Since my retirement I have been spending a lot of my time working for campaign finance reform. How can I help average Joe and Sally citizen regain control of their government? How can we take back our state government from the control of big corporations? I continued to be dismayed at how few citizens, in spite of the recent legislature corruption, still have precious little time to contribute to this cause.
This morning I read how much time and money parents spent trying to protect their children from our popular culture which has now completely taken over our country. (See: ”Non-Drinking Fun For Grads” by Kate Schuman, Wisconsin State Journal 6/5/06). It soon became clear that a significant component of the parents’ planning strategy was to keep their older teens safely confined and strictly supervised within their public high school during a significant portion of their graduation-day celebration. As a former professional institutional youth worker, who knows something about program structure and programming, I was truly impressed with how creatively and thoroughly these parents were in helping the school plan their child’s graduation prom night.
This story made it abundantly clear how parents perceive some of the dangers lurking in their child’s environment ---a culture of alcohol, drugs, cars, young romance and their feelings of invincibility. You may rightly be thinking, “So what’s new?” What is new I think is their increasing feeling of powerlessness, fear and anxiety. Already ever and ever more extended both at home and at work, out of both love and fear, they give of themselves so unselfishly and lovingly. After giving and caring for so long and so deeply for 17 or 18 years, their child’s graduation day certainly is not the time to let down.
What I don’t understand is why more of our retirees, singles and parents, don’t allocate at least a little bit of up-stream time and effort toward working to protect their children and their grandchildren, to take back control of their communities from corporate exploitation and greed. Instead, as citizens and parents, we become more and more complicit and dependent upon the corporate backed and commercially-supported popular culture. Like in our State government, the corporations have literally moved all of what has now become “standard” staples and corporate commodities right into our school houses. This was so graphically seen Schuman’s story.
Her story illustrated, I think, just how desperate and co-dependent parents have become on our pop culture to help them seduce, manage and control their children. The story included the fact that the parents raised over $16,000 dollars to hold one medium size high school prom. While at the same time less that 8% of our citizens check off 1% of their income tax to pay for public campaign financing, which if fully implemented, would take our state legislature back and give it to the average tax paying citizen. In reading this story I had to wonder how much pop culture values and choices has now replaced old time and trusted child raising virtues of building in their child trust, self-discipline, responsibility, self-reliance and common sense.
The $10,000 dollar gift giving bonanza, including Target’s gift to every graduate, clearly illustrates just how much our popular culture is synonymous with our commercial culture and all of its trappings, i.e., “Deal or No Deal, case cubic, iPods, futons, play stations and DVD players. These were just some of the gifts that were given to the graduates. As one student graduate aptly put it, “With all these prizes you might as well spend a night at school.” If all the money raised and spent, the expensive gifts, the corporate sponsor, are not enough evidence to show how the corporations have now hooked both our youth and their parents I don’t know what is.
Certainly the ever-present, all powerful and impersonal corporate giants, like adopted step-parents, are beginning more and more to make our parents feel ever more fearful and co-dependent on corporate influence. This impotence and powerlessness can be stopped. The people can reclaim their legitimate influence both in their home and in the larger community by getting corporate power and influence out of our State Capitol and our schools NOW.
Monday, June 5, 2006
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Just More Hollow Words
In your lead editorial of May 8th, your editor’s chastised Mayor Dave Cieslewicz for not doing enough to bring the business community and the political progressives closer together, and I quote, “he needs more than just words to get the city’s feuding factions to reconcile.”
Paradoxically, the readers then are given only more words! We are again given the same old subjective clichés about the tension existing between our local government’s desire for greater social justice and the sacrosanct business community’s desire for less and less regulation.
Why is it, that in this erudite university community with all of our prestigious scientists, including economists and mathematicians, that our public conversations are almost totally absent of empirical substance which would allow an ever continuing and transformative dialogue to occur? Why can’t our dialogue be raised to the point where the reader is given some comparative indicators, some standards, and some parameters, measures that will inform and raise the level of our public discourse?
For example, in the Journal’s most recent editorial, “Replace city IZ law with a better plan” (5/22/06), I note the same use of right-wing innuendo fluff and pro-market value bias trying to substitute for otherwise hard empirical evidenced based on factual data. I quote, “…a social engineering experiment with obvious flaws. The city tried and it failed.” How so, and precisely, based on what objective indicators does the Journal base its conclusions? Journal readers should consider Doug Piper’s guest column on the adjoining page (“Evaluation part of plan to prevent obesity”) where he tells us how the people will really know whether a public program is working? We will only know when consensually agreed upon measures are put in place at the onset of the project’s initial implementation.
Perhaps we could begin by obtaining some simple but broad metrics and ratios regarding the economic health of the business community and the quality of life that most citizens of Madison expect. If indeed no such consensual measures now exist, it is high time we get to work and develop some.
Without such familiar and generally accepted measures, our public dialogue in Madison will continue to be hollow and random. And because almost all complex new projects, like IZ, require several years to produce the desired outcomes, numerous sequential benchmarks must be put in place. Only then can the public know whether a new joint initiative is really working.
For the Journal to come up with its own arbitrary and independent project evaluation measures , i.e. “number of unsubsidized buyers over a set time period,” after less than one full operational development year, is premature and has little credibility. The role of responsible journalism in this context is to be advocating that consensually negotiated program evaluation measures be put in place prior to the adoption of all public funded projects would be far more productive. This would replace the rhetorical and ideological infighting and allow for a more informative and constructive dialogue among all the special interests involved.
As a program evaluator for over thirty years I am convinced that without more consensually derived objective and quantitative measures, that are familiar and respected by both the business and political progressive communities, the goal of helping both sides see their common interests will continue to evade us.
