http://midwestdemocracynetwork.org/index.php We are an alliance of political reformers and policy researchers committed to improving democratic institutions in Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin. en lrush@midwestdemocracynetwork.org Copyright 2010 2010-03-11T04:32:18+00:00 http://midwestdemocracynetwork.org/index.php/reports/article/ohio_redistricting_forum_highlights_potential_reforms/ http://midwestdemocracynetwork.org/index.php/reports/article/ohio_redistricting_forum_highlights_potential_reforms/#When:04:32:18Z COLUMBUS - State Senator Jon Husted and State Representative Tom Letson outlined their different plans to change Ohio’s redistricting process at a recent forum in downtown Columbus. Redistricting, News, Ohio 2010-03-11T04:32:18+00:00 http://midwestdemocracynetwork.org/index.php/reports/article/dems_ask_fec_if_they_can_use_soft_money_for_redistricting_fights/ http://midwestdemocracynetwork.org/index.php/reports/article/dems_ask_fec_if_they_can_use_soft_money_for_redistricting_fights/#When:21:12:46Z A Democratic group is asking the Federal Election Committee if they can side-step a 2002 law that restricts members from raising soft money for their campaigns.According to the Hartford Courant, the National Democratic Redistricting Trust is asking the FEC to allow them to raise soft money so they can fight legal battles that are likely to occur after districts are redrawn after this year’s census.The NDRT formed last year to head the Democrat party’s legal strategy in redistricting.While organizations similar to NDRT have raised soft money in the past, the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act eliminated the ability to raise soft money.According to Roll Call, Republicans have traditionally relied on soft money for redistricting, while Democrats have used labor unions and other outside groups to raise funds. Democrats were funded by IMPAC 2000, a 527 organization, during the last round of redistricting, which raised $7.7 million from 2000 to 2003.The American Majority Project recently created their own 527 organization to help Republicans in the redistricting process. The largest donation collected by AMP to date is $50,000 by the tobacco company Altria.The Midwest Democracy Network is working on collecting groups who are involved in influencing the redistricting process so far. This is our current list:National Democratic Redistricting TrustAmerican Majority ProjectIMPAC 2000The Redistricting Majority ProjectIf you know of any other groups, please contact us at midwestdemocracynetwork@gmail.com. Campaign Finance Reform, Ethics in Government, Redistricting, News, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Wisconsin 2010-03-09T21:12:46+00:00 http://midwestdemocracynetwork.org/index.php/reports/article/wisconsin_speaker_does_double_take_on_payday_loan_legislation/ http://midwestdemocracynetwork.org/index.php/reports/article/wisconsin_speaker_does_double_take_on_payday_loan_legislation/#When:23:34:11Z A Wisconsin bill that would have capped payday loan interest rates at 36 percent is struggling to stay afloat as legislators are beginning to jump ship.According to a Wisconsin Democracy Campaign report, 16 groups reported spending 2,466 hours and about $669,000 in 2009 to lobby legislators on the interest cap bill and four other legislative proposals to regulate payday lenders or auto title loan outfits. Seven of those organizations, which are payday lenders, their trade group and an auto title loan company, spent $583,658 to lobby one or more of the bills.Campaign finance records show the Assembly Democratic Campaign Committee accepted $13,900 from payday lenders and auto title loan company lobbyists in the final six months of 2009.The Democratic Campaign Committee received $5,500 on Sept. 9 and Assembly Speaker Michael Sheridan (D-Janesville) publicly announced he opposed the 36 percent rate cap. He claimed the proposal went to far, even though he co-sponsored a bill in 2007 with a 36 percent cap. The DCC received $5,000 from two Check ‘n Go executives, according to the WDC report, three weeks later.“It’s hard not to notice” the timing of the donations, said Mike McCabe, the WDC’s executive director to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.  “It’s just something that jumped out at us.”According to the Journal-Sentinal, Sheridan said he privately told two Assembly Democrats he opposed the cap in early 2008.“It was the summer of 2008,  and I had told them at that time this was a two-step process,” Sheridan said Feb. 16. “I said, ‘First, we’re going to regulate the hell out of this industry, and if that doesn’t work we can always throw them out,’  but I felt like that was a two-step process. I want to make that clear that that has been my position for a long time.”According to the Wisconsin Radio Network,  the Speaker admitted to dating a payday loan industry lobbyist, but the relationship did not influence his position.Wisconsin remains the only state that does not have a rate cap on payday loans so the interest can amount to more than 500 percent a year. That has fueled a rapid expansion of payday loan stores – from two in 1995 to 542 in 2008.EditorialsSheridan should resign as speaker - LaCrosse TribuneMere Coincidence? - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Ethics in Government, Reports, Wisconsin 2010-03-05T23:34:11+00:00 http://midwestdemocracynetwork.org/index.php/reports/article/illinois_redistricting_forum_highlights_potential_reforms/ http://midwestdemocracynetwork.org/index.php/reports/article/illinois_redistricting_forum_highlights_potential_reforms/#When:00:25:37Z CHICAGO - State Senator Kwame Raoul and Mary Schaafsma of the League of Women