Progressive Thinking

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
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

****

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
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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!