Getting dirty money out of politics

It is one of the top issues on the minds of voters, but something that political candidates rarely like to talk about. That is campaign finance reform, and keeping dark money out of our political races. Dark money is all the cash flowing into political campaigns from outside special interest groups which are allowed to keep their donors secret. The money typically funds those smear campaigns we see with tv ads, mailers and other forms of advertising. And that dark money is getting a lot darker in Wisconsin. It has been since a U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2010 in the Citizens United case. That case made corporations equal to people when it was ruled that making political donations is a form of free speech. Then the Wisconsin legislature passed a law allowing corporations to donate directly to political parties, overturning a ban that had been in place for more than 100 years. As a result, millions of dollars are flowing into political campaigns like the governor’s race, leading to even more of those nasty attack ads. Some are standing up to this dark money. A group called Wisconsin United to Amend is pushing a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United. More than 100 local governments in Wisconsin have pledged to support that legal fight. But the Wisconsin legislature won’t even hold a hearing on the issue, much less schedule a statewide referendum. But with those in charge of deciding the issue continuing to benefit from more and more dark money, it seems little is likely to change