Progressive Thinking

MADISON - Yesterday, we joined with other pro-democracy groups in filing a brief at the Wisconsin Supreme Court to oppose the latest push to curtail the right of Wisconsinites to vote. Here’s what I posted on this:

Our Brief to Defend Voting Rights at the Wisconsin Supreme Court

The person asking the Wisconsin Supreme Court to interfere with our voting rights is the same Jere Fabick who prevailed earlier this week on Evers’s mask mandate. And it just so happens that Justice Rebecca Bradley got a big check from Fabick when she was running for a seat on the bench, as we explain here:

Conservative Justice Sides with Major Campaign Contributor Over Pandemic Health Orders

Also this week, my colleague Cely Flores posted a strong piece praising Gov. Evers for proposing to give undocumented students in-state tuition:

Governor’s Budget Offers Undocumented Students A Brighter Future

Cely’s articles, by the way, are now being reprinted by La Communidad and by Madison Vibra, which we’re thrilled about!

Other staff members have been busy tracking the money in the State Superintendent’s race. Here’s what they put together:

Jill Underly Raises $1.3M+ Mostly From State Dem Party

Please remember to vote on April 6. If you are voting absentee, you can go here to track your absentee ballot and find your local options for returning your ballot before Election Day.

And I hope you’ll be able to enjoy the warm weather this weekend.

Best,

Matt Rothschild
Executive Director
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P.S. If you like the work we’re doing, please send us a tax-deductible donation by clicking here. Or snail mail it to us at 203 S. Paterson St., Suite 100, Madison, WI 53703, and make your check out to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. Thanks!

MADISON - Automatic voter registration is in this year’s Executive Budget! THANK Governor Tony Evers for prioritizing democracy!

Gov. Tony Evers’s budget proposal, released in February, includes funding for automatic voter registration (AVR). By prioritizing AVR, he acknowledges that Wisconsin has the chance to be a national leader in election security, accuracy, and accessibility. Take action along with member organizations of the Wisconsin Voting Rights Coalition by thanking Gov. Evers for supporting democracy >>>

Here is a sample message you can send to Gov. Evers to thank him:

Dear Governor Evers,

Thank you so much for including automatic voter registration and other important pro-voter policies in your budget. We know how important voter access is to Wisconsinites across the state. We appreciate your commitment to voter access and making sure every Wisconsinite has the freedom to vote.

Sincerely,
[Your Name]

AVR is the best option for secure and fair election registration that will benefit voters statewide. From rural areas to urban city centers, voter information will be automatically updated and new voters will be automatically registered when people interact with the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV). This funding will help implement new systems that allow the DMV to transmit secure voter information to the Wisconsin Elections Commission daily. As election officials work to improve the security and integrity of our voting systems, it’s time for them to adopt proven policies like automatic voter registration. These updates will make registering to vote easier and more accessible for all voters, particularly those who are frequent movers, live in rural areas, or have disabilities.

Everyone who is eligible should have the freedom to vote.

Wisconsin Democracy Campaign commends Gov. Evers for making democracy a priority in 2021. By including automatic voter registration in his budget, Wisconsin is one step closer to building a stronger, safer, and more inclusive democracy.

Contact Governor Evers, and thank him for breaking down barriers to the polls. Let’s make AVR happen!

Best,

Matt Rothschild
Executive Director
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MADISON - With the April 6 elections fast approaching, we’ve tallied some of the money flowing into two big races.

In the race for state superintendent, we found a huge money advantage for Jill Underly from outside groups:

Liberal Groups Outspending DeVos group 13 to 1 in Superintendent Race

In the appellate court race in southeastern Wisconsin, we noticed that a Republican outside group is pouring money in. This shows that big money groups are trying to buy even lower levels of the judiciary:

GOP Electioneering Group Drops $56K+ in Appeals Court Contest

And if you want to look back at any of the legislative races from the fall, our Data Analyst David Julseth has provided campaign finance updates through December 2020. Just click on this link, and whichever race interests you:

Online individual contributor database updated -- Fall 2020 legislative elections

For commentary, we published two pieces this week.

