A state Assembly lawmaker voted against a campaign finance reform bill she had earlier co-sponsored Thursday, indicating how unlikely a resolution of the issue is this session.
State Rep. Sheryl Albers, R-Reedsburg, chair of the Assembly Committee on Elections and Constitutional Law, voted against Assembly Bill 61, which would ban fundraising during the budget process.
Albers said it was defeated because lawmakers on the committee thought there were still many unresolved questions about the bill. She said evidence was not shown that proved the bill would fix the alleged problems of fundraising during the budget process, though the issue deserved future scrutiny.
She said there was also a lack of support for several amendments to the bill that might have allowed it to pass.
The bill's author, State Rep. Mark Gottlieb, R-Port Washington, said he was not told by committee members they wanted to amend the bill.
Gottlieb, who is also speaker pro tempore in the Republican-controlled Assembly, said the bill was needed to change the perception that lobbyists influence lawmakers when elected officials fundraise during the budget process.
Supporters of the bill had earlier tried to use a procedural motion to pull the bill from the committee and send it directly to a vote in the full Assembly, but the motion failed largely along party lines.
According to state Rep. Louis Molepske, D-Stevens Point, who voted in favor of AB 61 Thursday in the committee, polls show over 80 percent of the Wisconsin public support this type of bill.
Molespke said 28 other states have restrictions of fundraising during the budget process similar to the bill.
Mike McCabe, director of the watchdog group Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, said the lawmakers' reasons for voting against AB 61 were rationalizations"" and ""nonsense.""
He said the real reason the bill failed was because Assembly leadership told Albers to stop the bill.
He said leaders did this as the current system favors the powerful Republican donors Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce and Wisconsin Right to Life.
McCabe said the public perception that lobbyists have a lot of influence on lawmakers is true.
""Politicians can make all the lame excuses they want and express irritation about what they think is just a perception, but it is a very bitter reality to your average citizen,"" McCabe said.
The regular session of the state Assembly ends March 13, but a special session on campaign finance reform, called by Gov. Jim Doyle, is still technically in session for the rest of the year.
