Common Cause in Wisconsin Reform Update - December 21, 2010
- Former Assembly Speaker Scott Johnson Gets a Gentle Pat on the Back
- Government Accountability Board to Capitulate on Needed Campaign Disclosure?
- Upcoming State Supreme Court Election to Showcase New "Impartial Justice" Reform
1. Is there a separate standard of justice for the political class than for ordinary Wisconsin citizens? It appears so. Yesterday, in a stunning development, in the almost decade-long Legislative Caucus Scandal saga, the Waukesha County District Attorney announced a settlement (or -- more accurately -- a surrender) with former Wisconsin Assembly Speaker
Scott Jensen who was criminally charged more than eight years ago for three counts of felony misconduct in public office:
Jensen settles misconduct case; felonies dropped and
Former state legislator settles misconduct case.
The settlement? A $5,000 forfeiture in exchange for dropping the felony charges. Oh, and Jensen must repay (with interest?) Wisconsin taxpayers the $67,000 he utilized to pay for lawyers in 2001-2002 before he was criminally charged in October of 2002 (along with former Assembly Majority Leader
Steve Foti, former Assistant Majority Leader
Bonnie Ladwig and former State Senate Majority Leader
Chuck Chvala). Four years ago, Jensen was tried by a jury of his peers and found guilty of three felony counts and a misdemeanor and sentenced to 15 months in prison. But a new trial was ordered on appeal because of a technicality and the new trial venue was moved from Dane County, where Jensen's alleged crimes were committed, to Waukesha County--his home county (only legislators in Wisconsin can "choose" where to be tried). Waukesha County D.A.
Brad Schimel apparently never seriously considered a trial, saying the job would have overwhelmed his office. So, instead, in the plea deal with Jensen's lawyers, Schimel just surrendered. And so a major player in the most sweeping and serious political scandal in Wisconsin's history can now go "Scott free" off into a "bright, bright sunshiny day," which he actually had the audacity to cite in
his statement yesterday. Incredible.
2. The Wisconsin Government Accountability Board was created in 2006-2007 as a direct reaction to the scandal involving Jensen. It has done a commendable job thus far in enforcing Wisconsin's ethics and campaign finance laws and updating them. Last Summer, an administrative ruled promulgated by the G.A.B. and strongly supported by CC/WI went into effect that would require outside special interest groups who ran campaign communications masquerading as issue advocacy to disclose their donors - just as candidates and groups seeking to influence the outcome of an election must do and have done for decades. But the rule that went into effect on August 1st was challenged by several of the outside special interest groups. The G.A.B. attempted to reach a settlement with them and keep the rule in effect, but the Wisconsin Supreme Court jumped into the fray in August and voted 4 to 3 to block disclosure from being in effect for the 2010 Fall election campaigns. The Court last month decided to rule on the constitutionality of the rule in March of 2011.
Yesterday afternoon, the G.A.B. issued a notice for a meeting tomorrow to pass an "emergency rule" to clarify the earlier disclosure rule. CC/WI is analyzing the rule to see if it significantly backs away from the disclosure Wisconsin needs to enable voters to know who is trying to influence their vote at election time. This development and the issuance of the emergency rule right before Christmas had not been on the radar screen and we will investigate whether or not this is a significant departure from the previously strong and principled position the G.A.B. has consistently taken with regard to the issue of campaign finance disclosure. We hope not. But stay tuned.......
3. Believe it or not, the campaign for the next election for a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court is well underway. Justice David Prosser is running for re-election for a new ten-year-term and thus far three challengers have stepped forward. The primary election in February will winnow the field down to two candidates and the general election will be in April. This is the first election being held since the enactment into law of Wisconsin's landmark "Impartial Justice" law which CC/WI strongly supported and which was enacted into law a little more than a year ago - the most sweeping campaign finance reform in Wisconsin since 1977.
To see why this law is so important and how it will work in the upcoming State Supreme Court election you can watch this program taped yesterday by Wisconsin Eye in which the CC/WI executive director and top officials of the Wisconsin G.A.B discuss the genesis and implementation of "Impartial Justice" with moderator Steve Walters.
Happy holidays and best wishes for a healthy and happy 2011 from Common Cause in Wisconsin!
To make a year-end contribution to support the reform work of CC/WI, please go here. Thanks!
Jay Heck, Executive Director
Common Cause in Wisconsin
152 W. Johnson St., Suite 212
Madison, WI 53703
608/256-2686
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Join Common Cause in Wisconsin!
www.CommonCauseWisconsin.org
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Bill Kraus
Bill Kraus is a native of Marshfield and was a long time resident of Stevens Point. He has been the Co-Chair of Common Cause in Wisconsin since 1995 and served on the National Governing Board of National Common Cause from 2004 to 2007.
Bill was a long-time Republican strategist in Wisconsin and was instrumental in the election of Governor Warren Knowles in 1964, 1966 and 1968 and in the election of Governor Lee Sherman Dreyfus in 1978. He then served as the Director of Communications for Dreyfus from 1979 to 1983 and then as an executive for the Sentry Insurance Company.
Bill's political writings have appeared in many publications and he is a regular commentator on Wisconsin Public Radio and a blogger on CC/WI's blog:
WisconsinPoliticalFix.org and other sites.
Bill attended Carleton College and is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School.
He lives in Madison and is married to Toni Sikes.
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Press Release
December 14, 2010
CONTACT:
Jay Heck – 608/256-2686
REDISTRICTING REFORM AND DISCLOSURE LAW SHOULD BE ADDED TO THE
LEGISLATIVE AGENDA WITH LABOR CONTRACTS THIS WEEK
The Wisconsin Legislature will apparently call itself into Extraordinary Session this week to consider pending public employee contracts due to expire soon. While they are in session, the State Senate ought to do two other very important things for the citizens of Wisconsin before the end of 2010.
The completion and compilation of the 2010 Census - which counts the number and location of Wisconsin citizens - means that the process of legislative (and Congressional) redistricting will begin in 2011. The current method of redistricting in Wisconsin is among the most partisan and secretive of any such process in the nation and ought to be reformed. The Wisconsin Legislature ought to expand the call of the session for the labor contracts to include passing legislation to establish a non-partisan redistricting process such as the one they have had in
Iowa since 1980. It ought to be done now, this year, before Wisconsin's current redistricting process kicks into gear -- behind closed doors and costing Wisconsin taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees.
The Wisconsin Legislature should also pass legislation requiring outside special interest groups who run campaign communications disguised as issue advocacy to disclose their donors. This is something they neglected to pass last April and Common Cause in Wisconsin was the first organization in the state to call for the Legislature to come back in December and get this done.
For more on the disclosure measure, read this recent editorial. You can also listen to CC/WI explain the need for disclosure in a recent Wisconsin Public Radio segment.
Passing redistricting reform and disclosure now will clear the way for the new Wisconsin Legislature and Governor to work on improving the economy and creating jobs -- their stated priority during the campaign that ended on November 2nd. It will also provide the citizens of Wisconsin with a much needed boost in confidence that their state government is doing something positive for their interests rather than for narrow partisan and deep-pocketed special interests.
_________________________________________
Jay Heck, Executive Director
Common Cause in Wisconsin
152 W. Johnson St., Suite 212
Madison, WI 53703
608/256-2686
Want Good Government?
Join Common Cause in Wisconsin!
http://www.commoncausewisconsin.org/
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