Democratic Group Buys $9.8 Million In TV Ads

A group with ties to the Democratic Governors Association (DGA) has reserved more than $9.8 million in television advertising time throughout Wisconsin, a Wisconsin Democracy Campaign review found.

The Democracy Campaign reviewed political group ad buys at more than 30 Wisconsin television stations and found the Alliance for Common Sense reserved time for dozens of ads each week from Aug. 9 through Nov. 7 at numerous television stations.

Most of the group’s spending was in the Milwaukee television market where it reserved $4.95 million in ad time at a half-dozen stations.

Information provided by the Alliance on ad buy documents said the group would focus on “2022 WI candidate issues.” The group did not identify any races its advertisements would focus on.

However, the Alliance has the same Washington, D.C., address as the DGA. In addition, two individuals – Noam Lee and Stephen Hill – identified in ad buy documents as the chair and treasurer, respectively, for the Alliance are also the DGA’s executive director and chief operating officer.

The DGA is a national group that raises and spends unlimited amounts of money from special interests to elect Democratic candidates for governor across the country.

In the 2018 Wisconsin race for governor, the DGA used a phony issue ad group called A Stronger Wisconsin to pepper the airwaves with television ads from late August until Election Day. The ads attacked incumbent GOP Gov. Scott Walker, who lost to current Democratic Gov. Tony Evers. The group was the biggest spender among outside electioneering groups in the 2018 elections, doling out $13.45 million to back Evers.