The Assembly met on Tuesday, October 20, and Wednesday, October 21, to vote on several bills designed to prevent abuses of the John Doe process, clarify Wisconsin's campaign finance laws, and restore effective oversight of Wisconsin's election and ethics laws.  I cosponsored all three of these bills.

Wisconsin is the only state to allow John Doe investigations, in which a district attorney may ask a judge to convene an investigation to determine whether a crime has been committed; anyone may also request a John Doe investigation, subject to review by the district attorney and the judge.  The judge may choose to make the proceedings secret and forbid any of the participants from speaking about the case, and there is currently no deadline by which a John Doe investigation must be concluded; an investigation could go on indefinitely.

Assembly Bill 68 and its companion, Senate Bill 43, make a number of changes to the John Doe process.  They specify the types of crimes that may be investigated, including crimes allegedly committed by on-duty law enforcement or correction officers.  Crimes not included in the bills would still be subject to grand jury process or the typical process by which a district attorney simply brings charges.  AB 68 and SB 43 also limits judges' authority to impose secrecy orders on John Doe participants.  Upon a showing of good cause, a judge may only impose such an order on him- or herself, the prosecutors, law enforcement, interpreters, and court reporters.  This provision addresses concerns that the current secrecy provisions violate the First Amendment rights of the subjects of the investigation; in fact, Judge Frank Easterbrook of the 7th Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals, during oral arguments on an appeal relating to a John Doe investigation, said the secrecy orders appeared to be "screamingly unconstitutional".

In addition, AB 68 and SB 43 limit John Doe investigations to six months, although a majority of the ten judicial administrative district chief judges may vote to extend an investigation for additional six-month periods upon showings of good cause.  These judges would also vote on whether to add further crimes to the scope of a particular investigation.  These provisions will make it more difficult for prosecutors to pursue open-ended "fishing expeditions".  The votes of the chief judges will be made public, as will the costs of the investigations, and only elected judges, not retired reserve judges, will be able to preside over John Doe proceedings.  This way, taxpayers will have the opportunity to decide for themselves whether a John Doe proceeding was worthwhile and hold the judges and district attorneys accountable at election time.

The Assembly passed AB 68 on Tuesday, and the Senate passed SB 43 early Wednesday.  The Assembly concurred in SB 43 later Wednesday, and that bill will go to Governor Walker for his signature.

On Wednesday, the Assembly also passed Assembly Bills 387 and 388, which deal with campaign finance laws and the Government Accountability Board, respectively.

Assembly Bill 387 repeals and recreates Chapter 11 of the Wisconsin Statutes, which contains Wisconsin's campaign finance laws.  Many of these changes were necessary to bring Wisconsin law into line with recent state and federal court decisions regarding the First Amendment rights of individuals and groups to participate in the political process.  AB 387 also revises many provisions that have been untouched since the early 1970s, such as contribution limits to state and local candidates.  The bill doubles those limits and requires them to be adjusted for inflation every five years.  Although many states allow corporations to contribute to candidate committees, AB 387 continues to prohibit corporations, as well as labor unions, cooperatives, and Indian tribes, from contributing to committees other than referendum or independent expenditure committees.  Independent expenditure committees are committees that make expenditures for express advocacy ("Vote for X!", "Defeat Y!", etc.) that are not in coordination with a candidate committee or party.  However, entities like corporations or labor unions may contribute to segregated funds set up by political parties or legislative campaign committees for purposes other than contributions to candidate committees.  Committees required to register under AB 387 will also be required to file campaign finance reports more frequently than under current law, and those reports must include the identities of contributors. 

Assembly Bill 388 addresses shortcomings in how the Government Accountability Board conducts its affairs.  Many of these issues were raised in a report published late last year by the nonpartisan Legislative Audit Bureau, including GAB staff failing to carry out their duties in a timely fashion, staff failing to follow the approved penalty schedule for violations, and the GAB failing to promulgate several rules required by statute.  In addition, concerns have also been raised about certain GAB employees acting in a partisan manner, despite their obligation to be nonpartisan.

The GAB was created in 2007 from the formerly separate Elections and Ethics boards.  Although that was a few years before I began my Assembly service, it is my understanding that the goal was to increase efficiency and consistency by combining their functions under a single board, made up of retired judges.  The proposal had almost unanimous support in the Legislature and was signed into law by then-Gov. Jim Doyle.  However, the high hopes for the GAB have not been satisfied, and AB 388 once again splits the agency between two commissions, an Elections Commission to oversee election administration and an Ethics Commission to administer the campaign finance and lobbying laws.

Each commission will be made up of members appointed by the Assembly speaker, the Senate majority leader, the Assembly minority leader, and the Senate minority leader.  The Governor will also appoint two additional members that he must select from lists prepared by Republican and Democratic legislative leadership (one from each list); in the case of the Elections Commission, the two additional members must be former county or municipal clerks.  In the event a third-party candidate for Governor receives more than 10% of the popular vote, that party will receive a seat on each commission as well.  (This happened under the old system when the Libertarian Party earned a seat on the Elections Board in the wake of the 2002 gubernatorial election, although it lost that seat after the 2006 election.)  Members will serve five-year terms.

It is important to note that there will be an equal number of Republicans and Democrats on each commission.  Neither party will be in a position to dictate policy unilaterally.  In addition to their other duties, each commission will be able to investigate violations of the laws it administers if it receives a sworn complaint from an outside party, unless the alleged violations carry a total penalty of $2,500 or less, in which case the commission may itself initiate the investigation.

AB 387 and AB 388 will go to the Senate for further consideration.

The Assembly will return to the floor Tuesday, October 27.

My office still has copies of the 2015-2016 State of Wisconsin Blue Book for interested residents of the 67th Assembly District.   Please contact my office if you would like a complimentary Blue Book, and be sure to include your mailing address.