GOP Assembly, Senate campaign committees raise more than $7M in 2 months

Republican fundraising committees backing Wisconsin Senate and Assembly candidates raised more than $7.3 million over the past two months, according to new campaign finance reports. The vast majority came from two longtime Republican donors.

Between July 30 and Sept. 23, the Republican Assembly Campaign Committee, or RACC, brought in around $7.2 million, with just more than $2.5 million coming from Wisconsin billionaire Diane Hendricks. Hendricks owns ABC Supply, based in Beloit. The fundraising group got another $2 million from GOP megadonor Elizabeth Uihlein of Lake Bluff, Illinois. Uihlein and her husband co-founded packaging supply company Uline.

The RACC also received around $2.5 million in transfers from the campaigns of several GOP Assembly incumbents, including $100,000 each from Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester and Joint Finance Committee member Tony Kurtz, R-Wonewoc.

The RACC spent a total of around $5.3 million, including  $600,000 in transfers to the Republican Party of Wisconsin’s main fundraising account.

The Committee to Elect a Republican Senate, or CERS, reported raising around $2.3 million between July 30 and Sept. 23. That included an additional contribution from Hendricks of around $1.3 million and another $500,000 from Uihlein. The group reported spending around $890,000. 

All told, Uihlein and Hendricks donated nearly $6.3 million to both fundraising committees over the past two months.

Democratic Assembly, Senate fundraising committees fall short of GOP counterparts

On the other side of the aisle, the Assembly Democratic Campaign Committee, or ADCC, and the State Senate Democratic Committee, or SSDC, brought in just more than $4.7 million during the reporting period. Nearly half of that came in the form of transfers from the Democratic Party of Wisconsin’s main fund, which received more than $4 million in contributions from LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman of California and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker between Aug. 22 and Sept. 23. 

Robert Habush, who chairs the board of the Milwaukee-based law firm Habush Habush and Rottier, donated $300,000 to Democrats’ Senate fundraising committee, which then transferred $200,000 to the 8th District State Senate campaign of his daughter, Jodi Habush Sinykin. The 8th District includes Port Washington, Cederberg, Menomonee Falls and Mequon.

Wisconsin’s campaign finance laws only allow individuals to donate $2,000 directly to state Senate candidates and $1,000 to state Assembly candidates. Republican lawmakers changed the law in 2015 to allow unlimited donations to the Republican and Democratic Assembly and Senate committees, which in-turn, can give whatever they want to candidates.