Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, Inc.

We aim to make real the promise of democracy so that everyone has an equal voice.
We aim to curb big and dark money.
We aim to ban gerrymandering in Wisconsin.
We aim to make voting easier, not harder.
We aim to reenfranchise formerly incarcerated people.
We aim to clean up Wisconsin’s courts.
We aim to educate the people of Wisconsin.
We aim to agitate for pro-democracy reforms.
We aim to help bring about racial equity and economic justice.

We run a unique and indispensable database of Wisconsin campaign donations and we track spending by outside groups.
We publish several original articles a week on our website, and we share those on social media and with news outlets in Wisconsin.
We write op-eds that are published by Wisconsin news outlets.
We provide quotes to reporters on a regular basis.
We appear on radio stations in Wisconsin about once a week.
We give dozens of public speeches in Wisconsin every year.
We testify at the State Capitol.
We work cohesively in coalition with other pro-democracy organizations.

Our executive director, with 40 years of experience in progressive nonprofits, is one of the leading pro-democracy voices in Wisconsin. An award-winning author and a much sought-after speaker, he also has shown agility in working with coalition partners. Our outreach and advocacy director, with 20 years of experience in Wisconsin pro-democracy nonprofits, is an expert on the gerrymandering issue and on the legislative process and on grassroots organizing. Our research director is a former reporter for the AP in Wisconsin, and he writes articles and reports for our website on a regular basis. Our data manager has been with the organization from the outset; he built and still runs our database of campaign donations.

We have been successful in affecting positive legislative changes in the past, including the creation of the Government Accountability Board and public financing for candidates for the Wisconsin Supreme Court. While both of those landmark reforms have since been rescinded, they pointed the way to cleaning up our political system.

We created and run this indispensable database on political donations in Wisconsin, and we track the political spending by outside groups. We do this so accurately that the media rely heavily on us for this solid information.

We’ve also helped to galvanize the grassroots in Wisconsin on two crucial issues:

1. Overturning Citizens United. Working with Wisconsin United to Amend, which has done the heavy lifting on this issue, we’ve given dozens of talks around the state in support of referendums and resolutions to amend the U.S. Constitution to proclaim, once and for all, that corporations aren’t persons and money isn’t speech. We’ve played a part in getting these passed in 146 communities in Wisconsin.

2. Banning gerrymandering in Wisconsin. We play an instrumental role in the Wisconsin Fair Maps Coalition. We published a handy toolkit on the subject, which has been very useful for grassroots groups. We came up with the color-coded map that shows the counties that have passed resolutions or referendums to ban gerrymandering. On an ongoing basis, we provide updated information on which communities are considering such resolutions or referendums. We testify on this issue. We hold press conferences on it. And our executive director gives dozens of speeches on it all over the state. As a result of our efforts and those of our coalition partners and grassroots activists, 50 out of the 72 counties of Wisconsin have now passed resolutions urging the Legislature to adopt nonpartisan redistricting.

In addition, we continue to work closely with other coalitions of pro-democracy nonprofits, including Community Shares of Wisconsin, Wisconsin Voices, the Money Out, Voters In coalition, and the effort to get a full and accurate Census count in Wisconsin.

In the “what’s next?” category, our executive director is writing a book on “Ten Ways to Make Wisconsin’s Democracy Work Better.” And we are expanding our coalition work in a number of ways. We are shedding light on the money behind the policies in Wisconsin that have endangered our environment and contributed to global warming. And we are co-writing op-eds on racial equity and economic justice with other leaders in the pro-democracy sector in Wisconsin.