Wisconsin Supreme Court to hear campaign ad case

The Wisconsin Supreme Court agreed to hear a case on campaign finance regulations requiring more groups to disclose their donors.

The regulations says groups to who spend more than $25 on ads, emails or other communications that discuss candidates  are required to disclose the donor’s identity.

According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, the three lawsuits against the state Government Accountability Board allege it overreached and wrote rules that unconstitutionally inhibit their free speech when it barred Wisconsin officials from enforcing the same rules adopted in August.

Issue ads, however, did not fall under the same disclosure rules, allowing issue-oriented groups to evade the rules by not asking viewers to vote for, elect or approve of a candidate.

“You can run a TV ad that we call a ‘phony issue ad, which is a campaign ad disguised as issue advocacy,” Executive Director of Common Cause in Wisconsin Jay Heck told The Badger Herald.