Paradoxically, the readers then are given only more words! We are again given the same old subjective clichés about the tension existing between our local government’s desire for greater social justice and the sacrosanct business community’s desire for less and less regulation.
Why is it, that in this erudite university community with all of our prestigious scientists, including economists and mathematicians, that our public conversations are almost totally absent of empirical substance which would allow an ever continuing and transformative dialogue to occur? Why can’t our dialogue be raised to the point where the reader is given some comparative indicators, some standards, and some parameters, measures that will inform and raise the level of our public discourse?
For example, in the Journal’s most recent editorial, “Replace city IZ law with a better plan” (5/22/06), I note the same use of right-wing innuendo fluff and pro-market value bias trying to substitute for otherwise hard empirical evidenced based on factual data. I quote, “…a social engineering experiment with obvious flaws. The city tried and it failed.” How so, and precisely, based on what objective indicators does the Journal base its conclusions? Journal readers should consider Doug Piper’s guest column on the adjoining page (“Evaluation part of plan to prevent obesity”) where he tells us how the people will really know whether a public program is working? We will only know when consensually agreed upon measures are put in place at the onset of the project’s initial implementation.
Perhaps we could begin by obtaining some simple but broad metrics and ratios regarding the economic health of the business community and the quality of life that most citizens of Madison expect. If indeed no such consensual measures now exist, it is high time we get to work and develop some.
Without such familiar and generally accepted measures, our public dialogue in Madison will continue to be hollow and random. And because almost all complex new projects, like IZ, require several years to produce the desired outcomes, numerous sequential benchmarks must be put in place. Only then can the public know whether a new joint initiative is really working.
For the Journal to come up with its own arbitrary and independent project evaluation measures , i.e. “number of unsubsidized buyers over a set time period,” after less than one full operational development year, is premature and has little credibility. The role of responsible journalism in this context is to be advocating that consensually negotiated program evaluation measures be put in place prior to the adoption of all public funded projects would be far more productive. This would replace the rhetorical and ideological infighting and allow for a more informative and constructive dialogue among all the special interests involved.
As a program evaluator for over thirty years I am convinced that without more consensually derived objective and quantitative measures, that are familiar and respected by both the business and political progressive communities, the goal of helping both sides see their common interests will continue to evade us.
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Re: Input into MUM’s needs assessment, 2006 strategic planning process
Ms. Linda Ketcham
Executive Director
Madison Urban Ministry
2300 South Park Street, Ste. 5
Madison, WI 53713
Dear Ms. Ketcham:
I had the privilege of attending and participating in MUM’s annual meeting and the first phase of your strategic planning process. I too was extremely impressed with the commitment and clarity of the MUM membership regarding the agency’s core key strengths and customs. I felt our discussion captured the essence of MUM’s unique identity. You may recall that we briefly met following the meeting. It was a pleasure to meet you and wish you well on your new journey.
If you will allow me as a MUM member I would like to share with you and the MUM Board my deepest concern for our community. I pray that as you move further into this planning and discovery process you will ask whether your agency is now being called to respond to the ever increasing estrangement between our law makers and the people of Wisconsin ---especially the people with little or moderate means and influence.
Of course I am referring to the recent caucus scandals and the growing special interest influence now playing out in our legislative halls. More specifically I am referring to the fact:
1.) That citizen apathy has reached such a high level that now only less than 8% of our citizens earmark the mere one dollar voluntary contribution from their state income tax to help maintain the Wisconsin Election Campaign Fund (WECF). This fact represents a 66% drop from when the State adopted a comprehensive campaign finance reform law in 1977. This apathy has served to deplete this fund and signaled our legislators that as taxpayers we really don’t care where their campaign money comes from.
2.) Our legislators have not chosen to adjust the spending limits for conducting political campaigns since 1982 and thus allowing this money management mechanism to die a slow death and to open the door to special interests groups and ad issue funding. Less than a half dozen legislators now elect to use these dwindling public funds. This has opened the flood gates to a wide open special interest contribution bonanza.
3.) The insidious effects of issue ads sponsored by special interest groups beginning in 1996 has now removed almost completely the people’s capacity to any longer elect their representative without being outspend many, many times over by special interests groups that have a narrow self interest monetary (verses public welfare) motive. Issue ads, combined with unlimited campaign spending, have produced gigantic campaign race expenditures.
It is now not unusual for incumbents to hold a 14 to 1 cash advantage over their challengers. From my own research, I counted only 37 of our 95 assembly races where the citizens of this state will actually be given a choice of two or more candidates.
Sixty-one percent (61%) of these seats will be uncontested. In Senate seat races it’s even worse with sixty-eight percent (68%) are going uncontested. This compares to 1970 when there were no uncontested races for the legislature
The mad money chase that legislators now have to run means that most of the incumbent’s time is now given over to listening to and serving their dozen or more major special interest contributors. If you are not a corporate head or a lobbyist your chance of getting your legislator’s ear is increasingly difficult if not impossible. The fact now is they no longer have time to study your issues or to represent you or me in the legislature. This has done profound harm to our electoral process. Voters have been robbed of competitive races and of making meaningful choices at the ballot box.
4.) The breakdown of Wisconsin’s campaign finance system has now led to distortion of our public policymaking process as well. For example, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign (WDC), a public advocate and non-partisan watchdog organization, shows that lawmakers who crafted the most recent state budget included items worth $819 million in special tax breaks, pork barrel spending projects and other budget favors --- benefiting special interests groups. Get this! This was in exchange for their $3 million in campaign contributions to legislators while budget decisions were being made.
