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Leading up to the November 7 election the national conservative group, All Children Matter, sent out a mailing giving Racine area voters reasons "to vote against John Lehman" the Democratic candidate and eventual winner of the 21st state Senate seat. There are several serious problems with this piece of literature and yesterday the bipartisan State Elections Board unanimously determined that this mailing constituted "express advocacy." Given their troubling record all across the country and the seriousness of this violation, they should face tough sanctions.
The key problem with the All Children Matter mailing are the magic words "vote against John Lehman." To do that kind of express advocacy in Wisconsin you must register before the campaign activity and report your source of donations and expenditures. All Children Matter did not do this prior to sending out the anti-Lehman mailing and thus violated Wisconsin Election law.
To make matters worse, All Children Matter already knew that they were going to focus on express advocacy even though they may now be playing coy on the issue in Wisconsin. What's Left pointed out early on that when All Children Matters filed a 990 form with the IRS they specifically made a statement of the group's purpose. In that document they state that they are organized to support non-federal committees and candidates. It seems clear by that statement that they are trying to influence elections, and that is exactly what they did here in Wisconsin. So why did they not file accordingly with the state if they knew that these were the activities in which they would be engaged? One additional question should be asked here, was All Children Matter being dishonest with the IRS (in their 990 filing) or were they being dishonest with the state of Wisconsin (by not filing properly here)? Someone should be working hard to find an answer to those questions.
This Wisconsin example is only the latest in All Children Matters checkered history of questionable activity. In October we mentioned in the Forward Report that All Children Matters has had these kinds of issues all over the country. From Florida to Missouri to Texas just to name a few. At some point someone has to hold them accountable for their behavior. The Wisconsin State Elections Board is in a position to do just that, hopefully they will make an example of this organization who has had plenty opportunity to right their troubled history with electoral law.
