Test for Democracy in the United States Senate This Week

Wednesday – June 23, 2021

WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 03: U.S. Speaker of the House Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) speaks as other House Democrats listen during a news conference on the For the People Act at the east front of the U.S. Capitol March 3, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

The "For the People Act" is Essential for the Preservation of Democracy

by Jay Heck

Note: This guest editorial appeared in The Wisconsin Examiner on June 21, 2021 as well as The Cap Times on June 22, 2021. 

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Since the 2020 election, state legislatures across the country have introduced more than 300 voter suppression bills that weaken every American’s right to vote. While states like Georgia and Texas are making national headlines, in the last few weeks Republican state legislators in Wisconsin approved a host of anti-voter legislation that will diminish and restrict seniors, people of color, and the disabled from exercising their freedom to vote. And more of these measures are on the way.

This wave of voter suppression comes on the heels of a presidential election in which thousands of Wisconsinites were forced to risk their lives to vote during the April, 2020 primary election amid the rapidly spreading COVID-19 virus. Rather than work together with Democrats and non-partisan groups to make voting safer and more accessible, Republican legislators are actively working to limit the franchise. Gov. Tony Evers has vowed to veto any anti-voter legislation but Wisconsin voters’ right to be heard on Election Day should not depend on who is in office.

Our democracy is in a current state of crisis. We need the United States Senate to act now and safeguard our freedom to vote by passing the For the People Act.

Here in Wisconsin, the Republican-led State Senate and Assembly are part of a nationwide effort to usher in blatant voter suppression legislation to manipulate the rules of the game for their own political advantage. From making it more difficult to cast an absentee ballot to prohibiting foundation funding to improve local election administration, to limiting the number of ballot drop boxes allowed in neighborhoods, Republican state legislators are engaging in anti-democratic practices that destroy the integrity of our elections and, ultimately, voters’ faith in government.

As self-interested politicians look to silence voters for their own political gain, the For the People Act contains bold reforms that will strengthen our democracy and ensure all voters can freely exercise their right to vote. Most crucially, the legislation would create automatic voter registration across the country, expand early voting and voting-by-mail and prohibit voter roll purges and partisan gerrymandering so that we the people elect our representatives, not the other way around.

The For the People Act reduces the influence of money in our politics by requiring any organization involved in political activity to disclose large donors, creating a small-donor-focused matching system so Wisconsin voters can have a real voice and not continue to be drowned out by big, special interest money and secret donors. The legislation also bolsters the enforcement of the money in politics rules already on the books.

That’s why an unprecedented coalition of community organizations, voting rights experts, and 67% of Americans—including 56% of Republicans and 68% of independents — support the For the People Act.

If the For the People Act were the law of the land today, none of the Republican state legislators’ voter suppression schemes would be possible in Wisconsin or elsewhere. Without its passage, anti-voter laws will continue to germinate. The U.S. House of Representatives has done its job and already approved the For the People Act. The legislation now awaits a vote that could come in the next week in the U.S. Senate where Sen. Tammy Baldwin has been a staunch supporter and original co-sponsor. Sen. Ron Johnson, presumably comfortable with the corrupt status quo, does not yet support legislation that would keep him accountable to the people of Wisconsin.

The United States Senate has no greater duty than to protect Americans’ constitutional right to be heard by their government, regardless of age, race, political party, or zip code. The For the People Act is the bipartisan solution we need to build a truly participatory government of, by, and for the people.

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Jay Heck has been the executive director of Common Cause in Wisconsin since 1996. For more information: commoncausewisconsin.org or call 608-256-2686.

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Contact: 

Jay Heck

608/256-2686 (office)
608/512-9363 (cell)

Common Cause in Wisconsin
152 Johnson St, Suite 212
Madison, WI 53703
www.commoncausewisconsin.org

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Out of Control Campaign Spending and Weak Recusal Rules Undermine Wisconsin's Courts

Wednesday – June 2, 2021

Photo from S Bughdaryan on Unsplash 

Note: This guest editorial first appeared in The Wisconsin Examiner on June 1, 2021

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Wisconsin, from statehood in 1848 to about a decade and a half ago ago in 2007, had a national reputation for having one of the most respected, impartial, nonpartisan, fair and trusted state court systems in the nation.

Much of this was because there was a generally held belief among Wisconsinites of all political persuasions and ideologies that the courts should be “above politics as usual.” In order to maintain the confidence of the citizenry, judges and justices of the Wisconsin Supreme Court had to be scrupulously nonpartisan and impartial and not be perceived as having been compromised by outside lobbying pressure, campaign contributions or other political influence.

For decades, this standard not only survived, but flourished, and as recently as the early 2000’s the Wisconsin Supreme Court was held up by legal experts across the country as the “gold standard” for how justices should be elected and serve once in office in a state supreme court. The Wisconsin Court of Appeals, the 72 county circuit courts and the hundreds of municipal court judges also were perceived as having the highest standards for impartiality, nonpartisanship and fairness. And while Wisconsin legislators fell into public disrepute in the aftermath of the worst political scandal in the state in a century — the legislative caucus scandal of 2001-2002 — the reputation of state courts was enhanced by the way they adjudicated those trials and in their execution of equal justice under the law.

However, the landscape began to shift 14 years ago when outside special interest groups for the first time began to pour millions of dollars into the election of two state Supreme Court justices, one each in 2007 and in 2008. The expenditures made by conservative business organizations, principally the Wisconsin Club for Growth and Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, proved to be pivotal, particularly in 2008 when an incumbent justice was defeated in a nasty, vicious, scurrilous campaign in which a record amount of money was spent — more than $8 million. It marked only the second time in state history that an incumbent state Supreme Court justice was defeated.

