Thursday, September 12
2:53 pm
The Wisconsin Ethics Commission databases are all simultaneously down for maintenance. This includes the searchable databases for campaign finance and lobbying activities.
Was this planned? When will they be back online?
Via email. we asked the Ethics Commission if they were aware that the CFIS was down, how long it had been down and if they had an idea when it would be back online.
Their response? It appears this is an unplanned outage and it is unknown when systems will come back online.
To his credit, the Administrator of the Commission immediately responded to our inquiry and even offered to attempt to manually conduct a simple data request if we desired.
We are aware. We are working diligently to bring it back up as quickly as possible. If you are just looking for data, let me know. We might be able to get it for you.
Thanks,
Dan
Daniel A. Carlton, Jr.
Administrator
The Wisconsin Ethics Commission is led by an Carlton, Jr who is appointed by the Commission and who is subject to confirmation by the Wisconsin State Senate. The Commission is comprised of six members, who serve for 5-year terms.
“The mission of the Ethics Commission is to promote and strengthen the faith and confidence of the people of Wisconsin in their government, support the operation of open and responsible government, preserve the integrity of the governmental decision-making process, and protect the rights of individuals through the administration of Wisconsin’s campaign finance, lobbying, and ethics laws, and through readily available and understandable disclosure of information.,” according to the agency’s website.
As for the composition of the Ethics Commission, a detailed description of the appointment of Commissioners is provided in WIS. STAT. § 15.62.
Per the main website, which remained operational, “one member is appointed by the senate majority leader; one appointed by the senate minority leader; one appointed by the speaker of the assembly; one appointed by the assembly minority leader; and two are individuals who formerly served as judges for a court of record in this state, who were elected to the positions in which they served, and who are nominated by the governor with the advice and consent of a majority of the members of the senate confirmed.”
Journalists and citizens utilize the commission’s website to access and report findings gleaned from the reams of data therein. They are important tools that keep citizens informed, something that is particularly important during election season.
We will update this story when the sites are back online.
