John Wiley's Bipartisan Criticism Needs Some Sunlight

Lost in the spotlight of University of Wisconsin Chancellor John Wiley's comments about Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC) that appeared in Madison Magazine, From Crossroads to Crisis , was this observation:

I also had plenty of opportunities to meet with legislators. A depressingly large number of those meetings began with a monologue about how all the state's problems were caused by the policies and positions of the other party, and how things would get better quickly if we just came out publicly in support of their own party's position.

Too often, the tirades were accompanied by a warning of dire consequences if I spoke in public opposition to measures I felt would harm the university, or a sharp rebuke if I had recently committed the sin of thanking a member of the opposite party for helping the university with some issue.

Until a couple of years ago, I was also frequently warned or threatened about the need for "the university" to get more involved in providing campaign contributions if we expected any sympathetic reactions, as if I had any role in telling university employees whom to support. That practice, at least, seems to have stopped, probably because of a number of felony convictions for similar behavior.

I know this to be true. When I served as the mayor of Madison from 1973-1979, I was never troubled by suggestions that the adoption of legislation favorable to the city of Madison would require me to arrange the delivery of campaign contributions from my friends to various political committees designed to elect the members of one party or the other to the legislature.

All that changed when I returned to office in 1989. As the 1990's advanced it became obvious that the best interests of my constituents and the people of Wisconsin were secondary to those whose checkbooks were aimed at legislators. Our legislative successes of 1990 soon came to an abrupt halt.

With only one exception, the Madison area legislators were beyond reproach. And although I supported his primary opponents twice,  Fred Risser is not that exception. He was always a model of integrity and propriety when it came to separating campaign matters from the public agenda.

I also learned that the constituents of political opponents were to be used like Napoleonic cannon fodder. If a legislator was to cross someone who had more power and influence the price was usually the elimination or cutback of a project or service in the offending legislator's district.

Perhaps a new confident generation of leaders can end these practices in the next session of the legislature.

Comments

[Greg]

Great post, but the link to the Wiley article is currently broken. It looks like it has the URL to this blog pre-pended to the article's URL.

[Tim]

Amen Paul. This will be the cause of the decline and fall of our state and country if it is not fixed. Our government is headed toward the practices of the failed states around the world. It is astounding how accepted this all is these days.