Republican Party applauds them!!! What?! The Democrats on our City Council applauded by the Republicans?! I’ve been asked to explain and I can’t. What happened, this should have been a slam dunk. Is it because the Council knows better than Mike McCabe and the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign? Or, they hate the Mayor? Or, they love the Chamber of Commerce and the Madison Area Builders Association?
I posted about this in the recap, but I’m guessing some folks missed it. And people are asking me if someone on the council might move reconsideration or why certain people voted a certain way. I really don’t know what is in their heads, but you would think twice when David Blaska leaves the council meeting crowing about how they finally did the right thing.
WHAT HAPPENED – THE RECAP
TRANSPARENCY FOR CITY CONTRACTORS
The council voted against the mayor’s proposal mostly because “it didn’t go far enough”, which was bullshit. Other excuses for voting this way were that they thought we’d get sued, other cities haven’t done it, bad for buisness since it will have a chilling effect, the debacle in the 6th last year wouldn’t have been covered because they didn’t have a city contract (one wonders how they know that) and maybe a few others, not quite sure.Soglin spoke about all the restrictions by state law that prohibit us from regulating in some areas and that we can’t solve all the issues. He says that there is no constitutional right to give money to affect a political campaign (to candidate or (c)(4)) and remain anonymous. You can participate and write a check, but you don’t have the right to be a copperhead and act in secrecy. He says that they are required to make decisions on contracts in a way that is free from bias and independence from political views. He says this ordinance is about when the alders are running for re-election and their constituents and nothing else because they wandered all over the place. Their constituents have the right to know, if someone comes in with a shadowy group, whether or not they have a contract with the city and that is influencing the political debates. He says if he was running for office, if one of these groups had a contract interest with the city and they opposed or supported him, he would want to know and the citizens of the city have the right to know. He says this is a small crumb in a larger cake of financial shinanigans that have been going on since the beginning of American politics.
They also patted themselves on the back for a really great discussion and commented about how this was the most interesting thing they have discussed since the new council was elected.
MY EXPLANATION OF THE VOTES
But the alders (DEMOCRATS!!!!) who voted against and support Citizen’s United?! were:
Lauren Cnare (got over $2,000 from the Chamber, 25% of her money)
Steve King (did a bizarre freak out about how he can’t stand Terrence Wall and how that affects his decisions)
Larry Palm (Zach Brandon’s buddy and got a over $1000 from the Chamber, 15% of his funding)
Matt Phair (part of the group that opposes anything Soglin wants because he was a Cieslewicz supporter, 18% of his funding came from the Chamber)
Chris Schmidt (Soglin opposer and $150 from the Chamber while unopposed)
Paul Skidmore (Over $1000 from the Chamber)
John Stausser
Anita Weier
Shiva Bidar-Sielaff (unopposed and still got $400 from the Chamber or 34% of her money raise while unopposed and opposes all things Soglin)
Maurice Cheeks (got $200 from the Chamber although unopposed)
Mark Clear (opposes all things Soglin)
REPUBLICAN APPALUSE
They sent out a press release.
Republican Party of Dane County Applauds City Council
Tuesday evening the Madison City Council voted down Mayor Soglin’s plan to stifle free speech in Madison. While it’s unfathomable why the Mayor would introduce this at the same time we’re witnessing multiple assaults on our civil liberties from multiple Federal agencies, the Republican Party of Dane County still applauds the final vote from the City Council.Unfortunately, nine council members still voted in favor of this proposal and others, who voted against it, said it didn’t go far enough. In a community that prides itself on diversity, it is shocking that the vote is even this close. Furthermore, we agree that requiring the disclosure of political contributions in order to do business in the City of Madison would be a “witch hunt”, as one Alder stated, and urge those that supported this measure to reconsider should it come up again. A witch hunt is exactly what the Mayor’s plan would have become and it would have had a chilling effect on political speech in Madison.
The Republican Party of Dane County’s position has always been that our political process is stronger when we have more voices, not less. We will keep a close eye on this issue and will continue to oppose any measure that seeks to limit freedom of speech in Madison.
I can’t believe that transparency with our contractors, knowing who they may be supporting or opposing in elections through “dark money” or money given to groups that don’t need to disclose their donors is such a scarey thing. This wouldn’t cover the issue where those anonymous flyers went out against Marsha Rummel during the last election because everyone suspects it was Chuck Chvala, owner of Plan B property, that highly funded and motivated the smear campaign. Unfortunately, that was a alcohol license issue – but it very well could have covered someone contracting over a TIF deal (Edgewater??) or other contracts. What are they afraid of? Not strong enough? Make an amendment and make it stronger, don’t vote against it!
People didn’t bother showing up to support because they assumed that this was a no-brainer – it should have been. I think its time to face reality, this is a pro-business, moderate to conservative council that has its priorities way out of whack with the rest of Madison. Many take their marching orders from the business community and are more concerned about opposing the mayor than their principles. It sucks.
