February
2002: Capitol Report:
By State
Representative Mark Pocan
Cleaner Government Through
Campaign Finance Reform
This
session, more than most, has exposed the need for dramatic reform in the way
state officials are elected to office.
From the exorbitant amount of money spent on campaigns to the scandal
involving the caucuses, the time has come for substantive reform. Below are several specific steps others
and I have taken in an effort to create reform.
Campaign
Finance Reform:
I, along
with Senator Fred Risser, authored Assembly Bill 295 - The Wisconsin Clean
Elections Fund - which will provide 100% public financing for political
campaigns. This means that there will no fundraising required to run; in fact
it is not permitted, and special interests can’t contribute to Clean
Candidates. Since candidates will not be raising money, it is more likely that
more people will run and they will spend more time discussing issues and
meeting with people in their own districts. In Maine they saw a 40% increase in
contested primaries in the fall of 2000. By getting special interest and
wealthy individual’s contributions out of politics I believe we can
restore people’s faith in our government.
Candidates spend too much time fundraising and many potential candidates are scared off by the amount of money needed to run a race. It is clear that the current system fuels people’s perception of corruption within our government and indeed borders on legalized bribery.
While I
believe that true reform will only occur through 100% public financing of
campaigns, I believe one of the more comprehensive bills proposed this session
that has a slight chance of passing is Senate Bill 104 (SB 104).
SB 104
includes comprehensive changes to cap campaign spending, limit special interest
fundraising, and stop secret spending on political ads that evade campaign
finance laws. This is a bipartisan bill, and I am cautiously optimistic.
“Stand
By Your Ad” bill introduced:
In January
I, and Senator Jon Erpenbach, authored and introduced “Stand by Your
Ad” legislation. “Stand by Your Ad”
is an innovative campaign finance reform proposal that is constitutional,
inexpensive, and restores civility to campaign advertisements.
Based
on legislation enacted in North Carolina prior to the 2000 election cycle and
credited in creating a more civil campaign cycle in that state, “Stand by
Your Ad” requires political candidates who mention their opponents in
political advertisements to appear at the end of the ad and announce their own
name, the office they’re running for, and the words “I sponsored
this advertisement”. Thus,
this proposal self polices the content of political advertisements since
candidates who decide to attack their opponent must now appear in the ad, and
in turn voters are more able to access and evaluate negative ads.
Local
Campaign Finance Reform:
If the
State is unable to enact true reform I believe we should give local governments
the opportunity to create electoral reform for local elections which is why I
introduced Assembly Bill 421 the Local Campaign Finance Reform Bill. This bill
provides an opportunity to pass a campaign finance reform package that allows
localities to become incubators for campaign reform.
Key
provisions in this bill include:
Ø
Allowing
a county, city, town or village to require stricter campaign contribution
limits than allowable under current state statutes for individual, committee,
and conduit contributions.
Ø
Allowing
a county, city, town or village to appropriate money for public financing of
campaigns for local office.
Ø
Allowing
a county, city, town or village that enacts a local campaign finance ordinance
to create a local elections board to enforce the ordinance.
Ø
Allowing
a county, city, town or village to require any organization or individual,
acting in support of or opposition to any candidate, to register a statement
and campaign finance report to their local elections board.
Ø
Allowing
a county, city, town or village to require electronic filing of campaign
finance reports.
Ø
Caucuses
Disbanded:
As many of
you are aware from press accounts there is currently an ongoing investigation
relating to possible illegal activities conducted by the legislative
caucuses. I joined the majority of
my colleagues in voting to do away with the caucuses.
My
hope is that by the time session ends we will have true campaign finance reform
but as I write this my hope is dimming.
I will continue to be an active advocate for real reform.
As always,
you can reach me at (phone)
266-8570, (e-mail) mark.pocan@legis.state.wi.us
or you may write to P.O. Box 8953 Madison, WI 53708.
- Mark Pocan