Common Cause On Pay To Play
From Common Cause Wisconsin January 16, 2003
Legislation that would make it illegal to "trade" favorable consideration of legislation for a campaign contribution is sponsored by the Chair of the Assembly Committee, Rep. Mark Gundrum (R-New Berlin). The bill passed in the State Assembly last year and was included in the unconstitutional campaign reform provisions attached to the budget repair bill last summer, which was struck down in federal district court last month after legislative leaders knowingly and deliberately inserted unconstitutional provisions in the measure dooming the entire reform package--including the "pay to play" prohibitions.
Common Cause In Wisconsin (CC/WI), which supports the Gundrum legislation--with the condition that reform legislation not begin and end with consideration of this measure, was the only organization to testify in favor of the bill at today's hearing. No one testified in opposition.
CC/WI's testimony presented at the hearing follows:
Testimony of Jay Heck, Executive Director of Common Cause In Wisconsin
Before the Assembly Committee on Judiciary, Rep. Mark Gundrum, Chair
“Pay to Play” Legislation
January 16, 2003
Chair Gundrum, and Members of the Committee:
Thank you for this opportunity to testify in favor of LRB 1159/2, the so-called “pay to play” bill that is intended to close a glaring loophole in Wisconsin’s campaign finance law. Common Cause In Wisconsin (CC/WI) commends the Chair and this committee for bringing this legislation to the attention of the public very early in this new legislative session at a time when this state is still in the epicenter of its most serious and widespread political scandal in its history and during a time when public confidence in state government may be at an all-time low.
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Some members of this Committee and in the Legislature will disagree with us about what more will need to be done to clean up the Capitol as the trials of current and former legislators simultaneously proceed this year. But at the very least let us agree that support and passage of this significant and important measure not be the sum total of what the Legislature does to reform itself. You can count on us to be back here again and again until meaningful and effective comprehensive campaign finance reform and ethics reform is accomplished. |
Rep. Mark Gundrum is quoted in a recent Associated Press article as saying, “I think it’s good for the public to know we are trying to take responsible steps to clean up our own house.” We agree whole heartedly with that statement and hope this is the first of a long series of fundamental and necessary reform measures that this chamber, the State Senate and the Governor take to restore integrity and public confidence in the political and legislative process and in our democratic institutions of government. CC/WI gives our conditional support to this measureone that we endorsed in the 2001-2002 legislative session as Assembly Bill 682.
I think most Wisconsin citizens would be surprised to know that while it is a felony in this state for a public official to accept anything of value in return for an official action, that current law does not explicitly include campaign contributions, which this measure specifically does.
When Rep. Gundrum first began talking about the need for this type of legislation more than a year ago, there were widespread rumors and talk about how lobbyists and others were being “shaken down” by influential legislators for campaign contributions in return for favorable consideration of specific legislation. Since that timewith the criminal charges filed against several legislators of both chambers and of both political parties in June and October of 2002 we now have a clearer picture of how this insidious system operated to undermine the public policy-making process in the Wisconsin Legislature.
One need only read through the criminal complaints filed against former Senator Burke, Senator Chvala, Rep. Jensen, Rep. Foti and Rep. Ladwig to gain some understanding and insight about how far we have fallen and how urgently we need to make very fundamental and sweeping changes in our campaign finance and ethics laws to fix a horrendous problem. This legislation offers a good starting point to help address one of the most obvious problemsthe trading of favorable consideration of legislation for campaign contributionswhich most citizens assumed was against the law in the first place. This bill simply clarifies the prohibition on this quid pro quo of trading legislation for campaign cash.
The legislative caucus scandal investigationnow in its 19th month has revealed to the public in dramatic fashion the corrosive effect and influence that campaign contributions, and particularly special interest campaign contributions, have hadand will continue to have on public policy-making as well as on our elections. In our view, the heart of the legislative caucus scandal is about the intersection of political money and the need, or the perceived need to raise lots of it, in order to maintain political power or acquire more power. The conclusion I believe most citizens would make, at least from reading the criminal complaints, is that in Wisconsin, Lord Acton’s famous axiom about the corruption of power has come true.
Some members of this Committee and in the Legislature will disagree with us about what more will need to be done to clean up the Capitol as the trials of current and former legislators simultaneously proceed this year. But at the very least let us agree that support and passage of this significant and important measure not be the sum total of what the Legislature does to reform itself. You can count on us to be back here again and again until meaningful and effective comprehensive campaign finance reform and ethics reform is accomplished.
We urge passage and enactment into law of this small but important first reform, the “pay to play” legislation.