Hijacking Campaign 2025 | Independent Expenditures | Issue Ads | Candidates | Campaign 2025
March 19, 2025
Based in Washington, D.C., Free and Fair Democracy PAC is a federally registered political action committee that works to elect Democrats. According to the organization’s website, it opposes “Republicans that attack our Democracy.” In the 2024 elections, it made independent expenditures opposing Donald Trump and a Republican incumbent in a California congressional district. This is the first time the PAC has reported activity in a Wisconsin state election.
The group first reported making independent expenditures two weeks before the April 1st Wisconsin State Supreme Court election when it spent $24,000 for online advertising to oppose Waukesha County Circuit Court Judge Brad Schimel. Schimel and Dane County Circuit Court Judge Susan Crawford are vying for an open seat on the state’s highest court. Even though the court is officially nonpartisan, Schimel, a former Republican state attorney general, is backed by the state GOP and Crawford by the Democrats. Liberals have a 4-3 majority on the court gained in the 2023 election, and a Schimel victory would give control back to conservatives.
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.