When it comes to politics, show us the money

“The way I was raised, if you have something to say to somebody . . . you tell them to their face,” author Sonya Teclai.

The sun needs to shine on dark money groups and their oversized influence on elections from the local to the national level.

For the past few weeks leading up to the primary election, mailboxes of residents in the 69th Assembly District have been flooded with hit-piece campaign mailings supporting Karen Hurd and attacking candidate Lori Voss. The slick, glossy mailers weren’t from Hurd’s campaign, but rather from the so-called “Stronger Wisconsin Fund.”

The same sort of campaigning has occurred in the 68th district with the mailings in support of Rob Summerfield and opposing Cliff Taylor and in a number of other races around the state. Again, with Stronger Wisconsin Fund, footing the bill and sending the message.

According to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, Stronger Wisconsin Fund first registered to make independent expenditures in the fall state legislative elections in June 2024. The organization’s registered address is a post office box in a commercial mailing service based in Eau Claire.

The organization’s registered agent is listed as Rachel Licht. The other listed contact is Matthew Fernholz, an attorney with Cramer Multhauf LLP and a past campaign contributor to Republican state legislative candidates as well as to past and present conservative Wisconsin State Supreme Court Justices Daniel Kelly, Brian Hagedorn and Rebecca Bradley.

As of last week, the group has reported to have spent over $408,000 in attack ads in 16 different Republican primaries around the state.

Stronger Wisconsin Fund represents the worst of what so-called Dark Money political action groups can do. They are called this because they don’t have to release political donor information and the decision makers in the group can remain in the shadows.

Dark money political action groups are an ongoing cancer that was allowed to take hold in American politics following the disastrous “Citizens United” Supreme Court decision in 2010. The Citizens United decision reversed century-old campaign finance restrictions and enabled corporations and other outside groups to spend unlimited funds on elections.

In the past 14 years since that decision was handed down, the power of Dark Money has only grown — all while remaining perfecting legal - if morally and ethically reprehensible.

There needs to be increased transparency of political action groups across the board and disclosure of who is funding them. To paraphrase president Harry Truman, the buck stops somewhere and it is vital to democracy to who and where that is. Voters must know who the person pulling the strings is and where their buckets of cash are coming from in order to make informed decisions about the validity of the information in the attack ads and who should be held accountable for what some have described as acts of “political character assassination.”

If private groups are seeking to buy elections, the people should know who is footing the bill and what they seek to gain from their election investment.