No evidence of wrongdoing, but plenty of innuendo in coverage

You may have missed this, hidden back inside the Sunday Crossroads section of the Journal Sentinel. The whole section is hard to find, unless someone is determined to read the editorials. I suspect that's a fairly small number.

The editorial, about the Public Service Commission's approval of the sale of a nuclear power plant after utility employees contributed to Gov. Jim Doyle's campaign, said:

There is no reason to believe that Doyle influenced the decision by the PSC - the majority of whose commissioners were appointed by Doyle - to first reject and then approve the sale of the Kewaunee nuclear plant, owned by Madison-based Alliant Energy Corp. and Green Bay-based Wisconsin Public Service Corp...

While there's no evidence that the governor exerted undue influence on the sale of the plant, the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign is asking legitimate questions. Questions that perhaps wouldn't have to be asked at all if the governor and the Legislature actually did something to reform a badly flawed campaign finance system.

Readers, unfortunately, are much more likely to have read and remember last week's front page story, with the headline: Doyle Donations preceded sale of nuclear plant. (The online headline was much milder.)

That story clearly suggested there was something wrong taking place. If not, why the big front page headline and story, a reader might wonder. There is no response from the PSC or the Doyle campaign on the front page; that comes after the story jumps to page 11, if a reader bothers to follow it. But the clear impression you're left with is that there's something fishy.

The paper has run a series of such "exposes" on the Doyle campaign, none of which has produced any evidence of wrongdoing.

It appears from Sunday's editorial that the paper is holding Doyle responsible for the fact that no new campaign finance laws have been passed to clean up the system. I don't know if the editors have been paying any attention lately, but the state legislature is solidly controlled by Republicans who haven't done anything Doyle wanted in three years and aren't about to start now.

I agree that the system needs to be cleaned up, and would like to see Doyle take the lead. But holding him responsible for what the legislature does or doesn't do makes no sense whatsoever. My advice to him (not that he's asked for any) would be to propose the toughest campaign finance reform bill ever written. He'd at least get some credit, but of course it wouldn't pass.

In the meantime, making it appear that every contribution is some kind of payoff does a real disservice and contributes to people's mistrust of government, which those same editorial writers bemoan.