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Topics: Civic Communication

We the People Wisconsin

It was a Kodak moment. Clad in a vivid red, white and blue shirt decorated with stars and stripes, Dave Johnston, an ordinary citizen, turned to the television camera and quietly, but firmly, demanded some specifics from the two candidates in the 1994 race for governor of Wisconsin.

His question was beamed by satellite from Eau Claire, Wisconsin, 200 miles away to Green Bay, where incumbent Gov. Tommy Thompson and his challenger State Sen. Chuck Chvala (pronounced Koala) debated in front of a live audience.

"We haven't bought the answers on property tax that you've given us," Johnston said. "And we would like a specific commitment from you tonight—both of you—that you would provide, in writing, in detail, your plan on how you are going to raise the revenues or cut the programs to meet the property tax cut."

Then the clincher: "And we would like to see them at least two weeks—in writing—before the election."

By the time Johnston sat down, thousands of Wisconsin residents, listening to the debate in person, on television or on the radio heard the two candidates promise to deliver the details, and deliver them in writing, by Johnston's deadline. The promises made front-page news around the state.

"Politicians can't blow off a voter's questions easily," said debate moderator Dave Iverson. "What was great at that moment was there was no escape."

"I don't think a reporter would necessarily have stood up and said it in quite that way," he said. "People would have thought that was sort of obnoxious."

Two weeks later, Chvala delivered his written plans in person to Johnston at his Eau Claire print shop. Thompson, who had to be reminded of his pledge, released his plan a week later.

The man in the American flag shirt had shown how a single citizen, using a public forum, could demand—and receive -information in the campaign that journalists were not able to unlock.

The Thompson-Chvala debate was sponsored by "We the People,Wisconsin," the country's longest running civic journalism initiative, a joint effort of one of the state's leading newspapers, public and commercial television, public radio, and a public relations firm. It was the eighth in a line of major events sponsored by the project's partners since the first "We the People" effort in the 1992 presidential primary.

Although it started as one-time presidential election project, "We the People,Wisconsin" has evolved over three and a half years into an ongoing exploration of the way politics and public policy affect the lives of every-day people, linking residents throughout the state via satellite hook-ups.

Whether using citizen caucuses or citizen juries, inviting citizens to interrogate gubernatorial candidates or listen to the closing arguments of state Supreme Court candidates, "We the People,Wisconsin" has sought to bypass formulaic journalism and give citizens creative ways to get information and interact with each other and with politicians.

Through the spring of 1995, more than 2,000 people had participated directly in "We The People" town hall meetings, debates and civic exercises. Hundreds of thousands have watched telecasts and rebroadcasts on Wisconsin Public Television or WISC-TV, Madison's CBS affiliate; they have listened to Wisconsin Public Radio or read the Wisconsin State Journal and other newspapers that covered the events.

Their experiences have included:

• Two-step town hall meetings: First, participants meet for several hours to sort out, with a facilitator, issues and ideas. Then, they question politicians or public officials directly. In the weeks before a candidate debate, for instance, town hall meetings are often held around the state to distill issues and help frame questions.
• Creative approaches to public policy issues, such as conducting a "hearing" on property tax relief, where voters assumed the role of legislators and where officials, including the governor, appeared as "expert witnesses." Another exercise involved voters writing their own state budget.
• Forums that challenge traditional notions of the candidate-voter relationship. In "You Be the Judge," two candidates for the state Supreme Court argued their cases for election to voters who sat in the justices' seats. In the process, citizens like Johnston have learned they can make a difference. Others, said the media partners, come to them wanting to "We the People" an issue, turning the project's very name into a verb.

A Strong Partnership

The three founding partners are:

• The Wisconsin State Journal. One of the state's leading papers and the capital's morning daily, the State Journal anchors the print coverage, providing in-depth reporting on the issues, editorial support of events and spot news coverage. Associate Editor Tom Still is both linchpin and spark plug, stoking enthusiasm at the newspaper and representing the paper to the partnership. Still also facilitates many of the town hall meetings and work sessions.

• Wisconsin Public Television. Also based in Madison, WPT reaches a network of eight stations and more than one million Wisconsin residents. Executive Producer Dave Iverson and a small group of WPT staffers produce the television component. Iverson also moderates the televised debates and forums, acting as a combination floor manager/director/moderator.

