Progressive Thinking

MADISON - I hope your week is going well. Here are a couple of great articles that my colleague Iuscely Flores has written for us in the past few days.

The first is essentially the text of a brief talk she gave in Milwaukee at a press conference on the need to make legislators retain all of their records:

Wisconsin Democracy Campaign Supports New Sunshine Law

And the second is a story she wrote after attending an inspiring event in the Wisconsin Capitol:

State Reps Hong and Shelton Reintroduce Economic Justice Bill of Rights

For my part, I’ve been giving talks to several groups recently about all the money in our Wisconsin Supreme Court race and how we got in this predicament. Here’s one version of it:

Recusal and the Wisconsin Supreme Court

And if you’re free this Saturday, please attend the Wisconsin Grassroots Festival. My colleague Carlene Bechen will be giving a talk during the morning breakout session about fair voting maps as a path toward representative government, how every issue that faces Wisconsin is impacted by the heavily gerrymandered voting district maps, and what we can do to end gerrymandering. The festival starts at 9:00 a.m. and is at Wisconsin Heights High School, 10173 US Highway 14.

Have a nice weekend!

Best,

Matt Rothschild
Executive Director
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MADISON - I hope your week’s gone well.

I was pleased to see that the great pro-democracy law firm, Law Forward, is trying to get Michael Gableman’s law license revoked. I wrote about that here:

Thank You, Law Forward, for Pursuing Gableman

And I was also heartened by a piece of legislation to honor César Chavez. My colleague Iuscely Flores wrote about it, and about the struggle for the rights of undocumented workers here in Wisconsin:

Proclaiming March 31st as César Chavez Day In Wisconsin

As you may have heard by now, next Tuesday is The Big Share, the annual spring online fundraising event sponsored by Community Shares of Wisconsin, which we’re proud to be a part of. 

I'm hoping you'll donate to the

Best,

Matt Rothschild
Executive Director
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To date, 16 groups have reported spending $5.63 million, breaking the previous record $5.03 million set in the 2020 Wisconsin Supreme Court race.

MADISON - Special interest groups have already set a spending record for outside electioneering activities in a Wisconsin Supreme Court race, topping $5.6 million as of Wednesday morning.

Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Janet Protasiewicz and former Supreme Court Justice Dan Kelly were the top finishers in Tuesday’s four-way primary. The pair will go on to face off on April 4 for a 10-year seat on the high court.

To date, 16 groups have reported spending $5.63 million, breaking the previous record $5.03 million set in the 2020 Wisconsin Supreme Court race. In that contest, Kelly, who was appointed in 2016 to fill the unexpired term of a retiring justice, had to run for election to keep the seat. Kelly lost to Jill Karofsky.

This time around, outside groups supporting Kelly outspent those for Protasiewicz by more than five to one.

Four groups have spent $2.59 million on outside activities, like mailings and broadcast and digital advertising, to support Kelly. Five groups have spent about $493,250 to support Protasiewicz. The remaining seven groups have spent $2.55 million to oppose or support the other two candidates, Waukesha County Circuit Judge Jennifer Dorow and Dane County Circuit Judge Everett Mitchell, who did not make it through Tuesday’s primary.

In addition to group spending, the four candidates in the race spent a combined $1.76 million through Feb. 6, according to their most recent campaign finance reports.

Both the groups and the candidates have reported spending a combined $7.39 million. The record for candidate and group spending in a Wisconsin Supreme Court race is $10 million set in 2020.

Candidate spending through Feb. 6 was led by Protasiewicz, who has doled out $1.18 million, more than double that of the other three candidates combined.

Protasiewicz is viewed as the liberal in the race and Kelly is a conservative. If Kelly wins, he will preserve the 4-3 conservative bloc on the court because the retiring justice, Patience Roggensack, is a conservative.

Two of the 16 outside special interest groups have spent the bulk of the $5.63 million doled out as of Wednesday morning.

They were:

Fair Courts America, $2.37 million. This is a Downers Grove, Ill. group funded by rightwing billionaire Richard Uihlein. The group has sponsored radio and television advertising to back Kelly;

A Better Wisconsin Together Political Fund, $2.15 million. This Monona-based independent expenditure committee was created to support Democrats and left-leaning candidates for statewide office and the legislature. The group sponsored online and television advertising to oppose Dorow.

For more details about all of the outside electioneering groups, visit our Hijacking Campaign 2023 feature. For candidate fundraising and spending information, visit our Campaign 2023 – Supreme Court feature.

MADISON - On Tuesday, there was a press conference in the Senate Parlor in the State Capitol on the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, and I made a few brief comments. Here’s basically what I said, though I’m an inveterate ad libber:

Freedom Is on the Ballot for Wisconsin Supreme Court

That evening, President Biden gave his State of the Union address, which I admired for its defense of democracy, voting rights, and equal protection. Here’s what I wrote about it:

Biden Stands Up for Democracy in State of the Union

The staff’s been busy this week chronicling all the money from last November’s election.

To see who the biggest corporate donors were to the political parties, check out this post:

State Parties, Legislative Campaign Committees Accepted Record Corporate Contributions in 2022

And we also tracked all the money in the legislative races, with 12 of them topping the $1 million mark, as you’ll see here:

Candidates, Groups Spent $41.1M in 2022 Legislative Elections

If you’re free on Saturday afternoon in Milwaukee, by the way, I’ll be on the Vel Phillips Forum panel at Turner Hall: "Wisconsin Supreme Court Election 2023: What’s at stake for Wisconsin Voters? If you’re there, please say hi.

Best,

Matt Rothschild
Executive Director
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Matt Rothschild of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign continues his report on money in politics with the Secretary of State race.

MADISON - Candidates and special interest groups spent a record $1.16 million in the race for Wisconsin secretary of state in 2022, a Wisconsin Democracy Campaign review shows.

The race drew seven candidates, including three Republicans, two Democrats, and two minor party candidates, who spent a combined $872,324. The leading spender was Republican challenger Amy Loudenbeck, who dropped $501,356. She survived the GOP primary to face incumbent Democrat Doug La Follette, who spent $229,689 and won reelection.

Five groups spent a total of $288,824 in the race.

One group, Election Integrity PAC, spent $192,868 to support one of the Republican candidates who lost in the Aug. 9 primary to Loudenbeck.

The four remaining groups – Voces de la Frontera, Blue Sky Waukesha, NextGen Climate Action, and BLOC PAC – spent a total of $95,956 to support La Follette or his Democratic primary opponent.

Spending in the 2022 contest eclipsed spending by candidates and groups in previous secretary of state races by a lot. In 2018, the four candidates spent a total of $26,782 with no spending by outside groups. In 2014, eight candidates spent a combined $122,126 with no outside spending. And in 2010, the candidates spent $1,126 and one electioneering group dropped $71.

Allies of former President Trump, who has falsely claimed the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him due to voter fraud, sought to put pro-Trump supporters in key election posts running up to the 2024 presidential election. Trump has announced he will be a presidential candidate in 2024.

Secretary of State races in Wisconsin and throughout the country drew more candidates and outside spending in 2022 than most previous elections because that office oversees or certifies election results in numerous states, but not Wisconsin.

During the campaign, Loudenbeck said she would welcome the office having a larger role in administering elections in Wisconsin.