Wisconsin Democracy Campaign - Accomplishments and Work in Progress

Wisconsin Democracy Campaign
Accomplishments and Work in Progress

Major Accomplishments

Wisconsin’s Only Searchable Computer Database of Campaign Donors – The Democracy Campaign built the contributor database from scratch and continues to manage and expand it. The database now contains more than 400,000 records of campaign contributions to state campaigns, and is made available to the public – free of charge and at the click of a computer mouse – on the Democracy Campaign’s web site. This searchable computer database allows the public to track the money in Wisconsin politics. Before the creation of the Democracy Campaign’s database, if citizens wanted to see who was giving to state candidates the only option was to paw through thousands of pages of paper reports on file at the state Elections Board office in Madison.

Federal, state and local law enforcement authorities started using the Democracy Campaign’s database of campaign contributors in a widening criminal investigation of possible pay-to-play corruption in state contracting.

Research Documenting the Corruption of Wisconsin Politics – The Democracy Campaign has produced a vast storehouse of studies connecting the dots between campaign money and public policy favors. For example, Serving the Have-Mores showed how state commerce programs meant to help low and middle income people get good jobs are redirected to corporate welfare, with by far the biggest handouts going to contributors to state election campaigns. Hey Bidder, Bidder described the auctioning of the state budget to wealthy special interest contributors. A series of Graft Tax reports put a price tag on the annual value of perks special interest contributors receive. Playing the Policy Market found that on average big campaign contributors get a 33,000% return on their investments in the political process. Cash and Carry showed how well-timed campaign donations put obscure special interest issues in the legislative spotlight. BuyPartisan Politics told how big donors carefully hedge their bets, giving to both sides to ensure access to and influence over elected officials regardless of party.

Democracy Campaign research revealed numerous other problems that are at the root of growing political corruption in the state. Legal Laundering documented how campaign money is routed through a tangled web of campaign committees to conceal the special interest origins of donations. Modern Carpetbaggers showed how lawmakers’ campaigns are largely paid for by people who cannot vote for them. Class War Chests illustrated how campaign donations come from an elite sliver of society and pack the discriminatory wallop of poll taxes and literacy tests. Tax Code Two-Step described how wealthy donors are dancing around the federal soft money ban. From Sunlight to Darkness chronicled the demise of Wisconsin ’s campaign finance disclosure system. Gouging Democracy in Wisconsin analyzed how local television stations systematically overcharge candidates for campaign ads. Gagging Democracy showed how local government decisions are being overruled by state lawmakers doing the bidding of wealthy special interest campaign contributors.

Ethics Enforcement Reform – A reform priority of the Democracy Campaign and reform allies was achieved when the governor signed into law an ethics bill that was passed in a special legislative session in January 2007. This reform creates new tools for fighting government corruption and helps revive meaningful enforcement of ethical standards and accountability in state government. The new law replaces the weak, ineffective state Ethics Board and the partisan and dysfunctional Elections Board with a politically independent enforcement agency under the direction of a nonpartisan Government Accountability Board with an unlimited budget for investigations.

When the Democracy Campaign put forward its five-step "Power to the Voter" agenda in 2004, one of the things it called for was "independent ethics and campaign finance law enforcement by restructuring the state Elections Board and Ethics Board into a single agency with expanded enforcement powers and more resources, under the direction of a politically independent board." The People's Legislature citizen assembly co-sponsored by the Democracy Campaign also made this reform a priority. The goal was accomplished with passage of the ethics reform bill that was signed into law as 2007 Wisconsin Act 1.

Enactment and Implementation of Political Sunshine Legislation – WDC fought for campaign finance disclosure and worked with other reform groups to win enactment in 1998 of the “Citizens Right to Know” law requiring electronic filing of campaign reports. The Democracy Campaign then battled bureaucratic foot dragging for four years to get the law implemented, joining with Wisconsin Citizen Action to hire a law firm to seek a court order compelling the Elections Board to implement the law. Under the threat of a lawsuit, the Elections Board adopted an emergency rule drafted by WDC and WCA directing candidates to submit their reports in an electronic format, starting with campaign reports filed in July 2002.

