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Board aiming to regulate special interest group ads

Wisconsin special interest groups could be forced to disclose all fundraising and spending information on all campaign advertisements in the future.

The Government Accountability Board said it aims to regulate these advertisements but wouldn’t be able to enact any policy on it before November’s presidential election.

In 2006, special interest groups spent more than $15 million on issue advertisements.

“There are millions of dollars being spent in a way that keeps the public entirely in the dark about who is behind the ads,” said Mike McCabe, director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.

Action against interest ads has been in consideration for a long time, but the issue was prompted by the most recent state Supreme Court races, according to Jonathan Becker, Ethics and Accountability Division administrator for the Government Accountability Board.

In the last two Wisconsin Supreme Court races, four outside groups spent two-thirds of the $12 million spent on advertising.

“Two out of every three dollars was spent unaccountably,” McCabe said.

In the lead up to the election, 90 percent of television campaign advertisements were issue ads, amounting to nine times as much spent by outside parties than by the two candidates combined.

“The candidates were barely heard from at all,” Becker said.

The issue ads were also challenged for factual errors. Some ads against Justice Louis Butler claimed he sided with criminals 60 percent of the time.

However, University of Wisconsin Law School students analyzed the cases and found that Butler voted to uphold convictions 75 percent of the time.

Under the new regulation, the interest groups would have to disclose their fundraising and spending on the campaign. They would also have to comply with all campaign contribution laws that already apply to the candidates.

Currently, special interest groups do not have to abide the same campaign contribution laws that the candidates do.

“These groups can take money from anyone, and they don’t have to disclose a thing,” McCabe said.

The regulation would be an administrative rule from the Government Accountability Board. The state Legislature would also have the power to review and veto it.

The Government Accountability Board would also have to win a subsequent lawsuit that would be filed on a constitutional challenge, according to Becker.

“The only obstacle is political will,” McCabe said. “The public wants this; they want to know who is behind these ads. They want the curtain pulled back to see these front groups.”

Mike Wittenwyler, an attorney representing a coalition of interest groups in this case, argued it is the job of the Legislature to create such regulations, not the Government Accountability Board.

“We’re adamantly opposed to it,” said Susan Armacost, legislative director for Wisconsin Right to Life, one of the groups Wittenwyler is representing.

There is not enough time for this regulation to affect the upcoming presidential election, but could be in place before the next state Supreme Court race in April 2009, McCabe said.