This special interest money is increasingly concentrated and centralized in the legislature’s leadership where one legislative leader reported special contributions totaling $560 thousand. This amount was then broken down into the following special interest categories for analysis: Health Professionals 12%, Construction 9%, Manufacturing and Distribution 9%, Health Services 8%, Tourism and Entertainment 8%, Road Construction 7%, Bank and Financing 6%, Law Firms and Lobbyists 6%, etc..
The recent prosecutions disclosed gross misuse of the public offices and resources by our lawmakers for electioneering purposes as well as widespread allegations that legislators are trading public policy for campaign donations.
With so much special interest money pouring into our “democratic process” it is now foolish and naive to believe and hope that this government institution will reform itself. After all, it’s the legislators who are the principal beneficiaries of this corrupt system. . Special interest groups have totally hijacked our representative democracy. Northing short of raising the awareness of all the people – you and I - and our neighbors, will cause this takeover of our liberty be undone.
As a father and grandfather I most humbly and respectfully, but urgently, ask MUM to closely consider by request for your interest and possible action on this grave issue that is looming over our State and Nation. This is a struggle and reform that will not be accomplished in a year or five years, but a reform that is so critical to our freedom that it must be begin NOW! There are few if any informed critics who believe that the recent prosecutions will have any significant effect on the “pay to play” mind set or culture that now pervades our Capitol.
If you begin to get close enough to it, as I have, you clearly sense a confident arrogance and disdain for the “common person” or citizen. It is a culture that is so well established now that to raise this issue to a moral level would, for most of the legislators, be considered a waste of time for any concerned citizen. The fact that our Supreme Court has used our First Amendment to define money as the same as “freedom of speech” only goes to show how insidious and all powerful this “pay to play” norm is now ensconced in our state and country. This brazen arrogance was best seen just this past month when your legislature refused to bring to the floor, Senate Bill 1, intended to establish an independent and bi-partisan commission to reform our existing ethics and election boards, and to oversee, and if necessary, investigate and prosecute wrong doing.
I ask for your deliberation of my concern because I know that MUM is committed to the poor and needy, to the abused and neglected, to the underemployed, prison reform, to families, and most of all, to the well being and solidarity of our community, state and nation.
I am truly convinced that working for campaign finance reform must become a permanent program staple on the program menu of every social agency, church and civic group. It can no longer be taken for granted. Our freedoms must constantly be won and re-won for our children and grandchildren. What is at stake is the very essence of our democratic freedoms. It must become a part of every group’s mission and armamentarium. It must be a “up stream” concern for all of us while we still continue to work in the social vineyards of the present.
MUM’s twenty-five year reputation as an interfaith beacon for people without a voice knows better than most what it means to be daily oppressed by feeling “powerless” and not heard. This is exactly the condition which now exist in our State Capitol. I truly believe that there is not one social problem or issue in this community that would not best be served if people like you and I could succeed in taking back our State Legislature.
I dream for the day when your grandchildren and mine can run for public office without mortgaging their homes; when our legislators take time to listen to the average citizen while the special interest lobbyist waits her/his turn. I dream for the day when a legislator is no longer beholden to any person or group except to his constituency. I dream for a time when a fraction of our tax dollars will be spent willingly and generously to publicly finance our elections in order to insure that the people’s basic needs will be addressed for the common good rather than for the benefit of special interests.
My vision and hope as a MUM member is that MUM will take some action to begin to address this deep concern. It may take the form of simply signing off on a referendum to demonstrate its support for this cause. It might take the form of conducting an educational forum geared toward raising your supporters’ awareness of this dire threat to our freedom. Perhaps the first step would be to hold study circles for MUM’s staff and Board by inviting in a local representative from Common Cause or the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign or have a few churches hold such study circles as well.
I now must end by apologizing for such a long letter. This is due in part to the complexity of this issue, and also to my lack of experience doing personal advocacy. I thank you in advance for giving me this time, as well as the time involved in bringing this issue to your staff and Board.
Sincerely yours,
William R. Benedict
Executive Director
Madison Urban Ministry
2300 South Park Street, Ste. 5
Madison, WI 53713
Dear Ms. Ketcham:
I had the privilege of attending and participating in MUM’s annual meeting and the first phase of your strategic planning process. I too was extremely impressed with the commitment and clarity of the MUM membership regarding the agency’s core key strengths and customs. I felt our discussion captured the essence of MUM’s unique identity. You may recall that we briefly met following the meeting. It was a pleasure to meet you and wish you well on your new journey.
If you will allow me as a MUM member I would like to share with you and the MUM Board my deepest concern for our community. I pray that as you move further into this planning and discovery process you will ask whether your agency is now being called to respond to the ever increasing estrangement between our law makers and the people of Wisconsin ---especially the people with little or moderate means and influence.
Of course I am referring to the recent caucus scandals and the growing special interest influence now playing out in our legislative halls. More specifically I am referring to the fact:
1.) That citizen apathy has reached such a high level that now only less than 8% of our citizens earmark the mere one dollar voluntary contribution from their state income tax to help maintain the Wisconsin Election Campaign Fund (WECF). This fact represents a 66% drop from when the State adopted a comprehensive campaign finance reform law in 1977. This apathy has served to deplete this fund and signaled our legislators that as taxpayers we really don’t care where their campaign money comes from.
2.) Our legislators have not chosen to adjust the spending limits for conducting political campaigns since 1982 and thus allowing this money management mechanism to die a slow death and to open the door to special interests groups and ad issue funding. Less than a half dozen legislators now elect to use these dwindling public funds. This has opened the flood gates to a wide open special interest contribution bonanza.
3.) The insidious effects of issue ads sponsored by special interest groups beginning in 1996 has now removed almost completely the people’s capacity to any longer elect their representative without being outspend many, many times over by special interests groups that have a narrow self interest monetary (verses public welfare) motive. Issue ads, combined with unlimited campaign spending, have produced gigantic campaign race expenditures.
