- September 14, 2009 - Jason Stein, Wisconsin State Journal
State Treasurer blames deputy for hiring Dem loyalists
Good government advocate Jay Heck said he wasn't surprised by the Sass's claims. [sic]
"The Treasurer's Office is really sometimes a dumping ground for political appointments," said Heck, executive director of Common Cause in Wisconsin. - September 13, 2009 - John Nichols, The Capitol Times
Lawton helps open campaign reform debate
When Common Cause's governing board met in Madison last Thursday, the group was addressed by three key players in state government who could well usher in a reform moment... - September, 11, 2009 - Bob Hague, Wisconsin Radio Network
Listen to excerpts from the CC/Wisconsin State Governing Board Meeting in Madison on Thursday, September 10th and read:Lawmakers mull options to pay for Impartial Justice
. - September 4, 2009 - Stacy Forster and Patrick Marley, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Incumbents use map giveaways at taxpayer expense, critics say
Jay Heck, executive director of clean government watchdog Common Cause in Wisconsin, said there should be limits on how many maps lawmakers can distribute - especially with the state's current fiscal situation.
'If they're continuing to send out unlimited numbers of maps with their names on it to promote themselves, that's not real sacrifice," Heck said. "It's free self-promotion at taxpayer expense, and that's just really not a proper use of taxpayer dollars."
Friday, September 4, 2009
CC/WI In the News - September 2009
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Reform Event in Janesville on September 21st
Common Cause in Wisconsin
Public Forum - Janesville
“What Ever Happened to Good Government
in Wisconsin?"
***And How Can We Fix It?***
Monday, September 21, 2009
6:30–8:00PM
6:30–8:00PM
Educational Services Center – Janesville School District
527 South Franklin - Janesville, WI
** Free and Open to the Public -- Light Refreshments will be Served **
Please come join in the discussion and learn more about:
527 South Franklin - Janesville, WI
** Free and Open to the Public -- Light Refreshments will be Served **
Please come join in the discussion and learn more about:
- Campaign finance reform — and why it is needed
- How money corrupts our elections, public policy, and the state budget process
- How we can clean up our disgraceful state supreme court elections
- How reform measures stop corruption and return power to the citizens of Wisconsin
Panelists:
State Senator Judy Robson of Beloit
State Representative Kim Hixson of Whitewater
State Representative Chuck Benedict of Beloit
CC/WI State Governing Board Member Tim Cullen of Janesville
Executive Director Jay Heck of Common Cause in Wisconsin
Moderator: Stan Stricker – News Director/ WCLO Radio
Presented by: Common Cause in Wisconsin
(Underwritten by The Joyce Foundation)
Co-Sponsors: American Association of University Women - Janesville Branch, Wisconsin Nurses Association, and The Coalition of Wisconsin Aging Groups
For more information: call Sandra Miller at (608) 658-2109
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Rove's World
A Wisconsin Political Fix
not just another blog
August 30, 2009
By Bill KrausThe people in charge of what remains of the Republican Party insist that they realize that as long as the party’s agenda is dominated and characterized by social issues it will not win elections. The misguided wedge era is at an end. It is time to get back to the basics of frugality, competence, and regulation-lite. Or so they say.
Their entrepreneurial candidates have not all seen the light, however.
Scott Walker, who has the most money and a head start on the GOP nomination for governor, has sent out a mailing insisting that he is the MOST pro-life candidate.
Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen has decided that his re-election candidacy will be enhanced by not doing what he was elected to do and instead is flirting with being afflicted by the kind of homophobia that is being rejected in "radical" states like Iowa and by "left wing" Republicans like Ted Olson.
And no incumbent in Congress from our state has picked up where Tommy left off on trying to get a handle on the economy/job-killing cost of our employer-based health care system. To elaborate: At one time when he was serving as Secretary of the Health and Human Services in the Bush administration, Tommy proposed a crash program to computerize the health care records of everyone in the country in 18 months. Karl Rove, the illegitimate father of wedge politics, nixed the plan. The Republican’s willingness to fix high-cost-mediocre-results health care has gone downhill from there.
The free-market ideologues in our state Legislature do not hear the GOP state chairman when he tells them that the party is losing the campaign funding battle because too many Republicans are afraid to support the kind of modest public funding that would level the fiscal playing field. Stupid.
Until and unless the Republican Party rejects the partisanization of abortion rights, civil unions, and even gun control in urban areas, and gets back to frugal fixing of the public sector operations its main contribution to elective politics will be to enhance the candidacy of unpopular Democrats who will keep the Republican radicals at bay.
The thing that made Jim Doyle unbeatable was his veto pen not his programs or his personal charm.
So the only hope for the Republicans seems to be the Democrats’ likely hubris.
One of the truest truisms of politics is that we know how to handle defeat better than victory.
I would much prefer to see the Republicans base their campaign to regain power on a return to their traditional strengths instead of waiting for their opponents to go too far with theirs.
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Monday, August 24, 2009
The status quo and the people who love it
A Wisconsin Political Fix
not just another blog
August 24, 2009
By Bill KrausThirty one years ago Bill Safire of the NY Times wrote an Election Day column in which he said, “[The] wrong-headed rejection of political labels--the glorification of non-participation--is at the root of the rise of single-issue voting which bids fair to make this year’s election more of a battle between local extremist groups than a referendum on the nation’s case of hardening arteries.”
At the time, the forces of the status quo were re-directing the money, which was and still is the mother’s milk of politics, from the political parties to the proliferating and rapidly rising single-issue groups.
Without money the parties lost their power to recruit and slate candidates, and a diverse collection of entrepreneurial candidates picked up a party banner that most suited them and we entered the abominable era of wedge politics.
As we quickly learned, money that once went to the parties’ coffers began to flow disproportionately to protecting the status quo. This should have been expected inasmuch as those with money usually got it from the existing conditions and situation, which is the definition of "status quo."
Instead of representatives legislating for the benefit of the people they represent and the nation, state or districts from which they came, they became more and more beholden to the money and the issues and the interests and the causes that they believe got them there in the first place and whose money and votes they needed to stay in office.
Among the unfortunate events that beset our current president, the full flowering of the Safire prediction may be the most intractable.
It is on full display in the battle by the interests and their money to NOT change the way health care is delivered and paid for in this country.
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