Conservative Wisconsinites Call For Greater Transparency In Outside Election Spending

Scott Keyes
Think Progress / Video Report
Published: Saturday 31 March 2012
With the election just two months away, outside spending groups are already scrambling to pour money into ads both for and against Walker.

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) could be out of a job soon as the Government Accountability Board ordered a recall election this week after more than 900,000 Wisconsinites submitted signatures to hold a recall election this summer. With the election just two months away, outside spending groups are already scrambling to pour money into ads both for and against Walker. However, because of a quirk in Wisconsin campaign law, these groups can spend unlimited funds without disclosing where their money is coming from.

ThinkProgress spoke with attendees last weekend at the Americans For Prosperity Defending the American Dream Summit in Milwaukee. Though all of them were Walker supporters, whose Republican Party has typically fought efforts to bring more transparency into campaign funding, the attendees were unanimous in their desire to require outside spending groups disclose where they get their funding.



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ABOUT Scott Keyes

Scott Keyes is an investigative researcher for ThinkProgress.org at the Center for American Progress Action Fund. Scott went to school at Stanford University where he received his B.A. in Political Science and M.A. in Sociology. He has appeared on MSNBC and TBD Newstalk TV and been a guest on many radio shows. His writing has been published by The Atlantic, Politico, the Christian Science Monitor, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. Scott comes to DC from southwest Ohio, a state very near and dear to his heart.

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2 comments on "Conservative Wisconsinites Call For Greater Transparency In Outside Election Spending"

Steverino

March 31, 2012 3:36pm

The people you talked with were unanimous in the desire for more transparency, or all attendees at the conference were unanimous? The more interesting quirk is the one that allowed Walker to raise unlimited funds beginning the day the petition drive was announced. He has raised an unprecedented amount of out-of-state money, including $250K from a single donor in TX.

The Logician

March 31, 2012 1:11pm

This is not an article...One sentence on what some unnamed Consrvatives say they want?Important subject and twist, but is there no editor reviewing this mere blurb? Shoddy reporting hurts the cause.