'Jaw-dropping' $31M spent on Wisconsin Senate recall races

MADISON — Spending in five Wisconsin recall elections shattered the previous record as unions, shadowy special interest groups and other pour millions of dollars into races that are proving to be battlegrounds in a national political fight over the Republican agenda. The Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, a government watchdog group that tracks spending by candidates and other groups, said Friday that five of the nine recall races have exceeded the 11-year-old legislative race record of $3 million. The Democracy Campaign estimated total spending on all nine races to be what director Mike McCabe called an "absolutely jaw-dropping" $31.5 million. That's nearly as much as the $37 million spent in last year's governor's race won by Republican Scott Walker. "Candidates are barely being heard from," McCabe said. "They're being outspent on the order of 5-1 by interest groups that have a near monopoly on campaign spending." Of the total, only about $5 million was spent by the candidates.

Walker and Republicans swept into office in November, capturing both houses of the Legislature from Democrats. The recalls were motivated by Republicans' passage of Walker's bill stripping nearly all collective bargaining rights from most state workers. Democrats cast the elections as a referendum on Walker and Republicans, while the GOP has tried to hold its ground, vindicate its policies and show strength heading into the 2012 presidential election.

The most money to date in the recall elections has been spent in the Milwaukee-area 8th District race between incumbent Republican Sen. Alberta Darling and Democratic state Rep. Sandy Pasch. The Democracy Campaign put the tab there at $7.9 million. The candidates, interest groups and others have blanketed the expensive Milwaukee television market with ads and filled mailboxes with direct mail in that race. Darling is one of six Republicans facing recall elections Tuesday, with two Democrats on the ballot a week later.

Democrats need to win five of the eight races to retake majority control in the Senate. One Democrat, Sen. Dave Hansen of Green Bay, won his recall election last month. Total spending in Hansen's race, which he won handily with 66 percent of the vote, was just $1.1 million, the Democracy Campaign said. The only one with less spending has been the 2nd District, where the tab is at just $750,000. The Republican incumbent there, Sen. Rob Cowles of Allouez, is generally seen as being in a stronger position than others targeted for recall. His Democratic challenger is former Brown County Executive Nancy Nusbaum.

http://www.greenbaypressgazette.com/article/20110805/GPG0101/110805096/-Absolutely-jaw-dropping-31M-spent-state-Senate-recall-races?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|GPG-News|s

My state senator is not being challenged but I am in a media market which overlaps with the Olson Clark race and the negative ads are nonstop.

...Republican vote on Tuesday, Democrats on Wednesday, due to the high expected turnout.

And mail out your absentee ballets to the fictional address printed on it by no later than Labor Day, or else your vote won't count.

Oh, sorry, the office you would have gotten it at just closed down,
along with all the other ones in Democratic districts.

Hope you don't get arrested trying to get to the office in that upscale town 15 miles away.
it's open late, but the cops tend to harass anyone who doesn't look like they're from around there.

The TPARTY sees WI as the beginning of the people retaking their democracy from the plutocrats who want to rob the AMERICAN PEOPLE of their livelihood and their common good assets. The TPARTY NATION is is not one in which I want to live. Governed from the top down, with the plutocracy at the TOP and the states becoming little territorial fiefdoms ruled by CORPORATE AMERICA. The republicans could never sell their real ambitions for AMERICA to the country, so it lied, cheated, demonized, divided and then assumed the power of govt through false promises. "MAKE GOVT MORE LIKE BUSINESS: ACHIEVE MORE FOR LESS, BUT GETTING RID OF GOVT WASTE. PRIVATIZE TO SAVE TAXPAYER DOLLARS-NEVER HAPPENED. REFORM SS really meant privatize, reform Medicare-voucherize, abolish Medicaid. It goes on and on. The point is, the PEOPLE OF THE US OF AMERICA are not ready to adopt the TPARTY NATION as theirs and finally, the truth is rising to the surface. WI is the beginning, BENTON HARBOR, MI is the FREEDOM BANNER. It is time to KILL the TPARTY rattle snake, it's poisoning our democracy.

...as usual...

Help with money:
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https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/page/wiscrecall

Or time:
http://action.wisdems.org/

:kick:

If she was and that's where the Pubs have spent the most money, that says ALOT about how well the Dems are doing!