Hijacking Campaign 2020 | Independent Expenditures | Issue Ads | Candidates | Offices | Campaign 2020
Posted: September 22, 2020
Updated: June 22, 2021
This is a corporation sponsored by the Republican State Leadership Committee, a Virginia-based group that supports Republican legislative candidates in Wisconsin and across the country. From 2010 to 2018, the organization had spent an estimated $5.9 million on independent expenditures and phony issue ads in Wisconsin legislative and statewide elections. This is the first time since 2014 that it has reported using independent spending rather than issue ads in Wisconsin elections.
In mid-September, the group first reported spending $120,000 on mail, radio, online ads, and text messages to support Eric Wimberger, the GOP candidate in the open 30th Senate District seat in the Green Bay area. Five days before the November 3 election the committee reported spending an additional $60,000 for television advertisements in the race.
Wimberger, who had unsuccessfully challenged for the seat in 2016, defeated Jonathon Hansen, the retiring incumbent's nephew, for the seat the Democrats had held since 2000.
Last active election: 2014
This organization is registered with the Wisconsin Ethics Commission as an independent expenditure committee following the January 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. FEC.