Thursday, December 21, 2017
After nearly a year of the most dishonest, destructive and incompetent President of the United States in history – and another year of the most anti-progressive, least ethical, most secretive and anti-democratic Governor and State Legislature in state history – the United States, Wisconsin and CC/WI all still stand!
That is no small achievement in the current political atmosphere and power alignment – both in Washington, D.C. and in Madison, WI. In Wisconsin, we have even advanced the cause of redistricting reform and judicial recusal, and have not lost any further ground in voting rights and campaign finance reform. Yet.
Here is a summary of our work in these areas this year:
Fighting Partisan Gerrymandering
CC/WI has been a leader in the statewide effort to enact a nonpartisan redistricting process for Wisconsin since 2013, when we united legislators, reform organizations and citizens in support of adopting Iowa’s nonpartisan redistricting process. We forced the Republican-controlled Assembly to finally hold a public hearing on the issue in 2016 and we have mobilized unanimous support from all the state’s daily newspaper editorial boards.
The Capital Times cartoonist, Mike Konopacki, recently created this cartoon with CC/WI as the subject.
This year, we took the leading role in forcing GOP legislative leaders to cap the amount of taxpayer money they will spend on defending Wisconsin’s unconstitutional 2011 legislative district maps and to disclose the law firms they hired, and we have been all over the state educating Wisconsinites about the pending case before the U.S. Supreme Court, Gill v. Whitford, which declared Wisconsin’s 2011 maps illegal, and which would, if the nation’s highest court upholds a federal court decision, dramatically curtail hyper-partisan gerrymandering, nationwide. New CC/WI State Chair, former State Senator Tim Cullen of Janesville, is a leader in the landmark court case. We have also gathered nearly 4,000 of our target goal of 5,000 signatures in support of redistricting reform legislation – Senate Bill 13/Assembly Bill 44 – which we hope to reach in early 2018. If you have not signed the petition yet, or have but know others who haven’t, please go here and do so!
For more on this issue:
Plain Talk: Full-time state legislators don't have time for us
December 6, 2017 - Dave Zweifel, The Capital Times
VIDEO: Gerrymandering in Wisconsin: The Issues Before the Supreme Court
November 28, 2017 - UW Oshkosh American Democracy Project
VIDEO: Interview with CC/WI Dir. Jay Heck on Gerrymandering & Voter ID in Wisconsin
December 4, 2017 - Senior Beat
Voting Rights
CC/WI continues to counter the suppressing effect of Wisconsin’s extreme and restrictive voter photo ID law (in full effect since 2016) by providing information to eligible citizens about what they need to be able to vote and what documentation they must have to obtain the requisite form of photo ID. We have been the leading resource for college and university students to find out if their student ID is acceptable at polling places and how to get the correct form of ID if it isn’t. CC/WI partners particularly closely with the League of Women Voters of Wisconsin to get more citizens the information they need to vote. This is critically important because the voter photo ID law caused Wisconsin to experience a large drop off in voter turnout in 2016 compared to 2012 and Donald Trump carried the state by just about 22,000 votes – in part because of this voter suppression.
For more on this issue:
Study: Black voter participation plummeted in 2016
November 7, 2017 - Bob Hague, Wisconsin Radio Network
Campaign Finance Reform
During the summer, CC/WI participated in a press conference in the Capitol to support a package of campaign finance reform measures, which we pointed out would merely restore to Wisconsin some of the laws we had in place 20 years ago and which have all been destroyed by Walker and the GOP-controlled legislature over the past seven years. Included in the package is a measure advanced by CC/WI that would once again prohibit campaign coordination between candidates and outside special interest groups running phony issue advocacy communications, and one that would require disclosure of the donors to all electioneering communications, not just those that explicitly state “vote for,” or “defeat.”
For more on this issue:
Wisconsin Democrats join good-government groups in push for campaign finance reform
June 8, 2017 - Louis Weisberg, Wisconsin Gazette
Wisconsin Democrats Propose Tougher Campaign Finance Laws
June 7, 2017 - Hope Kirwan, Wisconsin Public Radio
Judicial Recusal
In late July, CC/Wisconsin single-handedly reignited the important issue of recusal for judges in the receipt of campaign contributions or benefiting from special interest “outside” electioneering spending, with the recent opinion-editorial in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Wisconsin’s largest newspaper.
