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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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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Watchdog: Money Matters More Than People In WI

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Monday, June 21, 2010   

MADISON, Wis. - Most of the money Wisconsin legislators accept in campaign contributions comes from contributors who live outside their home district, according to new figures from the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.

Mike McCabe, director of the watchdog group, says the data seems to indicate money matters more than people in the state's legislative campaigns.

"Roughly two out of every three dollars in campaign contributions are coming from outside of the communities these people are elected to serve. That ought to trouble everyone."

McCabe says the findings show again that the voice of the average citizen doesn't seem to carry much weight at the capitol. The just-released report says 15 Wisconsin legislators got 100 percent of their large contributions from outside their district. McCabe advocates public financing of elections, to remove the pervasive influence of money on election rewsults.

At the end of the day, McCabe says, the one percent who are big donors are represented, and the rest of the people are left out.

"Legislators end up being more beholden to their cash constituents than to their voting constituents. They're more afraid of their donors than they are of the voters."

The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign figures show only a bit more than one-third of the campaign contributions of $100 or more to legislators came from people who could actually vote for them.

More information is available from the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, 608-255-4260 or www.wisdc.org.




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