Protecting the Integrity of Wisconsin's Voter Registration System - The Democracy Campaign legally challenged the state's $14 million contract with the notorious global outsourcing firm Accenture to develop a statewide voter registration system. WDC's lawsuit forced Accenture to make critical concessions relating to ownership of voter data and public access to the system. Eventually, WDC's three-year-long fight against the contract led to the state ending its relationship with Accenture on this project. Under the terms of the deal, Accenture agreed to forego the final $2 million payment, repay $4 million the company had already received, make repairs to the system, and hand over control of the computer software and its underlying source code to the state. Unbelievably, this computer code was Accenture's private property under the original contract and it was not open to inspection by state officials.

Triggering Criminal Investigations of Corruption at the Capitol – A 1999 Democracy Campaign study played a key role in prompting a criminal investigation that has mushroomed into the biggest political scandal in Wisconsin ’s history. The report showed how taxpayer-funded legislative caucus offices were being used for electioneering purposes. In issuing the report, WDC became the first and only group to challenge the legitimacy of the leadership-controlled offices before an investigative series in the Wisconsin State Journal started in 2001. The study served as a road map for the reporter who broke the story. WDC staffers also met with State Journal reporters for over six months before the first stories appeared in print.

After the newspaper series, WDC filed formal complaints triggering criminal investigations into apparent violations of state ethics, campaign finance and open records laws. The probes produced nearly four dozen state and federal felony charges against five current or former state legislators and one Capitol staffer as well as misdemeanor charges against another legislator and several other staffers. All of the lawmakers and staffers were convicted. Two of the former legislators were sentenced to prison, while two others received jail sentences.

Enactment of Legislation Abolishing the Corrupt Legislative Caucuses – After blowing the whistle on illegal activities in the caucus offices, the Democracy Campaign worked with other reformers to get legislation abolishing the partisan state offices passed. The bill was approved by the Senate on a 30-3 vote and passed by the Assembly on an 86-8 vote. The legislation was signed into law by the governor. Effective January 1, 2002 , the scandal-plagued legislative caucuses ceased to exist. Along with the formal abolition of the taxpayer-funded political caucuses, new workplace rules governing all legislative employees took effect in November 2001 to prevent future abuses of state offices and resources for campaign purposes.

Enactment of a “Pay to Play” Ban – In the wake of the caucus scandal, a bill backed by the Democracy Campaign making it a felony for lawmakers to trade votes for campaign donations was passed by the Legislature and signed into law by the governor in August 2003. Before final passage in the Legislature, a WDC-initiated amendment was adopted to apply the ban to all public officials and candidates for state and local office, not just state legislators.

Making Sure Every Vote is Counted - A key election reform the Democracy Campaign pushed for - the “paper trail” bill requiring any electronic voting equipment used in Wisconsin to produce a verifiable paper record - was signed into law in January 2006.

Fines Against Wealthy Donors and Politicians – In response to formal complaints filed by the Democracy Campaign, the state Elections Board fined 19 wealthy donors and an ex-governor a total of nearly $7,800 in 2003 for making or accepting illegal campaign donations. The Board also fined another target of a WDC complaint, self-described “political hit man” Todd Rongstad, $5,500 for filing false reports of his campaign activities.

Tougher New Enforcement Policies – The Democracy Campaign’s advocacy before the Elections Board prompted the Board to adopt a new enforcement policy calling for automatic fines for campaigns that fail to file campaign finance reports on time. And in 2004 the Board approved an enforcement policy requiring candidates to return large contributions if the occupation and employer of the donors are not identified – a longstanding Democracy Campaign demand. The Legislature still is trying to block the policy’s implementation, however.

