Bussiere Lauds Ellis-Erpenbach Campaign Finance Effort, Looks for
Bill to Include Public Funding for Third Parties
Maine Green Independent Party
www.mainegreens.org
Bussiere for State Senate
www.votejill.org
November 1, 2006
Today Senators Ellis and Erpenbach offered a campaign finance reform bill
that would make information about the source of political ads more transparent, make it easier for the average person to run for office, and
help to reduce special interest money influence on elections.
"I am glad to see finance reform initiatives come forward," said Jill
Bussiere, Wisconsin Green Party candidate for state senate, district 1.
"Citizens are outraged by the cost, quantity and negativity of the campaign
ads this year. We need publicly funded elections, not elections funded by
special interests. The Ellis-Erpenbach bill is a good step in the right
direction."
Bussiere's top campaign priority is clean government and election reform.
In addition to advocating for public funding of campaigns, she advocates for
a multi-party system of government, and full inclusion of all parties in the
electoral process.
"Our current election rules all but exclude third parties from public
funding," said Bussiere. "In our race for Wisconsin State Senate, District
1, for example, both my opponents qualified for public funds but I did not,
even though none of the three of us had opponents from within our parties in
the April primary."
Wisconsin has a 6% rule to qualify for public funding - meaning that a
candidate must get at least 6% of the total vote in the primary in order to
receive public funds. Since voters tend to vote in primaries where there
are contested races, and nascent parties don't tend to have contested primaries, not many people choose to vote in third party primaries. This
gives an advantage to candidates of the larger and more well established
Democratic and Republican parties, regardless of whether they are opposed in
their primaries.
"The Ellis Erpenbach bill proposes that candidates who abide by spending
limits would be eligible for a grant from the Clean Election fund," said
Bussiere. "I will be looking to see if third party candidates receive equal
treatment in this bill, which would help to foster an inclusive and vibrant
multi-party system."
Bussiere advocates for the following reforms:
1) Create a nonpartisan body to insure that Wisconsin's
election and campaign laws are followed.
2) Enact legislation that requires full and prompt disclosure
of election related activities.
3) Implement public funding of campaigns, to level the playing
field for candidates, parties, and ideas.
4) Ensure access to our public airwaves for candidates
5) Implement Instant Runoff Voting for single person offices
such as governor lieutenant governor, etc. IRV eliminates the need for
runoff elections by allowing voters to rank their candidates in order of
preference. This way, people can vote for their best choices, rather than
the lesser of two evils.
6) Implement Proportional Representation for legislative
offices. Proportional Representation is an electoral system which ensures
that the percentage of seats political parties obtain in legislative bodies
tracks (at least roughly) the percentage of votes that they receive.
7) Ensure that all voting machines in Wisconsin have a paper
trail.
8) End partisan redistricting.