Federal Court Ruling May Lead To Rewritten Campaign Finance Laws

Recent court decisions have Republican state lawmakers pledging a rewrite of Wisconsin’s campaign finance laws, but it remains unclear just how far they’ll go.

In an opinion released this week by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago, Judge Diane Sykes described Wisconsin’s campaign finance system as a “dizzying array of statutes and rules” that are “labrynthian and difficult to decipher.” The court struck down a never-enforced Government Accountability Board Rule that would have treated issue ads that air close to Election Day as campaign ads. It also struck down Wisconsin’s ban on corporate political spending.

It was the latest of several recent campaign finance decisions and court settlements. Attorney Mike Wittenwyler, who’s frequently involved in these lawsuits, says it’s left Wisconsin’s laws difficult for the average person to figure out.

“They’d have to either hire a lawyer or talk to somebody at the GAB to find a letter, an advisory opinion, an attorney general’s opinion an administrative rule,” said Wittenwyler. “They’d have to cobble it together instead of just being able to look at the statute to say ‘Oh, it’s not there anymore, it doesn’t apply.’”

Wittenwyler has long argued against restrictions on campaign spending. He says that’s the side of state law that needs to be cleaned up, but he also says there’s nothing preventing Wisconsin from maintaining contribution limits for candidates.

“That side of the equation – the contribution side – is still highly regulated,” said Wittenwyler. “The side that the courts have been looking at is anything that somehow limits spending.”

Advocates for tighter restrictions on campaign spending saw this week’s ruling very differently. The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign said there was nothing “labrynthian” about the rule the court struck down, saying the decision would leave voters in the dark.