Wisconsin Democracy Campaign's press releases and special reports cover issues central to our mission, including campaign fundraising, political corruption and more.
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Posted: December 16, 2012
Updated: May 31, 2013
Below is a table listing all contributions exceeding $1,000 received by Governor Scott Walker's campaign committee between July 1 and December 10, 2011.
December 5, 2011
Madison – More than seven weeks after filing an open records request with the state Government Accountability Board for evidence it enforces a law requiring disclosure of the occupation and employer of campaign donors who give more than $100, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign received a reply indicating the agency “has no records responsive to your request.”
Posted: November 16, 2011
Updated: November 28, 2011
Madison – Twenty-nine contributors to candidates for statewide office and the legislature exceeded the annual $10,000 limit on campaign contributions in 2010, according to complaints filed Wednesday by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.
November 3, 2011
Madison – Statewide officeholders and legislators have accepted $192,000 in campaign contributions from pharmaceutical companies the state has sued for Medicaid fraud, anti-trust violations, false advertising and paying kickbacks to doctors for using their drugs, a Wisconsin Democracy Campaign review shows.
October 27, 2011
Wisconsin’s decision this year to jettison public financing of judicial elections was part of an unprecedented national attack on state courts that followed the 2010 judicial and legislative elections, a new report by three nonpartisan legal reform groups reveals.
October 4, 2011
Madison – Legislators raised a record-shattering $6.8 million during the first half of 2011 driven by 12 officeholders involved in the summer recall elections who accounted for nearly two-thirds of total fundraising, a Wisconsin Democracy Campaign analysis shows.
Posted: September 20, 2011
Updated: March 12, 2012
Note: Some figures revised since initial posting in response to final reports filed by committees since the beginning of this year.
Madison – Special interest groups, candidates and political committees spent a record $44 million in the nine legislative recall elections held this summer, a Wisconsin Democracy Campaign analysis shows.
July 13, 2011
In a democracy voters are supposed to choose their representatives, not the other way around. The redistricting plans that are the subject of this hearing are a disgusting affront to this bedrock principle of democracy. The plans for new congressional and state legislative districts that were drawn at great expense to taxpayers but yet kept secret until last Friday afternoon are a Republican gerrymander, pure and simple.
July 12, 2011
Madison - The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign today put forward citizen-designed maps of new state assembly and senate districts in response to a gerrymandered legislative redistricting plan that WDC will testify Wednesday is a “disgusting affront” to democracy and local control.
July 6, 2011
Madison – The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign filed complaints Wednesday accusing Republican Governor Scott Walker and 10 wealthy contributors of 24 violations of state campaign finance law.
June 28, 2011
Madison – The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign filed open records requests Tuesday asking two legislative leaders to make public redistricting maps and information pertaining to the process of redrawing legislative districts in Wisconsin to accommodate population changes shown in the 2010 U.S. Census.
June 27, 2011
Thirty-five years ago the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that money talks in politics. Last year the high court ruled that money can talk as much as it wants, by barring any limit on election spending by corporations and other wealthy interests. Today the court ruled that money should do all the talking, by blocking a public effort in Arizona to give candidates for office who lack immense financial means the ability to get a word in edgewise when they face wealthy, high-spending opponents.
June 7, 2011
Madison – Three Democratic and Republican senators targeted for recall elections failed to disclose required occupation and employer information about campaign contributors who gave them more than $50,000, according to complaints filed Tuesday by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.
May 24, 2011
Madison – Supporters of Milwaukee’s school choice program spent more than $3 million in 2009 and 2010 to help elect Governor Scott Walker and much of the GOP-controlled legislature while opponents spent a million dollars to elect mostly minority Democrats, a Wisconsin Democracy Campaign analysis shows.
May 5, 2011
Madison – State senators targeted for recall elections have raised more than $1.3 million in less than four months mostly because wealthy special interest donors can make unlimited contributions, a Wisconsin Democracy Campaign review shows.
Posted: May 3, 2011
Updated: May 11, 2011
The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, with support ranging from senior citizen advocates to youth groups, today proposed a new campaign finance reform plan that breaks new ground on election financing and aims to replace “big-money plutocracy with a small-dollar democracy.”
April 19, 2011
Madison – Nearly three dozen special interest groups and four candidates spent about $5.4 million on the recent Wisconsin Supreme Court race mostly on volleys of negative radio and television advertisements, according to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.
March 17, 2011
Madison – Campaign contributions from business interests accounted for nearly $3 of every $4 accepted by Democratic and Republican candidates for statewide and legislative offices since 1999, a Wisconsin Democracy Campaign review shows.
March 15, 2011
Chicago – Civic engagement and community organizations in six Midwest states today announced they will implement a coordinated campaign to transform redistricting—the way electoral district lines are drawn—by shining an ongoing spotlight on the process, pushing for increased public participation and greater protection of minority voting rights in the creation of new political maps, and proposing alternatives to plans working their way through state legislatures.
March 7, 2011
Madison – Legislative candidates and outside special interest groups that spent most of their money on smearing the candidates in negative broadcast ads and mailings spent more than $19 million in the 2010 legislative races, a Wisconsin Democracy Campaign analysis shows.
March 2, 2011
Amidst the carnage in Governor Scott Walker’s Robin Hood-in-reverse budget blueprint is the gutting of Wisconsin’s Impartial Justice Act reforming state Supreme Court elections. The governor proposes eliminating a key funding source for the new program in the budget plan he announced yesterday.
March 2, 2011
Madison – Republican Governor Scott Walker and majority GOP legislators accepted about $2 of every $3 in campaign contributions from wealthy special interests who are now seeing some of their long-sought tax breaks and other spending and policy priorities become law, a Wisconsin Democracy Campaign analysis shows.
February 10, 2011
About 50 people gathered at the Capitol for the opening of the Citizen Vigil for the Greater Good. Wisconsin Democracy Campaign director Mike McCabe made the following remarks:
February 8, 2011
Madison – The 2010 candidates for governor and outside special interest groups that smeared them with negative mailings and broadcast ads to influence the elections spent a record $37.4 million on the race, a Wisconsin Democracy Campaign analysis shows.
January 27, 2011
The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign today announced it will launch a “Citizen Vigil for the Greater Good” on days when the Legislature is in session to keep a constant spotlight on special interest influence over lawmaking at the Capitol and maintain ongoing pressure on legislators and the governor to approve a law creating full disclosure of the money used to pay for election advertising as well as other reforms.