Hijacking Campaign 2023 | Independent Expenditures | Issue Ads | Candidates | Campaign 2023
Posted: February 16, 2023
Updated: March 26, 2024
This is an unregistered committee controlled by the Washington D.C.-based Service Employees International Union - SEIU. This SEIU committee – there have been several over the years – was first active in Wisconsin with the fall 2018 elections. Between 2018 and 2022 this committee spent about $1.8 million to support Democrats in partisan elections as well as "liberal" candidates for the officially non-partisan Wisconsin State Supreme Court.
Four candidates – two conservatives and two liberals – ran in the nonpartisan Feb. 21 primary to decide which two would go on to run in the April 4 election to determine who would replace retiring conservative Justice Patience Roggensack, and, by extension, decide the fate of the high court's then extant 4-3 conservative majority.
Six days before the primary, SEIU reported spending $15,900 for online advertising to oppose the two conservative candidates for the court, Kelly and Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge Jennifer Dorow. Both were initially appointed to the bench by former GOP Governor Scott Walker, whose hostility to organized labor was a hallmark of his tenure in office.
The winners in the primary were former State Supreme Court Justice Daniel Kelly, one of the conservatives, and Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Janet Protasiewicz, one of the liberals. Protasiewicz defeated Kelly and shifted the ideological direction of the court when she took her seat in August.
After the primary the committee spent $38,750 toward online advertising to support Protasiewicz and to oppose Kelly.
Two affiliated committees, SEIU Wisconsin Healthcare and Service Workers Stronger Together and SEIU Wisconsin State Council Independent Expenditure Committee were also active in the election.
Last active election: 2022
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.