Hijacking Campaign 2023 | Independent Expenditures | Issue Ads | Candidates | Campaign 2023
Posted: January 27, 2023
Updated: March 25, 2024
This is a new unregistered express advocacy committee based in Minocqua that filed paperwork to sponsor electioneering activities to support Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Janet Protasiewicz.
The group has the same name as a short-lived independent expenditure committee created in 2021 by Minocqua Brewing owner and erstwhile Wisconsin State Assembly Democratic candidate Kirk Bangstad to pay for outside electioneering activities opposing Republican candidates for federal office in Wisconsin.
Protasiewicz faced Dane County Circuit Judge Everett Mitchell, Waukesha County Circuit Judge Jennifer Dorow, and former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Daniel Kelly in the Feb. 21 primary for an open seat on the high court to replace retiring conservative Justice Patience Roggensack. The first two candidates were backed by liberals in the primary and the last two by conservatives. As conservatives had a 4-3 majority on the hight court at the time of the election, the election's winner would determine the court's future ideological direction.
Protasiewicz defeated Kelly in the general election.
Before the primary, the group had reported spending nearly $13,300 on billbards to support Protasiewicz.
After the primary, it reported spending about an additional $9,200 for the same.
This organization is an unregistered independent expenditure committee that is required to report any such spending done within 60 days of a primary or an election to the Wisconsin Ethics Commission per Chapter 11, Subchapter X of Wisconsin Statutes.