• We entered all contributions for the 1999 election cycle (7/1/98-6/30/99)
• There is no limit on how much candidates can contribute to their won campaigns.
• Candidates are required to disclose each individual contribution of $20 or more. Smaller contributions can be lumped together and reported as "unitemized." Several candidates reported small amounts as such.
• Individuals can give no more than $250 to Common Council candidates during the election cycle. Political action committees are limited to contributions of $200 for the cycle to any one candidate.
• Conduits can give unlimited amounts of money to candidates, though each person making contributions via conduits are subject to the limit of $250. Conduits operate like special interest banks: people give money to a conduit and have what resembles an account. Then during the election individuals can direct the conduit to make a contribution to a particular candidate using funds from their account. Several people make such authorizations at the same time; the practical way this works is that the candidates receive one large check from, for example, the Madison Area Apartment Association, with a letter noting how much of that large check is from each individual. The candidate then reports these contributions as individual contributions, all the while knowing the special interest associated with the money.
• Conduits are supposed to file the letter they send with their contribution to the candidate with the city clerk; candidates are supposed to indicate which contributions came via conduits. Last Spring the MAAA failed t file timely reports until forced to do so by the District Attorney after Progressive Dane filed a complaint. The WI Realtors’ Association has not filed timely reports to this day on many of their conduit contributions. Additionally, many candidates, in particular Santiago Rosas and potentially Tim Bruer failed to note which of their contributions came from conduits. As such there are contributions in these files that may have come from conduits but are not noted as such. We will continue to try to fill in the blanks.
• Candidates are only required to list the employer and occupation of contributors who give them more than $100 during a calendar. As such, many of the contributions listed to not have employers and occupations identified. By cross-referencing contributions we have been able to identify the employer and occupation of many contributors. For example is John Smith gave contributions of $50, $75 and $150 to three different candidates and reports that he is a carpenter on his $150 contribution we went back and filled in the fact that he is a carpenter for his other two contributions. We will continue to fill in blanks where we can.
• If a candidate receives a contribution and returns it, he or she must report it as income (when it came in) and an expenditure (when they returned it). For these pages we have not included returned contributions and not counted their return as expenditures.
• In-kind contributions are included here. In some cases candidates reported ads run on their behalf as in-kind contributions. We believe those are considered independent expenditures, not contributions and therefore did not include them here. We are confirming this belief, and if they are supposed to be disclosed as in-kind contributions we will add them to the lists.
• Issue ad expenditures, such as the reported $50,000 spent by a group backed by the MAAA on attack mailings are not included here. They are separate problem emerging at all levels of elections, primarily because there are no reporting requirements. There remains an outstanding complaint filed by Progressive Dane stating the MAAA should report their spending on these so-called issue ad expenditures. That complaint remains unresolved by the District Attorney.

1. We scanned the information into the computer. Copies of the information would have cost us .25 per page.
2. We entered it into an Access database.
3. We spent countless hours verifying our entries and trying to figure out where the candidates made errors in adding and reporting.
4. We analyzed the data and created charts.
5. We put it up on a website.

The group of volunteers was lead by:

• Volunteer Coordinator: Nick Berigan  (Affordable Housing Action Alliance,  PD Housing Committee)
• Data entry/analysis/charting: Michael Jacob (Progressive Dane member, former Wisconsin Democracy Campaign staffer)
• Webmaster: Brenda Konkel (Progressive Dane member, Affordable Housing Action Alliance

Why did we provide this information?

1. We think the public should have access to this information and we wanted to show that it wasn't that difficult to do. We hope the City will do this in the future.
2. We want the current information to be available to the public.
3. We all work on local issues and see the effects of money on local races.
4. We are frustrated about the amount of money spent by big money interests on elections and the influence it has on local policy.
5. We are frustrated by some special interest spending in elections and we want to show the public who's buying the elections.
6. We are concerned about the amount of money spent in the last election and want the public so see how much it will take to win future elections.
7. We are hopeful that it will lead to further campaign finance reform.
8. We want to see excessive local spending stopped and to avoid the outrageous spending at the State and National level.

This information could be provided to you - the voter - by the City Clerk's Office. Please join us in helping to make this happen. If you are interested in working on this with us, volunteer!

Ald. Gary Poulson has introduced an ordinance that would require this information to be available on the internet. One of the major complaints is that this will take the City staff too long to do this. If volunteers can do it, why can't they? In fact, it would take them much less time since the City Clerk is obligated by law to audit the reports and they have access to the records - - without cost and they don't need to scan the reports. City staff could complete this same task in less than 2 1/2 weeks of one staff person's time every other year. Wouldn't you like to see this information be more accessible? If so, e-mail city clerk's office to encourage them to do this or e-mail Aldperson Gary Poulson and let him know you support his ordinance.