"... this much is abundantly clear: Voters should get to know who is saying what to try to sway them before they head to the polls."

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Other view: Fat political donations shouldn't be secret
By Wisconsin State Journal, August 27, 2014

It shouldn’t be even remotely this difficult to find out who is pumping big money into Wisconsin politics.

The public just learned that a mining company gave $700,000 to a group helping key Republican politicians stay in power during Wisconsin’s historic recall elections of 2011 and 2012. The politicians subsequently made it easier for the company, Gogebic Taconite, to dig a giant mine in northern Wisconsin.

So how did the $700,000 disclosure occur, years after the donation was made?

It took an elaborate — and now halted — investigation by prosecutors using subpoena powers. It took media groups fighting in court to release records from the probe after it was stopped. It took the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals to post on the Internet — apparently by mistake, and only for a couple of hours Friday — documents with the $700,000 figure.

Needless to say, that’s not how public disclosure rules should work.

The legal arguments surrounding the “John Doe” investigation and court battle are complicated. Republicans say the lengthy probe into conservative groups is a witch hunt. Democrats insist it’s a legitimate search for possible crimes.

But this much is abundantly clear: Voters should get to know who is saying what to try to sway them before they head to the polls.

Voters might decide giant donations from special interest groups and individuals they agree with are just fine. Or maybe the source of all that money will alter their votes. In either case, consistent and broad transparency of electioneering is best. Wisconsin needs to shine a light on the huge sums of money being funneled into thinly veiled efforts to elect candidates on both sides of the partisan divide.

In this case, Gogebic Taconite gave $700,000 to the Wisconsin Club for Growth, which favors conservative candidates and spent millions of dollars an advertising during the recalls. Gov. Scott Walker was actively encouraging wealthy individuals to donate to Club for Growth, according to last week’s court documents.

Such coordination would seem, at the very least, to skirt the law. Yet a judge in Milwaukee agreed Walker and the Club for Growth haven’t done anything illegal. Prosecutors are challenging that decision.

Regardless of the outcome of that case, any system that hides the donors of millions of dollars poured into TV ads before elections does not serve the public interest. The public should get to know when the money came in, how much and from whom.

It’s not just Walker and the Republicans who are steering more money to “issue ad” groups such as the Club for Growth. The Democrats get help from their own sneaky supporters under names such as the Greater Wisconsin Committee.

Because such groups don’t explicitly tell the public to vote for or against a candidate in their ads, they dodge normal disclosure rules. That needs to change.

The U.S. Supreme Court has given its blessing to unlimited corporate and union spending on electioneering. But in the same breath, the high court has urged elected officials to require robust disclosure of donors — including for outside groups.

Congress and the Legislature still need to act. All of the secret money — not just Friday’s revelation — should be open to the public.
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