NEWS
Assembly stalls campaign-finance reform
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by Eric Cullen
Friday, March 1, 2002
The Wisconsin state Assembly voted Thursday to keep campaign-finance reform legislation out of joint conference committee.
Senate Joint Resolution 63 would force representatives from both houses of the Legislature and Gov. McCallum to compromise on state campaign-finance legislation currently pending in both houses.
Assembly Minority Leader Spencer Black, D-Madison, said he felt Assembly Republicans were obstructing reform.
“There is a strong bill, SB 104, that would really reform the campaign-finance system,” Black said. “Assembly Bill 843, a weaker version, makes very little changes and would do very little to take money out of politics. Today, Republicans refused to go to conference committee between the two bills so that a compromise could be worked out. It is a way, I guess, of killing campaign-finance reform, but you can still you say you support it.”
Rep. Terese Berceau, D-Madison, said the governor’s failure to offer a position on campaign-finance reform is a political ploy.
“We don’t want the governor to alter [SB 104] with provisions that might hinder his ability to raise money,” she said.
However, Rep. Scott Suder, R-Abbotsford, said the Assembly and its Republican leadership were waiting for the Senate to return before acting.
“We can’t go to a conference committee unless the Senate has acted,” Suder said. “But out of respect to the Democrats, the speaker decided we were going to formally debate the measure. Even so, I personally do not agree with the ‘campaign welfare’ that both these bills deal with.”
Jay Heck, executive director of Common Cause in Wisconsin, a non-partisan citizen’s action group, said a conference committee could be called at any time, on any issue.
“The Senate position is very clear. There is no mistake that the Senate supports this bill,” Heck said. “Anything short of going to conference committee is tantamount to avoiding the issue.”
