NEWS
Political experts say state bound to see ethics reform
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Also by Keegan Kyle:
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by Keegan Kyle
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
According to four political experts who took part in a panel discussion at the University of Wisconsin Tuesday night, ethics reform may have a bright future in Wisconsin after last week's election. Campaign-finance reform, on the other hand, may continue to be a work in progress.
Invited by the Contemporary Issues Committee, UW political science professors Dennis Dresang and John Coleman, Wisconsin Democracy Campaign Executive Director Mike McCabe, and State Rep. Spencer Black, D-Madison, discussed "Money's Effect on Democracy" with a small audience in Memorial Union.
"The new [state] Legislature will be decidedly more reform-friendly than the outgoing Legislature," McCabe said. "There is bipartisan majority support in both houses for [ethics reform] legislation, so it would really take an act of stonewalling by legislative leaders to prevent its passage."
Dresang and Coleman echoed McCabe's remarks. Black left the panel early due to another meeting, but expressed similar sentiments throughout the evening.
Following the Nov. 7 election, Democrats gained an 18-15 majority in the state Senate and narrowed the Republican majority in the state Assembly to 52-47.
Although ethics violations in the past several years have been largely bipartisan, McCabe said Democratic victories were tied closely to ethics accusations against state Republicans. Coleman was more skeptical, though, saying multiple factors played into the election, such as Republican scandals at the national level.
The panelists agreed the new Legislature will have enough support for an ethics reform bill to reach Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle, but were more concerned with campaign finance and ethics enforcement.
McCabe criticized the State Ethics Board and State Elections Board, saying they have "fallen down on the job" and added that the state needs a politically independent agency that consistently enforces public policy.
As a lawmaker, Black said he has personally witnessed an alarming number of ethics violations and campaign-finance abuse.
"The biggest change I've seen in Wisconsin politics over the past 22 years is how money has become the predominant factor in politics," Black said.
Black was recently re-elected for his 12th term and said he plans to re-introduce campaign-finance reform legislation.
"The decisions that are made at the Capitol are too often not made in the best interest of the average person," Black added. "They're based on who is writing a campaign check."
Dreseng, Coleman and McCabe said they were uncertain whether campaign-finance reform would make it to through the new Legislature. They said it is historically more difficult to pass and is not as large a campaign issue as ethics reform.
UW sophomore Adam Vandelaarschot said he was a supporter of campaign-finance and ethics reforms when he entered Memorial Union and was a supporter when he left.
"I came because campaign finance reform is a pretty important issue," Vandelaarschot said. "I thought [the speakers] were really interesting. … They had very different roles, and that made for some interesting thought."
Vandelaarschot was one of only a few audience members for the event also organized by the Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group. UW senior and WISPIRG spokesperson Dana Roth said she was disappointed by the low turnout but was not surprised.
"I think people just hear the word 'finance' and kind of go to sleep," Roth added. "Everyone thinks it's an important issue, but it's hard to get people to come out and find out about it." And the new Legislature also saw a shakeup Tuesday in its leadership for the 2007-08 legislative session.
Assembly Republicans elected Rep. Mike Huebsch, R-West Salem, Assembly speaker. Huebsch will replace outgoing Speaker John Gard, R-Peshtigo, who made an unsuccessful bid for Congress.
Rep. Jeff Fitzgerald, R-Horicon, was elected majority leader, while Rep. Mark Gottlieb, R-Port Washington, was elected Assembly speaker pro tempore. The speaker pro tempore performs the duties of the speaker in the speaker's absence. Assembly Democrats unanimously re-elected Rep. Jim Kreuser, D-Kenosha, minority leader and Rep. Jon Richards, D-Milwaukee, assistant minority leader. Rep. Tony Staskunas, D-West Allis, was elected Democratic caucus chair and Rep. Tamara Grigsby, D-Milwaukee, was elected caucus vice chair.
— Dan Powell contributed to this report.
Anonymous (November 16, 2006 @ 9:28am):
Nice to see they invited a real "bi-partisan" panel to come and speak.