• Wood Communications Group. This public relations firm specializes in strategic planning and market research. Company president James B. Wood, although a one-time Democratic candidate for governor, is credited with leaving partisan issues behind when planning "We the People" events. Wood's staff of experienced event planners provide the logistical support, fundraising, and organizational strength often lacking in projects managed by journalists. A skilled communicator, Wood also facilitates many of the events.

In 1994, two more news organizations became formal partners:

• WISC-TV3: The CBS affiliate simulcasts some of the "We the People" events and airs others in an edited version. News Director Tom Bier has committed his newsroom to in-depth coverage of issues and spot news coverage. In a show of partnership, WISC featured Wisconsin Public Television's Iverson as an analyst on Election Night `94. "We had no desire to be parasitic about it. We wanted some involvement from our people in this," Bier said. His goal over the next couple of years is to help his staff find ways to incorporate the project comfortably into the station's overall news mission.

• Wisconsin Public Radio: The 11-station network reaches 134,000 people a week. Even before becoming a formal partner, WPR had simulcast "We the People" forums. In addition, WPR produces news reports and call-in shows before and after "We the People" events. Current Affairs Director Joy Cardin credited the project with raising WPR's profile. "Every time there's a story about "We the People," we're mentioned," she said.

The First Event

The March 1992 event whetted their appetite for more and Iverson approached Still about keeping it going. Seven months later, town hall meetings in the U.S. Senate race were held. Since then, the partnership has produced several civic journalism efforts every year.

Still had been the State Journal's chief political writer when in 1985 he took over the editorial page; he became associate editor in 1990. In addition to editorials, Still has written a syndicated weekly political column for the past decade. He came to civic journalism out of a concern about what he saw as deeply rooted cynicism among participants in the political process and a sense of alienation between the public, the press and the politicians. "I was part of the problem," he said. "I think the public had come to view journalists as being part of this large conspiracy to cut them out of the political dialogue."

To Iverson, "We the People" is "following the most traditional definition of journalism possible, which is the public's right to know. We're just going about it in a somewhat different way. We're giving people the chance to know things first hand. We're letting people ask the kinds of questions they want to ask."

The State Journal and Wisconsin Public Television were a good match. "I wouldn't initiate a project like this without a really strong broadcast or print partner," Still said. "We've discovered the whole of our effort is greater than the sum of our individual parts."

Iverson agreed. "Public TV is not very powerful on its own. It can become exponentially more powerful if it's hooked up with other entities." Both realized right away they'd need more than a strong print-broadcast partnership. "It seems to me that one of the reasons we're unique is that the Wood Communications Group was in on this from Day One," Still said. Wood's staffers distribute participant and media packets, handle all the event details, and collect feedback.

Wood said he has watched many ambitious projects fall apart without the right logistical support. "The real danger lies in media people sitting around and saying, `Oh, wow, let's put on a show," he said.

Even so, all involved acknowledge that teaming newspapers and broadcasters with a public relations firm would not work for every civic journalism project. Wood's reputation and his relationships with the Madison media fit in with "We the People," but not every town has a Jim Wood who transcends the usual distrust the press has for public relations. Also, not every town has a public relations or special events firm willing to work for convictions instead of profit.

"If you had told me five years ago that I would have turned in a meeting and asked someone who's the head of a public relations firm what he thought of a format idea, I would have said, `You're batty.' You know, I just wouldn't have done it," Iverson said. "And—what's more—I would have thought it was unethical and sort of contrary to most of what journalists like to think they do.

"So, you have to learn to begin to realize that good ideas can pop up in different places."

Sponsors began underwriting the effort in late 1992 but each media partner makes a major contribution. Even now, Wood's firm, for instance, only receives about 30 cents for every dollar he could bill a typical client. The money is distributed on a formula based on the cost of a particular program and the participation of each partner in that program.

The total estimated cost of "We the People" since 1992 is about $425,000; about 54 percent of that has been borne by the partners. The partial reimbursements are a way to ensure that the financial impact on each partner is managed. "If you don't, eventually the project will not continue," said Wood. To help offset some of the costs, Wood has raised about $265,000 from sponsors as diverse as the Miller Brewing Co., Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, and The Wisconsin Education Association Council. Roughly half of that has been raised for the 1995 series of topics alone, signaling the growing impact of the initiative.

