next five years TMER&L arrogantly fought off all demands for accountability by lobbying the state legislature and bribing city aldermen. Pfister even forsaked his own party by supporting the Democrat David Stuart Rose for mayor when calls for reform from the city's progressive Republicans gained traction. Through intense lobbying of the Common Council Payne and Pfister secured legal immunity for the company by pushing through a 35-year contract with the city. The near unanimous backlash from local businessmen, church leaders and newspapers against such political manipulation resulted in widespread support for progressive reforms. In 1905 Pfister was indicted by Milwaukee district attorney (and future governor) Francis E. McGovern in a rendering company bribery scandal, but was acquitted for lack of testimony. Running Wisconsin's Republican party During the 1890s Pfister began to take a commanding role in the state's Republican party. After the Democratic party gained control of the state government in 1891, they brought suit against former state treasurers and their bondsmen when it was revealed that state funds had been deposited in favored banks with the earned interest unaccounted for. Pfister, U.S. Senator Philetus Sawyer and other members of the Republican "Old Guard" had been the treasurers' bondsmen, with Pfister being liable for over $100,000 in funds. The Democrats had succeeded in retrieving half the state's money, but when the Republicans came back to power in 1894 they stopped prosecuting the treasury cases. Pfister worked behind the scenes to push bills through the Republican legislature that absolved the former treasurers and their bondsmen. The bills were reluctantly signed by stalwart-backed governor William H. Upham. Doubting Upham's re-electability in the next election, Pfister and other members of the state's machine met in a hotel room during the 1896 Republican convention in St. Louis and decided Edward Scofield would be the next Republican nominee for Wisconsin governor. After the subsequent state convention, candidate Robert M. La Follette claimed that Pfister admitted to buying away his pledged delegates and told him "If you behave yourself, we will take care of you when the proper time comes." La Follette denounced the offer. President William McKinley's campaign manager Mark Hanna held Pfister in high regard and credited his optimism in McKinley's 1900 re-election campaign. Pfister's influence with president Theodore Roosevelt secured the office of postmaster general for his political partner Henry C. Payne, providing new opportunities to bestow federal patronage jobs on allies. He