Voters of Illinois outlined reform proposals at a recent forum held in downtown Chicago. Redistricting, News, Illinois 2010-03-04T00:25:37+00:00 http://midwestdemocracynetwork.org/index.php/reports/article/report_refuts_claims_about_minnesota_election_system_made_by_cae/ http://midwestdemocracynetwork.org/index.php/reports/article/report_refuts_claims_about_minnesota_election_system_made_by_cae/#When:22:13:01Z Common Cause Minnesota and Citizens for Election Integrity Minnesota released a report last week refuting claims made by the Center of the American Experiment about the 2008 US Senate recount and Minnesota’s election law and practice.According to a press release by CCMN, the CAE’s report makes no effort to back up what the CCMN calls inaccurate and misleading claims. One statement refuted by CCMN is the CAE’s claim the rejection rate for military absentee voting is 16 percent greater than regular absentee voting. The CCMN report shows the number is double that. The report goes on to say that between 2006 and 2008 the rejection rate was cut in half.The following three recommendations, discussed throughout our response are key changes that will insure the integrity of elections while not creating undue barriers to voters. We hope the legislature will pass them and that the Governor will sign them into law this year.1. Streamline the absentee ballot process including the creation of absentee ballot boards.2. Allow for early voting which would provide voters the same rights and privileges that voters have on Election Day.3. Move the primary election date, which would allow overseas voters adequate time to complete and mail ballots back to the United States.“Since its ‘facts’ have been published throughout Minnesota, we hope that our response will also be published to set the record straight,” wrote executive director for CCMN Mike Dean about the CAE report.Read the full CCMN and CEIMN report here.Read the full CAE report here.Politics in Minnesota wrote an article in Oct. 2009 about the CAE report. Read the full story here. Election Law & Voting Rights, Reports, Minnesota 2010-03-02T22:13:01+00:00 http://midwestdemocracynetwork.org/index.php/reports/article/citizens_united_companies_can_funnel_money_secretly/ http://midwestdemocracynetwork.org/index.php/reports/article/citizens_united_companies_can_funnel_money_secretly/#When:23:03:12Z According to Gavel Grab, While the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision upheld requirements for disclosure of corporate political spending, it also left corporations a significant loophole for escaping disclosure. That analysis is presented in a New York Times article headlined, “Decision Could Allow Anonymous Political Contributions by Businesses.” By giving money to trade associations and nonprofit civil leagues, corporations can make anonymous gifts, and the groups then can use the money for political advertising, according to the Times. Nonprofit groups can withhold the identity of donors. “Clearly, that’s where the action’s going to be,” Kenneth A. Gross, a Washington lawyer and former associate general counsel for the Federal Election Commission, told the newspaper. Citizens and shareholders may be left in the dark. The article reports: “It is impossible to know whether corporations or unions are taking advantage of the new freedom to funnel pro- or anti-candidate money through nonprofit organizations.” Wide-ranging debate over the ruling continues. Linda Greenhouse wrote in an online New York Times commentary that the “real surprise”  about the decision is how widely disliked it is, across ideological divides: “After more than a month, the storm set off by the Citizens United ruling is still raging.” The Wall Street Journal’s Law blog picks up on concerns raised by Harvard law professor Lucian Bebchuk that fewer limits on corporate campaign expenditures could weaken shareholder’s rights, and in turn harm capitalism. You can learn more about the ruling from Gavel Grab,  and you can read Justice at Stake’s amicus brief in the case by clicking here. Campaign Finance Reform, News, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Wisconsin 2010-03-01T23:03:12+00:00 http://midwestdemocracynetwork.org/index.php/reports/article/disagreement_over_inmates_and_census_in_minnesota/ http://midwestdemocracynetwork.org/index.php/reports/article/disagreement_over_inmates_and_census_in_minnesota/#When:22:55:30Z Minnesota is in a deep debate over which districts will be able to count inmates in the 2010 census after the U.S. Census Department’s decision to allow states to make the decision, according to MinnPost.The League of Women Voters-Minnesota has taken an active stance in counting prisoners in their home towns.“Our interest in this issue is that counting prisoners where they are results in a simultaneous inflation and dilution issue,” said Keesha Gaskins,  executive director of the LWVMN.Gaskins explained that by counting prisoners in the counties where the prison is located, the political influence of actual county residents is inflated.Sen.  Linda Higgins, chair of the Finance Committee’s Public Safety Budget Division, plans to introduce a bill that will exclude prisoners from the redistricting process. Higgins drafted the proposal based on the principle that counties receive federal funds based on the percentage of low-income residents, children or minorities.“We know there’s a higher percentage of people of color in prisons in Minnesota than in the general Minnesota population,” said Higgins to the MinnPost. “So, if you use those statistics from correctional institutions, then that legislative district gets a skewed amount of money for resources that are supposed to go to low-income communities and people of color.”Chair of the State and Local Government Operations and Oversight Committee Sen. Ann Rest, DFL-New Hope, said she isn’t comfortable with the idea of not counting prisoners every time.