Hijacking Campaign 2020 | Independent Expenditures | Issue Ads | Candidates | Offices | Campaign 2020
Posted: January 13, 2020
Updated: January 12, 2023
Click on the office listed below to see any and all independent spending on that office in 2020.
Hijacking Campaign 2020 | Independent Expenditures | Issue Ads | Candidates | Offices | Campaign 2020
Posted: March 27, 2020
Updated: June 24, 2021
Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC) is the state’s largest business organization. WMC is also one of the most powerful special interest groups in Wisconsin because of the millions of dollars it routinely spends on lobbying and electioneering activities.
WMC routinely supports Republican and conservative candidates for statewide office and the legislature. The group generally sponsors negative broadcast ads that smear Democratic candidates or praise Republican and conservative candidates.
Between January 2010 and April 2020, the group secretly raised and spent more than $26 million on phony issue ads and independent expenditures, making it one of the leaders in outside electioneering activities.
WMC ran issue ads in both the 2020 fall legislative elections and spring Wisconsin State Supreme Court elections. WMC Jobs Fund made independent expenditures in the fall elections.
Note: Organizations are not required to report issue ad spending so all dollar figures are estimates.
Fall Election
From mid-September through Election Day, WMC spent an estimated $760,000 on television ads in the Milwaukee, La Crosse, and Eau Claire television markets to support incumbent GOP Sen. Alberta Darling, River Hills, in the 8th Senate District race and Republican Dan Kapanke in the open 32nd Senate District race. The latter seat had been held by Democrats since a 2011 recall election.
WMC’s 30-second television ad in the 32nd Senate race accused Democrat Brad Pfaff of supporting new restrictions on farming shortly before he was fired by the GOP-controlled Senate as Democratic Gov. Tony Evers' agriculture secretary.
In mid-September, the group distributed a mailer at an estimated cost of $15,000 attacking Democratic legislative candidate Jeff Johnson on taxes. Johnson was trying to unseat Republican incumbent Patrick Snyder in the 85th Assembly District in Wausau.
WMC Jobs Fund made independent expenditures in the fall elections.
Spring Election
A little less than two weeks before the April 7 spring elections, WMC sponsored a television ad accusing Dane County Circuit Judge Jill Karofsky of seeking or imposing light sentences on child sexual predators and granting plea bargains for repeat offenders as a judge and former prosecutor.
The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign estimates WMC spent about $1.1 million to produce and sponsor its phony issue ad which ran in the Green Bay, Madison, and Milwaukee TV markets. Groups engaging in phony issue ad activity may keep their fundraising and spending secret because of weak state and federal campaign finance laws.
Karofsky defeated incumbent Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Dan Kelly for a 10-year seat on the high court. Throughout the race, Republican contributors and groups generally supported Kelly and Democratic contributors Karofsky.
Last active election: 2018
Hijacking Campaign 2020 | Independent Expenditures | Issue Ads | Candidates | Offices | Campaign 2020
Posted: March 31, 2020
Updated: June 24, 2021
WEAC Region 3 PAC is the political action committee of the Green Bay regional branch of the Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC), the state's largest teachers union.
The PAC reported spending nearly $800 on postcards and brochures to support Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate Dane County Circuit Court Judge Jill Karofsky in the April 7 election. She faced incumbent Justice Daniel Kelly, an appointee of former Republican Governor Scott Walker. Karofsky won the election.
Last active election: 2018 Special
Hijacking Campaign 2020 | Independent Expenditures | Issue Ads | Candidates | Offices | Campaign 2020
Posted: October 1, 2020
Updated: June 24, 2021
This is a political action committee (PAC) used by the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation to make independent expenditures and direct contributions to support legislative and statewide candidates. The federation is one of the state’s largest and most influential agricultural lobbying and advocacy groups.
Bu time of the 2020 elections, the PAC had made about $1.5 million in independent expenditures and more than $500,000 in direct contributions, generally to support GOP candidates.
In late September, the PAC reported electoral activity, spending nearly $80,00 on radio, newspaper, and online ads to support seven Republican candidates in two state Senate - the 10th and the 24th - and five state Assembly races - the 1st, 42nd, 49th, 51st and 96th. All of those candidates won in the general election.
Three weeks before the November 3 election, Volunteers reported spending roughly $9,500 for online and radio advertising to support Dan Kapanke, the Republican candidate in the open 32nd State Senate District in La Crosse. Kapanke had represented the 32nd from 2005 until he was unseated in a 2011 recall election. He lost to Democrat Brad Pfaff in November.
Two months after the election the PAC reported it had spent about an additional $4,300 in the fall election.
Last active election: 2018
Hijacking Campaign 2020 | Independent Expenditures | Issue Ads | Candidates | Offices | Campaign 2020
Posted: October 20, 2020
Updated: June 24, 2021
This is conservative phony issue ad group was created in 2015 by former GOP legislative and state Republican Party staffers to support GOP and conservative candidates for legislative and statewide offices.
The Alliance describes itself as an anti-tax organization whose members, which it does not identify, are like-minded individuals and community leaders. Its only contact information is a post office box in Madison.
The group’s leaders include Randy Melchert, Stephan Thompson and Kim Gorden, according to documents filed with the Federal Communications Commission. Melchert is a communications consultant and past GOP candidate for legislative and statewide offices. Thompson is a Republican political consultant who managed former Gov. Scott Walker’s 2014 reelection campaign, and Gorden is a director of the group.
The Alliance’s website was initially registered by Lorri Pickens, a former director at Americans for Prosperity (AFP), a Koch-backed group whose electioneering activities support Republican and conservative candidates for state and federal offices around the country.
Between late September and Election Day, the group spent almost $170,000 on television and radio ads in the Eau Claire, La Crosse, and Milwaukee markets to support Republican Dan Kapanke in the 32nd Senate race and GOP Assembly Speaker Robin Vos in the 63rd Assembly District
Last active election: 2018
Hijacking Campaign 2020 | Independent Expenditures | Issue Ads | Candidates | Offices | Campaign 2020
Posted: November 2, 2020
Updated: June 24, 2021
This is a 527 group created by the Wisconsin Realtors Association to sponsor undisclosed electioneering activities also known as phony issue ads. 527 groups are tax-exempt political nonprofits so named after the U.S. Internal Revenue Service rules that loosely regulate them. 527 groups raise and spend unlimited amounts of money from any source.
The Wisconsin Realtors Association is the statewide lobbying and trade organization that represents Wisconsin realtors. The group, which supports Republican legislative and statewide candidates in state elections, also runs the Wisconsin Realtors Political Fund, which makes disclosed independent expenditures to support or oppose GOP legislative and statewide candidates. It also active in the 2020 fall election.
The Advocacy Fund sponsored two 30-second videos (scroll down) and digital ads to support the reelection of incumbent GOP Reps. Shannon Zimmerman and John Macco, in the 30th and 88th Asembly Districts, respectively. The ads and videos urged viewers to call these representatives and thank them for keeping property taxes low and investing in schools.
Shortly after the Advocacy Fund was created in 2017, the association said it would be funded using a $35 annual dues increase on its members and affiliates. In mid-October 2020, the 527 group reported receiving $300,000 from the National Association of Realtors and spending $500,000 on broadcast ads and digital advertising. Between the beginning of 2020 and the end of September, the Advocacy Fund also reported receiving about $317,100 in unitemized contributions from the statewide association.