Investigating Power
What political reforms should Wisconsin look at in 2019? How best can we rid the dominance of money from politics? How might Tony Evers change the political landscape, after he takes office on Monday, January 7th? Esty Dinur takes a look at political reform in Wisconsin with Mary Bottari and David Armiak, both reporters at the Center for Media and Democracy.
SourceWatch references a November 2013 report by Progress Texas and the Center for Media and Democracy which found over the past few years TPPF “has received at least $3,314,591 from the billionaire Koch brothers or the organizations they support.”
More than half of the CTIA’s grants were directed to MyWireless.org, a subsidiary nonprofit. According to its tax return, the subsidiary funneled a sizable amount of the $1.24 million it received from CTIA to conservative dark money organizations. MyWireless.org gave $85,000 to the Free State Foundation, a conservative research organization with ties to ALEC; $25,000 to the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity, a Chicago-based, Koch-funded project; and $10,000 to the State Policy Network, an Arlington, Va., nonprofit described by the Center for Media and Democracy’s SourceWatch as an umbrella group that acts as “the tip of the spear of far-right, nationally funded policy agenda in the states that undergirds extremists in the Republican Party.” NCTA gave an additional $15,000 to the State Policy Network and another $135,000 to the Free State Foundation, tax records show.
More than half of the CTIA’s grants were directed to MyWireless.org, a subsidiary nonprofit. According to its tax return, the subsidiary funneled a sizable amount of the $1.24 million it received from CTIA to conservative dark money organizations. MyWireless.org gave $85,000 to the Free State Foundation, a conservative research organization with ties to ALEC; $25,000 to the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity, a Chicago-based, Koch-funded project; and $10,000 to the State Policy Network, an Arlington, Va., nonprofit described by the Center for Media and Democracy’s SourceWatch as an umbrella group that acts as “the tip of the spear of far-right, nationally funded policy agenda in the states that undergirds extremists in the Republican Party.” NCTA gave an additional $15,000 to the State Policy Network and another $135,000 to the Free State Foundation, tax records show.
Bates’ suit, announced last week, is being backed by the Goldwater Institute, a conservative think tank based in Arizona. According to the political funding watchdog website SourceWatch, Goldwater Institute has backed pro-vaping measures in the past, and has accepted donations from Altria, formerly known as Phillip Morris Global Tobacco, which sells Marlboro cigarettes as well as vape products.
The Detroit News recently reported the states with the largest percentages of charter school closures since 2000: Kansas (77 percent); Iowa (73 percent); Ohio (58 percent); Wisconsin (43 percent); Virginia (40 percent); Washington, D.C. (39 percent); Arizona (39 percent); Florida (38 percent); Missouri (34 percent); and New Jersey (34 percent).
MassFiscal is tied to other right-wing organizations. For instance, in its latest lawsuit it is represented by the Goldwater Institute of Arizona. The Center for Media and Democracy classifies Goldwater as “a right-wing advocacy group” with ties to the Koch brothers. One recent board member is Rebekah Mercer, whose billionaire family funded Donald Trump as well as Steve Bannon’s Breitbart News. Trump ally Christopher Ruddy calls Rebekah Mercer “the First Lady of the alt-right.”
ALEC drew scrutiny recently when white supremacist David Horowitz was given a platform to speak at the Aug. 2018 New Orleans convention. Horowitz knew he was among friends as he pushed for an Article V convention in order to embed his racist agenda in our Constitution. In response, The Center for Media and Democracy, with a coalition of 78 organizations, sent a letter to 20 of ALEC’s biggest corporations asking them to drop their memberships in the corporate bill-mill.
Mary Bottari, director of the Center for Media and Democracy’s Real Economy Project, lives in Wisconsin and has been participating in the protests this week. In an interview, she shared with me her shock at how brazenly and quickly the state’s Republicans moved to roll back gubernatorial power. “We’re still sorting through what the heck happened in the middle of the night,” she said. In addition to the bills, the GOP-dominated Legislature also rammed through a whopping 82 appointments by Walker of people to head various boards and agencies.
Wisconsin’s Republicans are sore losers. The GOP-dominated state government engaged in a brazen power grab this week working feverishly over several days and into the night on Tuesday to pass a sweeping set of bills by early Wednesday curbing the power of incoming Democratic elected officials. They faced thousands of protesters who marched, chanted, rallied, and denounced the GOP’s moves outside the State Capitol.