Voters are not powerless to curb the power of billionaires in Wisconsin politics. But it will take action from a lot of us.
By Peter Cameron, THE BADGER PROJECT
More than $50 million was spent in 2023 on the Wisconsin Supreme Court election. More than $80 million in 2025. How much cash will pour into the state next year? And in 2027, 2028 and 2029? The state has an election scheduled for its top court in each of the next four years.
The recent campaign for the Wisconsin Supreme Court smashed the record for most expensive judicial race not only in the state but also in the history of the country. The result was airwaves and mailboxes stuffed with negative and misleading advertising, and the wealthiest having the loudest voices in our state politics.
Without any substantive campaign finance reform, “the past two months have shown us a terrifying preview of what’s coming: An America where billionaires run the show, and the rest of us are just spectators,” said Nick Ramos, executive director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, which tracks political spending in the state.
The two candidates in the recent state Supreme Court raised and spent at least $32 million, according to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. Even more political spending occurred independently of the campaigns and parties, through organizations like super PACs, which can raise and spend unlimited amounts, and were created by the Citizens United case in the U.S. Supreme Court.
More than $51 million was spent independently: at least $33 million supporting Crawford and at least $18 million supporting Schimel.
And all of these numbers will certainly rise once we get the full picture. The total amount of spending in the 2025 race will likely exceed $100 million once the final campaign finance reports are due to the state in July, Ramos has said.
Curbing the power of super PACs is difficult, and could take years. Maine has passed a law limiting the amount super PACs can receive at $5,000, but it immediately faced a legal challenge, and appears destined to reach the U.S. Supreme Court eventually, where its future is questionable. Wisconsin must wait to see how the court rules before it can pass a similar law.
To overturn Citizens United entirely, the political left would likely need to change the ideological makeup of the U.S. Supreme Court, which currently features a 6-3 conservative majority. Flippling the court, where justices receive lifetime terms, will likely take years, and maybe a generation, experts say.
But there is another way.
The state has a second pipeline of political cash flooding into the state that could be constrained.
In Wisconsin, state law restricts how much a person can donate directly to a candidate. That cap sits at a max of $20,000 per election to a candidate for Wisconsin Supreme Court, governor or attorney general. But a loophole allows political parties to raise unlimited sums and distribute unlimited sums to candidates.
Using that loophole, billionaires like Elon Musk, George Soros, the Uihleins and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, have avoided legal caps and routed millions through parties to their preferred candidates.
This kind of political donation, which goes directly to the candidate’s coffers, is arguably more effective than spending through super PACs, which cannot coordinate with political campaigns.
Change must come from the Wisconsin State Legislature. While that body can’t do anything right now about the independent spending of super PACs, it can restrict the flow of cash to and from political parties, by placing limits on them in the same way we cap donations to candidates.
Our state legislators could do this tomorrow if they wanted. Democrats in the minority of the state Legislature have proposed this at times in the last decade, but Republicans in the majority have ignored their bills.
In recent elections, Wisconsin Democrats have used this loophole to their advantage, vastly outraising Republicans through political parties. It remains to be seen if they still want to close a loophole that is now working well for them.
But ultimately, elected officials work for their constituents. And voters can tell them what they want. Or vote them out.
The Badger Project is a nonpartisan, citizen-supported journalism nonprofit in Wisconsin.