Wisconsin reform candidate iffy on reforms
By Kirstin Ellison
Posted on Thu Aug 03, 2006 at 03:35:33 PM EST
Here's a campaign tip that seems pretty common sense to me: if you're running for Governor by painting yourself as the "reform candidate" to counter alleged incumbent corruption, don't be the only candidate to decline to answer an ethics survey.
"There was no conscious decision to not answer that," [US Representative Mark] Green campaign manager Mark Graul said Tuesday of the survey sent to candidates for state office by the League of Women Voters, Common Cause in Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.
"The conscious decision is, you've got a candidate for governor who's also a congressman, who's also a dad, who has a lot of things on his plate," Graul said. "And frankly, answering the myriad questionnaires that have come into the campaign isn't always at the top of his list."
Valid point. However, a little less valid when said candidate has made ethics and reform the cornerstone issue of his campaign. And yes, that's the Voters First Pledge that Common Cause is working so hard on this summer, so we're taking it a little personally. But I'll let the well-spoken Jay Heck of Common Cause Wisconsin explain why Green's excuses don't wash with us:
Jay Heck, executive director of Common Cause, said Green's refusal to answer the survey calls into question Green's "sincerity in really wanting to clean up the system.
"It just seems to us if he's willing to make reform and ethics an issue, he could have at least taken the time to answer six yes-or-no questions," Heck said. "We didn't ask essay questions."
Tags: Wisconsin, in the states, Voters First Pledge, ethics in government, money in politics, public financing, Mark Green (all tags)
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