Plan to kill caucuses doomed, GOP says
2:06 PM 6/29/01
Scott Milfred State government reporter
The state Assembly today will reject a proposal to eliminate the taxpayer-funded legislative caucus system, Republican leaders predicted Thursday.
But reform is on the way, the same leaders told the Wisconsin State Journal Editorial Board, giving few specifics.
Rep. Marty Reynolds, D-Ladysmith, hopes to force a vote today on an amendment to the state budget that would abolish the caucus system and its $4 million a year in funding.
"At the end of the day, I don't think Marty's deal is going to pass," said Rep. John Gard, R-Peshtigo, part of the Assembly Republican leadership team. "But there's going to be reforms coming."
A Wisconsin State Journal investigation last month found that the caucus offices - one each for the Democrats and Republicans in both the state Assembly and Senate - operate as secret campaign machines, raising money, producing brochures and maintaining lists of potential voters for the leaders' hand-picked candidates.
Such activity could amount to illegal campaign contributions, which is why the Elections Board announced its own investigation Wednesday.
Gard and Rep. Steve Foti, R-Oconomowoc, the No. 2 leader in the Republican-run Assembly, said Thursday they'll seek to table Reynolds' budget amendment today on a roll call vote.
Foti said Republican leaders won't seek changes to the caucus system until after Assembly Chief Clerk John Scocos completes a review of caucus duties and structure by the end of summer. One idea so far, Foti said, is to move some caucus staffers into the chief clerk's office, presumably to create more oversight
Foti said Reynolds' budget amendment is premature and should fail.
"The day will come again that we'll talk about it again," Foti said. "Because when John Scocos comes forward with a report, it's obviously going to be very public and it will create debate all over again on where we're going to go and what we're going to do.
"We certainly ought to know how we want to implement, and what we want to deal with, before we decide whether or not we want to blow it up and how severe we're blowing it up," Foti said.
Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen, R-Waukesha, didn't attend Thursday's editorial board meeting.
Reynolds said Thursday his amendment would pass if everyone voted their conscience.
"Everybody knows there's something rotten in Denmark," Reynolds said. "The caucuses are campaign machines."
Reynolds expects Republican leaders will pressure their majority of Assembly members to vote unanimously against his amendment. Reynolds added that Democratic leaders also would like to see the issue fade away.
Reynolds said he's disappointed that today's vote will be for tabling, or indefinitely delaying, his amendment. He'd prefer an up or down vote to approve or kill the proposal.
"Tabling is considered a safe vote," Reynolds said. "People can say: I never voted against it. I voted for tabling it so we can take it up later,' even though they never will."