Candidates for governor detail different paths to fighting government corruption
MADISON, Wis. (CBS 58) -- Democratic candidate for governor David Crowley made new campaign promises Monday, Sept. 14. He released four policies to fight corruption.
He says he wants to make sure politicians aren’t profiting off their position in office, and he laid out four policies he believes will restore trust in the public and keep politicians honest. First, he would ban state-elected or appointed officials from trading individual stocks. If they already have stocks, they would be required to put them into a mutual fund, index fund or blind trust to prevent them from knowing what they are investing in. He would also ban elected officials from participating in prediction markets.
“Prediction markets should be used for things like sports, not profiting off of our politics,” Crowley said.
He would also prohibit people from working for any Wisconsin utility or energy company they oversaw for two years after leaving office.
“We have had commissioners from the Public Service Commission leave that board and go work for utility companies, and we have absolutely seen it happen in Washington D.C. and we want to make sure we stop it here in the state of Wisconsin before it becomes too big of a problem,” Crowley said.
Crowley’s final policy proposal to fight corruption would require legislative documents and correspondents not be deleted before they are requested by the public or the press.
“We need to increase the fines on those who are contributing to the corruption, so I look forward to working with those in this building, and law enforcement, to figure out how we pave that way and hold folks accountable,” Crowley said.
Republican candidate Tom Tiffany campaigned on preventing waste, fraud and abuse earlier this year.
He was joined by the vice president in Milwaukee to highlight his commitment to that cause. We reached out to Tiffany to get his reaction to Crowley’s proposal, and he sent the following statement:
“I’ve never traded a single stock while serving in Congress, and I introduced legislation to prevent campaign funds from being paid to candidates’ spouses. I agree we need strong policies to root out fraud and corruption at every level of government, but I would go even further than David Crowley’s proposals. We should modernize OpenBook Wisconsin so taxpayers can easily search how their money is being spent, set clear response-time standards for open records requests, create agency dashboards that disclose contractors and violations, and strengthen ethics rules to prevent legislators from subcontracting for lobbying entities. As governor, I’ll also audit all of state government to uncover waste, fraud, and corruption and make sure taxpayers are getting the results they deserve."