Wisconsin Watch Media Partners Center (https://partners.wisconsinwatch.org/tag/campaign-finance/)
One advocate calls Wisconsin the ‘darkest of dark money states’ as millions in secret spending flows into races for governor, Legislature and state Supreme Court
Wisconsin might not have the most money in its elections, because there are some states with no limits at all on individual campaign contributions. But critics say it is awash in “dark money,” contributions that are not required to be reported to any governmental agency.
It might be about to get tougher—a lot tougher—to follow the money in Wisconsin politics.
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.
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.”
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.
During this roughly 13-month period, Walker raised a total of $24.5 million, compared to Burke’s $15.5 million. He received about $10.8 million from other states, or 44 percent of his total. Burke attracted $3.2 million in out-of-state donations, or 21 percent of her total.
The Wisconsin Republican Party can use the funds from Adelson to benefit a single candidate like Republican Gov. Scott Walker, to whom individual contribution limits still apply.
A manifesto for a populist change aimed at a national audience, it focuses largely on Wisconsin, portrayed as a fetid swamp of corruption, where lobbyists and campaign donors provide the soundtrack to which policymakers dance.
Walker has raised nearly $4.6 million so far in 2014, or 55 percent of his total, from people who live in other states. That compares to Burke’s out-of-state total of $1.2 million, or 34 percent of her receipts this year.
Schultz, a Republican who is stepping down after 32 years in the Legislature, most as a state senator, is dumbfounded: “Who’d have ever thought you’d be at a Republican function and have to defend Abraham Lincoln?”
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, asked if he thinks politicians including himself are as susceptible to the corrupting influence of money as the labor unions he bashes in his new book, has plenty to say — about the labor unions.