PETITION CLOSED

  • The time period for signing this petition has ended.
The Wisconsin Realtors Association (WRA): Stop candidate endorsements, be transparent & focus on Real Estate issues.
  1. Signatures
    397 out of 536
    Petitioning
    1. The Wisconsin Realtors Association (WRA)
  2. Created By
    Real Estate Professionals for a Better Wisconsin
About this Petition Petition Letter Petition Updates

This is important because:
1. The WRA endorsed the incumbent governor several days after approximately one million Wisconsin residents signed a petition to recall him. This came before the petitions had been certified, before an election date had been set and before the identity of the governor’s challenger was known. In doing so, the WRA may very well have alienated and angered thousands of potential property buyers and sellers.
2. Over the past few years, the WRA has funneled about $5,000,000 of members’ dues to WHA, Inc. to be spent in the broad political arena, including cash contributions to partisan organizations, which have no clear real estate related goals. These expenditures of very large sums of money are made without accountability and without consideration of the opinions of the very members who pay the dues.
3. The WRA and the WHA disclose their political expenditures and cash contributions only to the minimal extent required by law. Real estate professionals, however, are ethically bound to aspire to a higher level of openness and disclosure and, therefore, expect the same from their leadership.

It is important that the Board of Directors of the Wisconsin Realtors Association and the Board of Directors of the Wisconsin Homeowners Alliance, Inc. do the following:

1. Stop endorsing candidates for political office, regardless of their party affiliations.
2. Stop the allocation of members’ dues to WHA to be spent in the broad political arena without input from, and accountability to, membership.
3. Stop concealing information on how members’ dues are being spent and embrace the same standards of disclosure expected of all Realtors®.

Why People Are Signing
Recent Signatures

Stop them! WRA is secretly spending your money.

Dear Colleague:

This is about your pocketbook, the future of our trade association and doing the right thing.

If you think the WRA should not endorse candidates for elected office, regardless of party affiliation
If you think the WRA should not be sending your membership dues to the Wisconsin Homeowners Alliance to be spent without disclosure and accountability
If you think the WRA should place more focus on the interests of property owners and real estate professionals, instead of partisan politics

Then, it is time to make your voice heard. Send a message to the WRA, sign the petition: http://www.change.org/petitions/the-wisconsin-realtors-association-wra-stop-candidate-endorsements-be-transparent-focus-on-real-estate-issues?share_id=UhtZSJaORX&

Background:
Our own trade association might have angered and alienated one million potential clients and customers! On January 17th, we learned that about one MILLION people had been willing to sign their names to recall the governor. On January 25th, the WRA endorsed the governor, even before the petitions had been certified, even before an election date had been set and even before the identity of the governor’s challenger was known. In doing so, the WRA may very well have sent thousands of our clients to FSBO websites.

Angry? Understandable, because we are Realtors®, not politicians. Sign the petition: http://www.change.org/petitions/the-wisconsin-realtors-association-wra-stop-candidate-endorsements-be-transparent-focus-on-real-estate-issues?share_id=UhtZSJaORX&

More Background:
Official IRS documents show that during a 5-year period the Wisconsin Homeowners Alliance, Inc. (WHA) received $3,294,944 of the membership dues you paid to the WRA. In 2012, $70 (or a total of about $1,000,000) of your annual WRA dues has been given to WHA. Now, according to its website, the WHA was essentially intended to be a nonpartisan, nonprofit advocacy organization devoted to representing homeowners and property owners in Wisconsin. BUT, the WHA has donated significant sums of money to starkly partisan political organizations, such as the Wisconsin Club for Growth, Building a Stronger Wisconsin, the American Federation for Children, and the Greater Wisconsin Committee, all of which have no clear goals related to real estate issues.

Heard enough, send a message to the WRA, sign the petition: http://www.change.org/petitions/the-wisconsin-realtors-association-wra-stop-candidate-endorsements-be-transparent-focus-on-real-estate-issues?share_id=UhtZSJaORX&

And There’s More:
We know about these four very partisan organizations, because recent changes to the law require the WHA to disclose the recipients of their cash grants. BUT, WHA refuses to say which organizations received cash grants in the past and which have received cash grants since 2009. This level of political activity and the lack of disclosure about it should be stopped.

Please sign the petition: http://www.change.org/petitions/the-wisconsin-realtors-association-wra-stop-candidate-endorsements-be-transparent-focus-on-real-estate-issues?share_id=UhtZSJaORX&

This is coming to you from Real Estate Professionals for a Better Wisconsin. (“REPROS” is a group of Wisconsin people who work in the Real Estate industry and who are passionate about supporting schools, the environment, community and the very folks that make Wisconsin strong. The strength of a community is tantamount to a sustainable and prosperous real estate market. Reply to this email, if you would like to join the group.)

[Your name]

Press Inquiries