WisPolitics Budget Blog

WI State Journal Opinion

Every staffer, every incumbent, and every campaign operative (some who have been appointed to the Elections Board) have known for 20+ years both the WSEB and the Ethics Board have existed as paper tigers with candy corn teeth.

There is no perfect solution and no righteous path to political Nirvana, but politicians need to be saved from themselves, and this is a step in the right direction;

Key to all of their criminal cases was an apparent lack of fear of being caught. None seemed to think the state Ethics or Elections boards would go after him -- and for good reason. Top lawmakers, after all, have long enjoyed significant control over these very agencies that, in theory, should police the politicians.

Senate Bill 1 would give the boards a burst of independence. It would combine them into more powerful and nonpartisan Government Accountability Board with an in-house investigator who could trigger civil and criminal cases.