Mark Twain had a great line about Richard Wagner’s music being “better than it sounds.” Our political system is better than you would guess from listening to politicians.
Money & Politics Column
Did judge fail to report outside income?
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Outagamie County Circuit Court Judge Mark McGinnis’ Statements of Economic Interests do not appear to list police training session income from the city of Appleton for years in which other records show he was receiving substantial sums.
Money & Politics Column
Goals clash as Wisconsin prepares to rewrite campaign finance law
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Chapter 11 of the state statutes, governing campaign financing, clearly needs a rewrite. Court rulings have blown huge holes in the law, which dates to 1974. One lawyer called the result “a confusing mess.” But there is vast disagreement over what changes should be made.
Money & Politics Column
Deer disease keeps worsening in Wisconsin, as predicted
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Thirteen years after CWD was first discovered in Wisconsin, a state wildlife expert says many hunters “just want things to go back to normal.” That’s not likely to happen. A far more plausible scenario is that the disease will continue to spread, infecting and killing deer, until the number of animals available for hunters is seriously depleted.
Money & Politics Column
Do policymakers care what people think? It depends
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Gov. Scott Walker proclaimed the right-to-work bill a victory for workers’ rights. Yet precious few workers turned out to show their support for the freedom he and other Republicans delivered, using language taken almost verbatim from a corporate-funded national conservative group.
Money & Politics Column
Iron mine is halted, but battle scars remain
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Former state Sen. Bob Jauch says the bruising political battle over the mining bill “tore the community apart. It pitted neighbor versus neighbor. It destroyed relationships. And for what? All to come to the conclusion that this thing was never feasible in the first place.”
Money & Politics Column
Supreme Court candidates differ on campaign funding, recusal
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Bradley is often described as a liberal, a term she avoids applying to herself, preferring such descriptors as “tough, fair and independent.” Daley has sent out tweets using the hashtag #tcot, which stands for “top conservatives on Twitter.”
Money & Politics Column
Law against political falsehoods sets high bar for prosecution
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To run afoul of the law, it seems, a statement made during a political campaign must be both apparently credible and knowingly untrue.
Money & Politics Column
Scott Walker budget bill is rife with non-fiscal policy items
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Some of Walker’s proposals appear to be policy changes with little or no fiscal impact. Wisconsin governors and lawmakers from both parties have often injected these into the budget. Walker, as a candidate for governor in 2010, made an unequivocal pledge to “strip policy and pork projects from the state budget.” By his first budget, this promise was labeled “broken.”
Money & Politics Column
Records: Lobby spending down; Walker had huge funding edge
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Wisconsin’s 700-plus registered lobby groups reported spending $11.5 million seeking to influence state law and policy in the last half of 2014. That brought total lobbying expenditures for the two-year legislative session to $57.5 million.
Money & Politics Column
Complaint calls Oneida County mailings illegal; fairness at issue, too
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Questions and concerns about the fliers led to the creation of Citizens for Democracy in Oneida County. Member Scott Eshelman blasts the fliers for making “wild accusations” that have taken a toxic toll on county politics.
Money & Politics Column
Northwoods election mailing tied to Sen. Tom Tiffany left open wounds
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The battle wounds of politics are very much on display in Oneida County in northern Wisconsin, where claims of election law violations involving a prominent state senator are now under review by the state Department of Justice.
State Legislature
Are higher per diems for lawmakers ‘outrageous,’ or long overdue?
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Not surprisingly, the reaction from some quarters was harsh. In a letter to the editor, Oak Creek resident Wayne Meyer called the higher per diems “unconscionable,” saying it “borders on criminal.”