Our Racial Equity and Economic Justice Advocate, Cely Flores, wrote this eye-opening piece on a new bill in Wisconsin that would lift up the wage of restaurant servers. The minimum is a shocking $2.23 an hour here:

Servers Should Not Have to Depend on the Goodwill of Strangers

And I gave talk on Monday night to the Wisconsin Interfaith Voter Engagement Campaign on the nasty voter suppression bills that are circulating in Wisconsin, and the national anti-democracy movement that they are part and parcel of. Here’s the text of my talk:

The Battle for Democracy

I hope you like this week’s offerings.

Have a nice weekend.

Best,

Matt Rothschild
Executive Director
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P.S. Please send us a tax-deductible donation so we can keep doing this urgent work. Just click here. Or you can mail your check in the old-fashioned way to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, 203 S. Paterson St, Suite 100, Madison WI 53703. Thanks!

MADISON - This week, we were once again confronted with one of the fundamental problems facing our democracy: racism.

We saw it blurt out of the mouth of Senator Ron Johnson, when he said, on rightwing radio, that he wasn’t concerned on Jan. 6 by the Trump supporters but would have been by Black Lives Matter protesters. I wrote an editorial on this, demanding that Ron Johnson resign, which you can read here:

Ron Johnson, Resign!

And we saw it horrifically spill blood in Atlanta and take the lives of eight people, and notably six Asian Americans. Our Racial Equity and Economic Justice Advocate, Cely Flores, wrote about it here:

We Know a Hate Crime When We See One

We need to call racism out wherever we see it. It is a huge moral wrong, and it prevents democracy from functioning properly. No one has an equal voice when they are discriminated against. No one has an equal voice when they are denied life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness just because of who they are.

Of course, our democracy does not function properly because of big money in politics, too. If you want to find out which outside groups are spending the most in the spring elections, click on this link and then click on the groups that interest you:

Hijacking Campaign 2021 - Independent Expenditures

I hope you’re able to get out and enjoy the warm weather this weekend.

Best,

Matt Rothschild
Executive Director
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P.S. If you appreciate the work we’re doing here, please send us a tax-deductible gift by clicking here. Thanks!

MADISON - This week, Republicans in the State Legislature introduced a bill, as they have before, to call for a Convention of the States, which is often referred to as an “Article V” way to amend the U.S. Constitution.

It’s a bad idea, for several reasons, which I outlined in testimony that I emailed to the Assembly Committee on the Constitution and Ethics:

Wisconsin GOP’s Misguided Move on Amending the Constitution

This week, we noted that Rebecca Kleefisch has been tossing a lot of money around to candidates here, as she prepares to run for governor. You can read about that here:

Former Lt. Gov’s New PAC Doled Out $121K to the State GOP, Legislative Candidates

And we’re continuing to meet with our partners in the Wisconsin Voting Rights Coalition to call attention to the nasty voter suppression bills that some GOP legislators are circulating. The Cap Times published my article on this, as you can see:

Matthew Rothschild: Say no to voter suppression bills

I hope you enjoy the nice weather this weekend!

Best,

Matt Rothschild
Executive Director
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MADISON - This week, some GOP members of the State Legislature have been circulating a raft of ugly voter suppression bills. Here’s what we posted on them:

Say No to Voter Suppression Bills

I hope you’ll contact your legislators and urge them not to back these anti-democracy bills!

For our part, we’re doing all we can to oppose them. I’ve written op-eds for the Cap Times, the Wisconsin Examiner, and Urban Milwaukee about them, and I’ve been interviewed on WORT and the Devil’s Advocates. Plus, we’re working with our partners in the Wisconsin Voting Rights Coalition to get the word out.

This week, we also filed four formal complaints with the Wisconsin Ethics Commission when we discovered that the following committees accepted donations from corporations in excess of the $12,000 statutory limit:

-- Republican Assembly Campaign Committee
-- Committee to Elect a Republican Senate
-- Assembly Democratic Campaign Committee
-- Democratic Party of Wisconsin.