It is now not unusual for incumbents to hold a 14 to 1 cash advantage over their challengers. From my own research, I counted only 37 of our 95 assembly races where the citizens of this state will actually be given a choice of two or more candidates.
Sixty-one percent (61%) of these seats will be uncontested. In Senate seat races it’s even worse with sixty-eight percent (68%) are going uncontested. This compares to 1970 when there were no uncontested races for the legislature
The mad money chase that legislators now have to run means that most of the incumbent’s time is now given over to listening to and serving their dozen or more major special interest contributors. If you are not a corporate head or a lobbyist your chance of getting your legislator’s ear is increasingly difficult if not impossible. The fact now is they no longer have time to study your issues or to represent you or me in the legislature. This has done profound harm to our electoral process. Voters have been robbed of competitive races and of making meaningful choices at the ballot box.
4.) The breakdown of Wisconsin’s campaign finance system has now led to distortion of our public policymaking process as well. For example, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign (WDC), a public advocate and non-partisan watchdog organization, shows that lawmakers who crafted the most recent state budget included items worth $819 million in special tax breaks, pork barrel spending projects and other budget favors --- benefiting special interests groups. Get this! This was in exchange for their $3 million in campaign contributions to legislators while budget decisions were being made.
This special interest money is increasingly concentrated and centralized in the legislature’s leadership where one legislative leader reported special contributions totaling $560 thousand. This amount was then broken down into the following special interest categories for analysis: Health Professionals 12%, Construction 9%, Manufacturing and Distribution 9%, Health Services 8%, Tourism and Entertainment 8%, Road Construction 7%, Bank and Financing 6%, Law Firms and Lobbyists 6%, etc..
The recent prosecutions disclosed gross misuse of the public offices and resources by our lawmakers for electioneering purposes as well as widespread allegations that legislators are trading public policy for campaign donations.
With so much special interest money pouring into our “democratic process” it is now foolish and naive to believe and hope that this government institution will reform itself. After all, it’s the legislators who are the principal beneficiaries of this corrupt system. . Special interest groups have totally hijacked our representative democracy. Northing short of raising the awareness of all the people – you and I - and our neighbors, will cause this takeover of our liberty be undone.
As a father and grandfather I most humbly and respectfully, but urgently, ask MUM to closely consider by request for your interest and possible action on this grave issue that is looming over our State and Nation. This is a struggle and reform that will not be accomplished in a year or five years, but a reform that is so critical to our freedom that it must be begin NOW! There are few if any informed critics who believe that the recent prosecutions will have any significant effect on the “pay to play” mind set or culture that now pervades our Capitol.
If you begin to get close enough to it, as I have, you clearly sense a confident arrogance and disdain for the “common person” or citizen. It is a culture that is so well established now that to raise this issue to a moral level would, for most of the legislators, be considered a waste of time for any concerned citizen. The fact that our Supreme Court has used our First Amendment to define money as the same as “freedom of speech” only goes to show how insidious and all powerful this “pay to play” norm is now ensconced in our state and country. This brazen arrogance was best seen just this past month when your legislature refused to bring to the floor, Senate Bill 1, intended to establish an independent and bi-partisan commission to reform our existing ethics and election boards, and to oversee, and if necessary, investigate and prosecute wrong doing.
I ask for your deliberation of my concern because I know that MUM is committed to the poor and needy, to the abused and neglected, to the underemployed, prison reform, to families, and most of all, to the well being and solidarity of our community, state and nation.
I am truly convinced that working for campaign finance reform must become a permanent program staple on the program menu of every social agency, church and civic group. It can no longer be taken for granted. Our freedoms must constantly be won and re-won for our children and grandchildren. What is at stake is the very essence of our democratic freedoms. It must become a part of every group’s mission and armamentarium. It must be a “up stream” concern for all of us while we still continue to work in the social vineyards of the present.
MUM’s twenty-five year reputation as an interfaith beacon for people without a voice knows better than most what it means to be daily oppressed by feeling “powerless” and not heard. This is exactly the condition which now exist in our State Capitol. I truly believe that there is not one social problem or issue in this community that would not best be served if people like you and I could succeed in taking back our State Legislature.
I dream for the day when your grandchildren and mine can run for public office without mortgaging their homes; when our legislators take time to listen to the average citizen while the special interest lobbyist waits her/his turn. I dream for the day when a legislator is no longer beholden to any person or group except to his constituency. I dream for a time when a fraction of our tax dollars will be spent willingly and generously to publicly finance our elections in order to insure that the people’s basic needs will be addressed for the common good rather than for the benefit of special interests.
My vision and hope as a MUM member is that MUM will take some action to begin to address this deep concern. It may take the form of simply signing off on a referendum to demonstrate its support for this cause. It might take the form of conducting an educational forum geared toward raising your supporters’ awareness of this dire threat to our freedom. Perhaps the first step would be to hold study circles for MUM’s staff and Board by inviting in a local representative from Common Cause or the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign or have a few churches hold such study circles as well.
I now must end by apologizing for such a long letter. This is due in part to the complexity of this issue, and also to my lack of experience doing personal advocacy. I thank you in advance for giving me this time, as well as the time involved in bringing this issue to your staff and Board.
Sincerely yours,
William R. Benedict
Why We Need Campaign Finance Reform
I had the privilege of attending and participating in MUM’s annual meeting and the first phase of your strategic planning process. I too was extremely impressed with the commitment and clarity of the MUM membership regarding the agency’s core key strengths and customs. I felt our discussion captured the essence of MUM’s unique identity. You may recall that we briefly met following the meeting. It was a pleasure to meet you and wish you well on your new journey.