The conservative majority (5 of 7) on the Wisconsin Supreme Court last April voted 5 to 2 not to adopt sensible recusal rules for judges at all levels proposed last January by 54 retired state jurists, including two former Supreme Court justices. The majority would not even allow a public hearing on the matter. Wisconsin currently ranks 47th of the 50 states in the strength of its recusal procedures. But the issue is front and center in the upcoming Wisconsin Supreme Court election in April, 2018 to replace retiring ultra-conservative justice Michael Gableman, the state “poster child” for the need for judicial recusal.
CC/WI organized well-attended public hearings and forums on the issue during October in Milwaukee, Green Bay and Madison, and former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justices (Janine Geske and Louis Butler), current Supreme Court Justice Ann Walsh Bradley, and other prominent jurists participated. CC/WI must and will continue this critical work in early 2018.
For more on this issue:
Judicial Recusal
October 31, 2017 - Greg Stensland, "Between The Lines," Radio Plus - WFDL, Fond du Lac
VIDEO: Common Cause Wisconsin Town Hall Meeting on Judicial Recusal
October 24, 2017 - WisconsinEye
CC/WI has continued to call out Gov. Scott Walker and the anti-reform, reactionary Wisconsin Legislature on other issues as well and we will never give up pushing for the common sense, effective political reform measures that once made this state a model for the nation.
We will continue to educate Wisconsinites about, and mobilize citizen support for, these reforms until we prevail. We need your end-of-the-year support, as soon and as generous as possible, so that we can carry the fight into 2018 – a critical election year in Wisconsin with a pivotal State Supreme Court contest in April and Gubernatorial, State Legislative, and U.S. Senate and House elections. Please help us now so that we can continue our mutual quest to increase the number of Wisconsinites advocating for change and the achievement of genuine, progressive reform.
"Snail mail" your check or credit card payment (Visa, MC, American Express, Discover) to Common Cause in Wisconsin, P.O. Box 2597, Madison, WI 53701-2597, or you can make a contribution online to CC/WI here.
With best wishes for the Holiday Season and for a happy, healthy and peaceful New Year.
Sincerely,
Jay Heck – CC/WI Director
P.S. For the past two decades, CC/WI has been one of Wisconsin’s most respected political reform advocacy organizations. One reason may be our doggedness and persistence. Please read this newspaper editorial from earlier this year that details how CC/WI just won’t give up. Neither can you. Wisconsin’s state motto is “Forward!” Let’s go that way. Help us now!
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
Read More...
Intro only...
For Release: Tuesday - November 21, 2017
Legislative Leaders Continue to Ignore Public Outcry for Public Hearings
on Fair Voter Maps Legislation
Wisconsin Assemby Speaker
Robin Vos and Senate Majority Leader
Scott Fitzgerald have said recently that the Republican-controlled Legislature is by and large finished with its legislative agenda for the 2017-2018 session. They are expected to adjourn in early to mid-Spring for the year to "concentrate" on stockpiling special interest campaign cash for their re-election campaigns, while continuing to draw full-time salary and benefits. Great gig, if you can get it.
Keep in mind, Wisconsin is by far the smallest state in the nation, population-wise, that has a "full-time" Legislature. For what?
Now, it's possible the Legislature may move to do a few more things during the first three months of 2018. Perhaps they will decide to exempt toddlers who have concealed carry permits from the 21-year-old legal drinking age in Wisconsin. Or, perhaps they will act to outlaw gatherings of two or more Wisconsinites who talk about the rotten state of political discourse as potentially "riotous" behavior. Or, officially change the name of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to "Do Not Resuscitate," thus saving taxpayers nearly $43 because the agency can continue to use its DNR stationery. But we don't need environmental regulations in this state any more!
Having too much time on their hands is a problem for this Legislature.
But there is at least one more thing they really ought to do before they close up shop to beg for campaign cash in 2018.
Fitzgerald and Vos must allow public hearings to be scheduled and conducted on redistricting reform legislation before the Legislature adjourns sine dine in 2018.
That legislation is Senate Bill 13 and Assembly Bill 44 – the exact same legislation that has been introduced for the past four legislative sessions. GOP legislative leaders didn't allow public hearings during 2011-12 or 2013-14. Vos finally did do it in 2015-16, on April 1, 2016 – after the legislative session officially adjourned and only because Common Cause in Wisconsin and The Wisconsin State Journal teamed up to embarrass Assembly Campaign and Elections Committee Chair, State Rep. Kathleen Bernier (R-Lake Halle), into holding one.