Improved Compliance with Campaign Finance Laws – For several years, the Democracy Campaign graded state officeholders and candidates on their compliance with the state law requiring them to disclose the occupation and employer of donors who give more than $100. The reports cards clearly had an effect. Overall, the number of improperly disclosed donations dropped by nearly a quarter and the total amount of money that was improperly reported went down by more than a third. When the compliance of two prominent politicians – Governor Jim Doyle and Assembly Speaker John Gard – remained poor, the Democracy Campaign filed formal complaints against them. In the next batch of reports filed by the candidates, their compliance improved dramatically. For example, Doyle had 10 contributions worth $8,750 with missing employment information, compared to 207 contributions worth over $104,000 with missing information in the earlier reports that led the Democracy Campaign to file complaints.

In addition, WDC complaints filed against wealthy donors resulted in a big improvement in compliance. In 2003, the Democracy Campaign filed complaints against 39 donors who exceeded the state’s $10,000 annual limit on campaign contributions. In 2004, only four donors ran afoul of the limit, a 90% drop from the previous year and a testimony to the disinfectant qualities of sunlight as well as the deterrent effect of the complaints WDC filed.

Media Reform: Improved TV Election News Coverage – For several election cycles, WDC has monitored election news coverage on local television stations. In the first round of monitoring, WDC found that local stations devoted an average of just nine seconds a night to candidates discussing campaign issues. Broadcasters were stung by the study, and Wisconsin Broadcasters Association president John Laabs was quoted saying WDC’s efforts “served as an impetus to get (the state’s local stations) to think about new and innovative things to do.” The news director of Madison ’s ABC affiliate publicly credited WDC with “making us reevaluate how we cover elections.”

In the second election monitored by WDC, local stations aired an average of 1 minute, 32 seconds to candidate discussing issues – a tenfold increase over the previous election. Several Wisconsin stations created new formats that didn’t exist in past elections – such as WISC’s “Voting 101” and “Campaign Road Trip” series, WKOW’s “One on One” candidate interviews and WMTV’s policy of giving candidates three minutes of free and uninterrupted air time – that for the first time featured candidates directly addressing issues viewers care about.

Along with continuing its monitoring of election coverage in 2004, the Democracy Campaign organized teams of citizens who met with station managers in three of the state’s TV markets to discuss how the public’s need for information about elections and candidates could be improved. Because of the lackluster response by stations in the state's largest television market to the call for voluntary improvements in election coverage, a coalition led by the Democracy Campaign filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission in November 2005 challenging the renewal of Milwaukee TV stations' licenses for failing to serve the public interest by meaningfully covering 2004 election campaigns.

Work in Progress

The People’s Legislature – The Democracy Campaign is one of the sponsors of this unique, multi-partisan citizen assembly devoted to building a statewide, grassroots movement to take back government and rehabilitate democracy in Wisconsin . The first People’s Legislature was held on January 4, 2005 and drew more than 1,100 people. Participants approved a four-part reform agenda including comprehensive campaign finance reform, independent ethics enforcement, competitive elections through reform of legislative redistricting, and preservation of local fiscal control. Regional forums following up on the first People’s Legislature were held across the state, and a petition drive was launched to build the 1,100-member citizen assembly into a network of 50,000 or more. More than 400 members of the People's Legislature took part in a rally for reform at the Capitol on October 27, 2005.

Unfinished Business on Full Disclosure of Soft Money and Phony “Issue Ads” – After the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the federal McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform law in December 2003, the Democracy Campaign asked the state Elections Board to adopt truth-in-campaigning rules mirroring the federal McCain-Feingold law defining communications made within 30 days of a primary election or 60 days of a general election that identify a candidate for state office as “electioneering communications” made for a political purpose, thereby subjecting them to disclosure requirements and campaign contribution limits. The Board voted 5-4 in January 2004 to proceed with rulemaking, and then voted 5-4 in March to reject a motion to suspend the rulemaking process. After defeating that attempt to derail proposed rulemaking, the Board voted 5-4 to direct its staff to develop a rule for approval at its May meeting. The Democracy Campaign wrote the draft rule that was then put forward by the Board’s staff for public comment and the Board’s consideration.