If you will allow me as a MUM member I would like to share with you and the MUM Board my deepest concern for our community. I pray that as you move further into this planning and discovery process you will ask whether your agency is now being called to respond to the ever increasing estrangement between our law makers and the people of Wisconsin ---especially the people with little or moderate means and influence.
Of course I am referring to the recent caucus scandals and the growing special interest influence now playing out in our legislative halls. More specifically I am referring to the fact:
1.) That citizen apathy has reached such a high level that now only less than 8% of our citizens earmark the mere one dollar voluntary contribution from their state income tax to help maintain the Wisconsin Election Campaign Fund (WECF). This fact represents a 66% drop from when the State adopted a comprehensive campaign finance reform law in 1977. This apathy has served to deplete this fund and signaled our legislators that as taxpayers we really don’t care where their campaign money comes from.
2.) Our legislators have not chosen to adjust the spending limits for conducting political campaigns since 1982 and thus allowing this money management mechanism to die a slow death and to open the door to special interests groups and ad issue funding. Less than a half dozen legislators now elect to use these dwindling public funds. This has opened the flood gates to a wide open special interest contribution bonanza.
3.) The insidious effects of issue ads sponsored by special interest groups beginning in 1996 has now removed almost completely the people’s capacity to any longer elect their representative without being outspend many, many times over by special interests groups that have a narrow self interest monetary (verses public welfare) motive. Issue ads, combined with unlimited campaign spending, have produced gigantic campaign race expenditures.
It is now not unusual for incumbents to hold a 14 to 1 cash advantage over their challengers. From my own research, I counted only 37 of our 95 assembly races where the citizens of this state will actually be given a choice of two or more candidates.
Sixty-one percent (61%) of these seats will be uncontested. In Senate seat races it’s even worse with sixty-eight percent (68%) are going uncontested. This compares to 1970 when there were no uncontested races for the legislature
The mad money chase that legislators now have to run means that most of the incumbent’s time is now given over to listening to and serving their dozen or more major special interest contributors. If you are not a corporate head or a lobbyist your chance of getting your legislator’s ear is increasingly difficult if not impossible. The fact now is they no longer have time to study your issues or to represent you or me in the legislature. This has done profound harm to our electoral process. Voters have been robbed of competitive races and of making meaningful choices at the ballot box.
4.) The breakdown of Wisconsin’s campaign finance system has now led to distortion of our public policymaking process as well. For example, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign (WDC), a public advocate and non-partisan watchdog organization, shows that lawmakers who crafted the most recent state budget included items worth $819 million in special tax breaks, pork barrel spending projects and other budget favors --- benefiting special interests groups. Get this! This was in exchange for their $3 million in campaign contributions to legislators while budget decisions were being made.
This special interest money is increasingly concentrated and centralized in the legislature’s leadership where one legislative leader reported special contributions totaling $560 thousand. This amount was then broken down into the following special interest categories for analysis: Health Professionals 12%, Construction 9%, Manufacturing and Distribution 9%, Health Services 8%, Tourism and Entertainment 8%, Road Construction 7%, Bank and Financing 6%, Law Firms and Lobbyists 6%, etc..
The recent prosecutions disclosed gross misuse of the public offices and resources by our lawmakers for electioneering purposes as well as widespread allegations that legislators are trading public policy for campaign donations.
With so much special interest money pouring into our “democratic process” it is now foolish and naive to believe and hope that this government institution will reform itself. After all, it’s the legislators who are the principal beneficiaries of this corrupt system. . Special interest groups have totally hijacked our representative democracy. Northing short of raising the awareness of all the people – you and I - and our neighbors, will cause this takeover of our liberty be undone.
As a father and grandfather I most humbly and respectfully, but urgently, ask MUM to closely consider by request for your interest and possible action on this grave issue that is looming over our State and Nation. This is a struggle and reform that will not be accomplished in a year or five years, but a reform that is so critical to our freedom that it must be begin NOW!
There are few if any informed critics who believe that the recent prosecutions will have any significant effect on the “pay to play” mind set or culture that now pervades our Capitol.
If you begin to get close enough to it, as I have, you clearly sense a confident arrogance and disdain for the “common person” or citizen. It is a culture that is so well established now that to raise this issue to a moral level would, for most of the legislators, be considered a waste of time for any concerned citizen. The fact that our Supreme Court has used our First Amendment to define money as the same as “freedom of speech” only goes to show how insidious and all powerful this “pay to play” norm is now ensconced in our state and country. This brazen arrogance was best seen just this past month when your legislature refused to bring to the floor, Senate Bill 1, intended to establish an independent and bi-partisan commission to reform our existing ethics and election boards, and to oversee, and if necessary, investigate and prosecute wrong doing.
I ask for your deliberation of my concern because I know that MUM is committed to the poor and needy, to the abused and neglected, to the underemployed, prison reform, to families, and most of all, to the well being and solidarity of our community, state and nation.
I am truly convinced that working for campaign finance reform must become a permanent program staple on the program menu of every social agency, church and civic group. It can no longer be taken for granted. Our freedoms must constantly be won and re-won for our children and grandchildren. What is at stake is the very essence of our democratic freedoms. It must become a part of every group’s mission and armamentarium. It must be a “up stream” concern for all of us while we still continue to work in the social vineyards of the present.
MUM’s twenty-five year reputation as an interfaith beacon for people without a voice knows better than most what it means to be daily oppressed by feeling “powerless” and not heard. This is exactly the condition which now exist in our State Capitol. I truly believe that there is not one social problem or issue in this community that would not best be served if people like you and I could succeed in taking back our State Legislature.