At first, sponsors were recruited one project at a time. In 1994, though, the partners decided to try to recruit five major sponsors, who would contribute $30,000 each a year. With that kind of budget, the partners wouldn't have to scramble to raise funds for every program. The first year they recruited three sponsors who contributed $30,000 apiece and one at $15,000. Sponsors below the "major" level are acknowledged by the phrase "with additional funding by... ."

The use of underwriters or sponsors was nothing new to the public broadcast partners, but it represented a change for the State Journal.

"Potential conflict of interest is something we always need to watch for," said Still. He said some "We the People" topics may have hit a sponsor's nerve but no one has tried to influence the program. For instance, teen alcoholism came up frequently during the "We the Young People" series, but Miller Brewing signed up again for 1995.

Still wonders if journalists are more concerned about potential conflicts than the general public. "I think we've gone from worrying about it sometimes to agonizing," said Still, adding that only other journalists have raised the issue in the context of "We the People."

The partners seek to present balance in the sponsorships by trying whenever possible to recruit competing philosophical sponsors, Wood said. For instance, a debate between candidates for state school superintendent was co-sponsored by a half-dozen entities, including the state's largest teacher's union, the school board and the chamber of commerce.

The high profile of "We the People" helps, too. "There are too many partners, it's too public and the partners have been straightforward in all of the fund raising in what people do—and do not—get for their sponsorships," Wood said.

As the partners' efforts grew more frequent and ambitious, they developed better organization and communications. "We the People" partners rely on conference calls with a designated note taker distributing the results, frequent partner meetings, an annual event calendar and postmortems after every event.

As an associate account executive at Wood Communications, Lynn Pappas handles the logistics for "We the People." Relying heavily on computer spreadsheets and databases, Pappas produces a budget for each event, tracks registrants and prepares a series of to-do lists per event with assignments for all the partners.

Even though events differ, she has been able to design templates that can be used for every event. For instance, one two-page document lists all of the logistical elements for a program—recruitment, location, materials, signs, staffing and confirmations—and the tasks for each element. Running a newspaper ad to recruit participants entails designing the ad, determining an ad schedule, choosing regions to target, contacting papers for space, setting up a method for recording responses and a follow-up procedure.

"If you don't have somebody doing the logistics, it's not going to happen," Wood said. It doesn't have to be a PR or special events firm. "If you can reach out into your community, you will find most of the skills."

The media partners have their own routines to make sure events get enough attention. For instance, at the State Journal, events are preceded by a curtain raiser that usually appears on the front page and is soon followed with a column and/or an editorial by Still. Reminders run intermittently. Stories on related issues usually are published once a week for the preceding month. The event is covered as spot news, then Still follows up with columns and editorials.

Learn As You Go

It could not have been more complicated.

Many of the problems stemmed from the chaotic nature of presidential campaigns. Paul Tsongas agreed to participate, then dropped out of the race. Bill Clinton and Jerry Brown couldn't be in the same place at the same time. By the time the dust settled, Bill Clinton was in Indianapolis, Jerry Brown was in front of a live audience at the TV studio in St. Paul. Both were linked to town hall sites in Beloit and Wausau.

The upside? "We discovered we could work well together under pressure," Iverson said. That first production won a regional Emmy; "We the People" has since won another regional Emmy.

The 1992 presidential event was followed by a series of four fall town hall meetings that led to a debate between U.S. Senate candidates Bob Kasten, a Republican, and Russ Feingold, a Democrat.

And Wisconsin's "We the People" just kept planning more civic exercises. In 1993, the partnership for the first time tackled single issues with town hall meetings on the state budget and property tax relief, a "fix the federal budget" exercise, and town hall meetings on outcome-based education. "We the People" also brought civic journalism to statewide politics with a focus on the race for state superintendent of schools. Again, it used a series of town hall meetings to prepare for a debate.

"[In] each one of these programs, we learn something," Wood said. "No two are alike. Each issue is going to be different. You've got to play to the roles and skills and strengths of each of the partners."

The partners seem willing to take on any issue—no matter how dry—as long as they can find some way to make it interesting.

Take property taxes, a hot topic in Wisconsin. "It's a mystery, and if we can do anything to demystify that process then we'll be on to something," said Still. Or the state budget. "Our eyes glazed over," laughed WISC-TV's Tom Bier. ". . . The actual budget message delivered by the governor is 1,200 pages. . . . So how do you do this?"

