Outside groups have spent nearly $11M in races for the Wisconsin Legislature

Outside groups have spent more than $10.9 million on Wisconsin’s legislative races as of Oct. 17, according to the nonpartisan campaign finance watchdog group Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. 

Independent groups have no official affiliation with candidates and are sometimes able to skirt some campaign finance laws, like adhering to contribution limits and disclosing donors. 

“This number changes every day,” said Nick Ramos, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. “It’s jumped $2 million in about a week.” 

It’s the first election being held with new district maps drawn by Gov. Tony Evers and approved by Republican lawmakers in February.

Ramos spoke with “Wisconsin Today” about record-breaking outside spending in Wisconsin legislative races.

The following has been edited for brevity and clarity. 

Kate Archer Kent: Can you put the $10.9 million in context for us? How does it compare from previous elections? 

Nick Ramos: In 2020, just for the year, we had $8.84 million that was spent by independent expenditures. (This year, as of) Oct. 17, it’s already at $10.9 million. The entire year in 2020, it didn’t even break $9 million. We are on a hyper speed chase towards Nov. 5. 

Look at some of these Senate District races that are right now in play because of the new maps that we have, and they’re right now reporting some of the highest spending that’s going on. For instance, in the 30th senate district they’re at $2.06 million and … that’s an open seat between Democrat Jamie Wall and Republican Jim Rafter. Previously, there was an incumbent there, but he got (drawn) out of the district.

It just shows you that with new maps, there’s so much competition to try and be able to secure the seats, because there’s been opportunities that have never been on the table before, and people are really showing that by how they’re spending money and how they’re moving it around. 

KAK:  What are the biggest outside spenders this season. Can you talk more about the PACs that you’re seeing and how they’re spending their money?

NR:  So far, I’d say some of the big ones that we’ve seen are Wisconsin Initiative — they’re sitting at $1.94 million. A Better Wisconsin Together political fund, they’re around $1.51 million. The Restoration PAC, $1.24 million. 

A lot of people have cut cable, and so you’re seeing ads not only there (on streaming services), but you’re seeing ads run across social media platforms. I’m sure people’s phones have been blowing up via text message. 

KAK: You’ve been going to “get out the vote” events. What have you been hearing from people?

NR:  People are exhausted. People constantly say the money in politics … affects every level of government, from local to federal. People want to see change, but it’s one of those issues that it’s hard to be able to give folks a tangible thing that they can do, a call to action for. … This is like, colossal money, and so it’s like, “How is little old me supposed to do something about this?”

Getting out to vote, especially when we have these new legislative maps, is the key, because we’re going to have real opportunities after November to actually leverage and pressure this new legislature into taking campaign finance reform seriously.