Wisconsin Democracy Campaign reports 2010 state election spending at $19 million

The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign found spent nearly $19 million on mostly negative advertisements and mailings on 2010 statewide office and legislature races.

State and federal reports filed by groups reported $6 million of the $19 million was given by donors.

10 phony issue ad groups - special interest groups that are not subject to strong disclosure rules -  spent approximately $9 million on statewide and legislature races in 2010.

30 independent expenditure groups spent $9.9 million on races for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and the legislature. Approximately $3.1 million of that money spent was raised from individuals and committees identified in state reports. The Republican Governors Association’s RGA Wisconsin 2010 PAC is an example of independent expenditure groups that spent more than they reported receiving, with $31,190 identified donations received and $3.48 spent on the election.

“So in total about $19 million, not a little less than 10, but about $19 million got spent by interest groups trying to influence elections, so only about half of the spending was disclosed,” Mike McCabe of the WDC told the Wisconsin Radio Network.

In other cases, groups reported contributions as coming from themselves. The Republican State Leadership Committee, which spent $935,726, reported contributions of $772,091 from the Republican State Leadership Committee. Likewise, Advancing Wisconsin which reported spending $558,895 to elect Democratic candidates, reported contributions of $270,500 from itself.

A third batch of groups, including the Wisconsin Education Association Council – the state’s largest teachers union – and the National Rifle Association’s PAC reported total individual contributions of about $1.7 million but labeled their totals as “unitemized” contributions presumably because the money was member dues that did not have to be identified.

Read the full WCD report here.