Bill Lueders: Hope springs eternal for Wisconsin election reformers

[hue]

http://host.madison.com/ct/news/opinion/column/bill-lueders-hope-springs-eternal-for-wisconsin-election-reformers/article_abbea2d8-d66a-11e1-8cca-001a4bcf887a.html

In preparing for a recent interview in which he knew he’d be asked about tilting at windmills, Mike McCabe crafted a T-shirt-worthy reply: “To me, there’s always reason for hope, and never much reason for optimism.”

McCabe leads the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, which joined with the Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group in drafting a July 10 letter calling for legislative hearings and possibly a special session to tweak state elections law.

Besides WISPIRG and the Democracy Campaign, 18 other groups signed on, including the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin, the Coalition of Wisconsin Aging Groups, the Wisconsin Farmers Union, Citizen Action of Wisconsin, and the Sierra Club. They urge the Legislature to:

1) Require disclosure of all spending sources in state elections.

2) Close the loophole that lets officials targeted for recall raise unlimited amounts.

3) Insist that corporations get shareholder permission before spending on political campaigns.

4) Make broadcast outlets and newspapers post online records of campaign ad buys.

5) Create an independent, nonpartisan body to oversee the redrawing of voter boundaries.

These may strike some people as reasonable changes. But state Rep. Robin Vos, R-Burlington, sees no chance of them passing the Assembly. He pegs the signatories as being “all on the left end of the political spectrum” and calls their motives into question.

“It is not surprising that groups on the left want to change the rules because they have not been able to succeed under the current system,” says Vos, likely the next Assembly speaker if Republicans retain their substantial majority in the fall elections.

[Scuba]

1. Hey Robin, we can't succeed under the current system because you rigged it!