Wisconsin Greens and Libertarians welcome Pocan-Risser Clean Elections Bill
as a vast improvement
Wisconsin Green Party
www.wisconsingreenparty.org
April 18, 2007
Contacts:
Linda "Liberty" Sturtzen, Chair, Libertarian Party of Wisconsin, chair@lpwi.org,
262-271-3777
Jacob Burns, Libertarian member of Wisconsin State Elections Board, burns.jacob@yahoo.com,
(920) 216-9204
Ruth Weill Co-Chair, Wisconsin Green Party, spokesperson@wisconsingreenparty.org
414-350-2107
Ron Hardy, Co-chair, Wisconsin Green Party, spokesperson@wisconsingreenparty.org 920-292-8129
Wisconsin Greens and Libertarians welcome Pocan-Risser Clean Elections Bill
as a vast improvement
Both parties concerned about bill's treatment of candidates from non-recognized parties and independents.
WISCONSIN
-- Although Greens and Libertarians have very different views on publicly
funded elections, the Wisconsin Green Party and the Libertarian Party of
Wisconsin agree that the Pocan-Risser Clean Elections Bill is a significant
improvement over the existing Wisconsin public funding legislation.
"Greens are strong supporters of public funding of campaigns," said Ruth
Weill, Co-chair of the Wisconsin Green Party. "In our current system,
elections are often heavily influenced by wealthy special interests. Publicly funded elections put the
public's interests in the forefront."
"Libertarians are not in favor of publicly funded elections," said Jim Maas,
Secretary of the Libertarian Party of Wisconsin. "We feel it is wrong for
the government to take our money, and then use it to support candidates that
we do not support. We believe that individuals should be free to use their
money to express their political preferences. But if there is going to be
public funding, it should be fair to all candidates."
The existing public funding legislation virtually excludes Libertarians,
Greens, and all other third parties from receiving public funding in regular
elections, since it requires that candidates in regular elections receive 6%
of the primary vote in order to qualify - an extremely difficult requirement
that has never been met by either party. Candidates from both parties have
qualified for public funding in special elections, where the regulations are
less arduous.
"The current law definitely discriminates against third parties," said Linda
"Liberty" Sturtzen, Chair of the Libertarian Party of Wisconsin. "This bill
is definitely an improvement over the last one in its treatment of recognized third parties."
"This fall in the 1st Senate District, a Republican, a Green, and a Democrat
were competing for office," said Ron Hardy, Co-chair of the Wisconsin Green
Party. "None had opponents in the primary, and yet only the Democratic and
Republican candidates qualified to receive public funding, because there
were other hotly contested races in their parties that drew voters to their
primaries. Representative Pocan was responsive to our concerns, and changed
the bill to eliminate the exclusionary requirements for recognized parties.
We commend his willingness to revise the bill in favor of fairer elections."
The new bill would place Libertarians and Greens on equal footing with
Democratic and Republican candidates by removing the 6% primary threshold.
The proposed bill requires the same from all candidates of "recognized
political parties". As of April 2007, there are four recognized political
parties in Wisconsin: Democratic, Libertarian, Republican, and Wisconsin
Green. The bill proposes new requirements similar to those in the Maine and
Arizona clean elections bills - among them the requirement that candidates
collect a specified number of $5 contributions from citizens within their
district.
However, the bill has a steeper requirement for independent candidates and
those from non-recognized political parties - requiring them to receive 1%
in the primary. The Libertarian Party of Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Green
Party are concerned that the proposed bill does not require the same qualifying threshold for all candidates.
"Greens and Libertarians believe in fair treatment of all candidates, not
just those from recognized political parties," said Jacob Burns, Libertarian
State Elections Board Member. "Although the proposed bill is a definite
improvement over the current public funding legislation, this bill has a
higher threshold for any candidate that is not from a recognized political
party. It supports party politics. Candidates often choose to run as
independents because they are adverse to party politics - and getting 1% in
the primary as an independent is quite difficult."
"Third party candidates regularly experience the hurdles of our state and
national election systems, which are stacked towards the two-party system,"
said Bobby Gifford, Co-chair of the Wisconsin Green Party Elections Committee. "We like
that the proposed bill is more encouraging towards recognized third parties - it acknowledges the hard work that third
parties have undertaken to gain that status. The bill also attempts to address the
reality that the Clean Elections Fund is made up of taxpayer dollars, and
therefore must be prudently distributed. But we are concerned about the
difficulty that independents and candidates from non-recognized parties will
have in getting public funding. We do wish Wisconsin election laws would
equally encourage all candidates to run. The more diversity we encourage in
our election system, the more vibrant our democracy will be."