Legislation providing for publicly funded campaigns for the Wisconsin state Supreme Court heads to the governor’s desk.
During Senate debate Thursday, State Senator Mike Ellis, a longtime advocate of campaign reform, announced he wasn’t happy with the bill, and would not be voting for it.
Ellis complained that the bill actually allows outside interests to spend more than the candidates, and does nothing to address so-called issue ads run by third parties. “This bill does not address the bogus, phony issue ads,” said Ellis.
“There are certainly things that he’s wanted to do with his own Ellis-Erpenbach campaign finance reform bill,” said Chippewa Falls Democrat Pat Kreitlow, chief Senate sponsor of the Impartial Justice Act. “I like a lot of elements in it, too, but we weren’t debating his bill.”
Governor Jim Doyle’s expected signature on the bill means that public financing will be available to candidates in the 2011 state Supreme Court election.