When the time came to vote for final approval of the rule, however, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin’s appointee to the board switched sides after three times voting in favor of the rulemaking. In September 2004, the Elections Board voted down the truth-in-campaigning rule by a single vote, 5-4.

The Long Road to Comprehensive Campaign Finance Reform – In 2000, the Democracy Campaign developed the first comprehensive campaign finance reform proposal to earn bipartisan support in both houses of the Legislature – the “Voters First” initiative – in cooperation with other major reform groups. The Democracy Campaign then built a broad coalition of nearly 50 public interest organizations in support of the initiative. WDC worked successfully to get the major provisions of the Voters First proposal incorporated into what became the 2002-2003 session's Senate Bill 12. While pieces of the bill – such as the prohibition on so-called “pay to play” activity – have been enacted, approval of the full measure was thwarted by legislative leaders opposed to reform. Instead, a version of the bill was passed in 2002 but only after it was laced with a “poison pill” provision to assure it would be struck down in court. It was.

In late 2004, the Democracy Campaign put forward a five-part “Power to the Voter” reform agenda that has now been endorsed by more than 30 public interest groups collectively representing hundreds of thousands of Wisconsin citizens. The agenda includes full disclosure of campaign finances, comprehensive campaign finance reform, independent ethics reform, reform of the way legislative districts are drawn, and election reforms allowing for rank-order voting.

An Expanding Reform Network: Coalition Building and Citizen Outreach – The coalition of organizations that makes up the Democracy Campaign has grown by more than a quarter in the last year and now numbers more than 40 groups. The ranks of dues-paying WDC members has more than quadrupled in the last five years, and the number of people on WDC’s statewide e-mail list is more than 13 times larger than it was three years ago. The Democracy Campaign’s web site now receives more than 2 million hits a year.

