Senate Bill 40, this Legislative session's version of Impartial Justice, passed the Senate and Assembly on the last day of Fall floor proceedings and now awaits action on Governor Doyle's desk.
Impartial Justice goes a long way to reforming the Supreme Court races in the state of Wisconsin. By increasing the tax checkoff for the Wisconsin Clean Election fund from $1 to $3, the bill finances Supreme Court elections for candidates that agree to a spending cap. While this is a voluntary system, there are consequences for non-compliance, most importantly a disadvantage for additional financing. Those who comply with the spending limits receive a dollar-for-dollar match for independent expenditure spending in the race above a certain threshold.
I have lobbied earlier and will continue to work to ban all phony issue ids in all judicial elections, a measure absent from Impartial Justice. It is illegal to lobby a judge in Wisconsin, and the U.S. Supreme Court has defined issue ads as lobbying; therefore there is no legal reason that so-called issue ads should be allowed in judicial elections.
While Impartial Justice did not contain the ban on phony issue ads I want to make law in Wisconsin, it did contain a system for regulating and financing Supreme Court elections - which is an important first step in changing our election laws. The legislation is the most significant campaign finance reform measure that has passed the Legislature since the late 1970s in Wisconsin. Once signed, Wisconsin will join North Carolina and New Mexico with a system of public financing for candidates for the state Supreme Court who agree to abide by sensible spending limits. In Wisconsin, the limits will be $100,000 for the primary election and $300,000 for the general election. High court candidates who abide by the limits will be eligible to receive additional publicly-financed grants if their opponent exceeds the spending limits and if outside special interest groups spend above a certain threshold against them or in favor of their opponent.
After the past three high-spending, expensive and nasty elections for the Supreme Court in Wisconsin, this measure was needed to begin to restore public confidence in the once revered Wisconsin Supreme Court. This action, however, is not all that is needed to clean up judicial elections in Wisconsin - issue ad regulation is needed. Recent Supreme Court elections were dominated by nasty, undisclosed, unregulated campaign communications masquerading as issue advocacy. The donors to these phony issue ads must be disclosed and the money used to pay for them must come from a regulated source. Only then will elections for Wisconsin's highest court return to some level of sanity and civility.
With passage of Impartial Justice, we are out of the starting block on campaign finance reform. The promise of action by Majority Leader Decker on SB 43, issue ad regulation, was as significant as we move into the end of the two-year legislative session. With action on Senate Bill 43, we will have a significant change in how our elections look and sound in Wisconsin. I will continue that fight. If you would like additional information on campaign finance reform, please contact my office at (888) 549-0027 or sen.erpenbach@legis.wi.gov.
- Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Waunakee, serves the 27th Senate District, which includes Green County.
Impartial Justice goes a long way to reforming the Supreme Court races in the state of Wisconsin. By increasing the tax checkoff for the Wisconsin Clean Election fund from $1 to $3, the bill finances Supreme Court elections for candidates that agree to a spending cap. While this is a voluntary system, there are consequences for non-compliance, most importantly a disadvantage for additional financing. Those who comply with the spending limits receive a dollar-for-dollar match for independent expenditure spending in the race above a certain threshold.
I have lobbied earlier and will continue to work to ban all phony issue ids in all judicial elections, a measure absent from Impartial Justice. It is illegal to lobby a judge in Wisconsin, and the U.S. Supreme Court has defined issue ads as lobbying; therefore there is no legal reason that so-called issue ads should be allowed in judicial elections.
While Impartial Justice did not contain the ban on phony issue ads I want to make law in Wisconsin, it did contain a system for regulating and financing Supreme Court elections - which is an important first step in changing our election laws. The legislation is the most significant campaign finance reform measure that has passed the Legislature since the late 1970s in Wisconsin. Once signed, Wisconsin will join North Carolina and New Mexico with a system of public financing for candidates for the state Supreme Court who agree to abide by sensible spending limits. In Wisconsin, the limits will be $100,000 for the primary election and $300,000 for the general election. High court candidates who abide by the limits will be eligible to receive additional publicly-financed grants if their opponent exceeds the spending limits and if outside special interest groups spend above a certain threshold against them or in favor of their opponent.
After the past three high-spending, expensive and nasty elections for the Supreme Court in Wisconsin, this measure was needed to begin to restore public confidence in the once revered Wisconsin Supreme Court. This action, however, is not all that is needed to clean up judicial elections in Wisconsin - issue ad regulation is needed. Recent Supreme Court elections were dominated by nasty, undisclosed, unregulated campaign communications masquerading as issue advocacy. The donors to these phony issue ads must be disclosed and the money used to pay for them must come from a regulated source. Only then will elections for Wisconsin's highest court return to some level of sanity and civility.
With passage of Impartial Justice, we are out of the starting block on campaign finance reform. The promise of action by Majority Leader Decker on SB 43, issue ad regulation, was as significant as we move into the end of the two-year legislative session. With action on Senate Bill 43, we will have a significant change in how our elections look and sound in Wisconsin. I will continue that fight. If you would like additional information on campaign finance reform, please contact my office at (888) 549-0027 or sen.erpenbach@legis.wi.gov.
- Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Waunakee, serves the 27th Senate District, which includes Green County.