I dream for the day when your grandchildren and mine can run for public office without mortgaging their homes; when our legislators take time to listen to the average citizen while the special interest lobbyist waits her/his turn. I dream for the day when a legislator is no longer beholden to any person or group except to his constituency. I dream for a time when a fraction of our tax dollars will be spent willingly and generously to publicly finance our elections in order to insure that the people’s basic needs will be addressed for the common good rather than for the benefit of special interests.
My vision and hope as a MUM member is that MUM will take some action to begin to address this deep concern. It may take the form of simply signing off on a referendum to demonstrate its support for this cause. It might take the form of conducting an educational forum geared toward raising your supporters’ awareness of this dire threat to our freedom. Perhaps the first step would be to hold study circles for MUM’s staff and Board by inviting in a local representative from Common Cause or the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign or have a few churches hold such study circles as well.
I now must end by apologizing for such a long letter. This is due in part to the complexity of this issue, and also to my lack of experience doing personal advocacy. I thank you in advance for giving me this time, as well as the time involved in bringing this issue to your staff and Board.
If you will allow me as a MUM member I would like to share with you and the MUM Board my deepest concern for our community. I pray that as you move further into this planning and discovery process you will ask whether your agency is now being called to respond to the ever increasing estrangement between our law makers and the people of Wisconsin ---especially the people with little or moderate means and influence.
Of course I am referring to the recent caucus scandals and the growing special interest influence now playing out in our legislative halls. More specifically I am referring to the fact:
1.) That citizen apathy has reached such a high level that now only less than 8% of our citizens earmark the mere one dollar voluntary contribution from their state income tax to help maintain the Wisconsin Election Campaign Fund (WECF). This fact represents a 66% drop from when the State adopted a comprehensive campaign finance reform law in 1977. This apathy has served to deplete this fund and signaled our legislators that as taxpayers we really don’t care where their campaign money comes from.
2.) Our legislators have not chosen to adjust the spending limits for conducting political campaigns since 1982 and thus allowing this money management mechanism to die a slow death and to open the door to special interests groups and ad issue funding. Less than a half dozen legislators now elect to use these dwindling public funds. This has opened the flood gates to a wide open special interest contribution bonanza.
3.) The insidious effects of issue ads sponsored by special interest groups beginning in 1996 has now removed almost completely the people’s capacity to any longer elect their representative without being outspend many, many times over by special interests groups that have a narrow self interest monetary (verses public welfare) motive. Issue ads, combined with unlimited campaign spending, have produced gigantic campaign race expenditures.
It is now not unusual for incumbents to hold a 14 to 1 cash advantage over their challengers. From my own research, I counted only 37 of our 95 assembly races where the citizens of this state will actually be given a choice of two or more candidates.
Sixty-one percent (61%) of these seats will be uncontested. In Senate seat races it’s even worse with sixty-eight percent (68%) are going uncontested. This compares to 1970 when there were no uncontested races for the legislature
The mad money chase that legislators now have to run means that most of the incumbent’s time is now given over to listening to and serving their dozen or more major special interest contributors. If you are not a corporate head or a lobbyist your chance of getting your legislator’s ear is increasingly difficult if not impossible. The fact now is they no longer have time to study your issues or to represent you or me in the legislature. This has done profound harm to our electoral process. Voters have been robbed of competitive races and of making meaningful choices at the ballot box.
4.) The breakdown of Wisconsin’s campaign finance system has now led to distortion of our public policymaking process as well. For example, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign (WDC), a public advocate and non-partisan watchdog organization, shows that lawmakers who crafted the most recent state budget included items worth $819 million in special tax breaks, pork barrel spending projects and other budget favors --- benefiting special interests groups. Get this! This was in exchange for their $3 million in campaign contributions to legislators while budget decisions were being made.
This special interest money is increasingly concentrated and centralized in the legislature’s leadership where one legislative leader reported special contributions totaling $560 thousand. This amount was then broken down into the following special interest categories for analysis: Health Professionals 12%, Construction 9%, Manufacturing and Distribution 9%, Health Services 8%, Tourism and Entertainment 8%, Road Construction 7%, Bank and Financing 6%, Law Firms and Lobbyists 6%, etc..
The recent prosecutions disclosed gross misuse of the public offices and resources by our lawmakers for electioneering purposes as well as widespread allegations that legislators are trading public policy for campaign donations.
With so much special interest money pouring into our “democratic process” it is now foolish and naive to believe and hope that this government institution will reform itself. After all, it’s the legislators who are the principal beneficiaries of this corrupt system. . Special interest groups have totally hijacked our representative democracy. Northing short of raising the awareness of all the people – you and I - and our neighbors, will cause this takeover of our liberty be undone.
As a father and grandfather I most humbly and respectfully, but urgently, ask MUM to closely consider by request for your interest and possible action on this grave issue that is looming over our State and Nation. This is a struggle and reform that will not be accomplished in a year or five years, but a reform that is so critical to our freedom that it must be begin NOW!
There are few if any informed critics who believe that the recent prosecutions will have any significant effect on the “pay to play” mind set or culture that now pervades our Capitol.
If you begin to get close enough to it, as I have, you clearly sense a confident arrogance and disdain for the “common person” or citizen. It is a culture that is so well established now that to raise this issue to a moral level would, for most of the legislators, be considered a waste of time for any concerned citizen. The fact that our Supreme Court has used our First Amendment to define money as the same as “freedom of speech” only goes to show how insidious and all powerful this “pay to play” norm is now ensconced in our state and country. This brazen arrogance was best seen just this past month when your legislature refused to bring to the floor, Senate Bill 1, intended to establish an independent and bi-partisan commission to reform our existing ethics and election boards, and to oversee, and if necessary, investigate and prosecute wrong doing.