Back • Search our site


Updated: January 3, 2008
	Wisconsin Democracy Campaign Accomplishments and Work in Progress Major Accomplishments Wisconsin’s Only Searchable Computer Database of Campaign Donors – The Democracy Campaign built the contributor database from scratch and continues to manage and expand it. The database now contains more than 400,000 records of campaign contributions to state campaigns, and is made available to the public – free of charge and at the click of a computer mouse – on the Democracy Campaign’s web site. This searchable computer database allows the public to track the money in Wisconsin politics. Before the creation of the Democracy Campaign’s database, if citizens wanted to see who was giving to state candidates the only option was to paw through thousands of pages of paper reports on file at the state Elections Board office in Madison. Federal, state and local law enforcement authorities started using the Democracy Campaign’s database of campaign contributors in a widening criminal investigation of possible pay-to-play corruption in state contracting. Research Documenting the Corruption of Wisconsin Politics – The Democracy Campaign has produced a vast storehouse of studies connecting the dots between campaign money and public policy favors. For example, Serving the Have-Mores showed how state commerce programs meant to help low and middle income people get good jobs are redirected to corporate welfare, with by far the biggest handouts going to contributors to state election campaigns. Hey Bidder, Bidder described the auctioning of the state budget to wealthy special interest contributors. A series of Graft Tax reports put a price tag on the annual value of perks special interest contributors receive. Playing the Policy Market found that on average big campaign contributors get a 33,000% return on their investments in the political process. Cash and Carry showed how well-timed campaign donations put obscure special interest issues in the legislative spotlight. BuyPartisan Politics told how big donors carefully hedge their bets, giving to both sides to ensure access to and influence over elected officials regardless of party. Democracy Campaign research revealed numerous other problems that are at the root of growing political corruption in the state. Legal Laundering documented how campaign money is routed through a tangled web of campaign committees to conceal the special interest origins of donations. Modern Carpetbaggers showed how lawmakers’ campaigns are largely paid for by people who cannot vote for them. Class War Chests illustrated how campaign donations come from an elite sliver of society and pack the discriminatory wallop of poll taxes and literacy tests. Tax Code Two-Step described how wealthy donors are dancing around the federal soft money ban. From Sunlight to Darkness chronicled the demise of Wisconsin ’s campaign finance disclosure system. Gouging Democracy in Wisconsin analyzed how local television stations systematically overcharge candidates for campaign ads. Gagging Democracy showed how local government decisions are being overruled by state lawmakers doing the bidding of wealthy special interest campaign contributors. Ethics Enforcement Reform – A reform priority of the Democracy Campaign and reform allies was achieved when the governor signed into law an ethics bill that was passed in a special legislative session in January 2007. This reform creates new tools for fighting government corruption and helps revive meaningful enforcement of ethical standards and accountability in state government. The new law replaces the weak, ineffective state Ethics Board and the partisan and dysfunctional Elections Board with a politically independent enforcement agency under the direction of a nonpartisan Government Accountability Board with an unlimited budget for investigations. When the Democracy Campaign put forward its five-step "Power to the Voter" agenda in 2004, one of the things it called for was "independent ethics and campaign finance law enforcement by restructuring the state Elections Board and Ethics Board into a single agency with expanded enforcement powers and more resources, under the direction of a politically independent board." The People's Legislature citizen assembly co-sponsored by the Democracy Campaign also made this reform a priority. The goal was accomplished with passage of the ethics reform bill that was signed into law as 2007 Wisconsin Act 1. Enactment and Implementation of Political Sunshine Legislation – WDC fought for campaign finance disclosure and worked with other reform groups to win enactment in 1998 of the “Citizens Right to Know” law requiring electronic filing of campaign reports. The Democracy Campaign then battled bureaucratic foot dragging for four years to get the law implemented, joining with Wisconsin Citizen Action to hire a law firm to seek a court order compelling the Elections Board to implement the law. Under the threat of a lawsuit, the Elections Board adopted an emergency rule drafted by WDC and WCA directing candidates to submit their reports in an electronic format, starting with campaign reports filed in July 2002. Protecting the Integrity of Wisconsin's Voter Registration System - The Democracy Campaign legally challenged the state's $14 million contract with the notorious global outsourcing firm Accenture to develop a statewide voter registration system. WDC's lawsuit forced Accenture to make critical concessions relating to ownership of voter data and public access to the system. Eventually, WDC's three-year-long fight against the contract led to the state ending its relationship with Accenture on this project. Under the terms of the deal, Accenture agreed to forego the final $2 million