Here’s our report on that:

Legislative Campaign Committees, State Party Accept Excessive Contributions

And if you want to find out which corporations gave the most to the legislative campaign committees and political parties in Wisconsin, we dug that out for you, too:

State Parties, Legislative Campaign Committees Accepted $1.6M in Corporate Contributions in 2020

As you can see, It’s been a busy week for us!

I hope you have a nice weekend.

Best,

Matt Rothschild
Executive Director
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P.S. The Big Share online day of giving kicks off this year at 6:00PM, Monday, March 1, and goes through midnight on March 2! Please show your support for our good work by giving online here during those hours. Note that your gift may be doubled with matching funds from our Board of Directors when you give between the hours of 10:00-11:00AM on Tuesday, Please share The Big Share opportunity with your friends and colleagues! Learn more here--The Big Share. Thanks!

MADISON - I really liked Gov. Evers’s budget, and the way he talked about it, as I explain here:

Praise for Governor Evers’s Budget

If you liked it too, please write to your legislators and let them know the parts of his budget that are most important to you. Here’s some info on how you contact your legislators:

https://www.wisdc.org/get-involved/contact-your-legislator

Over the past few days, we’ve been busy following some money trails. One involves those bogus GOP “electors” who tried to present themselves as the real Wisconsin electors to the Electoral College. Here are the donations they’ve given to candidates in Wisconsin:

Accused GOP Electors Contributed Nearly $14K to State Candidates

And in a story that we broke at the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, Scott Fitzgerald, while he was Majority Leader in the State Senate, reached a settlement with the Wisconsin Ethics Committee for taking in contributions above the legal limit. And another campaign committee that he ran for Wisconsin candidates also had violations that it settled:

Fitzgerald Cited for Campaign Violation But Doesn't Pay Penalty

We also updated all the spending by PACs in last year’s elections. Here’s a handy little table of the spenders, from biggest to smallest:

Independent Expenditure Totals Fall 2020

As you can see, we’ve been keeping tabs!

I hope you find this information useful, and enjoy the warmer weather this weekend.

Best,

Matt Rothschild
Executive Director
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P.S. Donating is easy. Just click here. Or donate the old-fashioned way by sending a check to us at 203 S. Paterson St, Suite 100, Madison WI 53703. We really appreciate it!

MADISON - Next Tuesday, we have an election for state school superintendent, and we’ve examined the money that’s been flowing into the race.

Here’s our report on the biggest individual contributors to the candidates:

Top Contributors in 2021 to the Candidates for State School Superintendent

And here’s our report on the special interest groups that are throwing around in that contest and in the special elections:

Special Interest Group Spending Tops $300K in Spring Races

This week, we also came up with a final tally on the record-breaking amount of money that was spent in the legislative races here in Wisconsin last year:

2020 Legislative Races Cost Record-Smashing $53.9M+

Today, my colleague Beverly Speer and I met with State Sen. Melissa Agard (formerly Sargent) to work on bills to limit this big money in our politics and to empower everyday Wisconsinites.

We all need to have an equal voice in our democracy!

Best,

Matt Rothschild
Executive Director
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P.S. I hope you’ll support the urgent work we do here for a full democracy. Donating is easy. Just click here.
Or donate the old-fashioned way by sending a check to us at
203 S Paterson St, Ste 100, Madison WI 53703. We really appreciate it!

MADISON - The appalling response to the COVID calamity by the Republicans in the Wisconsin Legislature illustrates the crisis of representation that we face in this state. This crisis stems from two roots: our corrupt campaign finance system and from gerrymandering. I dig into this here:        

COVID, Campaign Finance, and Unfair Maps

Speaking of campaign finance, new records were set last year by Wisconsin’s legislative campaign committees. We show you the numbers and explain why in this posting:

Wisconsin Legislative Campaign Committees Spent Record $12.11M in 2020

We also broke down the numbers on Gov. Evers’s own fundraising, which is getting a huge boost from the Democratic Party of Wisconsin:

Evers Raises More Than $3.8M, Over Half From State Party in 2020

The problem of big money in our politics is a bipartisan one!

