Progressive Thinking

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.

Last week, Governor Evers released his biennial budget proposal, which invests our $7 billion surplus in local communities and the people. It’s vital that we work together as we continue to develop the budget.

MADISON - It’s that time when the rubber meets the road. You might even say this is when your state leaders better “put up or shut up.”

Every odd year the state of Wisconsin begins another budget biennium. During that two-year period, we measure our state’s estimated needs and priorities and balance that with the revenue to be collected during that same two years.

As the biennial budget season kicks off, it’s the perfect time to remind your elected officials of what they promised or preached during the campaign the previous year. Did your representative promise to provide more resources for your school? How often did you hear that the state should send more revenue back to cities, villages and towns? Maybe candidates in your area said they were going to fight to bring back more shared revenue to fix roads and provide fire, EMS and law enforcement services.

Whatever you heard or read from your legislators and elected leaders, now is the time to put their feet to the fire. This is an exciting time to think of all the possibilities. A new budget offers a fresh start. It’s a chance to prove that we can set political grudges aside and do the people’s work. It’s a chance for politicians to prove they can behave like adults and work to solve problems.

That may sound optimistic to some who read this. But if we expect a stalemate, that’s exactly what we’ll get.

At last week’s budget address, Governor Evers delivered a budget encompassing all the priorities he touted during his reelection bid last fall. Now the Joint Committee on Finance, made up of legislators from both the Assembly and the Senate, will meet and dive into the policies that make up the state’s budget.

The membership of the Finance Committee is determined by the party holding the majority. Thus there are 12 Republican members and 4 Democratic members. Despite overwhelming support for the Governor, Republicans have already rejected the Governor’s budget outright.

We know from experience the budget will likely look quite different after they put it through the grinder. It’s like a sausage factory, and it isn’t always pretty. But there will be opportunities for public input when the committee holds hearings throughout the state. Hopefully we’ll get a chance to have a hearing in western Wisconsin this spring. I would encourage everyone to attend, listen and speak in favor of the Governor’s popular budget initiatives.

Every budget cycle brings with it new challenges and opportunities. Oftentimes challenges become opportunities to remedy shortcomings of previous budget choices.

A prime example of this is K-12 education. We’ve become too reliant on passing property tax referenda because the school funding formula doesn’t work for every part of the state. Another place we see this is in shared revenue for local governments, where we’ve failed to keep pace with inflation. Roads and bridges have long been a point of contention as counties and municipalities have struggled to maintain them.

Turning challenges into opportunities is much easier when we have $7 billion to use. But we must be wise with our decisions to limit future challenges and invest our resources back to the middle class who deserve tax relief.

In addition to providing a middle class tax cut that will benefit those who need it the most, we must invest in our state’s future. We have the opportunity to use part of the surplus to repair our roads, address our school funding formula, accelerate broadband expansion, educate more nurses, solve the childcare crisis we are experiencing and so many other important issues we face.

Let’s be wise as we develop the state’s budget. Let’s work together and keep the best interests of the people of Wisconsin in mind. Let’s get it done right.

Wisconsin’s Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) safeguards consumers from deceptive practices and services. This week, Senator Smith discusses 2022’s top ten list of most common consumer complaints, which describe many of the ways DATCP can help consumers protect themselves from fraud.

MADISON - The Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) may be the most diverse agency in our state. It’s often referred to simply as the “Department of Ag,” which is understandable since agriculture is such an important industry to Wisconsin. “Trade” covers all of our industries and how we transport goods across the globe. But we often forget the immense responsibility the state and DATCP have for protecting consumers.

In 2022, DATCP worked to resolve over 11,000 consumer complaints, reaching settlements that returned millions of dollars to Wisconsin consumers like you. The top ten complaints they received may resonate with many of us, who experience similar frustrations in our day-to-day lives.

In the style of David Letterman, here’s what they reported:

10. There were 184 complaints around new and used auto sales last year, including reports of inadequate disclosures and misleading representations in advertisements.

9. New to the top ten list was home furnishings. The Department received 189 complaints, including failure to provide services or deliver goods, along with misleading practices.

8. Also new to the top ten this year were health and medical products. 217 of the complaints involved billing disputes, failure to deliver and refund policy concerns, among other issues.

7. 224 complaints had to do with travel, which includes vehicle rentals, airline service, hotel complaints and travel company bundling. Billing disputes, refund policy and just plain unsatisfactory service were among the complaints.

6. Medical services are a category separate from medical products. There was a 60% increase in medical services complaints, with 440 complaints filed. Billing disputes and deceptive practices topped the list. A practice known as “surprise billing,” when a patient receives an unexpected bill from an out-of-network provider or facility, was among the most common complaints. A federal law went into effect in 2022 to protect patients from surprise billing, but it’s still very important for consumers to report any failures complying with this new law.

