February 15, 2017

Here are the top contributors since Jan. 1 to the three candidates vying for state school superintendent in next Tuesday’s spring primary. (Top contributors from the previous reporting period can be found here.)

February 14, 2017

Several large farms with an interest in the issue of high-capacity wells have been throwing tens of thousands of dollars over to Republican legislative campaign committees.

February 8, 2017

GOP lawmakers are circulating a bill that would prohibit the state from offering insurance coverage to state workers for abortion in most cases. Anti-abortion groups in Wisconsin exercise influence more by outside election spending than by direct contributions to candidates.

February 7, 2017

The Tavern League of Wisconsin is supporting a package of GOP legislative proposals that would toughen penalties for repeat drunk drivers, but keep Wisconsin as the only state in the country where first-offense drunken driving is not a criminal offense.

February 6, 2017

A suburban Milwaukee GOP lawmaker is resurrecting a bill that would fine so-called sanctuary cities up to $5,000 a day.

February 3, 2017

Attorneys with two law firms hired Thursday by GOP legislative leaders to represent them in a landmark redistricting case have contributed about $76,500 to Wisconsin candidates.

February 2, 2017

The Republican-held state Senate is looking at a 31 percent hike in the daily expense allowance (called per diems) they can claim when working in Madison.

Posted: January 31, 2017
Updated: February 16, 2017

On January 31st, Sen. Chris Larson and Rep. Jonathan Brostoff presented a joint resolution urging the legislature to stand up against the scapegoating that President Trump has been engaging in. The resolution, introduced as SJR9, doesn’t mention Trump by name, but its intent is clear.

January 31, 2017

GOP legislators are circulating a bill that would once again allow local school boards to decide the start date of the public school year.

January 30, 2017

Republican Gov. Scott Walker accepted $42,500 last October from five first-time donors who are owners and executives of a Michigan company that won a contract in 2016 with the state of Wisconsin worth $6.2 million a year.

January 26, 2017

Powerful business and construction groups are backing a Republican bill that would prevent state and local governments from requiring bidders on public projects to reach agreements with labor unions on wages and other issues.

January 24, 2017

Two of the largest business powerhouses in Wisconsin heaped praise on Gov. Scott Walker for his latest proposal to make it harder for people to get food stamps. The two groups — Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC) and Americans for Prosperity, which was founded by the Koch Brothers — have secretly raised and spent an estimated $24.3 million mostly to help elect Walker and the GOP-controlled legislature over the last seven years.

January 20, 2017

Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Annette Ziegler, who faces no opponent in the upcoming spring elections for her second, 10-year term on the high court, raised more than $373,000 in 2016.

January 18, 2017

State Schools Superintendent Tony Evers and two others who are challenging him in the upcoming spring elections raised about $85,500 during the last half of 2016, according to campaign finance reports filed Tuesday.

January 13, 2017

Two GOP lawmakers are sponsoring a bill that would stymie state agencies from imposing environmental, consumer protection, public health and safety, and other standards and regulations at the expense of their special interest contributors.

January 12, 2017

More than four dozen retired judges from around Wisconsin have asked the Wisconsin Supreme Court to consider new rules that would require judges and justices to recuse themselves in cases involving parties or lawyers who spent money to help elect them.

January 11, 2017

Special interest groups led by the Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC), which itself spent an estimated $5.6 million since 2007 to help elect conservative justices to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, say judges need a pay raise.

January 9, 2017

Republican Sen. Tom Tiffany says the state’s 19-year-old mining moratorium is outdated and wants to repeal it so companies have an easier time opening copper, lead and zinc mines in Wisconsin.

Posted: January 6, 2017
Updated: March 2, 2017

The controversial process of redrawing Wisconsin’s legislative and congressional districts every 10 years would be pulled from Democratic and Republican lawmakers and turned over to a nonpartisan legislative agency, according to a Democratic proposal.

January 4, 2017

An out-of-state investment company wants to build a sand mining and processing plant in Jackson and Monroe counties that would eliminate about 17 acres of pristine forested wetland, according to plans being reviewed by state and federal regulators.\

December 20, 2016

Sen. Steve Nass (R-Whitewater), longtime critic of the University of Wisconsin, has condemned a course offering this spring entitled “The Problem of Whiteness.”

December 20, 2016

A state agency has resurrected a controversial plan that would reduce child support payments by wealthy parents going through a divorce.

December 16, 2016

GOP Attorney General Brad Schimel, who won office in 2014 with the help of $1.7 million in backing from big business and other special interests, plans on seeking reelection in 2018.

Wisconsin Ethics Commission Member Resigns

December 12, 2016

One of two retired circuit court judges appointed last summer to the new partisan Wisconsin Ethics Commission has resigned, citing the secrecy under which the agency must operate and doubts that the commission is equipped to do its job.

December 7, 2016

The Department of Natural Resources is continuing to mull over a permit for a huge factory farm in Wood County of more than 5,000 cows. The permit is being sought by the Wysocki Family of Companies, whose owners have contributed more than $31,000 since January 2010 to Republican Gov. Scott Walker.