“It sounds a little like having your cake and eating it, too,” she said. “I’d be very interested in what consistent, reliable argument could be made to count them (prisoners) for reapportionment and how many Congress members you get,  but then not count them in the state districts.”According to MinnPost, Hennepin and Ramsey counties hold Minnesota’s largest urban population and sentenced the largest proportions of prisoners currently in state institutions. Based on last July’s population of 9,353 state prisoners, Hennepin County sentenced 25.4 percent and Ramsey County sentenced 15.7 percent of the population. Next in line were these counties: Dakota (4.8 percent), Anoka (3.9 percent), St. Louis (3.9 percent) and Olmsted (3.8 percent.)The U of M Humphrey Institute’s Smart Politics blog prepared an analysis late last year that showed Minnesota’s prison population also had the second-largest increase in the nation between 2000 and 2008.One alternative proposed is to remove the prison population from redistricting data as an interim solution. Redistricting, News, Minnesota 2010-02-26T22:55:30+00:00 http://midwestdemocracynetwork.org/index.php/reports/article/common_cause-league_of_women_voters_unallotment_brief_dont_just_rein_it_in_/ http://midwestdemocracynetwork.org/index.php/reports/article/common_cause-league_of_women_voters_unallotment_brief_dont_just_rein_it_in_/#When:20:46:27Z The Common Cause and the League of Women Voters Minnesota amicus brief asks the Supreme Court to strike down the unallotment statute as an unconstitutional violation of the separation of powers doctrine, according to MinnPost.The brief argues it is unconstitutional to provide pure legislative power to the governor in lawmaking without meaningful participation by the legislature gives the governor veto power free from legislative override. It argues balance is thrown off when the governor has the power to veto a revenue bill passed by the legislature and be able to overrule a decision by the legislature without the possibility to be overridden themselves.Check out the Common Cause blog post. Read the MinnPost here. Campaign Finance Reform, News, Minnesota 2010-02-25T20:46:27+00:00 http://midwestdemocracynetwork.org/index.php/reports/article/michigan_lobbying_down_2.3m_in_2009/ http://midwestdemocracynetwork.org/index.php/reports/article/michigan_lobbying_down_2.3m_in_2009/#When:21:57:34Z Lobbyist spending in Michigan took a steep dive in 2009, falling $2.3 million. The 6.8 percent drop in spending totaled $31,849,916 in 2009, according to a release by the Michigan Campaign Finance Network.The state’s top lobbyists, however, haven’t seen the same fall in spending smaller groups have. The top 200 lobbyist reported spending $21,910,469 in 2009, just under the $21,918,729 reportedly spent in 2008.“Michigan lobbying reports reveal less about the activity of lobbyists than federal reports or those in many other states,” said Rich Robinson of the Michigan Campaign Finance Network. “It appears that Michigan legislators just won’t require transparency from the interest groups that finance their political campaigns. Michigan citizens deserve better.”Lobbyists are not required to report travel and lodging expenditures for lobbyable officials that are less than $725, or gift or entertainment expenditures that are less than $56. There is no requirement to report food expenditures until they exceed $56 in a month for a lobbyable official, or $350 in a calendar year.Read the full report on spending by the top 200 Michigan lobbyists here.Reported Michigan Lobbying Expenditures, 2001-2009 2009:$31,849,916 2008: $34,167,777 2007: $32,153,832 2006: $30,204,626 2005: $29,633,289 2004: $27,119,649 2003: $26,609,024 2002: $23,295,129 2001: $23,777,305 Campaign Finance Reform, Open Government, Reports, Michigan 2010-02-24T21:57:34+00:00 http://midwestdemocracynetwork.org/index.php/reports/article/revolving_door_law_thrown_out_by_ohio_court/ http://midwestdemocracynetwork.org/index.php/reports/article/revolving_door_law_thrown_out_by_ohio_court/#When:21:26:59Z According to The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio lawmakers can step down from office today and start lobbying their colleagues under a federal court ruling that tossed out Ohio’s “revolving door” law.Ohio has required former lawmakers and legislative staff members to wait one year before being allowed to lobby, which was in place to limit opportunities for quid pro quos.Brinkman said he sued the Joint Legislative Ethics Committee to block the law after he was told that he could not do volunteer advocacy work on behalf of Ohio Right to Life or other groups.“It’s a great feeling,” he said yesterday. “I have no intention to ever be a lobbyist, but it’s good to know I could have if I wanted to.”On the flip side, Chief Judge Susan J. Dlott said, the law was under-inclusive because it did not restrict gifts, employment offers or other potential corruption-inducing activities of former members. The judge also said the law “severely burdened plaintiffs’ First Amendment rights.” Dlott even cited the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision that lifted the ban on corporate contributions in federal elections, saying the high court’s reasoning “refutes the premise (that Ohio’s revolving-door law) is necessary to prevent former General Assembly members from having special access to the legislative process.” Ethics in Government, News, Ohio 2010-02-23T21:26:59+00:00