A campaign finance reform bill died at the hands of its key author Thursday, as state Sen. Michael Ellis, R-Neenah, pulled the bill from the Senate agenda after it failed to garner support from Gov. Jim Doyle and the Republican leadership.
Doyle supported the original campaign finance reform bill but not the amended version, Doyle spokesperson Dan Leistikow said.
An amended version of the bill was presented Tuesday as a compromise to gain more support from the Republican majority. But according to Lieutenant Gov. Barbara Lawton the amendment was the \demise"" of the bill rather than a compromise.
The amendment would allow contributors to fund issue ads anonymously, ""laying out a red carpet to corporate contributors turned away by federal election law,"" Lawton said in an open letter.
However, Executive Director of Common Cause Wisconsin Jay Heck said it would have been worthwhile to bring the bill to the floor even just for the sake of discussion.
""There's no debate even on campaign finance reform during this entire session,"" he said. ""And that's a shame because this is an important issue and its one we haven't addressed since 1977.""
But Leistikow maintained the amended bill was unacceptable and created unfairly.
""Senator Ellis, the Republican leadership and special interest groups met behind closed doors, negotiated in private and came up with a bill that real campaign reformers just couldn't support,"" Leistikow said. ""A partisan bill written by one party and special interests behind closed doors is not reform.""
Heck said without the changes, the Republican majority would not have allowed the bill to reach the floor. But even though it was weak, it should not have been pulled.
""Many people said that 'it's not enough' and I agree it's not enough, but we thought it was at least a starting point,"" Heck said.
The state Senate and Assembly will be considering many special-interest bills during the winter session including a bill to help beer wholesalers, but they are neglecting many important issues like cleaning up state government and job creation, Heck said.
""And it's because we don't have finance reform,"" he added. ""This used to be the state of good government and clean government. It's now a cesspool of special interest money, expensive elections and compromised public policy.\
