Wisconsin Democracy Campaign's press releases and special reports cover issues central to our mission, including campaign fundraising, political corruption and more.
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December 5, 2016
Special interest PAC and other political committee contributions to legislative candidates skyrocketed during the first 10 months of 2016 after state campaign finance laws were changed to allow bigger special interest contributions and less transparency.
December 2, 2016
A plan to privatize some of the work on state permits for shoreland construction projects and manure spreading on large factory farms has drawn praise from the state’s largest business and agriculture groups.
November 22, 2016
A panel of federal judges on Monday tossed the redistricting maps that Scott Walker and Republican legislative leaders have used to solidify their hold on power in Wisconsin.
November 21, 2016
Special interest electioneering groups doled out a record $8.9 million in the 2016 legislative elections. Democratic groups spent sharply more money, according to figures compiled by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, even though Republicans added to their comfortable majorities in the Assembly and Senate.
Posted: November 16, 2016
Updated: November 18, 2016
A review of reform measures voters in several states approved in the November 8th election.
November 14, 2016
As Wisconsin marks five years since the first concealed carry gun permits were issued, a GOP lawmaker says he plans on sponsoring bills next year that would allow guns in private and public schools and on college campuses.
November 10, 2016
About 39,000 additional acres in six northern Wisconsin forests have been targeted by state officials for extensive logging operations. The action follows a plan inserted last year into the current 2015-17 state budget by GOP lawmakers at the request of papermaking, forest products and logging interests.
November 4, 2016
Two permits for controversial high-capacity wells that were issued by the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and challenged last month by an environmental group belong to generous donors to Republican Gov. Scott Walker.
November 4, 2016
Political spending by outside groups in the race for the U.S. Senate is lopsided in favor of Sen. Ron Johnson.
November 2, 2016
Spending by special interest electioneering groups in next week’s legislative elections in Wisconsin has topped $7.8 million – a record, according to preliminary figures compiled by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.
October 27, 2016
An international union that represents plumbers, pipefitters and welders has contributed $200,000 to two secretive Wisconsin electioneering groups that are spending big to support Democratic candidates in two hotly contested State Senate races.
October 25, 2016
Business, ideological and other special interest groups have doled out more than $5.7 million in Wisconsin legislative races with two weeks to go until the elections, according to figures compiled by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.
October 20, 2016
Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC), the state’s largest business group, has hailed all of the nearly seven dozen GOP legislators for voting in favor of the group’s pro-business policy and spending wish list during the 2015-16 legislative session.
October 19, 2016
A handful of wealthy special interest electioneering groups are spending more on Wisconsin’s legislative races than all the 185 candidates on the November ballot combined.
October 17, 2016
A 527 group created to support Republican Gov. Scott Walker’s short-lived 2016 presidential bid managed to raise more than $160,000 recently, even though Walker bowed out of the national race a year ago.
October 14, 2016
Spending by outside special interest groups in next month’s legislative elections topped $4.3 million this week. And a whopping 86 percent of the spending, about $3.7 million, has occurred in just three state Senate races, according to a preliminary review by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign of television ad buys and reported spending on other electioneering activities by outside groups.
October 11, 2016
Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC), one of the top spending special interest groups on outside electioneering activities, has created another electioneering arm to attack Democratic candidates in legislative and statewide races.
October 10, 2016
This morning, Matt Rothschild, the executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, testified before the Wisconsin Ethics Commission about the ethics complaint it filed on Sept. 1, 2016, against Rep. Dean Knudson. That complaint alleged that Rep. Knudson unlawfully established his own PAC, the Wisconsin Liberty Fund, while still being a member of the legislature and while still maintaining his own campaign committee.
October 7, 2016
The state’s largest business organization and a heavyweight in outside electioneering activities has purchased more than $660,000 of ad time in the Green Bay television market to back Republicans in two state Senate races.
October 6, 2016
Tougher federal rules on payday lenders, whose loans can carry interest rates of nearly 600 percent, are being opposed by GOP Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, who has accepted nearly $6,000 in campaign contributions since 2010 from the industry.
October 5, 2016
Outside special interest groups have spent more than $1.7 million on Wisconsin legislative races on the November ballot with a little more than five weeks to go before Election Day.
September 27, 2016
A new Democratic outside electioneering group has spent more than $235,000 on television ads to support Democrat Mark Harris in his bid to win the open 18th Senate District seat in November.
September 26, 2016
Legislative votes on dozens of bills since 2011 that reduced local control or imposed spending mandates show party loyalty and special interest campaign contributions trumped community ties. About half of the lawmakers in the legislature once held a local government office, but that didn’t stop them from interfering with local control.
September 21, 2016
Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Annette Ziegler plans on running for a second 10-year term in 2017, despite a record of conflicts involving money in politics.
September 20, 2016