Wielding brooms and signs, members of the People's Legislature rallied outside the Capitol Thursday to voice their displeasure with corruption in Wisconsin's state government.
At the rally, the People's Legislature, a statewide "grassroots reform movement," called for campaign and elections reform as a means to end fraud in the state's elected offices.
"We have a lot of work ahead of us because corruption in the state runs deep," Mike McCabe, executive director of Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, said at the rally. WDC is a sponsor of the People's Legislature.
The demonstration's participants said they feel "politically homeless" because neither the Republican nor Democratic parties in the state have called for this type of reform. Recent attention to campaign reform has been conjured due to convictions stemming from the Legislative Caucus Scandal and also allegations of "pay-to-play" tactics surrounding Gov. Jim Doyle's office.
"The truth is, what divides us is not whether you are on the right or the left," McCabe said. "And it's not whether you are red or blue. … What divides us today is whether you can afford to pay $10,000 in campaign contributions and whether you can afford to hire $400-an-hour lobbyists."
However, a small, bipartisan conglomeration of legislators has joined the fight to end corruption in the state by backing and drafting bills that would reform campaign laws.
State Rep. Spencer Black, D-Madison, spoke in support of such legislation at the rally.
"These days, I very rarely, if ever, speak for the majority of the Legislature, but I'm happy today to speak for the majority of people here," Black said, subsequently calling for full-scale campaign-finance reform and a "cleaning up of the Capitol." Black added the policy of exchanging monetary donations for votes needs to end.
Ralliers also donned name tags reading, "Hello, my name is Nobody" to demonstrate their contention that elected officials care more about raising money and furthering their political careers than their own constituents. After the rally, participants entered the Capitol holding up dollar bills, claiming money was the ticket to getting into the building. Though they could not take their brooms on the premises because "sticks" are not allowed in the Capitol, many protestors unscrewed the broom heads from their handles and brought those in with them.
"Some of the things we are trying to do here is get government back on track and get [legislators] to represent the people instead of lobbyists," Bob Burkart-Lemke, a science teacher from Milwaukee who, with his wife, Kathy, participated in the rally, said.
The Burkart-Lemkes, both members of the People's Legislature, added the final goal of the campaign to reform government would be an overhaul of Congress and the impeachment of President George W. Bush.
The People's Legislature emphasized a multi-part agenda at the rally, which included promoting campaign-finance reform, ethics enforcement by an outside source, competitive-election reform and strengthening of local fiscal control.
In addition, preferential voting, which would allow voters to rank candidates in order of preference, and opposition to voter-registry privatization in the state have also been added to the People's agenda.
To exemplify the message, McCabe said residents of the state are growing discontented with the direction the government is taking, citing a poll released Oct. 18 which indicated 87 percent of Wisconsinites feel politicians in the state do not represent their interests.
"Just like that poll said last week, 6 percent of the residents of this state believe their elected officials are working in their best interest," McCabe said. "The rest of us are really ticked off."
