stearns, the company got much of the state of Wisconsin’s bond deals and those of many local governments as well. In Illinois, Bear Stearns suddenly started getting a lot of hospital bond deals. A federal investigation ensued, and Hurtgen was indicted for handing kickbacks to hospital executives in exchange for the bond business.

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Hurtgen was not only close to Tommy Thompson but to Milwaukee County Executive Scott Walker. He and his wife have donated money to Congressman Mark Green, the current Republican candidate for governor. His very close friend is Phil Prange, a prominent Wisconsin lobbyist and political fund-raiser who, like Hurtgen, has a Zelig-like way of landing at the right hand of every powerful Wisconsin politician.

But it isn’t Hurtgen’s relationships with these Republicans that make this story explosive. Nick was an equal opportunity pal. Nick Hurtgen and Phil Prange have burrowed like moles deeply into the administration of Democrat Jim Doyle.

Follow this family tree. Hurtgen, Prange and Doyle’s wife, Jessica, are all related. Hurtgen and Prange are friends of Marc Marotta, Doyle’s former administration director and current campaign chair. In the weeks prior to Hurtgen’s indictment, he had a number of meetings with Marotta. Hurtgen also met with Susan Goodwin, Doyle’s top aide and the governor’s virtual alter ego.

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My sources indicate Hurtgen (possibly via his lawyers) is cooperating in the federal investigation. This makes sense because his case has not progressed to trial even though he was charged last year. It’s possible the only thing the feds are talking about is the Illinois hospital bond deals. But, what if ... ?

There is an ongoing grand jury investigation in Wisconsin into Doyle fund-raising and state contracts. If the federal interest in Hurtgen extends to the investigation of Doyle, there’s no telling what it could lead to. What I do know is this: Nick Hurtgen knows where every political body in this state is buried.

It’s possible nothing comes of this. But a separate deal cut by the feds led recently to the conviction of former Illinois Gov. George Ryan. The Hurtgen case is eerily similar.

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You may have noticed that none of these juicy cases ever seemed to be investigated by J.B. Van Hollen when he served as U.S. Attorney in western Wisconsin. That’s the biggest reason I’m unimpressed with Van Hollen’s candidacy for the Republican nomination for Wisconsin attorney general. If he didn’t do anything as chief federal prosecutor, there’s reason to think he’ll be a do-nothing attorney general.

Van Hollen tried to respond to this in a recent debate with opponent Paul Bucher, the Waukesha County district attorney. Van Hollen claimed he actually began several criminal investigations of the Doyle administration but was ordered to shut them down by higher-ups in the U.S. Justice Department. Huh?

Is Van Hollen accusing former Attorney General John Ashcroft of sabotaging an investigation into political corruption in Wisconsin? Or, as is more likely, is Van Hollen just making all this up? The easy way to find out is for Van Hollen to produce evidence of even one case of Doyle corruption in which he was stymied by Washington bureaucrats.

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Some snarly little Republican types have been sniping at me for being overly critical of Van Hollen and of Green’s tepid campaign for governor. Many are former aides to Thompson who seem to think they have a birthright to control Wisconsin Republican politics for the foreseeable future. Whatever. I will point out, however, that many of them are very close to both Nick Hurtgen and Phil Prange.