re: #47 wheat-doggha — oo bird outside my window

Apparently, it is OK to circumvent laws in Wisconsin, giving that fair state a new growth industry: graft, corruption and political machinery.

It’s not like that at all. Here’s the core of the decision:

Prosecutors contend that the Wisconsin Club for Growth is acting as a subcommittee of Walker’s campaign — and thus must report its spending on behalf of Walker and adhere to fundraising limits, Randa wrote. He called that viewpoint “simply wrong.”

When it comes to political speech, Randa wrote, the government may regulate only “express advocacy” — that is, ads or other communications that explicitly urge people to vote for or against a candidate. But Wisconsin Club for Growth and groups like it engage in “issue advocacy” — communications that promote or denigrate candidates without coming right out and saying how people should vote.

The government can regulate express advocacy only because of the danger of “giving government an expanded role in uprooting all forms of perceived corruption which may result in corruption of the First Amendment itself,” Randa wrote.

“As other histories tell us, attempts to purify the public square lead to places like the Guillotine and the Gulag.”

Campaign finance laws can be used to prevent tit-for-tat corruption or the appearance of it, but nothing else, Randa wrote. The activities at issue in the investigation don’t rise to that level, he found.

“O’Keefe and the Club obviously agree with Governor Walker’s policies, but coordinated ads in favor of those policies carry no risk of corruption because the Club’s interests are already aligned with Walker and other conservative politicians,” Randa wrote. “Such ads are meant to educate the electorate, not curry favor with corruptible candidates.”

I agree with Judge Randa’s decision. I also think the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel put out a very well-written and informative article.