Outside Spending for Neubauer Swamps Hagedorn

Lisa Neubauer and Brian Hagedorn.

Special interest groups have spent about $1.3 million on outside electioneering activities in the Wisconsin Supreme Court race.

Groups supporting Appeals Court Judge Lisa Neubauer have spent about $1.2 million and one group backing her opponent, Appeals Court Judge Brian Hagedorn has spent about $87,400. That’s nearly a 14-to-1 advantage for the groups supporting Neubauer.

Neubauer has support from mostly Democratic campaign contributors and labor unions, and Hagedorn has drawn support from Republican and conservative contributors and groups.

Groups backing Neubauer include:

The Greater Wisconsin Committee’s issue ad and independent expenditure arms have doled out at least $835,000 on television and digital advertising;

Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has spent $131,140 on door hangers and canvassing;

Planned Parenthood Advocates of Wisconsin has spent $121,900 on online advertising and canvassers;

For Our Future has spent $83,829 for brochures, canvassing, and digital advertising;

Center for Popular Democracy has spent $31,400 on campaign literature and canvassing;

Hagedorn’s outside support came from the Koch-backed Americans for Prosperity, which spent $87,381 on canvassing, door hangers and mailings.

For more details about the groups, click on their names or visit the Democracy Campaign’s Hijacking Campaign 2019 feature.

Another group, the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, said earlier this month that it would spend $350,000 to support Neubauer. The group is run by former Democratic U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to elect Democrats to state and federal offices and to promote redistricting reform. So far, no spending has been reported by the group.

A group called Midwest Growth Fund recently sent mailings attacking Neubauer. The mailings did not mention Hagedorn, and the group has yet to report any spending.