Progressive Thinking

MADISON - You might have thought I was being a bit on the hysterical side last week when I wrote to you about the risk of Donald Trump imposing martial law. But there he was this week tweeting about postponing the election!

Fortunately, this move backfired, as he was met with near universal condemnation, including from Republican elected officials (even in Wisconsin!).

We at the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign signed on to a letter denouncing this reckless move, which you can read here.

Meanwhile, this week we kept doing what we do, day in and day out: Exposing money in Wisconsin politics.

Before I came to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, I didn’t even know what Legislative Campaign Committees are. But I soon found out: They’re the treasure chests that the Speaker, the Senate Majority Leader, and the two minority leaders have at their disposal for elections.

This year, these campaign committees raised record amounts, with the Republicans way ahead, as you’ll see here:

Legislative Fundraising Committees Raise Record Cash

In a related post, we discussed another record that was broken: fundraising by all the legislative candidates. Speaker Vos, for his personal campaign, led the way with $355,000 on hand. Add that to the $2,371,000 he controls as head of the Republican Assembly Campaign Committee, and you can see why he’s so powerful. You can find all the details here:

Legislative Donors Undaunted by Pandemic

And here’s some good news! The Marathon County Board this week passed a resolution in favor of independent, nonpartisan redistricting. That makes 52 counties out of the 72 in Wisconsin that have passed board resolutions to ban gerrymandering. Also this week, the Bayfield County Board voted to let the citizenry weigh in on this issue on November 3 with an advisory referendum. That makes 10 county referendums coming up: Adams, Bayfield, Brown, Crawford, Door, Dunn, Iowa, Jefferson, Kenosha, and Rusk.

Thanks to all the amazing grassroots activists who are making this happen!

I hope you have a nice weekend.

Best,

Matt Rothschild
Executive Director
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With Trump's placement of federal forces in Portland and his vow to send them to other cities, Matt Rothschild fears democracy may be lost.

MADISON - For many years, first while I was at The Progressive magazine and for the last five and a half years at the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, I’ve been worried about our little experiment in democracy in this country ending at the hands of an authoritarian.

Well, now we have an authoritarian as President, and with his placement of federal forces in Portland – and his vow to send them to other cities, including Milwaukee! – my fears are growing stronger by the day. I write about how Trump might overturn our cherished system here:

Trump’s Troops in Portland and the March to Martial Law

Focusing back on Wisconsin, we looked at the recent campaign finance filings and noticed that the Democratic Party of Wisconsin is way ahead in the money chase. If you’re a Democrat, you may be cheering this news. But I’m not because I think it’s obscene that anyone can give unlimited amounts of money to the political parties now. Until 2015, when the Republicans disastrously rewrote our campaign finance law, the ceiling on gifts to political parties was $10,000. Now there is no ceiling. The sky is the limit. And so out-of-state billionaires are throwing their money into Wisconsin to influence the outcome of political races here. Find out who they are by clicking here:

State Dems Raised 10X More Than Republicans in Recent Months

Ok, let’s end with some good news! The Public Service Commission, under pressure from the Sierra Club, Citizen Action, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, and other public interest advocates and activists like you, reversed course this week and decided not to let the utilities start cutting people off, which they were going to do as of tomorrow. Instead, the PSC extended the moratorium on shut-offs until at least Sept. 1.

Activism pays off!

Best,

Matt Rothschild
Executive Director
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MADISON - After the outrageous decision by the right wing majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court to lift “Safer at Home,” we noted that there still is another case before the Court on this same issue. And guess what? The lead plaintiff is a major GOP donor, and he maxxed out to Justice Rebecca Bradley, as we explain here:

Conservative Justice Got $20K Contribution from Individual in Second Stay-at-Home Suit

We were also so disgusted by Chief Justice Roggensack’s “regular people” comment about the meatpackers in Green Bay that we checked out her statement of economic interest to see “regular” she was. Here’s what we found:

Roggensack Has at Least $295K+ in Investments

By the way, if you want to see financial relationships and how wealthy some of our other state elected officials are, just click here:

Statements of Economic Interests

Our Data Analyst, David Julseth, just posted statements of economic interests filed with the Wisconsin Ethics Commission as of May 2020. These statements cover calendar year 2019. This is the only place that the public can view them without first submitting a request form to do so!

I hope you find these postings useful.

And I’d love to hear from you, so please email me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it if you’d like.

Best,

Matt Rothschild
Executive Director
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P.S. If you like the work we’re doing, please make a tax-deductible gift today to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. We’d really appreciate it. Just click here. Thanks!

MADISON, WI - Happy Earth Day!

Our staff put out a thorough report this week on how, during the Walker Administration, Wisconsin shirked its obligations to combat climate change and to protect the environment. Here’s our press release, with a link to the report:

Wisconsin GOP Leaders Added Fuel to Climate Change Fire, WDC Report Shows

And today, the Wisconsin Examiner printed my op-ed, which summarized the report, showed the progress that Gov. Evers has made on this issue, and briefly discussed the impact of the coronavirus on the environment:

An Earth Day Assessment of Wisconsin's Environmental Progress

Lastly, I wanted to share with you something I just wrote. It’s about the MacIver Institute, here in Wisconsin, ginning up the protests against the governor’s “Safer at Home” order. MacIver’s idolatry of the “free market” extends to flagrantly jeopardizing lives in Wisconsin, as I argue here:

The Lethal Idiocy of the MacIver Institute

I hope you share my outrage about this.

Best,

Matt Rothschild
Executive Director
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P.S. If you like what you're reading, please support us today with a tax-deductible donation. Just click here. Thanks!

Well known progressive commentator Matt Rothschild on this week's election.

MADISON - I’ve never been so mad in my life!

The insistence by Robin Vos and Scott Fitzgerald, aided by the rigged Wisconsin Supreme Court and the reactionary U.S. Supreme Court, to go forward with the election on April 7 in the midst of this pandemic was the most despicable thing I’ve ever witnessed in politics.

Here’s what I wrote about it:

Shame! Wisconsin GOP Scrapes Bottom of the Barrel

Now that I’ve told you how I really feel, please let me share another article we posted on the outside spending in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race:

Special Interest Group Spending at $4.4M in Supreme Court Race

And here’s the astonishing amount that Marsy’s Law in Wisconsin spent on the constitutional amendment about victim’s rights, which we opposed:

Group Behind Marsy’s Law Referendum Spent $3.3M+ On Media

As you’ve probably already heard, we had to cancel our 25th anniversary celebration that we were going to hold on April 29, which is a drag because we had some good panels and speakers lined up.

Our next Big Money Bulletin is due out soon after election results are announced next week. All members will be receiving a ballot to elect our board of directors. So please watch for that in the mail.

And if you like what we’ve been doing, please send us a tax-deductible gift by clicking here: https://www.wisdc.org/get-involved/donate.

Thanks for your support.

Best,

Matt Rothschild
Executive Director
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