January 14, 2021
Wisconsin businesses and individuals contributed about $279,000 over the past three years to a Republican electioneering group that helped organize a protest that turned into a deadly mob attack at the U.S. Capitol last week.
An arm of the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA) called the Rule of Law Defense Fund (RLDF) made robocalls urging listeners to attend a “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6 along with the time and location of the protest.
For more information about the involvement of RAGA and RLDF and the robocall about the protest check out this report by the watchdog group Documented.
RAGA is a Washington, D.C.-based group, which raises and spends unlimited amounts from special interests to help elect state GOP attorneys general throughout the country. The group was active in the 2018 Wisconsin state elections, doling out more than $2.8 million on electioneering activities to attack Democratic candidate Josh Kaul. Kaul defeated incumbent Republican Attorney General Brad Schimel in that race.
Between January 2018 and late November 2020, RAGA received about $279,000 from about two dozen Wisconsin contributors.
The top contributors were:
MillerCoors (now Molson Coors), of Milwaukee, $75,000
Foley & Lardner, of Milwaukee, $60,950
Wisconsin Realtors Association, of Madison, $50,000
Kwik Trip, of La Crosse, $25,000
Klondike Properties, of Monroe, $20,000
Michael Best Strategies, of Madison, $15,875
Dairy Business Association, of Green Bay, $10,000
Forest County Potawatomi Community, of Crandon, $10,000
Kinnard Farms, of Casco, $2,500
Heller Farm Inc., of Alma Center, $2,000
Norm-e-Lane Inc., of Chili, $1,000
Pagel’s Ponderosa Dairy, of Kewaunee, $1,000
Shiloh Dairy, of Greenleaf, $1,000
RAGA operates as a 527 group, so named for the U.S. Internal Revenue Service rules that regulate them. These entities can raise and spend unlimited amounts from any source on electioneering activities like broadcast ads and mailings to smear or praise Democratic and Republican candidates in state and federal elections.