I hope you like this week’s offering.

Stay warm this weekend!

Best,

Matt Rothschild
Executive Director
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****

P.S. I hope you’ll support the urgent work we do here for a full democracy, where everyone has an equal voice. Donating is easy. Just click here.
Or donate the old-fashioned way by sending a check to us at 203 S. Paterson St, Suite 100, Madison WI 53703. We really appreciate it!

MADISON - Dear Friend, I hope you’ve had a nice week.

As for me, I’ve been alternating between relief and giddiness since, as you know, I’d been worried about Trump staging a coup for the better part of the last four years.

And I appreciated President Biden’s wise words in his Inaugural Address, as I wrote in an op-ed for the Wisconsin Examiner, which you can see here:

“Let’s start afresh”

I was also pleased to publish an op-ed in Urban Milwaukee with Angela Lang, the executive director of BLOC (Black Leaders Organizing in Communities), on why it’s imperative for Wisconsin Republicans to stop repeating the lies about the election and stop inciting the rabble. Here is that column:

A Plea to State Republicans

This week, we kept doing what we do, day in and day out, at the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, and that’s to track the big money in our politics.

Here’s our final tally on the money the Democratic Party of Wisconsin and the Republican Party of Wisconsin hauled in last year:

State Dem Party Raised Nearly 2.5x More Than State GOP in ‘20

And here’s our initial tally on the money being thrown around in the race for school superintendent:

Top Contributors to the Candidates for State School Superintendent

I hope you have a nice, relaxing weekend after all the turmoil we’ve witnessed and endured over the last four years.

Best,

Matt Rothschild
Executive Director
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P.S. I hope you’ll support the urgent work we do here for a full democracy, where everyone has an equal voice. Donating is easy. Just click here. Or donate the old-fashioned way by sending a check to us at 203 S. Paterson St, Ste 100, Madison WI 53703. We really appreciate it!

MADISON - Last Saturday, I was invited to speak to the Madison Civics Club. Originally, I was going to talk about how to make democracy work better in Wisconsin. But after the rightwing putsch on Jan. 6, I knew I had to talk about the threat from the far right in our country.

Here’s the video of my talk, which lasts for the first 20 minutes or so. Then there are a few questions and answers, and then Rep. Mark Pocan adds his own insights and his personal experience. The whole thing runs about an hour. I hope you like it:

Madison Civics Club - Rothschild/Pocan

On Monday, I decided to condense my advice, so here’s what I posted:

10 Things You Can Do to Fend Off the Far Right

Please feel free to share these with your friends, who I’m sure are as worried about the fate of our country as you and I are.

We also posted an item on how the Republican Attorneys General Association, which gets financial support from big Wisconsin companies, urged people to go to Washington for the “Stop the Steal” event. See which companies those were:

Wisconsin Backers of GOP Group That Promoted January 6 Event

I hope you like this week’s offerings.

Best,

Matt Rothschild
Executive Director
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P.S. You can count on us to stand up for democracy and to expose those who are intent on destroying it. If you appreciate the urgent work we’re doing, please send us a tax-deductible gift today by clicking here.

MADISON - Like you, I’m outraged about the mob that ransacked the Capitol yesterday, and I wanted to share with you my thoughts on what happened, so here they are:

I Was Not Surprised by the Mob Assault on the Capitol

As you may know, we’ve been chronicling the threat that Trump has posed to our democracy since he went down that escalator five years ago. When you’ve got the time, you might want to peruse our handy guide on Trump and fascism here:

https://www.wisdc.org/news/trump-and-fascism

Today, I’ve got a couple worries.

First, I’m still very concerned about what Trump might pull in the last 13 days of his term in office if the Cabinet doesn’t remove him via the 25^th Amendment, which they should do right now.

