Three state lawmakers announced Monday their plan to filibuster legislative session today if Assembly leaders refuse to schedule an ethics reform bill for passage.
The measure, known as Senate Bill 1, would combine the state's existing Ethics and Elections boards to create a new Government Accountability Board with expanded investigatory powers.
Although the bill has gained overwhelming support and was even passed through the Senate in a strong bipartisan vote last year, its progress has been halted due to what critics charge are tasteless partisan games on the parts of Assembly Speaker John Gard, R-Peshtigo, and Assembly Majority Leader Rep. Mike Huebsch, R-West Salem.
"Speaker John Gard and Majority Leader Mike Huebsch are single-handedly blocking the scheduling of Senate Bill 1," Jay Heck, executive director of Common Cause in Wisconsin, said.
Democratic representatives who are planning the filibuster said the state's ethics reform cannot afford to wait for the Assembly leaders' senseless scheduling games to be resolved.
According to Rep. Joe Parisi, D-Madison, one of the lawmakers threatening a filibuster, he and his colleagues are prepared to use any stalling tactics they can to force Gard and Huebsch to schedule SB 1.
Parisi — along with fellow SB 1 supporters Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison, and Rep. Sondy Pope-Roberts, D-Verona — said they are considering procedures like offering amendments to other bills and making floor statements to extend debate.
"What we will do if necessary is be creative and use every available tool within our power to keep debate going until they agree to schedule this bill," Parisi said. "We will keep everyone in the Assembly there if it takes all night."
While Parisi and others said they are not afraid to use extreme measures, they added they fail to understand why such actions are necessary to begin with, as the bill only aims to improve the state's system of campaign finance.
SB 1 came partly in response to the 2002 Legislative Caucus Scandal in which five lawmakers were found guilty of misusing their public offices. Supporters back the measure as a way to give the state's largely ineffective Ethics and Elections boards the authority needed to prevent future campaign finance scandal and election fraud.
"Perhaps it's not in their best interest to have campaign and ethics reform," Parisi said. "This is the type of thing that makes the people so discouraged about government when you have one or two people at the top thwarting the will of the public."
But Christine Mangi, Gard's spokeswoman, said the speaker is strongly committed to ethics reform and is simply trying to find "a reasonable, effective solution."
"There's still two weeks of the session left," she said. "I think he's just been talking with members of his caucus to see what their feelings are on it."
Huebsch did not return calls as of press time.
Heck, however, called the Assembly leaders' decision not to schedule SB 1 "arrogant," "obstinate" and a risky maneuver.
"I think it's bad politics. I think it could come back to bite them, and if so, deservedly," he said, referring to the maneuver's effect on Republicans' chances in the upcoming November elections.
The Assembly plans to reconvene today after an over month-long break. The body will officially end the 2005-2006 session May 4.
