As noted in the 53 to 56 blog, freshman Democratic State Rep. Cory Mason is proposing that the closed partisan caucuses--which in my judgement are the key reason why we are getting miserable government in Madison--be abolished.
Now for the advice. Mason must know that a bill proposing to open the closed caucuses will not get a serious hearing from the entrenched politicians in Madison. If he's sincere about wanting to end the closed caucuses, he should do two things:
1. Refuse to participate in a closed partisan caucus.
2. When his peers go into closed caucus, hold a "Peoples' Caucus" on the steps of the State Capitol. As time goes on, more and more people will attend the Peoples' Caucus, and the politicians will have no choice but to open the closed legislature.
Let me be clear: NO ONE is suggesting that the legislature should not be able to go into closed sessions for those narrow exemptions to the Open Meetings Law identified in state law. But to go into closed session to "review bills" and "devise strategy" is an insult to the citizens and makes a mockery of Wisconsin's once proud tradition of clean government.
So kudos to Rep. Mason for making a stride in the right direction. Let's hope he takes the next logical step and refuses to participate in a system he has now correctly identified as a sham.
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An observation I made a couple of years ago:
The secrecy issue is cyclical in the legislature. It periodically becomes a big deal, but soon slips out of view again.
In the post-Watergate reform era of the mid-1970s, the state budget was being written in closed meetings by a handful of Democrats who controlled the process (the Dems had both houses and the governorship in those glory days for Democrats). The media christened them the "Secret Seven" and began to track how many hours the seven had spent in secret, with a daily box score in the newspapers, which pounded away at the issue.
One of the seven was Norman Anderson, the powerful Assembly Speaker from a safe Democratic district in Madison, who lost his seat in a stunning 1976 primary upset to a young Capitol aide named Peter Bear.
An Oshkosh pizza parlor manager, a guy named Gary Goyke, was elected to the State Senate in 1974 and came to Madison vowing to force Senate Democrats to open their caucuses. He didn't get a very warm reception from his colleagues, but the Senate caucuses did, for the most part, open up, and the Assembly later followed suit.
But that was 30 years ago, and over time people and institutions backslide. By 1999, with one house in the hands of each party, we had gotten used to the idea of then-Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen and then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Chvala making their budget deals with each other in the back room. No one seemed to find that process unusual, let alone illegal.
Last month, the state's media celebrated Sunshine Week and devoted a considerable amount of time and space to the public's right to know. But it didn't shed much light on the legislature, where weekend conference calls, secret meetings and closed caucuses will shape the state's $50-billion budget.
By the time votes are taken in the light of day, where the public can see, the big decisions -- -the ones involving hundreds of millions of dollars -- will already have been made.
Link.
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