Have you thought your concerns are being ignored by your elected leaders? You hire them with your vote, but they seem to be largely unresponsive to your needs. Your perception is not wrong, as determined by two Supreme Court decisions: Buckley v. Valeo in 1976 and Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission in 2010. These cases opened the door to equating money as free speech.
Former Sens. John McCain, R-Arizona, and Russ Feingold, D-Wisconsin, recognized this as a problem when $500 million was spent on campaign financing. In 2002 they sponsored bipartisan legislation to limit campaign financing, and it passed Congress. Then this legislation was attacked by special interests, and the Supreme Court ruled against the McCain-Feingold bill. The total spent on federal and state elections in 2024 surpassed $20 billion, according to OpenSecrets. Our legislators are spending a good share of their time dialing for dollars versus communicating with their constituents. The massive amount of money has filtered down into our local nonpartisan elections through outside interests.
Now legislators are not able to set campaign finance guardrails until the Supreme Court decision is corrected. This is done through an amendment to the Constitution. A grassroots effort is requesting that amendment. Already 180 Wisconsin municipalities have sent a resolution to their state representatives requesting an amendment. This includes Green Bay and Brown County; both passed with overwhelming majorities. Twenty-five states have already called for an amendment by sending a resolution to their congressional representatives.
Let’s see Wisconsin become the next state to demand our state representatives call for a resolution and return our government to representation by the people for the people.
Judy Nagel is a De Pere resident and a volunteer with American Promise.
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