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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Citizens United: 5 Years of Too Much Money in Politics?

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Wednesday, January 21, 2015   

MADISON, Wis. - Five years ago today the U.S. Supreme Court, in what's become known as the "Citizens United" decision, said in essence that money is speech and corporations are people. Since then, the money floodgates have opened, leaving Wisconsin and other states awash in campaign-contribution cash.

Citing the huge influx of cash to Governor Scott Walker's campaigns, Matt Rothschild, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, says the decision has changed politics.

"Politics has become the plaything of the multi-multi-multi-multi millionaires, including on the Democratic side," says Rothschild. "It shouldn't be that. It should be a game everyone can play equally, and that's why we've got to overturn Citizens United, it was a joke of a decision."

Peter Skopec, campaign director for the Wisconsin Public Interest Research Group, agrees.

"Our message is that in our democracy, the size of your wallet really shouldn't determine the volume of your voice," says Skopec. "On the fifth anniversary of Citizens United we want to show there really are solutions to the problem of money in politics out there, and it's time to put those into practice."

Skopec's group along with others like "Money Out, Voters In" have organized rallies today in Madison and other capital cities protesting the Citizens United decision and calling for it to be overturned.

Supporters of the decision say there should not be limits on how much people, corporations, or groups should be able to contribute to political campaigns, but Rothschild says the people of Wisconsin don't agree.

"We've had 54 villages, towns, cities, or counties on record opposing Citizens United, in favor of a constitutional amendment by overwhelming margins," he says.

Pointing to the vast sums of cash spent by out-state interests in the Wisconsin elections for governor, Supreme Court, and even state assembly seats, Skopec says voters need more information about where the cash is coming from, not less.

"We have to have a strong Government Accountability Board instead of taking it back to a partisan-appointed board the way that some of the legislators are proposing now," says Skopec. "There are steps that can be taken at every level of government to limit the role of money in politics and that's what the people of Wisconsin want."


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