WISPIRG Statement on Introduction of Wisconsin Citizens United Resolution

Media Contacts

WISPIRG

Good morning, my name is Bruce Speight, I am the Director of WISIPRG, the Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group.  WISPIRG is a statewide non-profit, non-partisan public interest advocacy organization that stands up to powerful special interests.

The first post-Citizens United major election in November 2012 confirmed our fears that the new campaign finance system allows well-heeled special interests and secret spenders to drown out the voices of ordinary citizens.  The people of Wisconsin deserve to have our say in whether this is the democracy we want. 

Do we want a democracy in which it took just 32 billionaires and corporations giving Super PACs an average of $9.9 million apiece, to match every single dollar given by small donors to Romney and Obama in the 2012 election cycle?

Do we want a democracy in which 32 donors were speaking with more than 115,000 times the volume of the 3.7 million small donors it took to match their giving?
Do we want a democracy in which 99 percent of outside spending on Wisconsin U.S. House and Senate races came from out of state, undermining the electoral influence of Wisconsin’s voters?

While the Supreme Court lauded the benefits of disclosure in the Citizens United decision, it ended up compromising the very transparency it extolled.  Nonprofit groups, which before 2010 were not allowed to directly spend on elections, spent big in 2012 while frequently hiding the identity of their donors.

Do we want a democracy in which, of the outside spending reported to the FEC, 31 percent was “secret spending,” coming from organizations that are not required to disclose the original sources of their funds?

Do we want a democracy in which 58 percent of all non-candidate, non-party television ads in the presidential race were paid for by these “dark money” groups?

Some elected leaders in this building may be okay with this democracy, others may not be.  But, the people of Wisconsin should have their say in the future of our democracy! 

The bottom line is that our current system provides plenty of opportunities for special interests to influence elections at the expense of everyday voters.

Political power in Wisconsin and in the country is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a wealthy (and shrinking) few which threatens our democracy and the promise of a government which should be of, by, and for the people.

Already, 16 states, from Montana to Colorado, have weighed in on money in politics and the Citizens United ruling.  Republicans, Democrats, and Independents have come together to say this is not the democracy they want.  And in Wisconsin over our history, Republicans and Democrats have come together to advance reforms when wealthy and corporate interests have threatened the principles which make our democracy strong. 

In just a few short months through a modest grassroots effort, over 30 grassroots organizations and over 20,000 Wisconsinites have called on our state leaders to let us have our say too, through a statewide advisory referendum.  We are asking state leaders to do nothing BUT let us have a say in the current state of our democracy, and to let the people decide whether this is the democracy we want in Wisconsin.