Controversy Swirls Over Grant to Wisc. Group With GOP Ties

A politically connected Wisconsin sportsmen’s group claimed nonprofit status it did not have as it successfully pursued a $500,000 state grant—which has since been revoked—to provide hunting and fishing training, writes the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

Republican Gov. Scott Walker last week rescinded the Department of Natural Resources grant to two-year-old United Sportsmen of Wisconsin after prior reporting by the newspaper raised questions about the organization’s status, its lack of experience in outdoors training, and its ties to state GOP insiders and conservative groups.

United Sportsmen, which has a pending application for federal charity status, acknowledged last week that it was not a nonprofit. According to the Journal Sentinel, the organization represented itself as such in statements to a donor in 2011, and the newspaper previously reported that United Sportsmen initially claimed charity status in grant paperwork.