Wisconsin Freedom Alliance

Posted:  August 3, 2016
Updated: June 1, 2017

This new phony issue ad group sponsored outside electioneering activities that attacked GOP Senate candidates in four State Senate districts. Paperwork filed with the state Department of Financial Institutions show the Wisconsin Freedom Alliance was registered as a corporation in mid-July 2016 and that its address is a post office box at a commercial shipping service located in an Appleton strip mall.

Television ad buy records show the Alliance purchased nearly $151,000 worth of television time in the Green Bay television market between July 20 and Aug. 8 to air two ads attacking Republican candidate Mark Elliott, who ended up losing in the Aug. 9 primary to fellow Republican Dan Feyen in the open 18th Senate District. The ads accused Elliott of supporting some tax increases and claimed that he had been late in paying his property taxes. Feyen moved on to the general election where he defeated Democrat Mark Harris in November.

In late October, the Alliance sponsored nearly identical 30-second television ads against incumbent Republican Sens. Sheila Harsdorf, of River Falls, Tom Tiffany, of Hazelhurst, and Luther Olsen, of Ripon.  The ads criticized the senators for voting to cut millions of dollars from health care programs for veterans but supporting millions of dollars in state funding for a new Milwaukee Bucks arena in Milwaukee.

The Democracy Camapaign estimates the Freedom Alliance spent a total of $700,000 in these four races.

American Federation for Children Action Fund IE Committee Inc.

Posted: August 2, 2016
Updated: June 1, 2017

Fall: Oath • Spending

This is one of two committees used by the American Federation for Children, which is a Washington D.C.-based group that supports school voucher programs in Wisconsin and around the country, to make independent expenditures in Wisconsin elections.  The organization started sponsoring outside electioneering activities during Wisconsin's 2010 general elections. Since then, and before the 2016 election, the federation had doled out an estimated $5.4 million on independent expenditures and phony issue ads combined, mostly to support GOP legislative candidates and Republican Gov. Scott Walker.

At the time of the election the federation's chair was Betsy DeVos, wife of Dick DeVos, Michigan billionaire and son of Amway Corporation co-founder Richard DeVos. She was named U.S. Secretary of Education by President Trump in January 2017 and assumed the post that February. Scott Jensen, former state Republican Assembly leader and one of the leading figures in the Wisconsin caucus scandal, has been a senior policy advisor at the organization.

The committee filed paperwork about a week before the Aug. 9 primary showing that it had spent about $29,000 on online advertising and mailings to support Mark Elliott, a candidate in the Republican primary for the open 18th Senate District seat held by outgoing GOP Sen. Rick Gudex. When Elliott lost the primary, the federation never formally switched its support to winning Republican primary candidate Dan Feyen, but it spent an additional $58,000 attacking the Democratic candidate Mark Harris in the weeks leading up to the general election. Because the district was an open seat and had switched parties in the previous two elections, outside electioneering groups spent an estimated $3.9 million - over 40% of all such spending in the 2016 legislative elections - on issue ads and independent expenditures in an attempt to sway the race.

In September and October, the federation reported spending on mailings and online and broadcast advertising in several other legislative races, including:

Television, radio and online advertising against Democratic candidate Bryan Van Stippen, who was running against incumbent GOP Sen. Tom Tiffany, of Hazelhurst, in the 12th Senate District.  The group's 30-second ad called Van Stippen a carpetbagger for challenging Tiffany after having just moved to the district;

Broadcast and online ads - here, here, and here - and mailings in the 85th Assembly race supporting GOP candidate Patrick Snyder and attacking Democrat Mandy Wright;

A radio ad and a television ad opposing Democrat Jeff Wright, challenger to GOP incumbent Rep. Todd Novak, of Dodgeville, in the 51st Assembly District;

A radio ad backing incumbent GOP Rep. Scott Krug, of Rome, in the the 72nd Assembly District.

Last active election: 2014

This organization is registered with the Government Accountability Board/Wisconsin Ethics Commission as an independent expenditure committee following the January 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. FEC.

Construction Trades Coalition

Posted: July 25, 2016
Updated: June 2, 2017

Fall: Oath • Spending

This Pewaukee-based independent expenditure group was created in 2014 to support and oppose both Democratic and Republican candidates in eight legislative races, but it did not report spending no money on outside electioneering activities in those contests. 