Usually, the partners search for a mix that eventually brings voters and politicians together to discuss the issue in a way that either builds consensus or moves the debate forward. The property tax forum, during which citizens acted as legislators and elected officials appeared as the witnesses, started with citizens split 50-50 on the merits of Gov. Thompson's plan for reform. By the end of the hearing, which involved Thompson as an expert witness, the vote was 70-30 in his favor.

Recruiting

Recruitment often takes two different tacks: advertising and targeting. Newspaper ads include a description of the event, locations of the town meetings and a clip-out coupon for registration. The coupon has spaces for name, address and some demographic information in addition to check-off boxes to choose a location.

Targeting is often necessary to ensure diversity in a predominantly white state and can include calls to churches or community organizations; mail-in registration forms also have a space for ethnic origin.

Diversity isn't the only problem. Organizers must constantly guard against efforts by special interests to stack the house. Some people were asked to leave the Green Bay debate because they were recognized as representatives of special interests or candidates.

Because "We the People" pre-dates so many other civic journalism projects, the partners had to start from scratch. "I would have liked to have known the most effective way to get a cross section of people to show up at a town meeting. You don't want a crowd of the same old insiders," said Still. "I think I would have appreciated a road map on how to diversify in the minority sense, too."

Attendance can vary widely from event to event. Two dozen people might be a healthy number for a town hall meeting in a small town like Edgar but the same number seems woefully small when the event is in Milwaukee. Four hundred people would be a full house in an auditorium in Green Bay as would 90 people in a state capitol hearing room in Madison. One factor in turnout might be the amount of time involved; town hall meetings or civic exercises can run from two to three hours.

The partners have had to learn to judge success not by the numbers, but by the quality of the discussion. To that end, "We the People" often provides materials that aid and often encourage discussion. For instance, participants in "The People's State Budget" work sessions received a nine-page handout with "rules" for writing the budget, descriptions of the challenges in eight different areas and a check list of choices. Each participant could choose one option per budget area. Each packet also contained a reprint of budget charts from the State Journal. The partners worked with state budget officials and a taxpayers' watchdog group to narrow nearly 3,000 pages and myriad topics to eight issues and nine pages. Still turned the results into a handout that was produced by the State Journal. With that information in hand, participants had enough background to make difficult choices.

Decisions to spend more than the governor's recommendation had to be balanced by raising taxes, delaying property tax relief, making deeper cuts in another program or pushing spending into the next budget cycle. Money saved by cutting more than the governor recommended had to be used to cut income or sales taxes, provide more property tax relief, spend more on another program or increase the budget surplus.

On some occasions, the partners distributed booklets or stapled sheaves of paper with photocopies of relevant newspaper articles. The 75 participants in "You Be the Judge" were given 17 stapled pages with articles about the two candidates, the campaign and the state Supreme Court.

In the last weeks of the 1994 statewide election, "We the People" even encouraged voters to stop by the State Journal offices for free copies of the partners' "Voter's Self-Defense Manual." The manual contained State Journal articles on campaign issues, profiles of candidates, political job descriptions and a guide to watching political ads.

Callers to Wisconsin Public Television's toll-free number could ask to have a copy mailed to them. Overall, about 300 copies were distributed. At registration, each person is given a large white envelope bearing the "We the People" logo. The content varies but usually includes a name tag, a welcome page explaining the process, a "We the People" fact sheet with background about the project and details about that particular event, a question form, note paper, and a pen.

Other items help the partners more than the participants: an anonymous participant survey, a photo release form and, if the town hall meeting precedes the debate or televised program, an invitation to attend the next event and a registration form with space for a question the participant would like raised. The form has a check box for people who can't attend but want to receive information about "We the People."

Reporters covering the televised events receive a glossy folder that includes copies of the information provided to participants, details about the partners and the event's sponsors, a list of the pre-registered participants, a media contact sheet, clips from past coverage, and logos for black and white reproduction.

Spreading the Word

"I think we can be the impetus to discussing important statewide issues. I see the TV show as a beginning and not an end to the discussion," WISC's Bier said. The fall 1994 "Voter's Self-Defense Manual" was another form of outreach, an effort to keep the issues in front of the people between events. Future plans call for distributing more materials that outline various positions on a "We the People" subject.

