5/01/07: 'Issue Ad' Groups Living A Lie
'Issue Ad' Groups Living A Lie
Wisconsin State Journal :: OPINION :: A6
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
by MIKE MCCABE
For 101 years now, it has been illegal in Wisconsin for incorporated organizations and companies to make contributions or otherwise spend their general treasury funds for political purposes.
It was not until 1996 that special interest groups in Wisconsin started doing corporate-sponsored campaign advertising that escaped the reach of the law. In fact, it rendered the law functionally meaningless.
To do this type of advertising - so-called "issue advocacy" - and to pay for the ads with corporate treasury funds, the sponsoring interest groups have to lie. They have to claim that the advertising is not done for political purposes.
Judge for yourself.
One such "issue ad" last fall that was paid for by a Michigan-based front group called All Children Matter showed a picture of state purchasing officer Georgia Thompson and said "this Doyle aide is going to prison for rigging a state contract for a Doyle contributor ..." Ending with a photo of Governor Doyle, the ad's narrator says "the worst of scandals right under the governor's nose. Extremely disappointing."
The funny thing about the All Children Matter ads is that this group's stated purpose is "the enactment of meaningful reforms to ensure that all children have equal access to a quality education." The group's issue advocacy in Wisconsin had nothing to do with its issue.
More recently, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce spent more than $2 million on undisclosed "issue advocacy" in this spring's state Supreme Court race. A typical WMC ad said "Judge Annette Ziegler has earned the highest praise from 41 district attorneys and sheriffs and police unions. Why? Because Judge Ziegler is tough on crime, period. ... Judge Annette Ziegler is an experienced judge who's tough on crime."
Interest group-sponsored issue ads are a sham, a dishonest sleight of hand special interests engage in to evade disclosure requirements and legal limitations on campaign contributions. Under the false pretense of merely discussing issues, the ads unmistakably are intended to decide elections. The groups sponsoring them are living a lie. And weak-kneed state regulators and self-interested state lawmakers are letting them get away with it.
By continuing to bless this phony game, our elected state officials are embracing the repugnant notions that money is speech and secrecy is freedom.