05/01/06 'emergency' Ethics Rally Set Tuesday

Supporters of a political ethics reform bill plan to make a last-ditch effort Tuesday to get it passed by the state Assembly.

The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign today called an "emergency session" of the People's Legislature in the Capitol to coincide with the already scheduled floor session for the state Assembly.

The People's Legislature is a grass-roots group seeking political reforms, including efforts to reduce the influence of special-interest money on state politics.

In an e-mail sent today, Democracy Campaign director Mike McCabe called for citizens to meet at the bust of Robert M. La Follette in the Capitol rotunda on Tuesday to help lobby lawmakers in support of Senate Bill 1.

The bill would create a new Government Accountability Board that would replace the existing state ethics and election boards.

Although the bill passed the Republican-controlled Senate earlier this year, it ran into trouble among Republican Assembly leaders, who fear it would create an agency with broad powers to investigate both state and local officials.

The Legislature is in the final week of its regularly scheduled two-year session. Assembly Republicans so far have refused to schedule the bill for a vote.

Three Assembly Democrats from Dane County said today they would attempt a procedural move to force a vote on the bill.

"We're not going to stand by and watch the GOP kill this bill without an open and honest debate," Rep. Joe Parisi, D-Madison, said in a statement.

The efforts at reform come after five top lawmakers in both parties have been convicted on criminal charges in the Capitol corruption scandal. So far, no major ethics or campaign finance reform bills have been passed since the scandal began to unfold in 2001.

Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager, whose office helped prosecute those cases, said the state's reputation for clean government has been tarnished in recent years, yet lawmakers "have chosen to focus on a few minor proposals amounting to nothing more than window dressing."

\ E-mail: dcallender@madison.com