Since then, big special interest money has been the norm in Wisconsin Supreme Court elections, culminating in the most expensive in history in 2020 when Dane County Circuit Court Judge Jill Karofsky defeated incumbent Supreme Court Justice Daniel Kelly and more than $10 million was spent – half of it by outside special interest groups.

And even more alarming, the “cancer” of big money special interest group spending is spreading to lower court elections. Earlier this year, hundreds of thousands of dollars of ideological, partisan, and out-of-state, conservative special interest money flowed into two Wisconsin Court of Appeals elections – one in northern Wisconsin and another near Milwaukee.

There had really been no recusal standard for justices or for other court judges receiving campaign contributions or benefiting from “independent” spending by outside interest groups prior to 2007 because campaign money was not a significant factor in judicial elections. Then things changed dramatically. In 2009, in reaction to the unprecedented amount of money spent in the 2007 and 2008 elections, the Wisconsin Supreme Court was petitioned to adopt a recusal rule that would force a justice to recuse her or himself from a case in which one of the parties in the case had donated $1,000 or more to a justice, either directly or to an outside special interest group spending in support of that justice’s campaign. It was rejected by a 4 to 3 vote.

The following year, in 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its controversial Citizens United v. F.E.C. decision, which effectively opened the way for corporations and other outside groups to make unlimited expenditures on behalf of candidates, including judges. Despite this, and shortly thereafter, the Wisconsin Supreme Court voted 4 to 3 to adopt, verbatim, a recusal rule written by Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce and the Wisconsin Realtors Association, which said that justices could choose whether to recuse themselves from a case but that receiving a campaign contribution of any size from one or more of the parties need not disqualify them from adjudicating the case. This was essentially, no recusal standard at all.

In 2011, the Wisconsin Legislature and Gov. Scott Walker repealed the Impartial Justice Law, which had been enacted in 2009 and had provided full public financing of elections of candidates for the Wisconsin Supreme Court who voluntarily agreed to limit their total spending to $400,000. In 2015, Walker and the Legislature repealed longstanding prohibitions on campaign coordination between candidates and “independent” outside interest groups, thereby effectively eviscerating contribution limits for all elections in Wisconsin and making judicial elections much more partisan.

The result of all these actions has been that much more money, most of it undisclosed and unregulated, is flowing into elections in Wisconsin, including into nonpartisan judicial elections at all levels. It was in this context and very different and new political environment that 54 retired jurists from all over Wisconsin, including two former state Supreme Court justices, petitioned the Wisconsin Supreme Court in 2017 to adopt strong and clear recusal rules for justices and judges at all levels with specific thresholds that would trigger mandatory recusal. Wisconsin was found to have the fourth weakest judicial recusal rules in the nation and these retired jurists sounded the alarm.

But a conservative majority of five justices voted against conducting any public hearings on the petition and similarly, in April of 2017, by the same 5 to 2 vote the Supreme Court rejected the petition of the retired jurists and kept the current policy of “self-recusal” in place.

In late 2017, Public Policy Polling of Raleigh, N.C., polled Wisconsinites on a number of issues, including two on judicial elections and recusal rules. The answers to the two questions showed that 83% of Wisconsinites strongly or somewhat support greater disclosure of campaign contributions and less spending in judicial elections, while only 10% strongly or somewhat oppose greater disclosure and money. Similarly, 82% of Wisconsinites strongly or somewhat favor the adoption of stronger recusal rules for judges while only 12% strongly or somewhat oppose them. Clearly, citizens in Wisconsin support stronger election campaign finance disclosure, less spending and stronger judicial recusal rules.

Currently, greater spending in judicial elections at all levels and weak recusal rules that compromise the integrity of judges and undermine citizen confidence in the courts have combined to tear down the once highly regarded impartiality and untainted reputation Wisconsin courts held nationally less than two decades ago. Can we reverse this calamitous slide downward and regain the trust of our citizenry?

The answer is yes. By adopting strong recusal rules, reinstituting public financing of elections, limiting campaign spending and enhancing disclosure we can reclaim our courts at all levels. It’s a tall order and big task but one we need to undertake in order to restore fairness and justice for all.

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Guest columnist Jay Heck
For the past 25 years, Jay Heck has been the Executive Director of Common Cause in Wisconsin. He is the chief spokesperson and leads the organization in all facets of its operation.

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Contact: 

Jay Heck

608/256-2686 (office)
608/512-9363 (cell)

Common Cause in Wisconsin
152 Johnson St, Suite 212
Madison, WI 53703
www.commoncausewisconsin.org

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State Rep. Mandy Wright to Address CC/WI Board in Capitol Today on Avalanche of Outside Spending in Her Recent Election Loss

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MEDIA ADVISORY
Thursday - November 20, 2014

State Representative Mandy Wright (D-Wausau) was narrowly elected to the Wisconsin Assembly in 2012. Her re-election contest in 2014 was decided by an even narrower margin – just 86 votes – in her loss to Republican challenger Dave Heaton. What was different from 2012 was the vast amount of outside money that poured into this election during the last month, most of it attacking Wright.

Today, Thursday, November 20th at 1:00 PM, Wright will address the Common Cause in Wisconsin State Governing Board in Senate Hearing Room 225 North-West of the Capitol to tell what happened.

Her presentation of 15 to 20 minutes will be followed by Q&A from CC/WI Board Members.

CC/WI members and the media are invited to attend.

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CONTACT:

Jay Heck
608/256-2686 (office)
608/512-9363 (cell)



Common Cause in Wisconsin
152 W. Johnson St., Suite 212
Madison, WI  53703
608/256-2686

Want Good Government?
Join Common Cause in Wisconsin!
www.CommonCauseWisconsin.org

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