Hijacking Campaign 2025 | Independent Expenditures | Issue Ads | Candidates | Campaign 2025
Posted: March 22, 2025
Updated: April 2, 2025
The Charter School Action Fund has the same address as the Washington, D.C. based National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, an organization that advocates for the interests of charter schools. A political action committee (PAC) with an identical address and similar name, Charter Schools Action Fund, is registered with the Federal Elections Commission and was active in the 2022 federal elections. There is also a website for a Charter Schools Action Fund, but there is not enough information on the site to determine if it has any links to the previously mentioned organizations despite the similar names and missions. Furthermore, registration information for the site is private. This is the first time a committee by this name has reported independent expenditures in a Wisconsin State Election.
Eleven days before the April 1 st election for Wisconsin State Superintendent of Public Instruction, the committee reported spending over $39,500 for mailers and online advertising to support challenger Britanny Kinser. An educational consultant and former charter school lobbyist, Kinser sought to unseat incumbent Jill Underly, who was first elected in 2021. Although the office is nominally nonpartisan, Kinser and Underly weresupported by the state Republican and Democratic parties, respectively. Underly won reelection.
Four days before the election, it reported about another $17,900 for phone calls and online advertising to support Kinser. The day of the election, it reported about another $3,300 for phone calls and texts.
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.