GIVE US "SECOND CHOICE" AND UNTAINTED ELECTIONS
Give Us "Second Choice" and Untainted Elections Vigorous Recommendations for Majority Nominations and Coriupt Practices Act FROM MESSAGE OF GOV. FRANCIS E. McGOVERN THE PRIMARY LAW has been upon...
...This is a condition which should not be permitted to continue...
...Repeatedly single candidates and political committees have expended vast sums of money, some times more than a hundred thousand dollars, most of which was designedly employed to mislead the voters and befog the issues pending before them...
...In the face of an enlightened and growing public sentiment this evil has apparently increased in magnitude with each succeeding year...
...Like the vicious system of naval armament in existence among the more powerful countries of Europe under which the addition of a single war ship to the navy of one country compels the building of several by each rival power, and so on indefinitely until naval protection has become a frightful burden upon the people everywhere, so the present unregulated method of conducting political campaigns in this state has imposed irksome and humiliating conditions upon independent and honorable candidates and subjected the electorate to the temptations and corrupting influences which always attend the unrestricted distribution of money...
...The value of majority nominations may indeed at times prove inestimable...
...Many, good citizens now vote for men rather than for parties, and are more deeply interested in political ideas and legislative programs than in party organization or partisan candidates...
...Seeing that the support and votes of the majority wing will inevitably be split up and divided among several candidates the minority may, by solidifying its own support and combining its own votes in favor of a single candidate, win for him the nomination and so dominate the party and determine what its professed principles shall be...
...I therefore most urgently recommend the prompt enactment of an effective corrupt practices act...
...Defects, however, not generally foreseen or anticipated prior to its enactment, are now apparent...
...While the work of canvassing the returns is increased thereby, the difference in this respect is inconsiderable, compared to the advantage to the citizen and the community as a whole...
...In many cases this has been less than a majority of the voters of a party...
...In other words, as the law now stands, a divided majority within each party is at the mercy of a compact minority, although the latter may not numerically represent more than a third, a fourth or even a fifth of the party strength...
...As the law now stands every candidate for public office, whether he likes it or not, is placed at the mercy of men of great wealth who purpose, by the power of money, to annex to their possessions some desirable public office, either to satisfy a whim of their own or to place in public station creatures whom they intend shall always be subservient to them...
...Most of the arguments used against it at the time of its adoption are now seen to be without merit...
...It has neutralized to a large extent the beneficial effects of the reformation in our election machinery accomplished by the adoption of the Australian ballot and direct primaries...
...FRANCIS E. McGOVERN THE PRIMARY LAW has been upon the statute books of Wisconsin for more than five years and its operation has been frequently tested...
...Repeatedly, single candidates and political committees have expended vast sums of money, sometimes more than a hundred thousand dollars, most of which was designedly employed to mislead the voters and befog the issues pending before them...
...Existing political conditions greatly emphasize this defect...
...Generally speaking, majority rule wherever practicable has been regarded as a fundamental tenet in the government of public bodies and voluntary political associations...
...AN EFFECTIVE CORRUPT PRACTICES ACT THE excessive use of money in political campaigns has long been an unmitigated evil...
...Never was independence in politics more marked...
...Lavish expenditure of money through political channels for the purpose of influencing elections is a debauching and corrupting influence which has grown in prominence and baleful significance with each succeeding campaign...
...No more important or urgent legislative problem exists or can possibly be presented to you...
...The principal weakness in the law is that under it nominations may be made by the vote of a mere plurality...
...less in perpetuating and extending the present vicious system...
...but it becomes intolerable when it reaches the point of lawlessness and extravagance...
...Second Choice" is Necessary AS THE LAW now stands there is danger that whenever the majority wing or faction of any party is represented by a number of candidates in a primary campaign, a compact, cohesive and well drilled minority may defeat it...
...Thus voluntarily or under the spur of compulsion, all aspirants to public office are driven, as an alternative to submitting to certain defeat, to participate more or (Continued on page H.) LAVISH expenditures of money through political channels for the purpose of influencing elections is a debauching and corrupting influence which has grown in prominence and baleful significance with each succeeding campaign...
...It flows from a defect in the present law which may be remedied in large measure at least, if not completely, by permitting voters at the primary election to name their second choice candidate for each office...
...I earnestly recommend the enactment of such a law...
...The facts are all sufficiently clear...
...it should provide that no money whatever may be spent in political campaigns except for certain purposes which should be enumerated in the law...
...There has, moreover, been a growing tendency toward division in the ranks of each of the two leading political parties based upon deep and fundamental differences of view among the members of these organizations respecting political ideals and principles...
...In any form this practice is demoralizing, but it becomes intolerable when it reaches the point of lawlessness and extravagance...
...It is not secured by the primary law in its present form...
...In any form this practice is demoralizing...
...Nothing more sinister in its political tendencies can be imagined...
...But experience elsewhere has demonstrated that voters have no difficulty in marking their ballot in accordance with this plan...
...As a result, conflict of opinion within each party is now often more intense than between the parties, and a constant but almost imperceptible shifting and interchange of membership is taking place...
...Such a law should provide for publication by the state and at public expense of necessary information concerning the qualifications of candidates at all primary and general elections...
...and it should compel compliance with its provisions by rigorous penalties, including imprisonment and disqualification of candidates for public office...
...The influence of money in political campaigns in Wisconsin must he removed...
...it should require a strict system of public accounting of all money disbursed in political campaigns in order to avoid evasion, and to the end that every dollar spent may readily be traced from the original contributor to the ultimate recipient...
...it should prohibit all political activity whatever on either primary or general election day...
...Nothing more sinister in its political tendencies can be imagined...
...A review of the history of recent political campaigns is unnecessary in in order to demonstrate the importance of prompt legislative action upon this subject...
...In this situation it has become very important that the nomination of party candidates and determination of what shall constitute party principles may be made honestly and fairly and free from strategy or subterfuge...
...it should place an absolute limit on the amount of money which may be spent by or on behalf of any candidate for public office, this amount to depend in each case, of course, upon the importance of the office and to bear some fair relation to the salary incident thereto...
...This condition of affairs should no longer be tolerated...
...It involves the purity of our elections,—the independence of public officials, the integrity of the electorate, the security of representative government and the perpetuity of free institutions...
...Curb the Political Power of Money TO MEET CAMPAIGNS thus organized and financed and partially to offset their effect, rival candidates and committees have repeatedly incurred election expenses, more moderate indeed in amount but still far beyond what should have been disbursed...
...In most cares this change will result in a majority vote in favor of the successful candidate, thus meeting the objection just made to the present operation of the primary law and yet preserve unimpaired the great principle which underlies direct nominations—the right of the people themselves to make the ballot at the primary as well as to cast it on election day...
...In the interest of fair play among candidates, of official independence and political integrity, the present defenseless and demoralizing practices should be prohibited...
...The parties of today are in a transitional stage...
...It may be urged that the plan here proposed is complicated and will confuse the voter...
...Thus the real lines of political cleavage frequently run, not parallel to conventional party boundaries, but across them...
Vol. 3 • January 1911 • No. 3
