Hijacking Campaign 2018 | Independent Expenditures | Issue Ads | Candidates | Offices | Campaign 2018
Posted: January 8, 2018
Updated: June 18, 2021
This phony issue ad group was created in 2003 by David and Charles Koch, the billionaire owners of Koch Industries and Wisconsin-based papermaker Georgia-Pacific.
Americans for Prosperity, which refuses to disclose how much it raises and spends, supports Republican and conservative candidates for federal, state, and local offices around the country. The Democracy Campaign estimates that Americans for Prosperity spent $5.7 million since January 2010 on legislative and statewide elections in Wisconsin.
The organization made issue ads in the fall and January special elections. It also reported independent expenditures in the fall, January special and spring supreme court elections.
Fall
In late June, the group announced it would make a seven-figure television and online advertising buy - estimated $885,000 - around the state to support Republican Gov. Scott Walker's fall reelection bid which he lost to Democrat Tony Evers. One of the advertisements claimed Walker's economic development policies helped Wisconsin residents and urged people to call and thank him.
The group also spent modest amounts - an estimated $15,000 - to support the Republican incumbent in the 35th Assembly District, Mary Felzkowski, and the Republican candidate in the open 5th Senate District, Representative Dale Kooyenga.
Special
Americans for Prosperity also sponsored electioneering activities in the January 16 special election to fill the 10th District Senate seat, vacated by longtime GOP Sen. Sheila Harsdorf, of River Falls, to become Walker’s agriculture secretary.
Less than two weeks before the election the group sponsored 60-second radio and 15-second digital advertisements - at an estimated cost of $60,000 - supporting Republican Rep. Adam Jarchow, of Balsam Lake over Democrat Patty Schachtner. The advertisements – here and here – claimed Jarchow supported policies that created jobs and cut taxes for families and small businesses.
Schachtner won the election and Jarchow chose not to run for reelection to the Assembly in the fall.
Last active election: 2016