Provides public grants to candidates who agree to limit campaign spending.

Spending limits

• $2 million for Governor
• $500,000 for Lieutenant Governor
• $700,000 for Attorney General
• $300,000 for Supreme Court justice
• $250,000 for other constitutional offices (Secretary of State, Treasurer and Superintendent of Public Instruction
• $100,000 for State Senate
• $50,000 for Assembly
  • These amounts apply to spending during the year in which the election is held, as in current law, and are indexed to inflation.
  • For candidates who win primaries by less than a two-to-one margin, the spending limit is increased by 20%.

Spending limits must be high enough to allow vigorous campaigns in competitive races, but not so high as to permit excessive reliance on mass media to communicate with voters. Low spending limits tend to favor incumbents.

Initial Grants

• Provide to candidates after the primary, for general election expenditures only, as in current law.
• Provide initial grants to candidates for partisan offices at 45% of the spending limit.*

The amount of money provided to a candidate is more important than the relationship of the amount of the grant to the spending limit. The important point is that the grant should be high enough to ensure that a candidate can run a viable campaign on the amount of the grant alone. Then if the candidate chooses to raise additional funds, that fund raising would be subject to the contribution limits in the law.

*The level of public financing suggested in this bill for partisan races is the level in current law. Because there is a precedent of bipartisan support for public financing at this level and it is half way between the two major partisan bills passed in the last session of the legislature, it is a good starting point for discussions on reform legislation.

• Provide initial grants to candidates for nonpartisan offices at 75% of the spending limit.

For the non-partisan races (Supreme Court and Superintendent of Public Instruction), the size of the grant should be higher. In recent years candidates for both of these offices have become more reliant on partisan activists and special interests for both organizational and financial support. This has seriously eroded public confidence in the independence of these offices.

Supplemental Grants

• Provide candidates a supplemental public grant to match opponent spending over the spending limit.
• Provide candidates a supplemental public grant when independent spending supporting opponent or opposing grant candidate reaches 10% of the spending limit.
• Require the Elections Board to release the supplemental grant money within 24 hours of a candidate being eligible to receive it.

Supplemental grants assure candidates who agree to spending limits that they will not be disadvantaged by a high spending opponent or by an independent spending campaign.

Contemporaneous Reporting for Non-grant Candidates and Independent Committees

• Require contemporaneous reporting every 24 hours by non-grant candidates when the combination of cash on hand and spending reaches 75% of the spending limit.
• Require contemporaneous reporting every 24 hours by independent committees beginning when the committee files the oath for independent spending naming a candidate.

In order to operationalize a system of supplemental grants it is necessary to require additional reporting by non-grant candidates and independent committees.

Source of Funding for Grants

• Provide for a $5 income tax check-off with a partisan option.
• Ensure that full grants are available to all qualified candidates by providing a sum-sufficient general purpose revenue (GPR) appropriation for the grants.

Qualifying for a Grant

• Candidates must agree to limit campaign spending and self contributions to their campaigns.
• Candidates required to raise 5% of the spending limit in individual contributions, half of which must come from counties included in the district, by one week after the primary ($2,500 for Assembly candidates and $5,000 for Senate candidates).
• Candidates must win their party primary with at least 2% of the total votes cast in all primaries for that office.

Other Sources of Money for Grant Candidates

• Allow political party committees to contribute up to 15% of the spending limit.
• Allow individual contributions not to exceed specific individual contribution limit. Allow candidates to contribute double the individual contribution limit to their own campaigns.
• Prohibit contributions from political action committees (PACs).

Provides incentives for citizens to become more involved in financing politics.

• Provide a tax credit to in-district contributors for contributions of $50 or less to candidates who agree to limit spending.
• Allow up to a $50 tax credit for contributions to committees of political parties with ballot status.

Limits large individual contributions and special interest money.

Individual Contribution Limits

• Reduce individual contribution limits to $1,000 for statewide candidates, $500 for state senate candidates and $250 for assembly candidates.
• Reduce the aggregate limit on what individuals can give to all state candidates in a calendar year to $5,000 from the current annual limit of $10,000.

PAC/Party Contribution Provisions

• Ban PAC-to-PAC transfers. (Prohibits pooling of political action committee money.)
• Treat conduits as PACs. (Restricts bundling of individual contributions.)
• Restrict contributions from outside Wisconsin to individuals and committees registered with the Federal Elections Commission.
• Eliminate legislative campaign committees.
• Increase the annual limit on PAC contributions to political parties to $12,000, and increase the aggregate limit on the amount parties can accept from all PACs to $300,000. These provisions double the limits in current law.

While banning PAC-to-PAC transfers is an important tool to ensure meaningful disclosure of the true source of political money, it is particularly important as part of a proposal that eliminates legislative campaign committees (LCCs). If a PAC-to-PAC transfer ban is not included LCCs could be recreated as super-PACs.

Increasing the limits on PAC contributions to political parties as part of a proposal to eliminate LCCs recognizes the legitimate role of PACs in the political process. Under this proposal, PAC donations allowed under the limits in the law would flow to the parties instead of the LCCs run by legislative leaders, creating a needed buffer between legislators and special interests.

Restrictions on Lobbyist Contributions

• Prohibit contributions from lobbyists at all times except to candidates running in the district in which the lobbyist resides. Prohibit legislators from asking lobbyists for contributions from any source.
• Eliminate certain tax deductions for business expenses incurred by lobbyists.

Reduces incumbent advantages.

Candidate Committee Restrictions

• Restrict incumbent fund raising from January 1 until completion of the budget.
• Prohibit candidate-to-candidate committee transfers.
• Limit carryover war chests to 10% of the spending limit.

Returns elections to the voters and the candidates.

• Regulate any mass communication that contains the name or image of a candidate within 60 days of an election the same as independent expenditures.
• Require that radio and television ads paid for with funds from a public grant must feature the candidate personally.

Enhances Disclosure.

• Require electronic filing of contributions and expenditures within 48 hours of activity for committees with more than $20,000 activity in one year.
• Require candidates to return contributions if occupation and principal place of business of contributor are not provided.

Improves Enforcement.

• Expand appointments to the Elections Board to political parties with ballot status.
• Strengthen investigatory functions of the Elections Board.

Severability

• If any of the sections of the law dealing with issue ads, reporting of independent expenditures, and supplemental grants for independent expenditures/issue ads are found unconstitutional, then all of these sections are removed from the law. No other sections are affected.