Feb 26, 2003
TRIBAL GAMING, BIG MONEY & REFORM
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Regardless of where you stand over the announcement yesterday by Governor Jim Doyle to expand gaming rights in Wisconsin to the Native-American
Tribes, (Common Cause In Wisconsin takes no position on such matters), there can be no doubt that big political money is intertwined in the decision.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel this morning reported that huge, six-figure soft money contributions flowed last October from several Wisconsin tribes
to the Democratic National Committee and that money then flowed from the DNC back into Wisconsin to boost the election chances of Doyle and perhaps other Democrats. In addition, the Forest County Potawatomi Tribe spent heavily last fall running phony issue ads in support of Doyle. How much they spent is unknown because a loophole in Wisconsin's campaign finance law allows campaign ads masquerading as issue advocacy to escape disclosure and regulation. But the media buy was heavy and CC/WI estimates that as much as $300,000 may have been spent by the Potawatomi for the pro-Doyle phony issue ads.

The lobbyist for the Potawatomi, Tom Krajewski, was quite open and blunt about the campaign cash: "Doyle understood that [the impact of the potential compacts], that's why Doyle got the contributions."

Meaningful campaign finance reform would do much to blunt the influence of much of this money. The federal McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform law--that took effect the day AFTER the November 5th election--bans the big soft money contributions to the national political parties such as those made by the Tribes, and it requires disclosure and restricts the source of the money used to run phony issue ads in federal elections. So the big
contributions to the national political parties are no longer. But, the phony issue ads run by the Potawatomi would still run in state elections unless Senate Bill 12--the bipartisan, comprehensive legislation developed by CC/WI under the leadership of Sen. Mike Ellis (R-Neenah) and Sen. Jon
Erpenbach (D-Middleton) is enacted.

SB 12 requires that any widely disseminated communication/ad run within 60 days of the general election (and 30 days prior to the primary election) be treated as campaign ads--subject to disclosure and source restrictions. With Senate Bill 12 in effect, the hundreds of thousands of dollars of
non-political action money spent in behalf of Doyle (as well as similar expenditures by Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce, the Wisconsin
Education Association Council and, in 2002, by the infamous "Independent Citizens for Democracy," the illegal enterprise allegedly set up by former
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Chvala to run hundreds of thousands of dollars of outside money to boost Senate Democratic candidates or attack Senate Republicans), would likely not be spent because the targets of these ads would be eligible to receive public funds to defend themselves. Therefore it would be idiotic for the outside groups to spend the kind of money they have been spending on both phony issue ads and on independent expenditures (disclosed outside spending with restrictions on where the money comes from to run them) because such spending would be offset by matching grants to candidates to counter it.

SB 12 would reduce the influence of big political money so that important public policy decisions such as tribal gaming would be decided on the merits
of the issue and not be infuenced (or even perceived to be influenced) by big special interest campaign cash. Therefore, regardless of their position
on the expansion of gaming in Wisconsin, support for comprehensive ought to be embraced by every member of the Legislature so that political money isn't a critical factor in deciding public policy as it obviously the case now.