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Posted: June 6, 2018
Updated: June 12, 2018
(This article has been revised to reflect changes to the fall legislative ballot made by the Wisconsin Elections Commission on June 11.)
Nearly 2.5 million Wisconsin residents will have little or no choice in the fall elections about who represents them in the state legislature, according to a review by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.
June 11, 2018
The major party candidates on the ballot in Tuesday’s legislative special elections accepted about $3 of every $4 in large individual contributions from outside of the districts they want to represent, a Wisconsin Democracy Campaign analysis shows.
June 8, 2018
Candidates and outside special interest groups have spent more than $1.2 million in two legislative special elections the voters will decide June 12.
June 5, 2018
Owners of a proposed factory farm who are generous contributors to GOP legislative and statewide candidates can go ahead with their controversial project in Wood County, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.
June 1, 2018
Outside group spending is escalating in a special election in northeastern Wisconsin’s 1st Senate District, where Democratic organizations were outspending a Republican group nearly 2-to-1.
June 1, 2018
(This profile updates information and figures in a previous October 2016 feature. A more recent update was published in February 2022.)
This is a pro-school-voucher group based in Washington, D.C., that has spent more than $6.5 million on outside electioneering activities to back mostly Republican legislative candidates in Wisconsin since 2010.
May 30, 2018
Outside groups supporting Democrats are pouring money into two upcoming legislative special elections in Wisconsin.
The elections in the 1st Senate and 42nd Assembly districts are scheduled June 12 to fill the vacant seats.
May 29, 2018
Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC) brags that it won victories “too numerous to mention” from the Republican-dominated legislature last session.
May 24, 2018
Five drug makers accused of stoking the nation’s opioid epidemic in lawsuits filed by Wisconsin counties contributed more than $39,000 to Wisconsin legislative and statewide candidates.
More than three-quarters of Wisconsin’s 72 counties sued the pharmaceutical manufacturers last year, accusing them of fraudulently marketing painkillers that led to an epidemic of addiction and overdose deaths that has cost the counties millions of dollars in social service, law enforcement, and health care costs.
May 23, 2018
The state is investigating the release of an estimated 10 million gallons of sludge into the Trempealau River by a sand mining company whose owner is a large Republican Party contributor.
The company, Hi-Crush Proppants, of Houston, Tex., said it released the muddy water in a holding pond on Monday to free a bulldozer driver who had slipped into the pond. The water and bright orange sediment flowed into nearby farm fields and a tributary and into the river.
May 15, 2018
A company owned by a major donor to Republican Gov. Scott Walker was named the chief planner for the taxpayer-subsidized Foxconn manufacturing plant.
Foxconn said Monday that the Hammes Co., in Milwaukee, was chosen to be the lead developer for the 2,900-acre project. The company is led by Jon Hammes, who is Walker’s campaign finance chairman for his November reelection bid. Hammes was also finance chairman for Walker’s brief 2015 GOP presidential campaign.
May 10, 2018
The state Republican Party is backing a newcomer over a GOP Assembly lawmaker in next week's primary for a special election in the 1st Senate District.
May 7, 2018
A state permit to allow an out-of-state company to destroy a rare wetland in order to build a frac sand mine in western Wisconsin has been invalidated by a judge.
May 4, 2018
Our democracy is at a “historic turning point,” said Nancy MacLean, the author of “Democracy in Chains,” last night in Madison, where she was the keynote speaker at the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign’s annual celebration.
April 26, 2018
Developers and other special interests were behind a new state law that cuts the amount of storm water runoff that local governments may regulate.
April 23, 2018
A byproduct from making iron and steel, known as slag, is no longer considered solid waste in some cases under a change in state law backed by Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC).
April 20, 2018
The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign has compiled a list of the top 50 donors to Democratic state candidates in Wisconsin and the top 50 donors to Republican state candidates from 2008-2017 along with each party's respective legislative campaign committees.
April 20, 2018
A new state law approved by the GOP-controlled legislature and Republican Gov. Scott Walker prevents communities from regulating drones.
April 17, 2018
A bill backed by landlords that imposes restrictions on rental inspections conducted by local governments was signed into law on Monday by GOP Gov. Scott Walker.
April 17, 2018
Republican Gov. Scott Walker signed a bill into law on Monday that prohibits local governments from passing or enforcing numerous employment rules.
April 13, 2018
Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos’s ties to a title loan company in Georgia have put him in hot water.
April 13, 2018
A group that raises money to support Democratic candidates for governor around the country has already reserved more than $500,000 in television time for the fall elections.
April 11, 2018
A dozen special interest groups spent more than $3 million on outside electioneering activities in this year’s Wisconsin Supreme Court race, a Wisconsin Democracy Campaign review found.
April 9, 2018
A group that raises tens of millions of dollars each year from wealthy special interests to support GOP gubernatorial candidates nationwide has booked $5.1 million in ads to support Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s reelection.
April 5, 2018
A GOP bill that prohibits state and local governments from boycotting Israel was signed into law by Republican Gov. Scott Walker.