During the first half of 2016, three groups - Operating Engineers Local 139, Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce, and Wisconsin Infrastructure Investment Now - contributed about $88,000 to the coalition to pay for its electioneering activities.

In late July 2016, the group reported spending $10,000 on radio ads supporting Democratic candidate Julia Arata-Fratta in the 46th Assembly District, who faced fellow Democrat Jimmy Anderson in the Aug. 9 primary for the open seat. Anderson won the primary and the seat because there was no Republican candidate in the race. The radio ad sponsored by the coalition drew fire because it attacked Anderson for not signing a petition to recall Republican Gov. Scott Walker in 2012. Anderson, who was paralyzed from the chest down after a drunken driver struck his family's car in 2010, says he was unable to sign a petition because he could not hold a pen at the time.

The organization also reported independent expenditures totaling about $8,200 on yard signs to support Democratic candidates Brian Smith and Bryan Van Stippen from the 14th and 12th Senate Districts, respectively. The coalition also reported similar spending on mailings to support Democratic incumbent Josh Zepnick in the 9th Assembly District.

In mid-September and late-October, the group reported spending on radio ads to oppose Republican and support Democratic candidates in four Senate races. Paperwork filed by the group showed spending to oppose GOP Sen. Rick Gudex, of Fond du Lac, who was not seeking reelection for his 18th Senate District seat and who actually died on October 12, 2016 of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The Democracy Campaign attributed the spending against Gudex to the actual GOP candidate in the 18th Senate race, Dan Feyen, who won the election.

Last active election: 2014

This organization is registered with the Government Accountability Board/Wisconsin Ethics Commission as an independent expenditure committee following the January 2010 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. FEC.

Americans for Prosperity

Posted: June 9, 2016
Updated: May 31, 2017

This group was founded in 2003 by David and Charles Koch, the billionaire owners of Koch Industries and Wisconsin-based papermaker Georgia-Pacific.  Americans for Prosperity backs Republican candidates for federal, state and local offices around the country. Although it does not disclose how much it raises and spends on its outside electioneering activities, the Democracy Campaign estimates that AFP spent an estimated $5.6 million between 2010 and 2015 on legislative and statewide elections in Wisconsin.

While AFP boasted of its various efforts to defeat Democrat Russ Feingold in the Senate election, it did not neglect state legislative elections.

Earlier in the year the Wisconsin arm of Americans for Prosperity proclaimed its intent to send volunteers door-to-door in the eastern 18th Senate District, which covers much of Winnebago and Fond du Lac counties. The seat had changed parties in each of the two previous elections - from Republican to Democrat in a 2011 recall election and back to Republican in the 2012 general election - and the incumbent was not seeking reelection, so it was one of the few legislative seats considered as likely to change partisan hands. AFP said its volunteers would accuse the Democratic candidate, Winnebago County Executive Mark Harris, of supporting higher taxes on individuals and businesses.

In mid-October, the group indicated it would distribute three mailings in the 18th Senate race accusing Harris, in his role as Winnebago County executive, of trying to raise property and sales taxes while opposing Governor Walker's tax cuts.

Republican candidate Dan Feyen won the contest.

At the same time AFP publicized its plans in the 18th Senate it announced it would follow the same strategy in the western 32nd Senate District, covering parts of La Crosse, Vernon, Monroe and Crawford counties. AFP said that its volunteers would accuse the Democratic incumbent Senate Minority Leader Jennifer Shilling of opposing Republican proposals to freeze or lower property taxes in La Crosse County. Shilling was first elected to the State Senate after defeating the Republican incumbent, Dan Kapanke, in a 2011 recall election. Kapanke was once again her Republican opponent in November.

In mid-August AFP sent volunteers door-to-door in the 50th Assembly District to support the Republican incumbent Rep. Ed Brooks. The group sponsored a flyer that claimed Brooks voted to lower taxes and supported policies to help businesses and create jobs.

The Democracy Campaign estimates that AFP spent $135,000 on these three legislative races.

Last active election: 2014

Issue Ads

Posted: January 6, 2016
Updated: November 9, 2016

Listed below are groups that seek to influence state elections in 2016 by conducting “issue ads.”

Click on the group’s name for a description of the group and examples of its activities.

Groups involved in the fall legislative elections are listed on the left side and those in the spring Supreme Court election on the right; those involved in both elections are listed on both sides. Click on a group's name for more information.