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Primaries roll along; legislators consider reforms

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Also by Kevin Bargnes:

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BadgerCare Plus begins recruiting (February 4, 2008)
Advocates show faces of secondhand smoke issue (January 30, 2008)
Report: State may be $400 million short (January 28, 2008)

by Kevin Bargnes

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Campaign finance reform issues dating back nearly a decade were discussed in a Senate committee hearing Tuesday as state legislators work to come closer to a solution.

The main topic at the public hearing was a bill introduced in special session in December that would require full disclosure of special interest campaign ads and create a publicly funded campaign system for state Supreme Court elections.

Sen. Mike Ellis, R-Neenah, has been a strong supporter of the reforms since talks began in 1999. Ellis, a co-author of the bill, spoke to the committee and criticized the special interest groups that fund Wisconsin’s elections.

“There is no reason why anyone should have to spend … $700,000 to $800,000 to win a state Senate seat,” Ellis said. “Buy two pairs of tennis shoes, clean your eardrums out and start knocking on doors, and in one summer you can cover a Senate district.”

As for the Supreme Court elections, Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Waunakee, said that allowing private interest groups to fund judicial campaigns is at best questionable.

“It’s illegal to lobby a Supreme Court race, and you could certainly make an argument that those issues ads are lobbying,” Erpenbach said.

Public finance of elections would be relatively simple — Wisconsinites would be asked to check a box on their income taxes to donate five dollars to the election fund of any party or to a general fund. Private interest groups could also make a tax deductible donation.

Opponents of that program say that the public should not have to pay for elections, but Mike McCabe, executive director of the nonprofit Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, said that the people would pay regardless, “anytime budget pork goes into a budget bill,” or when lawmakers approve corporate tax breaks.

“We are paying huge amounts of money to support campaign contributors,” McCabe said. “We can either have voter-owned elections, or we can have special interest-owned elections. This special session bill gives us voter-owned elections.”

Jay Heck, executive director of the nonprofit Common Cause in Wisconsin, said that this can be seen as a bipartisan bill despite some Republican opposition.

“It enhances public financing, and in talking to some Republicans, they say ‘Oh yeah, I could live with a tax credit,’” Heck said.

Ellis served as Senate majority leader from 1988 to 2000, during which time he said he developed a “quiet disgust for the process.”

“We have to re-establish that core of belief between the people who are governed and those that are sent to Madison,” Ellis said.

Sen. Pat Kreitlow, D-Chippewa Falls, is chairperson of the Senate Committee on Campaign Finance Reform and said he is happy with the progress Ellis and Erpenbach have made. He hopes to act on the bill soon.

“This year we’re moving the ball from the 30-yard line to the 50, and maybe we can punch it through next session or even this session,” Kritelow said. “We’re making some tremendous progress.”

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Anonymous (February 15, 2008 @ 7:27pm):

Talk, talk talk, yadda, yadda, yadda. That's as far as reform will ever go. Ain't never going to happen in our lifetime. Talk is cheap and it still takes real money to buy whiskey.

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