payment, repay $4 million the company had already received, make repairs to the system, and hand over control of the computer software and its underlying source code to the state. Unbelievably, this computer code was Accenture's private property under the original contract and it was not open to inspection by state officials. Triggering Criminal Investigations of Corruption at the Capitol – A 1999 Democracy Campaign study played a key role in prompting a criminal investigation that has mushroomed into the biggest political scandal in Wisconsin ’s history. The report showed how taxpayer-funded legislative caucus offices were being used for electioneering purposes. In issuing the report, WDC became the first and only group to challenge the legitimacy of the leadership-controlled offices before an investigative series in the Wisconsin State Journal started in 2001. The study served as a road map for the reporter who broke the story. WDC staffers also met with State Journal reporters for over six months before the first stories appeared in print. After the newspaper series, WDC filed formal complaints triggering criminal investigations into apparent violations of state ethics, campaign finance and open records laws. The probes produced nearly four dozen state and federal felony charges against five current or former state legislators and one Capitol staffer as well as misdemeanor charges against another legislator and several other staffers. All of the lawmakers and staffers were convicted. Two of the former legislators were sentenced to prison, while two others received jail sentences. Enactment of Legislation Abolishing the Corrupt Legislative Caucuses – After blowing the whistle on illegal activities in the caucus offices, the Democracy Campaign worked with other reformers to get legislation abolishing the partisan state offices passed. The bill was approved by the Senate on a 30-3 vote and passed by the Assembly on an 86-8 vote. The legislation was signed into law by the governor. Effective January 1, 2002 , the scandal-plagued legislative caucuses ceased to exist. Along with the formal abolition of the taxpayer-funded political caucuses, new workplace rules governing all legislative employees took effect in November 2001 to prevent future abuses of state offices and resources for campaign purposes. Enactment of a “Pay to Play” Ban – In the wake of the caucus scandal, a bill backed by the Democracy Campaign making it a felony for lawmakers to trade votes for campaign donations was passed by the Legislature and signed into law by the governor in August 2003. Before final passage in the Legislature, a WDC-initiated amendment was adopted to apply the ban to all public officials and candidates for state and local office, not just state legislators. Making Sure Every Vote is Counted - A key election reform the Democracy Campaign pushed for - the “paper trail” bill requiring any electronic voting equipment used in Wisconsin to produce a verifiable paper record - was signed into law in January 2006. Fines Against Wealthy Donors and Politicians – In response to formal complaints filed by the Democracy Campaign, the state Elections Board fined 19 wealthy donors and an ex-governor a total of nearly $7,800 in 2003 for making or accepting illegal campaign donations. The Board also fined another target of a WDC complaint, self-described “political hit man” Todd Rongstad, $5,500 for filing false reports of his campaign activities. Tougher New Enforcement Policies – The Democracy Campaign’s advocacy before the Elections Board prompted the Board to adopt a new enforcement policy calling for automatic fines for campaigns that fail to file campaign finance reports on time. And in 2004 the Board approved an enforcement policy requiring candidates to return large contributions if the occupation and employer of the donors are not identified – a longstanding Democracy Campaign demand. The Legislature still is trying to block the policy’s implementation, however. Improved Compliance with Campaign Finance Laws – For several years, the Democracy Campaign graded state officeholders and candidates on their compliance with the state law requiring them to disclose the occupation and employer of donors who give more than $100. The reports cards clearly had an effect. Overall, the number of improperly disclosed donations dropped by nearly a quarter and the total amount of money that was improperly reported went down by more than a third. When the compliance of two prominent politicians – Governor Jim Doyle and Assembly Speaker John Gard – remained poor, the Democracy Campaign filed formal complaints against them. In the next batch of reports filed by the candidates, their compliance improved dramatically. For example, Doyle had 10 contributions worth $8,750 with missing employment information, compared to 207 contributions worth over $104,000 with missing information in the earlier reports that led the Democracy Campaign to file complaints. In addition, WDC complaints filed against wealthy donors resulted in a big improvement in compliance. In 2003, the Democracy Campaign filed complaints against 39 donors who exceeded the state’s $10,000 annual limit on campaign contributions. In 2004, only four donors ran afoul of the limit, a 90% drop from the previous year and a testimony to the disinfectant qualities of sunlight as well as the deterrent effect of the complaints WDC filed. Media Reform: Improved TV Election News Coverage – For several election cycles, WDC has monitored election news coverage on local television stations. In the first round of monitoring, WDC found that local stations devoted an average of just nine seconds a night to candidates discussing campaign issues. Broadcasters were stung by the study, and