Hijacking Campaign 2023 | Independent Expenditures | Issue Ads | Candidates | Campaign 2023
Posted: February 15, 2023
Updated: March 25, 2024
Based in Madison, Wis., Freedom Action Now describes itself as "a Black and Southeast Asian Wisconsin based political organization" that works "to advance the feminist abolitionist agenda." This is the first time the group made independent expenditures in Wisconsin state-level politics. Paperwork filed with the Wisconsin State Ethics Commission shows independent spending at the local level in the 2021 spring elections.
A week before the Feb. 21 primary for the Wisconsin State Supreme Court, Freedom Action Now reported spending nearly $3,600, mostly on phone calls, to support Dane County Circuit Court Judge Everett Mitchell.
Mitchell was one of four candidates - and one of the two perceived liberal candidates - who sought the seat vacated by retiring Justice Patience Roggensack, a member of the court's then 4-3 conservative majority.
Freedom Action reported spending about $10,800 on phone banks and Facebook ads in the nonpartisan primary to support Mitchell. Mitchell did not make it past the primary.
The final two contestants in the April 4 election were Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Janet Protasiewicz, supported by liberal groups, and former Wisconsin State Supreme Court Justice Daniel Kelly, originally appointed to the high court by former GOP Gov. Scott Walker and supported by conservatives.
Six days before the April election, Freedom Action reported that it was throwing its support to Protasiewicz at a cost of about $2,500.
Protasiewicz won the election.
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.