And second, I’m worried about his followers. They are fueled not just by a cult of personality but also by appeals to racism, red-baiting, anti-Semitism, irrationalism, and ultra-nationalism. We’ll need to combat those appeals long after Trump has left 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Here at the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, we’ll be doing all we can to highlight the risk that this authoritarian movement still poses. And we’ll call out those elected officials in Wisconsin who coddle it, among them Ron Johnson, Tom Tiffany, and Scott Fitzgerald.

At a time like this, it’s important that all of us join groups that are defending our democracy. If you’ve not yet become a member of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, please do so now by clicking here.

Or join other groups like the ACLU, the League of Women Voters, Public Citizen, Stacey Abrams’s group Fair Fight, or any number of organizations that are doing great work.

Get involved. You can’t combat the anti-democracy forces alone, but together we can preserve, defend, and expand our democracy so that everyone has an equal voice and so that no one has to see a day like yesterday ever again.

Best,

Matt Rothschild
Executive Director
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MADISON - The President of the United States is off his rocker.

Yesterday, he gave a 46-minute speech that was the scariest I’ve ever read. And the mainstream media downplayed the shocking part: that Trump explicitly said that the election should be overturned. Here’s what I wrote about this, and about calls from Gen. Flynn and others for Trump to declare martial law:

Don’t Ignore Trump’s Psychotic Speech

I also posted a critique of Trump’s groundless lawsuits right here in Wisconsin, which also seek to overturn the will of the people:

Trump’s Bogus Wisconsin Lawsuits

Trump is taking the country through very treacherous waters right now, and we ignore this threat at our peril.

Thanks for reading these two items, for defending our democracy!

Best,

Matt Rothschild
Executive Director
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Court is considering a proposal that would likely lead to another gerrymander in Wisconsin. Let them know how you feel.

MADISON - The Wisconsin Supreme Court is taking public comments on a proposed rule that would pre-rig the process for the drawing of legislative and congressional district maps and would likely lead to another gerrymander in Wisconsin.

The proposed rule was submitted by the rightwing Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty (WILL), and it has the following flaws:

First, it would jump any legal challenge to redistricting immediately to the Wisconsin Supreme Court rather than let that challenge work its way through the courts in a normal fashion. The establishment of a record at the lower court level would enhance transparency and enable the citizens of Wisconsin to grasp the evidence in the case and the competing arguments as they wend their way through the courts.

Second, nonprofit public interest organizations and concerned citizens could get aced out of any hearing on redistricting maps before the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The WILL petition, in Section 5(b), requires only that the political parties be heard by the Court in any dispute over the maps. It does not allow room, explicitly at least, for groups like ours that have a longstanding interest in this issue to be heard. Redistricting is not simply a dispute between the parties.

Third, the proposed rule that WILL is advancing gives the Court the leeway to disregard the procedures and requirements laid out in the rule itself. So that’s no rule at all if it allows you to toss everything out the window and just do what you want. If you’re going to have a rule, it should be abided by, and it should be transparent, and it should be applied in a fair manner.

So I have a favor to ask: Please write the Wisconsin Supreme Court today and tell them that you oppose this rule and tell them why in your own words.

At the top of your letter, please note that you are writing concerning Rule Petition 20-03 relating to legal challenges to redistricting.

If you copy your letter into this form by Nov. 22 at 5:00pm via the Wis. Fair Maps Coalition, we’ll submit it for you.

Thanks for your help!

Best,

Matt Rothschild
Executive Director
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Career dedicated to equality and justice, two things right at the heart of our work here.

MADISON - Here at the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, we remain in mourning at the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

Among the many causes she championed in her career dedicated to equality and justice, two are right at the heart of our work here.

The first is reducing the influence of money in our politics. She told The New Republic back in 2014 that the worst decision of the Roberts Court was Citizens United. “The notion that we have all the democracy that money can buy strays so far from what our democracy is supposed to be," she said.

And the second cause is ending gerrymandering.

In 2015, Justice Ginsburg wrote the majority opinion in a case called Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission. The case revolved around the constitutionality of Proposition 106, the statewide binding referendum that passed in Arizona in 2000 and that took the redistricting authority away from the legislators and handed it over to the Arizona Independent Redistricting Committee.

