Lawmakers can't quench insatiable thirst for cash
5:01 PM 8/06/03

Who are they kidding? The state's most powerful politicians solemnly swore again this week that they aren't influenced by the wads of cash that special interests stuffed into their campaign funds over the first six months of this year.

Instead, we are supposed to believe that givers sent a total of $1.28 million to legislators' campaigns and leadership committees out of sheer devotion to the democratic process.

We doubt that lawmakers check their ledgers before casting each vote. But they know their benefactors and feel no shame about passing the hat after performing a favor: Republican Assembly Speaker John Gard, for example, held a Janesville fund-raiser at a roadbuilder's home after the GOP floated a plan to boost highway spending.

Likewise, Gov. Jim Doyle's budget vetoes - involving school choice eligibility, school hiring rules and benefit structure, and of course, property tax limits - will play well with one of the Democrats' biggest longtime backers, the Wisconsin Education Association Council. WEAC has spent $4 million since 1993 on campaign contributions, independent expenditures and issue ads for state campaigns.

Why should anyone care about all this money-grubbing around the Capitol? Because the current campaign fund-raising system is essentially a protection racket: Donors want to be protected from legislative harm, and the more they pay, the better their protection. But that leaves taxpayers and voters uninsured.

Left unchecked, this system leads to corruption. One of the Capitol's best "insurance" salesmen, Sen. Chuck Chvala, D-Madison, took his racket too far, and now he faces felony charges.

Yet needed reforms still languish in committee while surviving political leaders continue to grab cash with both hands. Lawmakers with integrity - surely a clear majority - should demand that their leaders take a break from fund-raising to schedule a vote early this fall on the comprehensive campaign finance reform legislation crafted by Sen. Mike Ellis, R-Neenah, and supported by Sen. Jon Erpenbach, D-Middleton. This measure would explicitly prohibit the most problematic fund-raising practices and help curb some campaign spending wars.

Maybe influential types such as Joint Finance Committee co-chairman Rep. Dean Kaufert, R-Neenah, who raised $2,600 - a pittance compared to what past chairmen have raised - can help push this cause. He spoke carefully but clearly when he told the Wisconsin State Journal this week: "The bottom line with me is that I strongly believe when we're doing the budget I, as the chairperson, shouldn't be out raising funds."

What's good for Kaufert ought to be the rule for all legislators.