After a year of expensive elections, several state legislators are pushing a campaign finance reform in the Wisconsin Legislature that would fund state election campaigns completely by the public.
The reform, known as the Clean Elections Fund, would give politicians the option of running as a ""clean"" candidate, meaning they would receive a spending limit and funds for their campaign from the state.
In order to qualify as a clean candidate, a politician must receive a certain number of $5 donations, whereas before all candidates needed were a certain number of signatures, according to a press release.
The reform also provides security to clean candidates. For every dollar an unclean candidate or outside group spends against a clean candidate, the clean candidate will receive a dollar match up to 2.5 times the limit for campaign spending.
""This is a strong disincentive for outside interest groups to do spending against candidates because, essentially, they're funding the clean candidate,"" said state Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Madison.
Several Republican legislators in Wisconsin do not believe taxpayers should be responsible for financing state campaigns.
""I think it's fair to say that there will be quite a few Republicans here in the capitol that have problems with the idea of forcing the taxpayers to fund 100 percent of the cost of election campaigns,"" said Mike Prentiss, spokesperson for state Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau.
Those opposed to the CEF say it is not fair for conservative voters to have to fund liberal campaigns, and vice versa.
Supporters of the campaign election reform say it will ultimately end up saving taxpayers large amounts of money.
""Taxpayers are already financing campaigns indirectly, because campaign donors are being rewarded with tax breaks,"" said Mike McCabe, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. According to McCabe, these tax breaks for special interest groups end up costing taxpayers eight or nine times more than a system of voter funded elections.
Legislators in support of the reform believe the CEF would also encourage more candidates to run for office. Because candidates can only put $100 into their own campaigns, people who are not wealthy will not be deterred from entering the races.
The introduction of the Clean Elections Fund came less than a year after the most expensive state Supreme Court justice race, governor race and attorney general race in Wisconsin's history.