Finally, in addition to replying to the frequent requests for information on "We the People," Still and Iverson have become ambassadors for civic journalism, working with media organizations in other states that are interested in doing civic journalism projects.

Still sees "We the People" as enlightened self-interest."The enlightened part is we're serving as this conduit, this facilitator, to help make a better democracy, a better discourse. And the self-interest is by getting people in on the ground floor, getting them more excited about that kind of process, we think they become better, or more regular, newspaper readers."

After nearly four years of intense activity, none of the "We the People" journalists has any plans to pull back. "I never feel more useful," Iverson said. "You know, we're all familiar with the phrase photo op journalism. Sometimes, I've thought of this as citizens' op journalism: That if you give people the chance, the opportunity, to be citizens, they take it."

"We The People,Wisconsin":
A Chronology and Lessons Learned

About 300 participants attended town hall meetings in Wisconsin and Minnesota; their meeting with candidates aired live on public television across the country and was simulcast on public radio.

Town hall meetings to frame the discussion were conducted simultaneously in Wausau and Beloit, Wisconsin, and St. Paul, Minnesota. Then they were linked together for a 90-minute live town hall meeting with Bill Clinton in Indianapolis and Jerry Brown in St. Paul. Described by one organizer as "a high-tech house of cards waiting to tumble," the complex town halls included the use of electronic voting cards. The handheld devices, similar to a remote control, were used by participants in the preliminary town hall meetings to prioritize issues and answer questions. St. Paul Pioneer-Press and KTCA, Channel 2, the Twin Cities' public television affiliate, initiated the event and invited the Wisconsin media partners. The evening was sponsored by a half-dozen corporations, foundations and Beloit College.

• Lesson: To get a quality discussion, give participants an opportunity to work together as a group before they meet with candidates. Under the "We the People" model, citizens start with a "venting" session that leads to their prioritizing issues and framing sample questions. "It started as instinct and became conscious practice," recalled Iverson.

• Lesson: You have to be highly organized and highly flexible at the same time.

• Results: Mike and Sherie Johnson of Milton, Wis., both HIV-positive, asked the candidates if they would take an AIDS test. Brown hemmed and hawed, but Clinton said he would. Since then, the Johnsons, whose infections can be traced to a former girlfriend of Mike's, have spoken to thousands of Wisconsin school children about the dangers of unprotected heterosexual sex.

October 1992
U.S. Senate Race—Kasten/Feingold
Approximately 400 participants.

Preliminary town hall meetings in Beloit, Milwaukee and Wausau paved the way for the October 16 debate in Madison between Republican Robert Kasten and Democrat Russell Feingold. This was the first event organized solely by the Madison partners. The debate aired live on Wisconsin Public Television and Wisconsin Public Radio.

• Lesson: Watch out for stacked town hall meetings. Candidates and single-issue proponents will try to bring in their supporters. Veteran political observers Still and Wood recognized several such proponents at the preliminary town halls. They were allowed to participate at the preliminary events, but were told they would not be welcome for the televised event. "We do like to maintain some control over who's really there in the final analysis," Still said.

• Results: Statewide headlines out of that debate dispelled the myth that civic journalism is a boring exercise in political participation.

Spring 1993
Wisconsin Superintendent of Schools Race
Approximately 250 participants.

Town hall meetings in Milwaukee, Madison, Appleton and Platteville led to the April 2 debate between John Benson and Linda Cross, candidates for an office that has a major impact on the children of Wisconsin. This was the first effort to take "We the People" to the state government level.

• Lesson: It is possible to generate interest in a traditionally low-profile race. While it cannot be scientifically attributed to "We the People," voting turnout in this race was 25 percent higher than previous years. Also, the value of pre-event promotion cannot be overrated. After the Kasten/Feingold debate, the "We the People" partners wondered if more publicity would improve attendance. With a low-profile race and two town halls scheduled for smaller towns this time around, pre-event promotion was even more crucial. "We were speaking at Kiwanis clubs, Rotary clubs, on 500-watt stations, speaking at schools, and to various community groups trying to explain who we were and why we were coming to town," Still said. He gauges success by the 75-person turnout in the farm community of Platteville.

