POLITICS

Left-leaning group files complaint against Wisconsin Democrats

Jason Stein
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

MADISON - A left-leaning group filed a complaint Tuesday against Assembly Democrats for allegedly violating limits on campaign contributions.

The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign brought the complaint against the Assembly Democratic Campaign Committee, the umbrella elections group for Democrats in that house, and Wisconsin Progress, a group that seeks to recruit and train liberal candidates.

The complaint filed with the state Ethics Commission Tuesday alleges that Wisconsin Progress did $97,340 worth of research work on behalf of the ADCC in the last half of 2016. That could violate a state law limiting donations by corporations to $12,000 per year, the complaint alleges.

The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign often sides with Democrats in favoring rules to limit the flow of money in politics. Executive director Matt Rothschild said his group has been watching these kinds of donations since the GOP-controlled Legislature and Gov. Scott Walker rewrote state campaign finance law in 2015 to allow corporate donations to legislative committees.

"Corporate donations to campaigns were against the law for more than 100 years, and we vigorously opposed this change in the law," Rothschild said in a statement. "This is an area that is ripe for corruption on all sides.”

Officials with the Assembly Democratic committee and Wisconsin Progress had no comment on the complaint.

Because the issue involves a law that had recently been changed, it would have been unusual for a major political group to have given or accepted donations without checking on whether it was legal.

Reid Magney, a spokesman for the Ethics Commission, said his agency had received the complaint but couldn't comment on it.