I ask for your deliberation of my concern because I know that MUM is committed to the poor and needy, to the abused and neglected, to the underemployed, prison reform, to families, and most of all, to the well being and solidarity of our community, state and nation.
I am truly convinced that working for campaign finance reform must become a permanent program staple on the program menu of every social agency, church and civic group. It can no longer be taken for granted. Our freedoms must constantly be won and re-won for our children and grandchildren. What is at stake is the very essence of our democratic freedoms. It must become a part of every group’s mission and armamentarium. It must be a “up stream” concern for all of us while we still continue to work in the social vineyards of the present.
MUM’s twenty-five year reputation as an interfaith beacon for people without a voice knows better than most what it means to be daily oppressed by feeling “powerless” and not heard. This is exactly the condition which now exist in our State Capitol. I truly believe that there is not one social problem or issue in this community that would not best be served if people like you and I could succeed in taking back our State Legislature.
I dream for the day when your grandchildren and mine can run for public office without mortgaging their homes; when our legislators take time to listen to the average citizen while the special interest lobbyist waits her/his turn. I dream for the day when a legislator is no longer beholden to any person or group except to his constituency. I dream for a time when a fraction of our tax dollars will be spent willingly and generously to publicly finance our elections in order to insure that the people’s basic needs will be addressed for the common good rather than for the benefit of special interests.
My vision and hope as a MUM member is that MUM will take some action to begin to address this deep concern. It may take the form of simply signing off on a referendum to demonstrate its support for this cause. It might take the form of conducting an educational forum geared toward raising your supporters’ awareness of this dire threat to our freedom. Perhaps the first step would be to hold study circles for MUM’s staff and Board by inviting in a local representative from Common Cause or the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign or have a few churches hold such study circles as well.
I now must end by apologizing for such a long letter. This is due in part to the complexity of this issue, and also to my lack of experience doing personal advocacy. I thank you in advance for giving me this time, as well as the time involved in bringing this issue to your staff and Board.
Tuesday, March 28, 2006
A Prayer
Great Spirit,
We pray this evening for
Ever greater meaning and
Purpose in our lives.
Please great Spirit, give us
A purpose for Being.
We pray for the Will and courage
To commit to something
Larger than ourselves.
Great Spirit, we are ready
To risk, to serve and to commit
To the greater well being of our Universe.
As your prophet, Matthew Fox
Pleaded,
Let us Thunder for Social Justice together!
Amen
We pray this evening for
Ever greater meaning and
Purpose in our lives.
Please great Spirit, give us
A purpose for Being.
We pray for the Will and courage
To commit to something
Larger than ourselves.
Great Spirit, we are ready
To risk, to serve and to commit
To the greater well being of our Universe.
As your prophet, Matthew Fox
Pleaded,
Let us Thunder for Social Justice together!
Amen
Wednesday, March 8, 2006
I wish to speak regarding: Lincoln School land sale and lakeshore access issue
City of Madison Parks Commission Meeting
I emphatically and enthusiastically agree with the Madison Park Commission decision not to sell the half acre of city land beneath the Lincoln School apartments. I enthusiastically endorse the recent statement by the Commission’s chair which stated:
“We should not limit our options relating to land we own publicly or waver from our vision of greater access to city lakeshores, and adding open space in an increasingly dense urban area.”
When I first arrived in Dane County now almost 35 years ago, I was struck by two main impressions of the City of Madison. First, how richly blessed Madison was to lie in the midst of so many miles of beautiful lake shore land. Secondly, how sad and unjust, it seemed, that so many Madisonians had public access to so little of it.
My dream and vision for Madison is that when this city celebrates its bicentennial in 2056 its citizens can proudly boast that they reclaimed their natural right to greater public access to Madison’s lake shores. I know with out any doubt that if there was a referendum to this effect, the people of Madison would overwhelmingly support it. One way to help ensure that the citizens of Madison begin take back part of their shore line would be to measure the public’s existing shore line, and then publicly announce at our spring sesquicentennial celebration a goal to significantly increase public access to our lakes.
Martin Luther King, when talking about the need to change our values, said, “I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation (I would add here, ‘and as a city’) must rapidly begin the shift from a “thing-oriented” society to a “person-oriented” society. He then went on to say that when profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”
Let us support “the people’s revolution” and say no to the further diminishment of the people’s access to this beautiful and enticing lake shore. Let us begin, as a city, to say no to the further privatization and degradation of our planet earth.
If we succeed, then we can triumphantly acclaim “our radiant city of Madison on the lakes,” and mean it!
William R. Benedict
Resident of Madison/Eastside
I emphatically and enthusiastically agree with the Madison Park Commission decision not to sell the half acre of city land beneath the Lincoln School apartments. I enthusiastically endorse the recent statement by the Commission’s chair which stated:
“We should not limit our options relating to land we own publicly or waver from our vision of greater access to city lakeshores, and adding open space in an increasingly dense urban area.”
When I first arrived in Dane County now almost 35 years ago, I was struck by two main impressions of the City of Madison. First, how richly blessed Madison was to lie in the midst of so many miles of beautiful lake shore land. Secondly, how sad and unjust, it seemed, that so many Madisonians had public access to so little of it.
My dream and vision for Madison is that when this city celebrates its bicentennial in 2056 its citizens can proudly boast that they reclaimed their natural right to greater public access to Madison’s lake shores. I know with out any doubt that if there was a referendum to this effect, the people of Madison would overwhelmingly support it. One way to help ensure that the citizens of Madison begin take back part of their shore line would be to measure the public’s existing shore line, and then publicly announce at our spring sesquicentennial celebration a goal to significantly increase public access to our lakes.