• Results: Organizers described the debate as a "defining moment" in the race, one that probably helped throw the election to Benson because of Cross's assertion that the state's largest teachers union and the state education department protected child molesters. Cross was gaining in the polls until that night, then started to slip back. Said Iverson: "She wasn't ready for prime time." It was the first time a real turning point in a campaign occurred during a "We the People" event.

June 4, 1993
Property Tax Relief Town Hall Meeting/Hearing
Approximately 90 participants.

After a town hall meeting in a state capitol hearing room, a panel of citizens from around the state sat in the legislators' chairs for a televised "hearing" with the governor and other expert witnesses seated below in the traditional witness area. The topic was a proposed property tax rate freeze. The panel focused on issues and questions developed during the town hall meeting.

• Lesson: The setting can play an important role. Placing the panel of citizens on a raised platform and the "politician/experts" below them reinforced the idea that the participants were in control and the politicians were there to respond to them.

July 1993
Federal Deficit Town Hall Meetings/Hearing
Approximately 300 participants. Co-sponsored by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

Wisconsin citizens gathered in record numbers at town hall meetings in Milwaukee and Madison to try their hand at reducing the federal deficit. During the July 23 televised program, two Wisconsin congressman were allowed to buttonhole the budget slashers to preserve their legislative programs. Participants were given budget worksheets and other materials to help in the decision-making process. During the final broadcast, the participants split into smaller groups to discuss a specific deficit issue as cameras and fish-pole mikes allowed the audience to follow along.

• Lesson: It's possible to take an issue as complicated as the federal deficit and engage people and elected officials.

March 3, 1994
Health Care Reform on Trial
Approximately 50 participants.

In a mock trial in front of a circuit court judge, a jury of eight Wisconsin citizens heard "testimony" on four national health care proposals from two congressmen, a state legislator and an economist from Washington, D.C. After questioning the four experts, the jury went off and deliberated. Their verdict was in favor of the single-payer system.

• Lesson: Preceding the "trial" with a statewide poll on health care solutions helped to frame a more useful discussion. The poll also provided names of potential participants that were used to help build an audience that reflected the state's demographics.

Spring 1994
We the Young People
Approximately 165 participants.

This series of programs targeted high school students nearing voting age in an effort to give them a voice—and an interest—in the political process. In mid-April, students at three high schools were asked to fill out surveys about the most important issues facing them and their greatest concerns about the future. Similar surveys were sent to lawmakers to see what they thought was important to the teenagers of Wisconsin. During late April and early May, town hall meetings were held at high schools in La Crosse, Edgar and Milwaukee, using the survey results as a guide. On June 15, a total of 50 students met in a State Capitol room in Madison for a live 90-minute broadcast. The goal: to narrow the list of concerns and issues into a short agenda that could be presented to candidates for statewide office. Several students were invited to ask questions at the fall U.S. Senate and gubernatorial debates.

• Lesson: There was real value in bringing together young people of different backgrounds; they talked to each other and have carried on the relationship.

• Results: The sessions opened a dialogue with elected officials, who were surprised to learn that young adults have the same concerns as their parents.

• Results: While watching the town hall meeting, Kevin Miller, a consultant with the Department of Public Instruction, realized the state needed to educate students about employment options that did not require a four-year degree. Miller promised to work with state legislators to follow up on the students' concerns about getting into college, paying for it and then finding jobs.

Perhaps the most complicated event since the multistate presidential-candidate debate, the focus on the governor's race between Republican incumbent Tommy Thompson and Democratic challenger State Sen. Chuck Chvala started with October town hall meetings in Marathon County and Milwaukee. Another town hall meeting preceded the October 17 debate, held at the University of Wisconsin in Green Bay. Three smaller town hall meetings took place that night in Beloit, Racine and Eau Claire; all three took part in a post-debate discussion on Wisconsin Public Radio. Eau Claire was able to participate in the Green Bay debate through a video satellite feed. John A. Rapp, a Beloit College political science professor who served as facilitator for the Beloit town meeting, said, "Above all, people really appreciated how seriously their ideas and input were taken by the radio hosts and how much autonomy they had to jump in with their ideas."

• Results: A citizen found an opportunity to ask one of the best questions of the campaign: Would the candidates deliver their property tax plans, in writing, before the election? Said Iverson: "It showed how citizens can demand a different kind of accountability than reporters can."

