Hijacking Campaign 2025 | Independent Expenditures | Issue Ads | Candidates | Campaign 2025
Posted: March 1, 2025
Updated: April 7, 2025
This is an independent expenditure committee used by Citizen Action of Wisconsin to pay for electioneering activities to support Democratic candidates in legislative and statewide elections. The organization is a coalition of labor, environment, senior citizens, and other groups. A routine presence in Wisconsin state-level elections, both partisan and nonpartisan ones, the group spent about $850,000 between 2010 and 2024.
Citizen Action first reported making independent expenditures in the 2025 spring elections at the end of February with just shy of $1,900 going for phone calls the in Wisconsin State Supreme Court and State Superintendent of Public Instruction elections to be held on April 1st. A few days later it reported spending another $140 for volunteer canvassing split equally between both elections.
The group supported Dane County Circuit Court Judge Susan Crawford against Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge and former Republican state attorney general Brad Schimel. The two were vying for an open seat on the court with the outcome of the election determining the court’s future ideological direction. The officially nonpartisan court had a 4-3 liberal majority. Schimel's defeat means liberal maintain control.
In the school superintendent race, Citizen Action supported incumbent Jill Underly, first elected in 2021. Although the office, like the supreme court, is officially nonpartisan, Underly was supported by the Democratic Party of Wisconsin and her opponent, educational consultant and former charter school lobbyist Brittany Kinser, by the state GOP. Underly won reelection.
At the end of the first week in March, the group reported spending about $1,250, split evenly, for phone calls to support Crawford and Underly.
Three weeks before the April 1st election day, it reported spending $445 for canvassing, half to support Crawford and half Underly. A day later, it reported spending about another $1,400 for phone banks between the two campaigns.
Fifteen days before election day, Citizen Action reported spending about $937 for canvassing split evenly between the supreme court and school superintendent races.
Eleven days from the elections, the group reported spending over $1,370 for phone calls supporting Crawford and Underly.
A week before the elections, Citizen Action reported over $890 for canvassing split between the two races.
Four days before election day, it reported spending nearly $900 for phone banks between the two races. A day later, it reported about $4,000 for mailers between the two contests.
The day before the election, it reported about $1,500 for canvassing in the two races. The day of the election, Citizen Action reported spending another $3,400 in the two races for canvassing and phone calls.
Three days after the election, the group reported spending over $1,800 for canvassing and phone calls between the two constests on election day.
Last active election: 2024
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.