TOO MUCH MONEY IN POLITICS
State Senator Tom Tiffany is running to fill US Representative Sean Duffy’s seat in Wisconsin’s 7th Congressional District. He served in Wisconsin’s Assembly from 2011-2013 and the Senate since 2013.
Since Tiffany says he will “drain the swamp” in Washington just as he did in Madison, it makes sense to look at his record.
Tiffany represented Wisconsinites at midnight on a Friday night in November 2015 when he supported, and the Senate passed, a bill that doubled campaign contribution limits from $10,000 to $20,000 and allowed anonymous donors to coordinate with candidates’ campaigns, rendering campaign finance regulations meaningless.
Were Tiffany’s constituents in northern Wisconsin clamoring for legislation to increase the amount of money in politics? How many people do you know that can drop $10,000 or $20,000 into a candidate’s campaign coffers?
At 2:30 a.m. that same night, Tiffany supported the Senate dismantling of the Government Accountability Board (GAB), the nonpartisan body formed in 2007 to address ethics and elections violations. Apparently he was displeased with the results of GAB involvement in two investigations into Governor Walker’s Milwaukee County office and his recall campaign: six convictions of Walker aides and associates on embezzlement of veterans’ funds and campaign law violations. The GAB was dismantled for doing their job, enforcing laws that promote clean, transparent government.
Were Tiffany’s constituents up north inundating him with requests to make it easier for politicians and their staff to get away with illegal campaign schemes?
Tiffany ignores constituents’ preference for nonpartisan district line drawing. Despite Politifact confirming that Wisconsin is the first- or second-worst gerrymandered state, Tiffany declares our partisanly-drawn maps are fair.
Do you think folks up in northern Wisconsin would like to have a nonpartisan board draw the lines for districts in a fair and open manner like our neighbors in Iowa have been doing it very successfully for many years? Or do you think folks would rather have the politicians in power draw their own crooked lines so they can pick the voters they want in their districts, all done in secret with a team of lawyers they hired and paid for with taxpayer dollars, and then have the whole process tied up in court battles for years, costing taxpayers even more?
Polls show overwhelming bipartisan support for eliminating gerrymandering, getting money out of politics and reducing corruption. The examples listed here are just a few of many more that demonstrate how Tiffany is likely to represent his constituents if he goes to Washington. Think about this when you vote in the May 12th special election
Sources:
https://www.politifact.com/article/2018/jun/18/whether-wisconsin-most-gerrymandered-state/