• Results: Drawing on their summer experience, teenage participants from "We the Young People" took on the candidates. Greg Toliver, a black senior from Milwaukee, and Libby Soczka, a white senior from Edgar—two people who otherwise might never have met—together asked the same question about crime: How would the candidates make them feel safe in their own neighborhoods? Later, Chvala met with Toliver in Milwaukee.

Fall 1994
Campaign for Senate
Approximately 50 participants.

Iverson incorporated the "We the People" approach into the August 19 edition of his weekly magazine show, Weekend, on Wisconsin Public Television. He invited three "We the Young People" participants to the television studio as panelists during a mini-forum with the four candidates for the Republican U.S. Senate nomination.

The partners planned a full-fledged "We the People" town hall meeting/debate between the GOP and Democratic candidates, but incumbent Herb Kohl declined to participate. Undaunted, the partners turned the proposed debate into a 60-minute election special produced live on October 28 in front of a 50-member studio audience and simulcast on Wisconsin Public Radio and Wisconsin Public Television. The participants and callers from around the state questioned Republican challenger Robert Welch for 25 minutes. The rest of the program included voter education pieces on ad-watching and property tax plans then concluded with a 12-minute "Talk Back to Journalists" segment, featuring a political writer from Milwaukee, the editor of the State Journal and the editorial director of WISC-TV.

• Lesson: Kohl's decision not to participate prompted the partners to form a new policy: Candidates are now told a candidate forum will be held even if they decline to participate. The partners also learned that having a good track record doesn't ensure candidate participation.

March 24, 1995
You Be the Judge—the Wisconsin
Supreme Court Race
Approximately 75 participants.

"We the People,Wisconsin" again spotlighted a seldom-noticed race. State Supreme Court candidates Patrick Crooks and Ann Walsh Bradley presented their case for election to voters gathered in the Supreme Court's Capitol courtroom. A seven-member citizens' panel sat where the justices usually sit while the judicial candidates occupied the lawyers' arena. This was the first live television broadcast from the Supreme Court. Originating live from the chambers instead of an auditorium gave people a sense of reality about one of the least understood areas of state government.

• Lesson: During the warm-up before the event, participants were warned that the judicial candidates would not be able to answer certain kinds of questions and were given some examples. Still, that didn't stop them from asking inappropriate questions. Said Iverson: "Asking where they stand on welfare reform is not really a question that you ask a judge." Next time "We the People" tackles a judicial race, the partners will make a more concerted effort to explain the limits imposed by the code of judicial conduct. Results: "You Be the Judge" drew attention to the need for the Supreme Court to reevaluate a policy prohibiting judicial candidates from talking about issues and prompted an invitation for "We the People" media partners and other journalists to meet with court members to open up the process.

April 1995
The People's State Budget
Approximately 200 participants.

Two- and three-hour sessions were held in Eau Claire, Racine and Madison during which participants wrestled with drafting their own versions of the state budget. The Madison working session on April 20 was followed by hour-long live broadcasts in which participants addressed the issues raised during the working sessions. The show ended with legislators from the Joint Finance Committee reacting to the participants' ideas. Once again, hand-held voting machines were used. The session was aired on WISC, Wisconsin Public Television and Wisconsin Public Radio; it was rebroadcast on public television the following day. Public radio conducted a two-hour call-in show on the subject the morning after the live broadcast. The "We the People,Wisconsin" partners pledged to present the results of the work sessions to the state legislature.

• Lesson: Scheduling the exercise at 9 p.m. nearly eliminated the number of participants who could come from other parts of the state. Pre-registration for the live event was 132, but less than half showed up. The result: too many people from Madison, many of whom were state employees with their own agenda. "There were too many people whose minds were made up before they ever got in," Still said. Changing the time to early evening or a weekend and using live satellite feeds to link sites are among the options being considered.

  Adding to the problem, the partners cut some organizational corners in order to do the program before the state finance committee finished its work for the session. Usually, pre-registrants receive a confirmation and registration information but not this time. "It definitely made a difference," said Lynn Pappas.

• Lesson: Partners realized they needed to do a better job of recruiting and screening the audience. Said Iverson: "As `We the People' gets older, special interests figure out how to take advantage of you and we have to react in new ways and become more sophisticated in the way we recruit and screen the audience."

More Information

The Pew Center for Civic Journalism
The Poynter Institute

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