Wisconsin Broadcasters Association president John Laabs was quoted saying WDC’s efforts “served as an impetus to get (the state’s local stations) to think about new and innovative things to do.” The news director of Madison ’s ABC affiliate publicly credited WDC with “making us reevaluate how we cover elections.” In the second election monitored by WDC, local stations aired an average of 1 minute, 32 seconds to candidate discussing issues – a tenfold increase over the previous election. Several Wisconsin stations created new formats that didn’t exist in past elections – such as WISC’s “Voting 101” and “Campaign Road Trip” series, WKOW’s “One on One” candidate interviews and WMTV’s policy of giving candidates three minutes of free and uninterrupted air time – that for the first time featured candidates directly addressing issues viewers care about. Along with continuing its monitoring of election coverage in 2004, the Democracy Campaign organized teams of citizens who met with station managers in three of the state’s TV markets to discuss how the public’s need for information about elections and candidates could be improved. Because of the lackluster response by stations in the state's largest television market to the call for voluntary improvements in election coverage, a coalition led by the Democracy Campaign filed a petition with the Federal Communications Commission in November 2005 challenging the renewal of Milwaukee TV stations' licenses for failing to serve the public interest by meaningfully covering 2004 election campaigns. Work in Progress The People’s Legislature – The Democracy Campaign is one of the sponsors of this unique, multi-partisan citizen assembly devoted to building a statewide, grassroots movement to take back government and rehabilitate democracy in Wisconsin . The first People’s Legislature was held on January 4, 2005 and drew more than 1,100 people. Participants approved a four-part reform agenda including comprehensive campaign finance reform, independent ethics enforcement, competitive elections through reform of legislative redistricting, and preservation of local fiscal control. Regional forums following up on the first People’s Legislature were held across the state, and a petition drive was launched to build the 1,100-member citizen assembly into a network of 50,000 or more. More than 400 members of the People's Legislature took part in a rally for reform at the Capitol on October 27, 2005. Unfinished Business on Full Disclosure of Soft Money and Phony “Issue Ads” – After the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the federal McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform law in December 2003, the Democracy Campaign asked the state Elections Board to adopt truth-in-campaigning rules mirroring the federal McCain-Feingold law defining communications made within 30 days of a primary election or 60 days of a general election that identify a candidate for state office as “electioneering communications” made for a political purpose, thereby subjecting them to disclosure requirements and campaign contribution limits. The Board voted 5-4 in January 2004 to proceed with rulemaking, and then voted 5-4 in March to reject a motion to suspend the rulemaking process. After defeating that attempt to derail proposed rulemaking, the Board voted 5-4 to direct its staff to develop a rule for approval at its May meeting. The Democracy Campaign wrote the draft rule that was then put forward by the Board’s staff for public comment and the Board’s consideration. When the time came to vote for final approval of the rule, however, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin’s appointee to the board switched sides after three times voting in favor of the rulemaking. In September 2004, the Elections Board voted down the truth-in-campaigning rule by a single vote, 5-4. The Long Road to Comprehensive Campaign Finance Reform – In 2000, the Democracy Campaign developed the first comprehensive campaign finance reform proposal to earn bipartisan support in both houses of the Legislature – the “Voters First” initiative – in cooperation with other major reform groups. The Democracy Campaign then built a broad coalition of nearly 50 public interest organizations in support of the initiative. WDC worked successfully to get the major provisions of the Voters First proposal incorporated into what became the 2002-2003 session's Senate Bill 12. While pieces of the bill – such as the prohibition on so-called “pay to play” activity – have been enacted, approval of the full measure was thwarted by legislative leaders opposed to reform. Instead, a version of the bill was passed in 2002 but only after it was laced with a “poison pill” provision to assure it would be struck down in court. It was. In late 2004, the Democracy Campaign put forward a five-part “Power to the Voter” reform agenda that has now been endorsed by more than 30 public interest groups collectively representing hundreds of thousands of Wisconsin citizens. The agenda includes full disclosure of campaign finances, comprehensive campaign finance reform, independent ethics reform, reform of the way legislative districts are drawn, and election reforms allowing for rank-order voting. An Expanding Reform Network: Coalition Building and Citizen Outreach – The coalition of organizations that makes up the Democracy Campaign has grown by more than a quarter in the last year and now numbers more than 40 groups. The ranks of dues-paying WDC members has more than quadrupled in the last five years, and the number of people on WDC’s statewide e-mail list is more than 13 times larger than it was three years ago. The Democracy Campaign’s web site now receives more than 2 million hits a year. Back • Search our site