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The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

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Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

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WI Legislators: Getting Lots Of Money From People Who Can’t Vote For Them

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Friday, June 20, 2014   

MADISON, Wis. - State legislators accepted two-thirds of their campaign donations from donors who could not vote for them, according to new research.

Mike Buelow, research director for the nonpartisan Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, said this sets up a situation of conflicting dependency, where people may not be getting what they should from their elected representative.

"There's a good possibility that legislators have a greater dependency on their cash constituents than they do on their voting constituents, if only one-third of the money in large individual contributions that they get is coming from voters in their district," he said.

This is true of both parties, Buelow said. Republicans accepted a larger total amount than Democrats because there are more of them in the Legislature, but Buelow said the percentages are nearly the same.

"It's almost exactly two-thirds to one-third" in both parties, he said. "I think the percentage came out to 64 percent of the money collected by Republicans and Democrats came from outside their district."

Legislative leadership in both parties got the lion's share of donations, according to Buelow, who said that's not surprising. Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, took in more than any other Republican. Buelow said that amounted to "$137,192 of his total take of $150,000; he got 91 percent of his large individual contributions from outside of his district."

The leading Democrat was Rep. Jon Richards of Milwaukee, who is running for attorney general this fall. Buelow said Richards took in "$61,958 in total large individual contributions, and he raised 69 percent of that cash from outside his district."

According to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, our government was designed to hold our representatives accountable to the constituents who can vote for them rather than to wealthy contributors who don't even live in their district and are not eligible to vote for them.


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