Wisconsin Supreme Court Race Triples National Records, Topping $42 Million Ahead Of Tuesday Election

The Wisconsin Supreme Court race has nearly tripled national spending records with candidates and other groups topping $42 million ahead of Tuesday’s election, according to a Monday report.

The record-breaking spending tops the $15 million spent in the 2004 Illinois Supreme Court race, according to The Associated Press. The liberal candidate Judge Janet Protasiewicz has spent almost $12 million, as opposed to conservative Justice Daniel Kelly’s over $2.2 million since March 20, the report indicates.

Tuesday’s election will determine the ideological balance of the court as they both vie for the seat vacated by conservative Justice Patience Roggensack, whose retirement left the 4 – 3 conservative majority vulnerable.

“The stakes in this race couldn’t be higher. Basically, the past 25 years of conservative reform are on the line if Janet Protasiewicz is elected to the court,” Rachel Reisner, a Wisconsin GOP spokesperson, previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Outside groups that are backing Kelly have spent $15.4 million and special interest groups supporting Protasiewicz spent $11.32 million, according to the report. The majority of the groups’ funding has gone toward independent expenditures with $21.3 million, and $5.8 million went toward issue ads.

The highest-spending groups backing Kelly were the Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce (WMC), Fair Courts America and Women Speak Out PAC with $5.2 million, $5.3 million and $1.7 million, respectively. Americans for Prosperity spent over $800,000, and American Principles Project PAC funded nearly $800,000.

A Better Wisconsin Together Political Fund and Wisconsin Conservation Voters funded Protasiewicz with $6.2 million and $1 million, respectively. Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund spent $900,161, Power to the Polls Action Fund gave $541,529 and Organizing Empowerment PAC funded $532,500.

The polls close at 8 p.m. on Tuesday’s contentious election between Kelly and Protasiewicz.

George Soros and Democratic Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker gave the Democratic Party of Wisconsin $1 million each, and California Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi donated $12,000, according to a recent finance report for this period. The party gave Protasiewicz nearly $8.7 million in monetary and non-monetary funds this reporting period.

“Janet Protasiewicz’ campaign is being bankrolled by far-left Democrats,” Reisner previously told the DCNF. “George Soros and J.B. Pritzker’s million-dollar contributions underscore that Protasiewicz will simply be a progressive rubber stamp, and they’ll drop whatever cash needed to buy her a Wisconsin Supreme Court seat.”

The Wisconsin Republican Party gave Kelly roughly $500,000 with the majority being in-kind donations, and only $33,657 in monetary funds, according to a recent finance report for the same period.

“If I win, I want to be able to serve the people of Wisconsin as a justice, not an adjunct of a political party,” Kelly previously told the DCNF. “When you receive that kind of money from a political party, the implications are unmistakable: you are an adjunct of that political party.”

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