Hypocrisy on Campaign Finances from The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The latest editorial from the Journal Sentinel takes the cake.

Gubernatorial challenger Mark Green's recent call for voluntary spending caps in the race strikes us as eminently self-serving, since Gov. Jim Doyle has more cash than Green has and could still have more come November.

They go on with the back hand.

The Republican congressman also said he wants each of the candidates to run clean campaigns, discourage outside interest groups from running attack ads and deduct from their campaigns the amount spent in such negative advertising.

These, too, are worthy proposals, though we agree with Common Cause in Wisconsin that asking outside interest groups to butt out completely is a better solution.

We agree also with Mike McCabe, who heads another campaign watchdog group, Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, that such spending-cap, clean-campaigning proposals are more impressive generally if they are unilaterally imposed by the people making such proposals on their own campaigns. Just a hunch, but we suspect that Green knew Doyle would reject his proposals.

And, still, the public would have been better served in this campaign had Doyle called Green's hand on this. In the meantime, if Green is serious about these limits, he can always just impose them on his own campaign.

Wow.

Here is what The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel used to say about limiting campaign spending:

If public confidence is to be fully restored, the Legislature must also approve the kind of broad campaign finance reform embodied in Assembly Bill 226, which creates a mechanism for public financing of campaigns. Wisconsin needs this to wean legislators from monied special interests.

It's all about those chapters to come. They can continue to be rife with rank partisanship and attempts to win at all costs, or they can be about a Legislature that puts public interests above members' or a party's job security.

It's gut-check time for the Legislature in the wake of the Jensen conviction. Legislators can wallow in the canard that Jensen was selectively and unjustly prosecuted - or they can demonstrate to the public that reform is more than an empty word in Madison.

Of course, to be fair, that was way back on March 14^th. Three weeks later and they need to address the concerns of their now smaller circulation.

So much for the gut-check on 4^th and State.