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12/5/2005 Democrats Would Clean Up if They'd Clean Up the System By Jack E. Lohman So what's a voter to do? The Republicans are bad, but the Democrats haven't been any better not even when in power. Gov. Doyle isn't willing to address the real issues of concern. Sounds to me like walking papers. First and foremost, the voters want honest government, and with that alone we'd see many of our issues automatically fix themselves. Get private money out of our public electoral system, period! We want the special interests out and the taxpayers in, and the only way to achieve that is to install full public financing of campaigns, the same as they have in Arizona and Maine. Once their voters connected the dots, they overwhelmingly voted to pay $5 each for their electoral process. And it's working beautifully, much to the chagrin of the moneyed lobbyists. Admittedly, some Wisconsinites don't understand the true costs of our moneyed political system, but when they do, 90 percent are outraged. If politicians are to be beholden to their funders, we want those funders to be the taxpayers. For $5 per taxpayer per year we could fund the entire Wisconsin electoral system, and that would be a bargain at 10 times the price. Some people may not like paying for the elections directly, but figure it out: When the fat cats contribute to political campaigns, they add their costs to the price of their product, and we reimburse them at the cash register. So no matter how much politicians spend getting elected, the consumer is still paying the tab. There's no free lunch. But worse, the current system of paybacks in corporate welfare is costing each Wisconsin taxpayer an additional $1,200 per year (source www.wisdc.org), so we're paying far more than the politicians spend, in fact, by hundreds-fold. I'd prefer the $5 tax even if it didn't return a penny but brought us a clean government. That five Republican and Democratic legislators have been indicted, convicted or are serving time is not an indication that our current system works, only that the tip of the iceberg was impossible to conceal. What's beneath the tip should be of great concern to us all. As a businessman, if I had an employee taking money from vendors in return for company assets or favors, I'd fire him, perhaps even have him jailed. We call that bribery and payola in the private world. But what do we call that practice when those employees are elected state officials taking campaign money from companies or executives with business before the state? There's little difference. Importantly, under a clean political system these scandals would likely not have occurred; the state budget would not be horrendously unbalanced; there would not be a major state deficit; and local spending cuts would not have been necessary all because we had to satisfy the private interests who funded the elections. If the taxpayers were funding the elections, the results would be reversed. And it is now abundantly clear: The Democrats have been feeding from the same corporate troughs as the Republicans. If the Dems were smart they'd expose this for what it is a major taxpayer rip-off and perhaps they'd win back the state. If the Republicans were smart they'd beat them to the punch; they'd fix it on their watch and for years hence point to it as a Republican reform. The question now is: Who is smarter? Rep. Mark Pocan and a bipartisan group of politicians have moved forward with Assembly Bill 626. It's much like the Arizona system; it's voluntary and thus passes constitutional muster. Once a politician obtains sufficient signatures showing community support, a public grant is given that can be used only for campaigning, and he can't accept private funds after the primary. If a politician wants to shun the public system he can; then the voters can decide which candidate is truly going to represent the public. I offer this in the hopes that the Democratic Party better competes with my party. I am a lifelong Republican who voted for President Bush twice. But our state doesn't need more of the same; it needs honest political representation. It's time to change, and if this Legislature doesn't do it we may just see a well-deserved and major turnover in the next elections. -- Lohman is a retired business owner and now executive director of www.WiCleanElections.org. He volunteers for Wisconsin Democracy Campaign and can be reached at jlohman@execpc.com. |
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