5. Identity theft was the fifth most common complaint. DATCP handled 513 complaints in this category last year. The Department can help recover and secure your identity from further fraud, and spends time with consumers educating them on how they can avoid having their identity stolen in the future.

4. A common frustration all of us can relate to are telecommunications issues. Cell phone and internet providers might misrepresent the service they provide, or sometimes unfairly terminate service. DATCP handled 655 telecommunications complaints last year.

3. Whenever disaster hits, DATCP issues warnings about fly-by-night roofing, siding or other construction contractors. Last year the agency received 1,216 complaints about home improvement services, more than double last year’s number. Complaints included failure to honor warranties, failure to properly disclose lien waivers, poor workmanship and sometimes just failing to provide services or materials as promised.

2. A pet peeve of many, and a complaint I hear time and again, is telemarketing. In fact, my office receives at least a call a day trying to sell us life insurance. Telemarketing resulted in 1,651 complaints, but I’m sure that represents only a tiny fraction of the number of calls that could be reported. Robocalls, phishing, imposter calls and harassment complaints top the list. Even the Wisconsin Do Not Call Registry cannot block all of these calls, as many disregard the list and call anyway. Keep reporting and be vigilant for scams and fraudulent claims.

1. The number one category of complaints involved landlord-tenant complaints. When disputes cannot be resolved between a landlord and a tenant, DATCP gets the call. That happened 1,912 times in 2022. Top complaints included failure to return a security deposit, eviction, unauthorized entry and structural issues.

It’s always good to be wary of deceptive advertising, calls and promotions, but it sure is good to know we have a watchdog like DATCP. If any of the situations described above sound familiar to you, if you find yourself in a situation you feel is unfair or you are being cheated, call the Consumer Protection Hotline at (800) 422-7128 or email DATCP at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . It’s important for Wisconsinites to know resources are available to them and the experts at DATCP are working for us.

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
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

The theme for Black History Month 2023 is Black Resistance. This month serves as a reminder that the fight for racial and social equity is nowhere near finished, and none of us should be on the sidelines.

MADISON - When the state of Wisconsin first tried for statehood in the 1840s, Wisconsin’s constitution allowed for referenda to expand suffrage to new groups. Activists wasted no time in getting Black suffrage on the ballot. Wisconsin’s first referendum for Black suffrage failed in 1847, but two years later in 1849 Black suffrage was approved by voters.

In reality, however, African-Americans would wait twenty years to exercise their franchise. In 1866, Ezekiel Gillespie, a prominent member of Milwaukee’s Black community, sued for the right to vote. The case went all the way to the Wisconsin Supreme Court, which affirmed that Black men had the right to vote since the 1849 referendum.

This illustrates one of the most enduring lessons Americans have learned from struggles for equality. Just as Black men in Wisconsin had to wait to exercise their franchise, equality under the law has not always translated to equality in practice. Commitment and courageous action of individuals defied the odds against an entire system of injustice.

From the early years of the Republic through the Civil Rights movement into the present, many courageous Black Americans have made their voices heard while facing physical violence or even death. Too often, narratives – written by white authors – focus on Black victimhood. That is not the story we need to tell.

The theme for Black History Month this year is Black Resistance. This is meant to reframe the conversation about Black history around a theme of empowerment. By celebrating Black Resistance, we honor Black people throughout Wisconsin’s history and rightly center their experiences and their accomplishments. While there are many important Black leaders that we celebrate by name, there are even more heroes whose names we’ve never heard. It takes the efforts of many to accomplish sweeping change.

A quick glance at the news will show you many Americans who have a difficult time believing that racism still exists in our country. Since before America’s founding, both American leaders and the American populace have ignored so many brutal injustices, both individual and systemic. For decades, politicians have been aware of racial disparities in America. Yet it seems our country’s leaders either deny the disparities completely or only give lip service to how terrible they are, taking no meaningful action.

Meanwhile, the legacy of racism continues to impact Black communities and individuals, from income disparities impacting communities of color, to horrific acts of violence fueled by hatred, to stereotypes broadcast in the media. Any effort to eradicate racial injustice requires a comprehensive and multi-pronged approach. This injustice has impacted every aspect of our society, and there are no simple answers when it comes to untangling hundreds of years of bias and oppression.

Racial injustice cannot be fully addressed on an individual level. It is not enough to simply educate individuals; we must change the institutions that treat some citizens differently from others. Atoning for centuries of racism and discrimination is an effort that requires systemic and transformative social change.

As I’ve discussed in previous columns, it is the job of legislators to evaluate state laws and change them when they are out-of-date. As state legislators and leaders, it’s our job to prioritize racial equality in our legislative work. We do this by introducing new legislation to tackle problems, but also by removing barriers to inequality that are currently ingrained in our laws.

As an ally and a public servant, I remain committed to working toward a more just and equitable future for all Wisconsinites. I am here to listen and learn. The fight for racial and social equity is nowhere near finished, and none of us should be on the sidelines.