MAY 5, 2023 MAKING CHANGE GROUNDCOVER NEWS 7 POWER from last page "Team Elephant" meeting with Michigan Representative Wendzel and Jacob Rushlow in Lansing on April 27 to discuss campaign finance reform as part of the SHOW MI THE MONEY Lobby Day. serious infractions do come to light, consequences are rarely more than a token fine. It is a system that breeds a culture of corruption. Many legislators fear that that culture of corruption and the coercion of moneyed interests, especially the Super PAC bundlers (who move money from a variety of sources into the Super PACs and collect a 10% fee for doing so), will stymie the progress of transparency laws this session as has happened in previous sessions. Representative Mark Tisdel (Rochester) mentioned that he ran in 2020 for an open seat, which made it a target. Both candidates’ campaigns spent $1 million. He was sworn in in January and had his first major fundraiser in March. "It's a distraction from governing," he said. He also noted that good fundraising and campaigning skills do not necessarily translate into good governance. He asserted that the legislature needs to enact campaign finance reform “but there's a way around everything. They put in a PAC cap and leadership sets up multiple PACs. Sunlight and transparency are good things. On the other hand, attacks on donors are also a problem.” Representative Pauline Wendzel (W. Michigan) wants to eliminate secret money but has security concerns for donors who give to socially-charged issues. She stated that all Super PACs, including unions, should have donation limits, and also called for simplifying the rules around campaign financing. These are issues likely to be raised when the House Ethics and Elections Committee holds hearings on campaign finance reform later this year. Dianne Schwartz, one of the citizen advocates and a former East Lansing City Council member observed, “The money in politics is like sand from a huge, massive cloud. You lock your doors but it still finds its way in … and you’ve got to regularly sweep in out.” She called on the Democrat majority to make this a priority. Some of the citizens who came out to speak about campaign finance reform were shocked to learn that the measures in Proposal One, passed by voters last year, applied only to lawmakers’ personal asset disclosures, not those of their PAC and other accounts. A broad coalition of groups organized the SHOW MI THE MONEY Lobby Day. Quentin Turner Common Cause of Michigan started off the lunchtime press conference by calling on the legislature to: • Pass a budget that includes sufficient funding to increase implementation of existing transparency regulations and voter protections; • Pass a resolution of support for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution that overturns the Citizens United decision so that Congress and the states may set reasonable campaign contribution limits and distinguish corporations from people; and • Implement clear and concise disclosure rules for election-related financial contributions. Sandra Sorini Elser, representing the Michigan chapter of the League of Women Voters, echoed those calls and added that Michigan is 48th out of the 50 states in anti-corruption measures. Hank Mayers, president of Michiganders for Fair and Transparent Elections, remarked on the geometric growth of the money spent on elections and the disproportionate increase in secret money. He stated that the money transfers from non-profits and foundations amounts to money laundering, which is illegal in every context but politics. To halt the secret money, Mayers plan calls for explicit separation of funds for electioneering and disclosure of the five largest donors to the election accounts, regardless of what kind of organization it is. He also insisted we need “a guard dog with teeth” that has investigatory powers and more serious consequences for individuals who violate campaign finance regulations. Former House Democratic Leader Christine Greig related an example from her time in the legislature. of Lobbyists provided paid vacations in Hawaii for 20 lawmakers to “educate” them about a bill on the brink of introduction that had already failed multiple times in previous sessions. The direct sponsor of the trip was a nonprofit. The legislators could not be identified and did not have to disclose the gift. If someone had not tipped off the media about the trip, Greig questioned whether we would ever have known about it. Prop 1 of 2022 is a good start. But underlying state laws for defining who can give gifts are flawed. Even under the Prop 1 disclosure requirements, those travelers to Hawaii would still not need to disclose the travel expenses because they were furnished by the non-profit. Former Ann Arbor City Council member Elizabeth Nelson shared her experiences with campaign financing. She raised $10,000 to run in 2018. She was targeted by secret money but managed to win anyway. She experienced a big change in 2020 when the cost of running for local offices tripled and quadrupled, depending on the ward. Ann Arbor City Council elections in 2020 and 2022 were flooded with over $30,000 in PAC money. Nelson raised $20,000 with no fundraisers and felt good about that. However, she was outspent 2-1 by her opponent whose campaign funds included $12,500 from sources outside the city. Nelson said that in Ann Arbor, a network of individuals max out their personal contribution limits, then have their spouse and other family members do the same. She knows of some who have collectively contributed over $20,000. “It happens where you live, and it matters. Because somebody like me who is just committed to public service and is thinking about it … the answer to how [to go about that] is not that that you’ll need about $10,000; in the City of Ann Arbor it is you’ll need about $40,000 ... that is huge barrier to entry and a huge obstacle to our democracy.” Other participating organizations included American Promise, Declaration for American Democracy, the League of Women Voters of Michigan, Michigan Voices, Public Citizen, Represent US, Reclaim Our American Democracy, and the People.
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