Hijacking Campaign 2025 | Independent Expenditures | Issue Ads | Candidates | Campaign 2025
Posted: February 18, 2025
Updated: April 4, 2025
This is a Downers Grove, Illinois* group funded by rightwing billionaire Richard Uihlein that makes independent expenditures to help elect conservative judges and district attorneys. It was first active in Wisconsin State Supreme Court elections in 2023 when it spent over $5.5 million to support former Supreme Court Justice Dan Kelley’s failed effort to return to the high court. Reports filed with the state in mid-March, shows the committee had an income of more than $4 million so far in 2025, all of which came from Uihlein.
Uihlein and his wife, Elizabeth, of Lake Forest, Ill., founded Uline, a shipping and packaging supply company. The couple are among the leading backers of Republican and conservative state and federal candidates and causes in the country.
A day before the February 18th spring primaries, the committee reported spending over $1.35 million on television ads to oppose Dane County Circuit Judge Susan Crawford’s campaign for the Wisconsin State Supreme Court, even though the committee's last full finance report showed a cash balance of only $2,161.49. Crawford faced Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge, and former Republican Wisconsin State Attorney General, Brad Schimel in the April 1st election for a vacant seat on the court. Because the retiring justice was a member of the court’s 4-3 liberal majority, the outcome of the election would determine the ideological direction of the court. Since there were only two candidates for the seat, there was no primary. Crawford won the April election, ensuring liberals will maintain control of the court.
At the end of the third week in February, Fair Courts reported spending another $1.2 million for television ads opposing Crawford.
At the end of the second week in March, with less than three weeks to go until election day, the group reported spending over $420,000 for online advertising, texts and mailers to oppose Crawford.
Twelve days from the April election, Fair Courts reported spending about $989,000 for television ads opposing Crawford. One ad sponsored by the group accuses Crawford of misrepresenting Schimel and then goes on to praise Schimel for being tough on crime, among other virtues.
Five days before the election, the committee reported spending nearly another $440,000 for online and television advertisements to oppose Crawford. A day later, it reported about $23,100 for phone calls against Crawford and texts for Schimel. The most recent video ad produced by Fair Courts tries to tie Crawford by criticizing an unnamed "liberal" judge's role in a federal deportation case and urging voters to "reject liberal Judge Susan Crawford."
A day before the election, it reported spending about $7,800 for texts backing Schimel. Two days after the election, it reported that it had spent over another $18,700 on texting in the race.
*Registration materials field the Federal Elections Commission place the committee in Downers Grove. The address the organization provides the Wisconsin State Ethics Commission, the state agency that monitors campaign finance actitivy, matches a UPS store in Ponte Vedra, Florida.
Last active election: 2023
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.