WHA-TV devoted a portion of its regular live Friday night show, Weekend, to the issue of campaign finance reform. This is a summary of opinions from viewers across Wisconsin who called in December 20th, 1996.
Madison - Tell the truth. Hold a standard.
Mt. Horeb - Make new rules. Include regular people.
Scandanvia - Make candidates appear in TV ads. Disclose source of ads. Restrict time of
campaigns.
DeSota - Send money to central distribution point and divide it up.
Madison - Put limits on them all.
Eau Claire - Congressional campaign held an auction and not a name was listed. Just
numbers of the buyers.
Fond du Lac - Shorten length of campaigns.
Hixton - End war chests.
Viroqua - End the begging for money.
Black River Falls - Divide all contributions, half to candidate, half to other
candidates in a pool.
Madison - Provide data bases of electronic filing, like Iowa. Mandate all counties have
to use computerized data. Regulate the caucuses.
Madison - Provide access to the filing data through libraries.
Madison - Stop money raising during sessions.
Rhinelander - Limit campaigns to 90 days. Limit contributions to $100. Full disclosure
of every dollar raised. Free campaign ads to challengers.
Neenah - Give them boxing gloves and be done with it.
La Crosse - Hold hearings on the west side of the state.
Neecedah - End public funding of campaigns. No spending caps or limits. Have states
take back responsibility for disclosure of federal spending for state candidates. Full and
complete disclosure.
Barneveld - End war chests.
Madison - End war chests. Follow the money. "I'm a WW II vet and I did not offer
my life for this type of government." 70+.
Middleton - Fix it so the legislators don't have to vote on it. They will change it
all.
Sturgeon Bay - All contributions go to common pool and divided.
Appleton - Prohibit TV advertising. Put all money into public TV and have it cover it
all.
Dodgeville - End special interests.
Madison - End war chests.
Marshfield - Use public financing for all campaigns.
Madison - Shorten the process to keep from turning off voters.
Menominee - Have more panel discussions. Give free TV time. Set limit on campaign
times.
Wausau - Don't make electronic filing too complicated for the small campaigns. Keep it
short and simple.
River Falls - Limit contributions to those within the district.
Madison - All PACs are not bad. They let the public's voice be heard. Should be
proportional to number of members.
La Crosse - End war chests. Limit expenditures. Study how Legislature is affected by
big money.
Glendale - Current campaigns don't tell people what they need to know to vote. Even the playing field for challengers.