March 10, 2015
An influential agricultural lobbying group that made illegal corporate donations to its political action committee got a sweetheart deal from state campaign finance watchdogs. In lieu of a fine, the Government Accountability Board (GAB) let it donate the amount of its illegal donations to charity, but not just any charity: Its own charity!
March 9, 2015
Republican Gov. Scott Walker received nearly $29,000 in campaign contributions since the beginning of 2009 from employees of Badger Meter Inc., the location where he signed the controversial right-to-work bill into law Monday.
March 9, 2015
A legislative proposal backed by the tourism industry to increase the state’s maximum speed limit to 70 miles per hour on Wisconsin freeways and expressways is likely to be considered by the legislature sometime this month.
March 5, 2015
A legislative proposal that would allow the state to deduct the cost of ambulance services from an individual’s state tax refund has backing from the hospital industry, which has contributed more than $208,000 to majority Republican legislators, including more than $11,000 to the bill’s sponsors, since the beginning of 2011.
March 4, 2015
Candidates are listed by spending in descending order.
March 4, 2015
Candidates listed by district, party ballot order at the time of the election (Democrat, Republican, Independent), and alphabetical by last name.
March 4, 2015
Candidates listed by district, party ballot order at the time of the election (Democrat, Republican, Independent), and alphabetical by last name.
Posted: March 4, 2015
Updated: March 9, 2015
Legislative candidates and special groups that attacked candidates with negative broadcast ads, mailings, and other electioneering activities spent an estimated $16.9 million in the 2014 fall legislative elections, a Wisconsin Democracy Campaign analysis shows.
March 3, 2015
Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos spoke at Marquette University Law School on Friday, February 27, and he tipped his hand about his plans are for rewriting the state’s campaign finance law, as well as the law on John Doe investigations, and the statute on the Government Accountability Board.
February 27, 2015
Three wealthy donors who have given Republican Gov. Scott Walker and the state Republican Party $141,000 in the last three years are among the first contributors to take advantage of new federal contribution limits to national party committees.
February 27, 2015
Unions representing engineers, police, firefighters, plumbers, carpenters and other trades contributed more than $83,000 in 2013-14 to help reelect Republican Gov. Scott Walker, despite his successful 2011 effort to slash public employee collective bargaining rights and his support for a state right-to-work law.
February 26, 2015
While anti-democracy forces were prevailing in Wisconsin this week, a pro-democracy reform took a step forward in Chicago.
February 26, 2015
A GOP legislator, who is also a farmer, says he’s working on a bill that would require people who videotape or photograph cases of animal abuse on farms to immediately contact law enforcement or face fines.
February 24, 2015
Two outside electioneering groups that support a controversial right-to-work bill in Wisconsin spent more than $5.5 million to help Republican Gov. Scott Walker win reelection last November.
February 23, 2015
It’s not difficult to see why the Wisconsin legislature put consideration of a right-to-work bill as a special priority rarely afforded other policy proposals: Majority GOP legislators accepted $26 in contributions from business interests for every $1 in labor contributions since the beginning of 2013.
February 20, 2015
Two Republican legislators want to introduce a bill that would increase the interest rate on judgments awarded in small claims courts to help landlords and small businesses get paid faster.
February 19, 2015
The unprecedented 2011 and 2012 recall elections and Republican Governor Scott Walker’s possible 2016 presidential run have put Wisconsin under a national spotlight that’s drawn the attention of out-of-state donors and millions of dollars in contributions from them.
February 19, 2015
The nation’s leading pro-gun lobby is backing legislative proposals in the Wisconsin legislature that would eliminate the 48-hour waiting period for gun purchases and require judges to more quickly return guns seized by law enforcement to their owners in some cases.
February 18, 2015
Republican Gov. Scott Walker has proposed slashing state oversight of logging on millions of acres of private land upon request from the timber industry, which has contributed about $68,000 to his political campaigns.
Posted: February 17, 2015
Updated: March 9, 2015
Candidates and outside electioneering groups spent a record $81.8 million in the 2014 governor’s race in Wisconsin, much of it on months of negative broadcast ads and mailings, a Wisconsin Democracy Campaign analysis shows.
Posted: February 16, 2015
Updated: March 9, 2015
Forty outside electioneering groups funded by ideological, business and union interests spent an estimated $36.6 million on mostly negative broadcast ads and mailings to influence the 2014 races for statewide office and the Wisconsin Legislature, a Wisconsin Democracy Campaign analysis shows.
February 12, 2015
Races for the Wisconsin Supreme Court are supposed to be nonpartisan. But you can tell how partisan the current race is by looking at the donors to Justice Ann Walsh Bradley and Judge James Daley.
February 12, 2015
On Feb. 3, in his budget address, Governor Scott Walker said one of his goals was to “use common sense reforms to create a government that is limited in scope and—ultimately—more effective, more efficient, and more accountable to the public.”
Here are 13 ways his budget actually would make government less accountable to the public.
February 11, 2015
A fundraising committee created by Republican Governor Scott Walker, who is frequently mentioned as a possible 2016 presidential candidate, to raise and spend unlimited amounts of contributions on political campaigns violates federal campaign contribution limits, according to a complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission.
February 10, 2015
Owners and employees of a Wisconsin furniture maker that faces nearly $2 million in federal fines for workplace safety violations have contributed more than $46,000 since 2009 to legislative and statewide candidates in Wisconsin.