Freeculture.org sponsored blogshine Sunday, a day when news organizations run stories and editorials in support of public access to government information.
The internet has substantially improved citizen’s ability to see who is funding elected officials directly and indirectly.
The Madison City Clerk conveniently posts campaign finance information on their website. I took a quick look at PAC (political action committee) spending on school board races and found this:
Madison School Related PAC’s:

• Citizens for investing in Madison Schools: apparently setup to support the June, 2003 referendum. Current Board Members Bill Keys and Bill Clingan’s campaigns contributed to this PAC (1000 and 800 respectively), as did Madison Teachers, Inc. (MTI) ($1500). This PAC raised and spent more than $30K in 2002/2003.
• Get Real, a PAC that supported candidates who were not endorsed by Madison Teachers. Get Real raised and spent less than $1,000. Get Real made small donations to unsuccessful candidates Sam Johnson & Melania Alvarez. This organization’s campaign finance disclosure documents are signed by former Madison School Board member Nancy Harper.
• Madison Teachers’s Madison Voters raised more than $40K in 2004 and spent about $34K on direct and indirect support of endorsed candidates (Johnny Winston, Jr., Shwaw Vang and Alix Olson – who lost to incumbent Ruth Robarts). MTI Voters July 20, 2004 report [pdf] showed cash on hand of $52K
• Progressive Dane raised and spent less than $2,000 last year, including small contributions to Johnny Winston, Jr. and Shwaw Vang.

Every active member of the Madison School Board was endorsed by and received direct and indirect support from Madison Teachers, Inc. The only current exception is Ruth Robarts, who, while supported in the past by MTI, was opposed by MTI in her 2004 successful re-election campaign.

(more…)

Greg Borowski continues his excellent coverage on local election flaws:

In the United States, your ballot is secret, but almost everything else about an election is part of the public record: Who voted and at what ward. Where they live. How old they are. Even what number they were in line.

Until recently, that is.

At least in Wisconsin, where a 2003 change in state law put the birth dates of voters off limits to the public, making it nearly impossible to determine whether someone voted twice, a felon voted improperly, or someone voted as a dead person.

And in Milwaukee, where officials have denied access – for now – to nearly all information about the Nov. 2 election, citing an ongoing local-federal investigation into possible voter fraud.

The irony: The investigation was started only after the Journal Sentinel revealed a host of problems about the election – including 7,000 votes that are unaccounted for – by examining information it obtained through open records requests.

Joshua Trevino calls the bankruptcy bill a “breach of faith,” and observes, “When it passes — and it will — it will be thanks purely to the Republican Party.” via instapundit. More here: red states have it worse under the bill, interestingly enough…. Interesting Republican payback. I still don’t understand Kohl’s support for this…

Senator Kohl cast an odd vote for the flawed bankruptcy bill (getting it out of committee. He’s evidently, according to a staff person, pulling a “kerry”: voting for it, before voting against the final bill). Why would Kohl, “Nobody’s Senator But Your’s” cozy up to the credit card companies? I hope he has a strong opponent in the next election….

The folks at www.downsizedc.org are right on….

Good Question….

Patrick Marley does a nice bit of work:

A computer network consultant who evaluated bids for a $116 million state project ended his government work in the midst of final contract negotiations to work for SBC – the firm that had landed the huge deal two months earlier.