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Home > BizTimes Daily > Archives > November 30, 2007
Doyle calls for special legislative session on campaign finance reform
Published November 30, 2007 - BizTimes Daily
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Gov. Jim Doyle today called a special session of the Wisconsin Legislature for Tuesday, Dec. 11, at 11 a.m. to take action on comprehensive, bipartisan campaign finance reform.
Doyle said such legislation will modernize Wisconsin's public financing system by increasing candidates' spending limits and maximum public grant amounts, ban fundraising during the budget process and establish a separate fully-funded campaign finance system for Wisconsin Supreme Court candidates.
"While the delay in the budget has delayed the legislative agenda, there are several issues the legislature should address by the end of the year. Among them is comprehensive campaign finance reform," Doyle said. "Legislation has already been drafted that both Democrats and Republicans should support. I am now asking the Legislature to convene in special session and act quickly on the bipartisan package of reforms that will update and improve our campaign financing system in Wisconsin."
The governor is asking the Legislature to act on a package of reforms that includes the following components:
- Establish a fully-funded public campaign finance system for Wisconsin Supreme Court candidates.
- Modify candidate spending limits for candidates participating in public financing and establish a biennial adjustment of those limitations based on inflation.
- Set increased maximum public financing grant amounts.
- Provide new avenues for funding the public financing system, such as increasing the income tax check-off amount from $1 to $5.
- Establish a system of matching grants for candidates participating in public financing who face opponents who exceed the applicable disbursement limitations.
- Ban fundraising during the budget process for both incumbent and challenger candidates to partisan elective office from the date of the biennial budget address until the date of budget enactment.
Doyle's call for reform comes while the state court system is deciding a business software tax case involving Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, which spent more than $2.4 million to elect Annette Ziegler as a Wisconsin Supreme Court justice. Ziegler said this week she is refusing calls for her to recuse herself from the case.
Doyle also has been criticized for acceping exorbitant contributions from Native American Indian tribes seeking decisions about casinos.
In response to Doyle's announcement, Mike McCabe, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, issued the following statement:
"The Democracy Campaign has been urging the governor to take this step for a very long time, and we have repeatedly made it clear that we feel reform will not happen without leadership from the governor and his active engagement on this issue. We applaud his willingness to call the special session. The broad outline of what the governor is proposing to the Legislature is promising, but of course the devil is always in the details, so we will reserve judgment until we are able to thoroughly review draft legislation. There is no agreement that has been reached between the governor and lawmakers, so there is unquestionably some risk involved with this special session. There is certainly no guarantee that the Legislature will approve meaningful reform. But the governor's call for a special session puts the Legislature on the spot, and will force the Legislature either to act or walk away from campaign finance reform. If lawmakers walk away, they will have to come to terms with a public that is increasingly fed up with their act. Overall, we are obviously pleased by today's announcement and believe this is a positive development. But we won't be excited until we see dry ink on a signed piece of very good reform legislation."
For additional coverage of the special session and political reactions, visit WisPolitics.com, a media partner of SBT.
