03/10/07 Let's Ensure Clean Elections, Not Wait Until Threat Is Dire

Let's Ensure Clean Elections, Not Wait Until Threat Is Dire

The Capital Times
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Mike McCabe

In a March 4 editorial, the Wisconsin State Journal went on record against local campaign finance reforms creating a system of voter-owned elections in Madison unless the City Council can "demonstrate a dire need." God help us if the community takes the State Journal's advice and waits for the kind of ethical crisis in local politics that we've witnessed in the nation's capital and right here at our own State Capitol.

Communities like Madison still have the chance to respond proactively to early warning signs about the health of democracy at the local level -- the creeping professionalization of local campaigning, a noticeable upswing in special interest meddling in city elections, and sharp increases in campaign spending that foretell of a coming campaign arms race in one of the last safe havens for the true citizen politician.

At the state and national levels, it's too late to be proactive. Those caught up in the money chase are already at a full gallop. Scandal has erupted in Washington, and a parade of congressmen and lobbyists -- Jack Abramoff, Tom DeLay, Duke Cunningham, to name just the most notorious of the offenders -- have been marched into courtrooms for practicing gutter politics.

Closer to home, we've had a half dozen of the most powerful politicians in Wisconsin -- three Democrats and three Republicans who were top legislative leaders -- convicted of stealing from the taxpayers and committing crimes against democracy. We've had a state purchasing officer convicted of bid rigging. And now a Kenosha casino developer who happens to be the governor's biggest campaign donor has been indicted by a federal grand jury on money laundering charges.

Pretty ugly stuff for the state formerly known far and wide as squeaky clean Wisconsin.

Over the last 25 years, I've watched a state government renowned for being clean, open and accountable slowly but surely descend into a political sewer. There wasn't a dire need for reform at the State Capitol 20 or 25 years ago. There sure is now.

But now we're in a position of having to try to stuff the genie back in the bottle. Elected officials at the state and national levels are now deeply invested in the corrupt money game that has taken root -- mostly because they've won elections playing by those rules and enjoy grotesque competitive advantages over any who wish to challenge them -- and not surprisingly will go to extreme lengths to block any reform.

Such obstacles to reform do not yet exist at the city level. As the State Journal's editorial noted, nearly half of City Council members expressed early support for the resolution putting the city on record in favor of clean, voter-owned elections and creating a citizen commission to work out the details of a city ordinance establishing such a system. All the more reason to act now. Because if we wait 10 or 15 years for a "dire need" for reform to become apparent, we'll find city officials about as eager to clean up the mess as your average member of Congress or state lawmaker. Mark my words.

Madison still has a chance to nip in the bud the kinds of problems that have grown to crisis proportions at the state and national levels. And we can do it for a cost to each taxpayer of something on the order of 50 cents a year. Some say there are more pressing needs, better ways to spend the taxpayers' money. No, protecting the integrity of the democratic process is the very best use of our money.

Like those credit card commercials have been saying for years, there's a cost to everything, but some things are priceless. Democracy is one of those things.

It also should be mentioned that Madison faces the prospect of having no minority representation on our City Council. The kind of clean election reforms that city officials are now considering already have a proven track record of delivering greater diversity of candidates in states like Arizona and Maine where these systems are up and running. Greater gender diversity. Greater racial and ethnic diversity. Greater socioeconomic and occupational diversity, too. That's a benefit of voter-owned elections that we can take advantage of right now.

Still, the primary reason for acting now is preventive. Government corruption is a cancer. Madison has a choice to make. We can opt for a proven political equivalent of the vaccine that has been developed for cervical cancer, or we can wait for symptoms of a raging malignancy and then resort to chemotherapy and radiation.

You know what any sensible doctor would recommend.

\ Mike McCabe is executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, a nonpartisan watchdog group that tracks the money in state politics, fights government corruption and works for campaign finance reform and other pro-democracy reforms. The group's Web site is www.wisdc.org.