Martin Luther King, when talking about the need to change our values, said, “I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation (I would add here, ‘and as a city’) must rapidly begin the shift from a “thing-oriented” society to a “person-oriented” society. He then went on to say that when profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”
Let us support “the people’s revolution” and say no to the further diminishment of the people’s access to this beautiful and enticing lake shore. Let us begin, as a city, to say no to the further privatization and degradation of our planet earth.
If we succeed, then we can triumphantly acclaim “our radiant city of Madison on the lakes,” and mean it!
William R. Benedict
Resident of Madison/Eastside
Wednesday, March 1, 2006
“Wake Up America” – Letter to the Editor
Did the Journal’s editorial department and the readers of the Journal not read about the First Amendment violation which Leonard Pitts Jr. reported on in his Monday column? Inasmuch as I have not read one printed word about this “homeland security incident in our local papers,” I have to say that I am dismayed and alarmed. Benjamin Franklin warned us that, “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
Leonard Pitts Jr., columnist for the Miami Herald, and regularly featured in the Journal’s Your Opinion page, reported a February 9th County Homeland Security incident in a Montgomery County Public Library. It seems that two Homeland Security officers in uniform entered the Little Falls branch of the county library and informed the patrons that it was forbidden to use the library’s computers to view Internet pornography.
It was later reported by the Gazette.Net, Maryland County Newspaper Online, Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2006, when confronted by the library staff and informed that they themselves were acting in violation of Montgomery County Public Library policy “the veteran officers continued to press their case.” Fortunately the library staff then called the police and the unwelcome intruders left.
The Gazette quoted County Councilman Michael J. Knapp, who heads the council’s Homeland Security Committee, “It was probably a good learning experience for everybody.” The Gazette also reported that Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan, after learning of the incident, as calling “the guards’ actions highly inappropriate, unauthorized and in violation of county policy.” The county has since reprimanded and reassigned the guards.
Mr. Pitts reminded his readers that this incident did not happen in China, Cuba or North Korea. It happened “right here in freedom’s land.” He went on to say that he was appalled that “an agent of the government literally read over a man’s shoulder, Big Brother like, and tried to prevent him form seeing what he had chosen to see.” Pitts then went on to fully express my own exact reactions to this incident. Mainly, the fact that we are at war doesn’t make this OK, nor the fact that the library material involved was unsavory doesn’t make it OK.
When I read Pitts’ story, a chill went down my back. I am flabbergasted that I have not read or heard another word about this incident. If this incident is not an early warning signal, a clear harbinger of what is to come, I don’t know what is. If the local press in liberal Madison ignores this incident and chooses to treat it as simply a pornography story, or because the “homeland security officers” were later duly reprimanded, I believe the American people are in deep, deep denial.
The question that we should all be asking right now is, What conditions now exist in our “land of the free,” that would allow such Gestapo-like behavior to happen? What was the current context in which this incident occurred? Time magazine recently reported, “The President’s secret directive to let the NSA snoop without warrants sets off a furor.” US citizens being detained without charges, counsel or recourse, and illegal eavesdropping now being accepted by the American people as OK now that we are at war…
What will it take before Americans wake up? Now we are only being watched by big brother as we use our libraries. Will we soon need government approval to use our libraries, or to take a trip or watch a movie? Wake up America!
Leonard Pitts Jr., columnist for the Miami Herald, and regularly featured in the Journal’s Your Opinion page, reported a February 9th County Homeland Security incident in a Montgomery County Public Library. It seems that two Homeland Security officers in uniform entered the Little Falls branch of the county library and informed the patrons that it was forbidden to use the library’s computers to view Internet pornography.
It was later reported by the Gazette.Net, Maryland County Newspaper Online, Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2006, when confronted by the library staff and informed that they themselves were acting in violation of Montgomery County Public Library policy “the veteran officers continued to press their case.” Fortunately the library staff then called the police and the unwelcome intruders left.
The Gazette quoted County Councilman Michael J. Knapp, who heads the council’s Homeland Security Committee, “It was probably a good learning experience for everybody.” The Gazette also reported that Montgomery County Executive Douglas M. Duncan, after learning of the incident, as calling “the guards’ actions highly inappropriate, unauthorized and in violation of county policy.” The county has since reprimanded and reassigned the guards.
Mr. Pitts reminded his readers that this incident did not happen in China, Cuba or North Korea. It happened “right here in freedom’s land.” He went on to say that he was appalled that “an agent of the government literally read over a man’s shoulder, Big Brother like, and tried to prevent him form seeing what he had chosen to see.” Pitts then went on to fully express my own exact reactions to this incident. Mainly, the fact that we are at war doesn’t make this OK, nor the fact that the library material involved was unsavory doesn’t make it OK.
When I read Pitts’ story, a chill went down my back. I am flabbergasted that I have not read or heard another word about this incident. If this incident is not an early warning signal, a clear harbinger of what is to come, I don’t know what is. If the local press in liberal Madison ignores this incident and chooses to treat it as simply a pornography story, or because the “homeland security officers” were later duly reprimanded, I believe the American people are in deep, deep denial.
The question that we should all be asking right now is, What conditions now exist in our “land of the free,” that would allow such Gestapo-like behavior to happen? What was the current context in which this incident occurred? Time magazine recently reported, “The President’s secret directive to let the NSA snoop without warrants sets off a furor.” US citizens being detained without charges, counsel or recourse, and illegal eavesdropping now being accepted by the American people as OK now that we are at war…
What will it take before Americans wake up? Now we are only being watched by big brother as we use our libraries. Will we soon need government approval to use our libraries, or to take a trip or watch a movie? Wake up America!
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