The War in Wisconsin=Big $ Cash for Democrats

 

The fight pitting Wisconsin Republican Governor Scott Walker against labor unions and their supporters continues to rumble on, with a state bureau publishing the controversial “budget repair bill” in apparent defiance of a county judge’s temporary restraining order against doing so. If you’re the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, you want to overturn Walker’s bill as soon as possible—but you also want the drawn-out fight surrounding the controversial legislation to stretch as long as possible.

Here’s why: The state Democratic Party raised $1.4 million in less than two months, from February 1 through March 21, according to a new fundraising filing. As Milwaukee Public Radio reports, that’s $250,000 more than the party raised in all of 2010, a hotly contested election year in which Democrats fought desperately to stem the tide of Republican victories sweeping the country. (They failed, and both legislative chambers as well as the governor’s seat flipped from blue to red.)

The Democratic Party has capitalized on every twist and turn in the fight in Madison to hit up their base for cash. After the 14 Democrats in the state Senate fled Wisconsin to block a vote on Walker’s bill, the State Senate Democratic Committee used the self-imposed exile of the “Wisconsin 14” to raise $785,000 on the back of the Democrats’ departure. Those Democrats returned to Wisconsin on March 12 after Senate Republicans used a constitutional end-run to pass Walker’s bill without the Democrats present.

Since the return of the “Wisconsin 14,” Deomcrats have fundraised around the recall of the eight Republican state Senators who voted for Walker’s bill and who are eligible for recall. (Efforts by Republican activists are also underway to recall eight senate Democrats who opposed Walker’s bill.) Democrats hope to have enough signatures to trigger a recall by May.

 

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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