Ginsburg ruled that the initiative process was totally in keeping with our founding principles. “The Framers may not have imagined the modern initiative process in which the people of a State exercise legislative power coextensive with the authority of an institutional legislature,” she wrote. “But the invention of the initiative was in full harmony with the Constitution’s conception of the people as the font of governmental power.” That conception is crucial in the context of gerrymandering, Ginsburg argued, stressing the importance of “lawmaking by the people, particularly where such lawmaking is intended to check legislators’ ability to choose the district lines they run in.”

In a sentence that rings so true for those of us in Wisconsin, she noted: “The legislature’s responsiveness to the people its members represent is hardly heightened when the representative body can be confident that what it does will not be overturned or modified by the voters themselves.”

Justice Ginsburg knew well why our Legislature here in Madison is not responsive to the people. It’s because of gerrymandering.

May her memory be a blessing.

Best,

Matt Rothschild
Executive Director
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MADISON - You might have thought I was being a bit on the hysterical side last week when I wrote to you about the risk of Donald Trump imposing martial law. But there he was this week tweeting about postponing the election!

Fortunately, this move backfired, as he was met with near universal condemnation, including from Republican elected officials (even in Wisconsin!).

We at the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign signed on to a letter denouncing this reckless move, which you can read here.

Meanwhile, this week we kept doing what we do, day in and day out: Exposing money in Wisconsin politics.

Before I came to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, I didn’t even know what Legislative Campaign Committees are. But I soon found out: They’re the treasure chests that the Speaker, the Senate Majority Leader, and the two minority leaders have at their disposal for elections.

This year, these campaign committees raised record amounts, with the Republicans way ahead, as you’ll see here:

Legislative Fundraising Committees Raise Record Cash

In a related post, we discussed another record that was broken: fundraising by all the legislative candidates. Speaker Vos, for his personal campaign, led the way with $355,000 on hand. Add that to the $2,371,000 he controls as head of the Republican Assembly Campaign Committee, and you can see why he’s so powerful. You can find all the details here:

Legislative Donors Undaunted by Pandemic

And here’s some good news! The Marathon County Board this week passed a resolution in favor of independent, nonpartisan redistricting. That makes 52 counties out of the 72 in Wisconsin that have passed board resolutions to ban gerrymandering. Also this week, the Bayfield County Board voted to let the citizenry weigh in on this issue on November 3 with an advisory referendum. That makes 10 county referendums coming up: Adams, Bayfield, Brown, Crawford, Door, Dunn, Iowa, Jefferson, Kenosha, and Rusk.

Thanks to all the amazing grassroots activists who are making this happen!

I hope you have a nice weekend.

Best,

Matt Rothschild
Executive Director
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With Trump's placement of federal forces in Portland and his vow to send them to other cities, Matt Rothschild fears democracy may be lost.

MADISON - For many years, first while I was at The Progressive magazine and for the last five and a half years at the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, I’ve been worried about our little experiment in democracy in this country ending at the hands of an authoritarian.

Well, now we have an authoritarian as President, and with his placement of federal forces in Portland – and his vow to send them to other cities, including Milwaukee! – my fears are growing stronger by the day. I write about how Trump might overturn our cherished system here:

Trump’s Troops in Portland and the March to Martial Law

Focusing back on Wisconsin, we looked at the recent campaign finance filings and noticed that the Democratic Party of Wisconsin is way ahead in the money chase. If you’re a Democrat, you may be cheering this news. But I’m not because I think it’s obscene that anyone can give unlimited amounts of money to the political parties now. Until 2015, when the Republicans disastrously rewrote our campaign finance law, the ceiling on gifts to political parties was $10,000. Now there is no ceiling. The sky is the limit. And so out-of-state billionaires are throwing their money into Wisconsin to influence the outcome of political races here. Find out who they are by clicking here:

State Dems Raised 10X More Than Republicans in Recent Months

Ok, let’s end with some good news! The Public Service Commission, under pressure from the Sierra Club, Citizen Action, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, and other public interest advocates and activists like you, reversed course this week and decided not to let the utilities start cutting people off, which they were going to do as of tomorrow. Instead, the PSC extended the moratorium on shut-offs until at least Sept. 1.

