Hijacking Campaign 2022 | Independent Expenditures | Issue Ads | Candidates | Offices | Campaign 2022
Posted: April 12, 2022
Updated: March 22, 2024
Estimated spending: $4.5 million
This is the phony issue ad arm of Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC), the state’s largest business group, which backs Republican and conservative candidates for legislative and statewide offices.
WMC is also one of the most powerful special interest groups in Wisconsin because of the millions of dollars it spends on electioneering activities and lobbying on state policy and spending.
From January 2010 through December 2021, WMC doled out $27.3 million on phony issue ads and independent expenditures, making it one of the spending leaders on outside electioneering activities in Wisconsin state elections. In addition to its issue ad arm, the group is also making reported independent expenditures using another arm, the WMC Jobs Fund.
WMC generally sponsors negative broadcast ads that smear Democratic candidates or praise Republican and conservative candidates.
A Democracy Campaign review of television advertising buys at more than 30 stations around the state found that WMC purchased more than $2.2 million in ads from late February through July 2022.
WMC declined to say how much it spent on the ads or where they aired. The law does not require groups to report fundraising and spending for phony issue ads.
In late February and again in mid-March, WMC sponsored two phony issue ads – here and here – claiming Democratic Gov. Tony Evers tried to raise various state taxes before he signed a billion-dollar middle class tax cut last year. Those advertisements were the first of the 2022 governor’s race by WMC.
The Poynter Institute’s Politifact rated WMC’s advertising claim about Evers trying to raise the state gas tax as half-true.
In mid-April, WMC sponsored an ad blaming Evers for delays in processing unemployment claims during the Covid-19 pandemic.
In early May, WMC sponsored an ad in which a woman identified as Dawn, from Franklin, Wis., blamed Evers for losing her job after Covid-19 forced businesses to temporarily shutter early in the pandemic in order to prevent the disease from spreading.
WMC sponsored an ad in early June that also blamed Evers and Biden for inflation. The ad also said Evers unsuccessfully sought to raise the state gas tax and others taxes after he became governor in 2018.
In early September, WMC sponsored a 30-second television ad that blamed Biden and Evers for inflation and praised GOP candidate for governor Tim Michels, claiming he would lower taxes and make neighborhoods safer.
In mid-September, WMC sponsored a 30-second ad that claimed GOP candidate for governor Tim Michels would cut taxes and improve public safety, and continued to blame President Biden and Tony Evers for inflation.
In mid-October, the group sponsored two 30-second television criticizing incumbent Democratic Gov. Tony Evers's record on education. The first ad, which ran statewide, said two-thirds of Wisconsin public school pupils were not proficient in math and reading. The second ad, which ran in the Milwaukee television market, claimed Milwaukee public schools were failing students and that Evers blocked efforts to expand and improve the school voucher program.
In toto, the Democracy Campaign estmates that WMC spent $4 million on issue ads to oppose Evers's reelection. That does not inlcude the organization's independent expenditures in the race.
WMC was also involved in several legislative races.
In mid- to late October, WMC spent an etimated $400,000 on television ads in the Green Bay viewing area to oppose Democrat Kristin Alfheim, who was running for the open 19th Senate District seat. WMC also spent another estimated $100,000 to support the Republican candidate in the 74th Assembly District.
WMC has also made independent expenditures in the 2022 gubernatorial campaign.
Last active election: 2020