Outside Groups Have Already Spent $1.9 Million On Governor’s Race

Outside electioneering groups have already dropped more than $1.9 million on this fall’s race for governor – weeks before the candidates can even circulate nomination papers for the contest.

Three phony issue ad groups, which do not have to report their fundraising or spending to the state, and two independent expenditure groups, which must publicly disclose its election spending, doled out $1.93 million on television and digital ads that were aired throughout Wisconsin during the first three months of the year, according to a review of advertising buys by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.

Candidates for legislative and statewide office may not begin circulating nomination papers until April 15. At this point, the likely major party candidates in the 2022 governor’s race are Democratic Gov. Tony Evers and Republican candidates Rebecca Kleefisch, Kevin Nicholson, and Rep. Timothy Ramthun.

Here are the phony issue ad groups and what they have spent so far:

The Wisconsin Initiative, $826,250. This self-described progressive policy group backed Evers in a statewide television ad blitz from mid-February through the end of March that thanked him for approving $2 billion in state income tax cuts last year.

Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce (WMC), $506,515. This is the state’s largest business organization which regularly backs Republicans and opposes Democrats in legislative and statewide races. From late February through mid-March the group sponsored two television ads – here and here – that rapped Evers for supporting tax increases before he approved $2 billion in income tax cuts.

Empower Wisconsin, $65,675. This conservative group sponsored a television ad for a week in mid-January that told Evers to “stand up for victims” by firing Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm. Chisholm’s office has been criticized for the release of a Milwaukee man on low bail who later drove through a Christmas parade in Waukesha last November, killing six and injuring dozens.

Here are the independent expenditure groups and what they have spent so far in the governor’s race:

Fighting for Wisconsin, $509,460. This new SuperPAC, which has an Austin, Tex. post office box for an address, sponsored a television ad on behalf of Nicholson from mid-March through early April in the Madison, Green Bay, Milwaukee, La Crosse, Eau Claire, and Wausau television markets. The group’s treasurer is listed as Moses Ayala, a former lawyer for the Republican Governors Association.

WMC Jobs Fund, the business group’s express advocacy arm, spent $24,998 on digital ads in early February to endorse Kleefisch. The ad said Kleefisch has the leadership ability to tackle workforce shortages, crime, and inflation.

In previous races for governor, there was no evidence of election spending by outside groups during the comparable first quarter of the 2018 gubernatorial election year. In the 2014 race for governor, two groups had already spent an estimated $2.2 million in the first quarter of 2014.