Activism pays off!

Best,

Matt Rothschild
Executive Director
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MADISON - After the outrageous decision by the right wing majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court to lift “Safer at Home,” we noted that there still is another case before the Court on this same issue. And guess what? The lead plaintiff is a major GOP donor, and he maxxed out to Justice Rebecca Bradley, as we explain here:

Conservative Justice Got $20K Contribution from Individual in Second Stay-at-Home Suit

We were also so disgusted by Chief Justice Roggensack’s “regular people” comment about the meatpackers in Green Bay that we checked out her statement of economic interest to see “regular” she was. Here’s what we found:

Roggensack Has at Least $295K+ in Investments

By the way, if you want to see financial relationships and how wealthy some of our other state elected officials are, just click here:

Statements of Economic Interests

Our Data Analyst, David Julseth, just posted statements of economic interests filed with the Wisconsin Ethics Commission as of May 2020. These statements cover calendar year 2019. This is the only place that the public can view them without first submitting a request form to do so!

I hope you find these postings useful.

And I’d love to hear from you, so please email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it if you’d like.

Best,

Matt Rothschild
Executive Director
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P.S. If you like the work we’re doing, please make a tax-deductible gift today to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. We’d really appreciate it. Just click here. Thanks!

MADISON, WI - Happy Earth Day!

Our staff put out a thorough report this week on how, during the Walker Administration, Wisconsin shirked its obligations to combat climate change and to protect the environment. Here’s our press release, with a link to the report:

Wisconsin GOP Leaders Added Fuel to Climate Change Fire, WDC Report Shows

And today, the Wisconsin Examiner printed my op-ed, which summarized the report, showed the progress that Gov. Evers has made on this issue, and briefly discussed the impact of the coronavirus on the environment:

An Earth Day Assessment of Wisconsin's Environmental Progress

Lastly, I wanted to share with you something I just wrote. It’s about the MacIver Institute, here in Wisconsin, ginning up the protests against the governor’s “Safer at Home” order. MacIver’s idolatry of the “free market” extends to flagrantly jeopardizing lives in Wisconsin, as I argue here:

The Lethal Idiocy of the MacIver Institute

I hope you share my outrage about this.

Best,

Matt Rothschild
Executive Director
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P.S. If you like what you're reading, please support us today with a tax-deductible donation. Just click here. Thanks!

Well known progressive commentator Matt Rothschild on this week's election.

MADISON - I’ve never been so mad in my life!

The insistence by Robin Vos and Scott Fitzgerald, aided by the rigged Wisconsin Supreme Court and the reactionary U.S. Supreme Court, to go forward with the election on April 7 in the midst of this pandemic was the most despicable thing I’ve ever witnessed in politics.

Here’s what I wrote about it:

Shame! Wisconsin GOP Scrapes Bottom of the Barrel

Now that I’ve told you how I really feel, please let me share another article we posted on the outside spending in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race:

Special Interest Group Spending at $4.4M in Supreme Court Race

And here’s the astonishing amount that Marsy’s Law in Wisconsin spent on the constitutional amendment about victim’s rights, which we opposed:

Group Behind Marsy’s Law Referendum Spent $3.3M+ On Media

As you’ve probably already heard, we had to cancel our 25th anniversary celebration that we were going to hold on April 29, which is a drag because we had some good panels and speakers lined up.

Our next Big Money Bulletin is due out soon after election results are announced next week. All members will be receiving a ballot to elect our board of directors. So please watch for that in the mail.

And if you like what we’ve been doing, please send us a tax-deductible gift by clicking here: https://www.wisdc.org/get-involved/donate.

Thanks for your support.

Best,

Matt Rothschild
Executive Director
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