Recent campaign filings show Governor Scott Walker raising over $30 million to defend himself against recall versus $3.9 million raised by his challenger Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett. Barrett is being outspent 12:1, but even these numbers do not account for the full amount of spending in the race. Since the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in the Citizens United case, an array of outside groups are playing a major role in elections and Wisconsin is no exception.
Wisconsin's historic recall battle may be seen as a test of grassroots gumption (30,000 volunteers collected close to one million recall signatures) against big outside money in a post-Citizen's United world. With less than a week before the election, spending numbers regarding these outside interest groups are changing by the hour. The nonpartisan Wisconsin Democracy Campaign (WDC) is working hard to track the money and illuminate exactly how high the spending outside of the candidates will go. Right now, WDC pegs total spending in the race at $62 million, including at least $21.4 million in disclosed spending by outside groups in addition to an estimated $7.5 million in undisclosed spending on so-called "issue ads" designed to influence the election.
Here is a brief look at the five biggest outside interest groups spending in Wisconsin's 2012 recall.
Republican Governors Association Claims "Just the Facts"
The Republican Governors Association (RGA)'s Political Action Committee "Right Direction Wisconsin" (RGA-RDW) has been the biggest outside spender in this year's recall election. WDC reports that the group has spent $8.6 million since January 2012 with almost all of their spending going towards TV ads. RGA-RDW considers these ads to be "issue ads" and so does not file any disclosure about the donors whose funds make the ad buys possible. The RGA also operates a "527" group, which does disclose its donors to the IRS, and this may eventually provide some insight into the money behind RGA's messages.
In late March, RGA-RDW ran three ads, one attacking Barrett, one attacking his main primary challengerKathleen Falk, and one attacking both Barrett and Falk for their records as Milwaukee Mayor and Dane County Executive, respectively. Two weeks before the primary, the group sponsored another ad against Barrett, and after the May 8 primary, it ran three ads (here, here, and here) criticizing Barrett and praising Walker. One of RGA-RDW's most widely circulated ads, embedded above, claims to be all about the facts, but it omits key facts, such as the fact that unemployment rose 34 percent under Scott Walker during his term as Milwaukee County Executive, and it omits information about Wisconsin being ranked 50th out of 50 states in the nation on jobs.
Koch money is the RGA's top source for contributions in the 2012 election cycle, with the corporation's co-owner David Koch donating at least $2 million and the company itself giving $25,000. In 2010, the RGA spent $3.4 million to help get Walker elected, with $1 million in help from David Koch and another $50,000 from Koch Industries for RGA to spend among the gubernatorial candidates it was backing, including Walker. In addition, Koch Industries PAC was one of the largest contributors to Walker's campaign for office in 2010.
In contrast, the Democratic Governors Association is not directly running ads in Wisconsin, but is reportedly funding the Greater Wisconsin Committee, spending $1 million.
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