But during 2017, when the unconstitutional Wisconsin 2011 gerrymandering lawsuit is currently before the U.S. Supreme Court, and public interest in this critical issue is extremely high, there has been nothing but "crickets" from Fitzgerald and Vos. In fact, Vos recently went out of his way to criticize Republican Governor John Kasich of Ohio for having the audacity to support fair election maps and oppose hyper-partisan gerrymandering. How dare that Kasich side with citizens over political bosses!
Clearly, Robin Vos, Scott Fitzgerald and your state legislators need to hear from you, the citizens of Wisconsin about your support for Senate Bill 13 and Assembly Bill 44 again, and your demand that they schedule a public hearing on the legislation immediately. Public hearing(s) before Christmas would be good...
And, if you haven't done this yet, please sign our online petition in support of the redistricting reform legislation. If you have already signed it, please urge family and friends to do so at your upcoming Thanksgiving gathering! Ending hyper-partisan gerrymandering is a subject everyone can agree on around the holiday table! :-) We have nearly 4,000 individual signees so far and would like to boost that total up to 5,000 by year's end.
Thanks so much for your active support for democracy in Wisconsin, and Happy Thanksgiving to you from all of us at CC/WI!
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
Read More...
Intro only...
For Release: Monday - November 6, 2017
Completely Unnecessary and Unwanted Measure to Amend the U.S. Constitution
in a Dangerous Way Will Come Up for a Vote
Despite many other pressing state issues of great concern to Wisconsin citizens, Republicans in the State Senate have carved out time on Tuesday, November 7th, to vote on a measure no one is calling for except for the
American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) and some other wealthy special interest groups that bankroll the state GOP – such as
Wisconsin Club for Growth and
Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce.
A measure to make Wisconsin the 28th state (of 34 needed) to call for an Article V Constitutional Convention –
AJR 21 – a misguided measure written for the stated purpose of adding a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution, but which would take us well beyond even that draconian, disastrous outcome was added to the State Senate calendar late on Friday, without advance warning. And no wonder. No real Wisconsin citizens are clamoring for this.
A convention like this has never been called and assembled before in our nation's history (since the first and only Constitutional Convention establishing the nation in 1787) and it could be a very destructive and dangerous event. A convention of this type could go well beyond a balanced budget measure and go on to alter or eliminate citizen rights currently protected by the Constitution. Voting rights, civil rights, women's rights, an end to democracy and freedom itself. The possibilities are endless.
The measure passed in the Assembly in June. Seven Assembly Republicans joined all the Assembly Democrats in voting against the call for a "ConCon," which is a good nickname for this abomination. Public opposition played a big role in their votes against it. Prospects for passage in the Republican-controlled State Senate had appeared much less certain at that time. GOP Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) had expressed grave reservations about the matter, as had other State Senate Republicans. But Fitzgerald, without explanation, appears to have "changed his mind" and caved into special interest pressure.
It is vitally important that you contact your State Senator today, Monday, and demand that he or she vote against AJR 21. It is our understanding that all Democratic State Senators currently oppose AJR 21. But your call to them is still important, so please do not hesitate to contact them if they represent you. If you are not sure who your State Senator is, check here.
The following Republican State Senators are particularly important to contact as they are not co-sponsors of the ConCon resolution and/or some, including Fitzgerald, have expressed doubts about it in the past:
Robert Cowles - State Senate District 2
Dan Feyen - State Senate District 18
Scott Fitzgerald - State Senate District 13
Devin LeMahieu - State Senate District 9
Terry Moulton - State Senate District 23
Luther Olsen - State Senate District 14
Jerry Petrowski - State Senate District 29
Roger Roth - State Senate District 19
Van Wangaard - State Senate District 21
If the measure passes in the State Senate, we lose. It does not need Gov. Scott Walker's approval, although not surprisingly, he strongly supports it.
Here is some background information about the measure: Jay Heck appeared on statewide Wisconsin Public Television's Here and Now program in June, in opposition to the Article V Constitutional Convention measures. He was also a guest on Wisconsin Public Radio's Joy Cardin program on the same subject, which you can listen to here. For more on this, go here, here, and here.
Please act today! A few calls and messages to some of these "reluctant" Republican State Senators could help persuade them to do the right thing and vote against AJR 21!
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
Read More...
Intro only...
With best wishes for the Holiday Season and for a happy, healthy and peaceful New Year. 
